LOGAN (BAD BOY BIKER ROMANCE) (14 page)

Chapter 16

Logan

Logan drove straight to the Macabre Jesters club house, which was located only several blocks away from Hot Rocks. It was a fenced compound wedged in between two empty warehouses, which were also owned by the Club.

As Logan pulled up to the gate, he noticed Ryder standing across the street talking with a couple of other Hang Arounds. Upon seeing Logan, Ryder stopped talking and watched him.

What's his problem? Logan thought to himself. He was feeling agitated with the sudden summons to the Club House. A meeting was not planned, so his apprehension was through the roof.

A Prospect nodded at Logan and rolled the gate back. Logan drove in slowly and parked at his assigned spot. At least at the Club House, the gang had half decent security protocols. Talking business within its wall felt relatively safe, but you still had to be careful.

But in Logan's mind, it beat all the business chatter, and dealings at Hot Rocks, which always made him nervous.

He went over to the Club House's main entrance, which was a reenforced steel door. As he approached, the door swung outward and Adam nodded at him. The Prospect held out a plastic tray, which was full of cell phones. Logan dropped his in. Another safety precaution.

As he entered, Logan had a premonition, and turned.

Through the rolling gate, he saw Ryder. He was no longer watching Logan, but instead hurried over to a parked car, quickly got in, and drove out of sight.

Logan decided that the activities of a lowly Hang Around, let alone an extremely stupid one, was beneath him, and went inside.

He passed a large bar area. This was not for the public to enjoy, like Hot Rocks, but for Macabre Jesters, and certain guests, to sit around and get drunk. It looked like an overcharged sports bar with hug monitors for watching sports and porn, as well as high end bar furniture and fixtures. Everywhere the walls were lined with photos of club members and club activities. Occasionally, there was the full patched vest, or jacket of a dead club member.

Logan ignored this and walked into a side hallway. Here, Nathan, stood waiting for him outside a closed oak door. Beyond would be the official meeting area for the club. Full Patch members only.

Nathan nodded. He was holding a detection wand. Logan knew what was expected of him and held out his arms.

Nathan ran the wand over him. It was forbidden to bring any weapons past the oak door. And it was an almost guaranteed death sentence to bring any electronic equipment inside, as any could be hacked into recording conversations.

Logan had even heard of different clubs refusing to let members with pace-makers into secure meetings.

Satisfied Logan was clean, Nathan knocked on the oak door three times.

As they waited, Logan asked the Prospect, "So, how did that other thing go?" He already knew the run with the video game consoles went off without a hitch.

Nathan offered a tight smile. "Smooth. No surprises."

"Good," Logan said. But he could tell Nathan was apprehensive. Maybe he knew what was waiting for Logan beyond the door.

As if on cue the oak door swung open. Parker was on the other side. "Took you long enough," the big man quipped.

Logan entered, and Parker closed and locked the door. This area looked like a smaller version of the bar room he just passed. Only there were no monitors, and the regalia on the walls was a lot more sparse. This was a place for talking business, not messing around.

Logan was shocked to see that the place was packed with other full patch members of the Macabre Jesters. There were even a few from other Macabre Jesters Chapters from other towns. There looked to be close to two dozen people here.

"What the hell?" Logan asked Parker, as he took in the spectacle. With so many members in one place, and unscheduled, it could only mean one thing. Trouble.

"Yeah, I know," Parker said.

When Parker didn't offer more Logan asked, "So, did someone die or something?" He felt totally clueless, and hated being so far out of the Club loop.

"No," Parker said, almost somber. "Not yet."

"What do you mean?"

"Feathers have been ruffled and strings have been pulled," Parker said and nodded over toward the other side of the chamber.

Logan looked and saw Milo. He was standing and chatting with a small handful of other members. It took a moment to realize Milo was talking to them about Logan as they all kept looking over in his direction.

"Don't tell me," Logan said, exasperated.

"Yup," Parker said. "The idiot is making a move."

It was no secret that Milo wanted better status within the Club. Every time he had tried he failed. Laughably so in some cases. It was a wonder he hadn't been discharged yet. Which in Biker parlance meant stripped of his patch, beaten and tossed into the street.

Yet here he was, the Club Idiot as some would say behind his back, about to do something that would most likely accelerate that process.

But why is he so keen on me? Logan thought.

Just then Logan stepped out from the back where he'd been talking to another group.

"Okay, shut up!" Logan snarled.

Two dozen hardened bikers stopped talking almost immediately. Such was the fear and respect they had for Logan.

Logan said, "As you know, any patched member can call an emergency meeting. Usually it's done in times of war. But since we are not currently at war with anyone, I'd ask the member who called this meeting to explain his reason for this."

The Club President turned and looked to Milo. "You're up, Milo."

Logan and Parker were shaking their heads. What was this guy thinking?

As Milo walked to the middle of the room there was some chuckling from the crowd. Some thought the Club Idiot was about to make a spectacle of himself. Milo ignored them.

"My fellow brothers," Milo said. "I called this meeting because of a dire circumstance has arisen."

Parker whispered, "Someone has been reading a dictionary."

Milo strutted about, almost like a peacock. "As most of you may not been aware, I was given the green light to make inroads with some of the other Clubs. Laying the groundwork for potentially lucrative deals. Something we all know we need."

This brought some mumbling and nods of agreement.

"One of these Clubs really wanted to deal with us, and I was within reach of a tentative agreement that would have been worth a lot of money to many of you here."

Now Logan realized where this was going. He started to worry.

"Who's the Club?" someone called out.

Milo blinked, as if this caused him to lose his train of thought. "The Silver Hounds."

Now this got everyone's attention. The Hounds were neutral to the Macabre Jesters, but they were known to have bigger connections to the underworld than the Jesters, as well as much deeper pockets.

Milo grinned at this. He knew this was something they would want very much.

"But now that potential deal is on ice, because one person, one member has gone and sabotaged the entire thing."

Logan was now on full alert. "Oh, crap," he said.

"And not only that," Milo continued in full form. "He has gone out of his way to try and start a war with the Hounds!"

"Who is this asshole?" said one of the members Milo had been standing with. A plant.

Milo turned and with a dramatic flourish pointed directly at Logan. "Him!"

All eyes turned to look at Logan.

"Well, this just got interesting," Parker said with a poor attempt at levity.

Logan walked over to confront Milo. "That is a load of complete crap, and you know it!"

Almost instantly Logan appeared and physically blocked Logan, stopping him in his tracks. "Now wait a second, Logan. You know how this works. He gets his say and then you do."

Logan backed down, but he was beyond furious.

Logan looked to Milo to continue, almost begrudgingly.

Milo sneered at Logan. "This member not only confronted a high ranking member of the Silver Hounds, he then took that Hound's boy toy."

This actually brought some laughter which Milo didn't expect. He quickly added. "Unless something is done to fix this situation, there will be no deal with the Hounds."

This made the crowd sober up. If it had to do with money, it got priority. And if Milo had made a good enough case that Logan was responsible for them losing money, or potential money, he was in serious trouble.

Logan raised a hand, then looked to Logan. "Say your peace, Logan."

Logan tried to maintain his cool. He turned to address the group. "This idiot has gone and twisted around a situation to his own benefit. We had a member of the Silver Hounds sneak into Hot Rocks uninvited. He took off with one of our dancers, who use to be his boyfriend. Well, he isn't his boyfriend, not anymore."

He glanced at Logan for permission to mention one important detail. Logan sensed what it was and nodded once. Milo looked alarmed at this but could say nothing.

"I, too, was closing a deal. In fact I got a hand shake. With the Evil Masters."

This brought more rumblings. Like the Silver Hounds, the Evil Masters were a highly sought after business partner.

"But this rogue Silver Hound was making us look bad. Intruding on our territory, and snatching one of our boy toys. And the Evil Master saw this. If I had done nothing, it would have made us look weak. And as you all know, that kind of thing could not be allowed."

There was nods of approval, and general rumblings of assent.

"I don't think there is a member here that would have let that situation go on. So I put a stop to it."

Milo now looked apoplectic. Perhaps he just didn't think Logan would have had a chance to say anything, let alone play on one of the Bikers major laws: Don't show weakness.

"The Hound was not hurt. He even said that it was a personal matter, and not business. So after we made it clear he couldn't pull that stunt again, we let him go."

Logan glared at Milo. "It was a personal matter, and had nothing to do with our business, or Hound business."

Logan sensed that he had mollified the group, to a degree. He had cast enough doubt on Milo's serious accusations. Which left the other members to think on Milo's motivations.

Logan stepped forward. "Okay, I've heard enough. Because this involves outside Clubs, this gets bumped up to upper management to decide what to do."

There is almost always an upper echelon in the biker gang culture. Usually, old time members who now have enough influence to work on an almost national, and sometimes, international levels. Lower members usually are not privy to what kind of business dealing they are up to. Particularly if it might involve other gangs. To prevent an incident, any inter-gang deals gets run by these older members. The Upper Management.

Logan said, "Now I'm not sure if this was even worth calling an emergency meeting." It was Logan's turn to glare at Milo. "And if Upper Management wants to punish the accusing member of this nonsense, he'll know it."

This brought a burst of laughter from the group. Milo was mortified.