Raging Barons MC – Book Three – Silver

-:- SILVER -:-

Picking up my kutte, I throw it on as I head down for breakfast. This morning I’m starving, my stomach is growling something fierce. It’s gonna be a long day with restocking, organizing and checking everything at the club.

Entering the kitchen, Axel is sitting, watching Mia handing out biscuits and gravy. Now that is what I call a good wake-up meal. I walk over to Mia and give her a hug, kiss her forehead, and grab a plate out of her hand, smirking at her when she swats me.

Sitting opposite Axel, I look around before I quietly say, “You have any idea where Fox is?”

Axel looks at me closely before responding, “Nope, not seen him for a couple of days at least. Why? Something wrong?”

“I don’t know, Pres, he’s not been around, and as he’s co-manager, he should be at the club at least part of the day, but he’s noticeably missing.” I say between mouthfuls of breakfast.

“I’m calling Church tonight. We’ll get some answers then.” Axel slaps my shoulder then he stands, “Church tonight, 7:00 sharp,” he shouts out then turns to Drag who’s just entered the kitchen, “Make sure everyone is here for Church tonight. I want you in the office after you’ve eaten too.”

“Okay, Pres.” Drag replies, then starts texting on his cellphone.

Finishing my breakfast, I rinse my dishes and pop them into the dishwasher, thank Mia, kiss her cheek and head out to my bike and set off for the club.

****

Three hours I’ve been at the club and still no sign of Fox. I’m gonna kick his butt when he eventually turns up. Hearing someone come through the back door, I look up and see the women called Linda and Eden are here to work.

Standing from my desk, I walk toward the door and smile, “Come on ladies, let’s get you set up. Follow me.” I guide them into the kitchen and point at the pile of boxes.

“I know you’re not kitchen staff, but Fiona and Tony will not be here for another hour, so if you can unpack and start sorting through, it would be great.” They both give me a nod and a small smile. “Once those two arrive, I’ll move you both to behind the bar, where you can make a start unpacking the glassware.”

“Okay, no problem.” Eden says, smiles and starts opening a box. Linda grabs one too and seeing they are both okay, I head back to the office.

An hour later Tony and Fiona wave as they walk past the office door and I place the accounts ledger into the top drawer and lock it, moving the completed paperwork to the second drawer for TwoCents to check. Finally, I think as I sit back and run my hands over my face with relief.

Entering the bar area, I can hear Eden and Linda talking while they are washing, drying, and placing glassware on the shelves behind the bar. It seems these two will work well together, and that is always worth knowing.

When I look at the time I frown as it’s noticeable that Fox still has not appeared, but also Carol, Twig and Sue are not here. Now that has pissed me off because they are staff that know better than pissing me off.

Taking out my cellphone, I send a group text asking where the fuck they are and if they don’t come in within the next hour, they can find another fucking job.

A buzzing lets me know that someone has responded immediately and looking I can see its Sue.

Sue: What you talking about, Silver? I’ve not been told to come into work today.

Me: Did Fox not contact you at all about your work hours?

Sue: No, I’ve heard nothing since we were laid off. We were told we wouldn’t be contacted until the club was ready to be reopened.

Me: Ok, well can you make it in today? We need help to get the club ready for reopening.

Sue: I’ll be with you shortly. I’ll call Twig and Carol too. I’ll get them to come in. None of us knew about coming in today, Silver.

Me: Ok, don’t worry, just all of you come in.

I’m fucking steaming because this was the one thing Fox said he would make sure he set up. I’ve sent two text messages without a response and he can kiss my ass from this point. Tonight, at Church I’m gonna demand he step away and I’ll manage the fucking place myself since I’m doing it, anyway.

The afternoon soon passes. We get the piles of boxes opened and cleared away. Tony has the kitchen cabinets looking organized, and he seems to know where everything is, plus he and Fiona seem to have hit it off well. She jumps when he tells her and basically says how high. When meals start to fly around, I can see them being a good team.

When Sue, Twig and Carol come in, I call everyone except the kitchen staff to me, I lean on the bar with my elbows and point at Eden. “Eden is going to be bartending. She’ll help serve if or when needed, but her primary job is behind the bar. You are all waitressing staff. I don’t want to see you standing around doing nothing. If you don’t have a customer, then make sure tables are clear and clean.”

Everyone is nodding, the three that have been employed a while, look at Eden and Linda and I notice they all give a smile. Hopefully, they will all work together with no issues.

I see the time is getting on, and it’s good to close up now. Tomorrow we’ll be finishing the cleaning before the opening night the night after.

“Eden, hang around a minute. The rest of you can leave, but be here by 10:00 in the morning. We’ll be cleaning, so wear your old gear.” I give them a smile and nod as they leave.

Eden is standing waiting and I smile as she is so serious, “You’re not in trouble. I want to walk you through the register, the prices, and the general bar management.”

“Oh, okay, good, thank you.” She stammers.

The next hour we work the register, make sure I set the prices for the drinks and the meals. I show her how to cash out and where she will bring the money and receipts. I even take her through locking up in case at anytime I’m called away and she’ll have to be in charge. I don’t think she realized that being bartender here would be more than just serving a few drinks. I also added extra to the salary we’d told her because of the extra responsibility.

****

Rubbing the back of my neck to ease some of the tension, I walk into Church and sit at my usual seat. I’m tired and not looking forward to what could be a confrontation with Fox. I’ve always had a great relationship with him, more like blood brothers than club brothers, but at the minute I’m mighty fucking pissed at him.

Brothers are coming in talking, laughing, or scowling. Drag takes his seat next to Axel’s at the head of the table. He looks around without speaking to anyone, and we all look up when Target, Chaos and two unknowns walk in.

Got to be the two Target went to find and by the looks of them, they are definitely prior military. They, as most of us, make good brothers with loyalty and honesty always a top priority.

Axel walks in with Fox behind him, who looks pretty embarrassed when he looks over at me. I give him my best scowl and look at the head of the table, effectively snubbing him.

Standing at the head table, Axel picks up the gavel, knocks it on the table and declares we all shut the fuck up and listen, which has us all looking wide eyed as this is not the usual start to Church.

“As you all know, Chaos was going to find their two brothers-in-arms, but with things going on here, I asked Target to go instead. As you can see, Target found his brothers, Meat and Stitch.

Stitch is a medic, served his time, and will be a good man to have here. As you all are aware, we don’t have a medic and on the down low for medical help is not ideal as it’s more keeping quiet about what they see. We’ve had a couple speak out of turn and we all know that had to be dealt with.”

Axel gives a quick glance around the room. “Stitch will prospect with us; see how he likes it here. It will be for the year and in that time, I think we need him to set up a medical room so we can control how much we take to a hospital.”

Looking over at the man that has taken a step forward, I guess he is around 6’ 2”, well-defined muscle on his arms and neck, short sandy hair, clean shaven and a scar on his jawline, not a bad scar but noticeable in the right light.

“Can I have someone nominate said prospect?” Axel asks and Drag quickly states, “I nominate.”

Hammer shouts out, “I second.”

Axel asks, “Votes now.” Quickly around the room ‘Ayes’ are shouted and TwoCents hands a kutte to Stitch which states ‘Prospect’ Raging Barons MC.

Stitch takes the kutte and places it on his back, giving the room a small nod in recognition of their ‘Aye’ votes.

Axel speaks again, gaining our attention. “Our next new prospect, if you all agree, is Meat. He’s a cook, best cook going from what I hear, and boy, do we need one!”

We all nod but chuckle at that comment because we’ve eaten some nasty shit the old club girls served up. A few ended up with food poisoning twice.

Continuing, Axel looks over at Meat. “This is an unusual prospect position because you’ll not have time to do gate duty and other things because as a cook, you’ll control all aspects of the kitchen. From ordering stock to clean up after meals.

All invoices will be paid by TwoCents, but anything you need as in new equipment you can order. As a group of men who work all day, every day, we need to come back and be able to eat a decent meal. I cannot say how sick of poor meals or take outs we are. Mia, my ol’ lady, has been cooking breakfast and most evening meals, but she’s not a cook. She has other things to do. The responsibility will be all on you Meat. Do you think you’re up for it?” Axel asks, looking him directly in the eye.

I’m impressed with this man; he’s not blinked or flinched at anything that will be demanded of him. He’s a good 6’ 3”, obviously very fit, buzz cut, clean shaven. He has a bit of a wild look in his eye, which we’ve all seen before as a sign of PTSD.

Stepping forward Meat looks Axel right back in the eye, nods and states clearly, “Yes sir, I can do that.”

“No need for sir, I’m Axel or Pres.”

I grin as we all said sir when we first started as prospects and it brings a few memories back hearing Meat say it.

“Who nominates Meat?” Axel asks and I quickly state, “I nominate.”

Knuckles speaks up, “I second.” Before Axel can ask for it to go around the room, everyone shouts ‘Aye’ to which we all laugh, because it cannot be more obvious. We need someone who can cook.

TwoCents passes a kutte to Meat, and he looks it over before placing it on his back, then looks everyone of us in the eye and nods.

“Okay prospects, get your asses out of here, Meat check out the kitchen and Stitch look at the empty rooms on the ground floor, pick one you want to make a medical room and get together with TwoCents for setting it up. Meat you do the same for the kitchen, but I think you’ll find it’s in pretty good shape.” Axel shakes both of their hands, then pushes them out the door and slams it behind them.

Axel stands at the head of the table once more. “Fox and Silver, in my office after Church. Target, report on how things went with Zara.”

Target stands. “I spoke to her about the shooting. She was pretty ripped up about it, but I talked her into counseling and she’s had three sessions now, looking good so far.”

Everyone nods and murmurs. The general feeling is that it’s good she’s getting the help she needs, and she still speaks to Mia occasionally. Her dad, Gunner, has stepped up since all the shit went down too.

“Grease, how are you coping at the garage?” Axel asks, leaning his elbows on the table.

“Struggling a bit, Pres, the garage is growing quickly, more people from surrounding areas are booking in. We need at least two more mechanics. We could do with a receptionist of some sort, too.” Grease looks tired, and it’s obvious he needs help.

“Can I suggest Mia and Grease hold interviews for new mechanics? She really is good at it and with Grease at her side, he’ll know what questions to ask.” I look at Grease and nod, then continue, “Rock, Clay and Dice are working custom bikes, but they still need a real workshop. Are you all so busy you can’t give Grease a couple of days a week help until he gets some new people in?”

“We’re fully booked up for the next five months Silver, we are still looking at locations too.” Dice gives Grease a look that says he’s sorry.

“Okay, I’ll speak to Mia. If she’s not happy, I’ll do it with you.” I state, because fuck, we can’t leave him hanging on like this.

Axel nods to me. He’s happy with that and the brothers all murmur agreement and offer help in the reception area when they can, even though they cannot help in the garage itself.

Mav holds his hand up, “Pres, we spoke about having new club girls, but can I suggest that for now, at least, we don’t? The clubhouse has been so much better without the drama those women bring to the table, that I don’t think they are worth having. We can pick up snatch if we want it at the club or other local drinking holes.”

Everyone agrees, so we decide that for now we’ll not allow it, but we’ll come back to it again in the future.

“Anything else?” Axel asks and when no-one responds, he slams the gavel and shouts, “Okay, fuck off. Fox, Silver, my office.”