“Holy shit,” Menace grumbled. “I knew something wasn’t right.”
“What the fuck is she talking about?”
“I left it on the table. Right there in the wide open. Goddamn it.”
“Not following, brother.”
Menace raked his fingers through his hair as he told Viper, “It was back when Parker and I were at Billy’s... Fuck! I just wasn’t thinking.”
“Damn.” Viper turned his attention back to me. After letting out a disgruntled breath, he said, “Enough of the bullshit. Just tell me why you’re here.”
He sat back and listened silently as I told him about my business endeavor, and he seemed intrigued when I told him about how well I’d done and how I’d managed to pick up a big buyer out of Memphis. “Honestly, I hadn’t expected to ever make it to this point, but I have, and now, I need your help.”
“Help with what?”
“Our distribution.” I could see the wheels turning in his head. “My product was in such high demand, I expanded my manufacturing. I overcompensated a little, and now I’ve come to the point where I have more product than I can move on my own. I was hoping you and your club could be the answer to my quandary.”
“So, what you’re saying is that you want us to help move your product for you?” Before I could respond, he grumbled, “I hate to break it to ya, doll, but we’ve got bigger fish to fry than this bullshit.”
“Bigger fish than two to three hundred grand a month, ’cause that’s what I’m offering.”
“By selling fucking pot?”
“This isn’t just any pot, sir,” I argued. “Like I mentioned, this is the cleanest, purest cannabis on the market. I guarantee it.”
“Okay, it’s good stuff.” Viper shrugged. “Who gives a shit? It’s only a matter of time before they legalize it, and what then?”
“If they do, it still isn’t going to be easily accessible. They’ll make sure of that. Plus, I have other options. I can either sell off everything or continue to grow and become a legal distributor. Until that times come, we stand to make a great deal of money.”
“So, even if I consider doing this, how would it work? You supply the goods, and you want us to move it?”
“Exactly.” Feeling like I was finally getting somewhere, I smiled and said, “With a seventy-thirty partnership, we both—”
“Seventy-thirty?” he scoffed. “I don’t think so, little girl.”
“I’m sure we can come to an agreement on the percentages.”
“I don’t know. Why wouldn’t I just become another buyer? I could buy it outright and sell it on my own. Get rid of the need for any kind of cut.”
“I’ll tell you what. Why don’t you come and see for yourself what I’m offering? You can get an idea of how I run things, and if you like what you see, we can go from there.”
Viper thought for a moment, then looked over to Menace. “What do you think?”
“I figure we owe it to Billy to check it out.”
“No,” I interjected. “My father has nothing to do with this. If you decide to come, keep him out of it.”
“You know he has ties to us. Hell, we wouldn’t be here if you didn’t. So, he’s a part of it whether you want him to be or not.” Before I could counter, he asked, “When do you want us to come by?”
“The sooner, the better.”
Three
Country
As ordered, Rafe, Lynch, and I remained outside the coffee shop to keep an eye on things while Viper, Menace, Axel, and Hawk went inside for the meet. It had been almost an hour since they’d gone in, and I was growing concerned. We all were but remained in our positions until we noticed Viper and the others walking out. Their faces were void of expression, making it difficult to get a read on how things had played out. When they approached the SUV, Lynch got out. Before he could speak, Viper shook his head and growled, “Not here.”
Without saying a word, he got back inside the truck and waited as Viper and the others followed suit. As soon as the last door closed, Viper turned to Menace and growled, “How much do you think she knows?”
“No way to know for sure, but you heard her. She knows enough.”
“But I don’t get it. How would she get that kind of information from your fucking laptop?”
“It would depend on how well she knows her way around a computer’s hard drive,” Menace answered. “If I had to guess, I’d say it was the club’s security cameras. I was checking them while I was at Billy’s. I’m pretty sure they were still pulled up when she got access to my laptop.”
“Damn, I don’t need this shit right now.”
Even though I was curious as to what the hell they were talking about, I knew better than to ask. It was clear Viper was pissed and needed some time to cool off, so I kept my mouth shut. Once back at the clubhouse, we all followed him into the conference room and took a seat, then Viper grumbled a line of curses under his breath. “The meet was with Billy’s daughter. She’s been growing some kind of ‘power-house’ marijuana and wants us to go into business with her.”