Axle's Brand (Death Chasers MC 3)
Page 8
I sit back, trying not to lose my shit. Never thought I’d want Herrin dead this badly. He was our P. Now he’s nothing but a bitch—and a dead man walking.
“Every fucking penny,” Rush growls. “How? We moved all the money to five different secure accounts. All of them were new!”
“Pop didn’t get to the top by lying down and taking things. And he didn’t get there without making numerous friends either. Someone sold us out within the club, and somehow we got hacked,” Drex says quietly.
Suddenly, he stands, and the volatile explosion I was waiting for happens as he slams his fist through the wall over and over again. Propping up, I start going through our list of members in my head, trying to figure out who would be the most loyal to Herrin.
Bottom line, it doesn’t matter right now, because we’re broke. Which means we’re fucked.
“Herrin’s smart. The best way to break us is to bankrupt us,” Jude drawls, sounding bored with the whole thing. He’s not been right since the truth came out about Sarah or AJ or whatever her name is.
A lot of shit has happened in six months. Our club split up. Drex and Herrin are on the verge of a war. Snake started using his real name after Sarah—whose real name is AJ—was outed as someone completely different than any of us expected…
It’s been a shitty half year.
“We have an order on thirty installs that would help us out, but we need to buy the supplies somehow,” Drex groans.
“The down payment should cover the installs,” I say, trying to dig us out of this hole.
We went from having more money than we could ever spend to being broke.
“We need at least sixty grand to do the installs. With the feds sniffing around, it’s hard to even keep business, much less ask for a down payment. The only way we’re keeping business is by not asking for payment until delivery,” Drex explains, frustrated.
“Feds aren’t sniffing around us right now. They’ve pulled back to look for AJ,” I say. Yeah, even I hear how stupid and desperate it sounds.
“Doesn’t matter. Pop is still attached to our name until we prove we’re done with him,” Drex growls.
“So how much we got between us?” Rush asks, tossing out a wad of cash. “I’ve got ten grand.”
It’s not like any of us keep a bank account. That’s too easy for the feds to keep tabs on. The vast majority of our funds stayed in the off-shore club account, and we personally kept our payments in cash or invested in things. Most of us just spent the shit, certain there’d always be more when we needed it.
The laundered money went into the other four accounts we recently set up. All five accounts have been emptied the hell out.
“I have maybe fifteen grand,” I announce, blowing out a breath.
“I have at least twenty grand upstairs,” Drex says, frowning. “The rest of my cash was burned in the damn fire Ben and his followers set to my house.”
“Five G’s from me,” Snake—I mean Jude says, tossing out his own wad. “I just spent a fuck ton on my new bike.”
Sledge tosses in his offerings, as well as Dash, and Drex starts counting it up.
“It might be enough for the installs, but we need more money to keep the bills paid in the meantime,” Drex says, leaning back.
“I’d say we could take some run jobs, but I doubt anyone would risk their merchandise being in our hands with the club dividing, the feds watching Herrin, and shit going to hell,” Rush says, his lips tensing.
“We’ll work it out, prove we can handle our shit no matter what, and deal with it as we can. We got that meeting this afternoon with more prospective clients that Rush vetted,” I add.
Rush runs a hand through his hair, glancing over at me.
“The guys came back without much info on them, but I talked to three sources the club trusts. All said they were legit. I’m still going with you to see if I missed anything. Last thing we need is to get mixed up with junkies right now,” he tells me.
“I’ll come with too. Make it look good with me being there,” Drex goes on. “It’s a big deal that could really dig us out of this pit right now.”
“So all four of us are going?” Jude asks, arms crossing over his chest.
Drex nods slowly. “Yeah. We need to put in the extra effort and work a little harder than usual until we can bump the funds back up. And we need to keep this as quiet as possible from the others for now. Half of them are already skittish, and as it is, we obviously have a rat. Possibly more than one.”
“Some charters are struggling to pick a side right now,” Dash chimes in. “By the way, I’ll ride out with you to meet the clients too.”