Page 3 of Bowser (Dragon Riders MC 2)
“I won’t say it again. Do what I’ve asked you to do. Have you fired her yet?”
“Not yet. She doesn’t work until tomorrow night.”
“Good. Don’t fire her.”
“But she—”
I sighed. “You deserved it, Sly. Somehow, you always deserve it. Tell her she’s being relocated and send her over to Dragon’s Bend. They’re down a waitress and could use the help. Knuckles will treat her better, too. You know, while you’re learning what that means.”
“Hey, now. I didn’t ask for—”
“Yes, you did!” I bellowed.
The phone call fell silent as I hung my head.
“Yes, Sly. You did ask for this. You did ask to take on more responsibility with the bars. And if you can’t get your shit together, you’ll be stuck shining guns and bulletproof gear until you’re old and gray. Understood?”
He growled. “Yeah.”
“Good. Don’t step out of line again. You’ll regret it if you do.”
He hung up on me and I placed my phone onto my desk. Some days, I wanted to chuck it against the wall and run away to a cabin in the woods. But the peacefulness of the clubhouse in the middle of nowhere by the lake was all I’d get. In our defense, it was a pretty nice place. If it weren’t so damn big, I’ve move in there permanently and upkeep it for whenever the crew needed it.
But it was big. And I didn’t like big, enclosed spaces.
Too many vulnerable points.
I finished up in my office and locked the door. I headed through the bar, waving at people as I walked out the front doors. Hiking my leg over my bike was therapeutic, but I wasn’t done with my daily duties yet. I still had one more thing I had to do. One more thing before I could get back to the clubhouse.
I had to ride around and talk to our contacts.
I dipped into other businesses we invested in and exchanged a weekly allotment for our monthly payouts as well as any information they’d heard. We invested in a lot of places: ice cream shops, a local movie theater, several public parks and recreational places. Anywhere that people might go and think they weren’t being overheard. But even after exchanging money and taking our monthly cut of things, we didn’t have much information to utilize.
And by that, I meant we had virtually nothing.
“They’re covering their tracks well,” I said to myself.
Either that or some of our people had been bought off.
I chose not to entertain that thought right now, though. I rode to the bank and deposited things so paychecks would go out without bouncing. The guys would be happy to see a little extra in their accounts, and I knew that would lift everyone’s spirits until we figured out what the hell the Golden Jags were doing next.
It had been radio silence for weeks, though.
And none of us were sure what to make of that.
I turned my sights toward the clubhouse and away I went. I sped down the road, feeling the wind whip around my body as the fresh air of the wooded area around upstate New York tickled my nose. I loved it out here. The town of Rome, where we occupied, held anywhere between thirty-five and forty-five-thousand people. It was as alive as any town could get. But two miles outside of the city limits and it felt like the countryside. It felt like home out there. With sprawling fields and rows of trees and patches of land that hadn’t been developed yet. It was splendid, and one day I wanted to purchase my own place out here.
But for now, it was bachelor living in some rundown apartment across from the Iron Horse.
You know, to be closer to work.
I pulled off to the left and slowed down. The dirt road eventually caved to gravel as I got just beyond the line of the trees, and already I saw the lights of the clubhouse through the thick brush. This place was well-hidden. Even the dirt road was hard to see. And since it wasn’t even a developed dirt road, most people simply thought it was a trail carved out by some teenagers looking for trouble. What used to be an old, rundown estate became the basis for our clubhouse. A room for each of the core members, plus enough rooms to house any children or families that we might have to hide as well.
The place was fucking massive.
And it sat right by a beautiful, icy lake.
I watched Ash stand from the porch and I chuckled to myself. That man was a hulking piece of muscle if I’d ever seen one. Easily the biggest man I’d ever come across in my fucking life. He lumbered off the porch with a dead look on his face. But even behind that blank stare, he looked relieved to see me.
