Page 14 of Flint
“No,” Rock says sternly. “Nay is my answer. TJ is a fine man. He’s just not appropriate for the Sons of Rage. One day you’ll all see what I see. Once you see it, you won’t be able to deny that this was the right decision.”
Jasper looks down at his notebook, his eyes wide. “Okay. Let’s move on. We have two more nominations to vote on today.” Two voices ring out at the same time. “Withdrawn.”
Jasper curses under his breath because it seems no one wants to risk a nomination when Rock is likely to torpedo them.
Jasper’s hand flexes over the gavel because there is nothing left to do but end the meeting. I know he’s thinking along the same lines as I am. Our club is desperate for brothers and his own father just denied a good man his patch without giving any kind of reasonable explanation in front of every brother in the club. And that scared off two more nominations. This is a cluster fuck if ever there was one.
There is no version of this situation where Jasper overrides his father in church. He’s got too much respect for his old man to do something like that. Hell, I wouldn’t even trysomething that out of pocket. I find myself staring at Rock again. This time I’m trying to figure out what he’s thinking.
Jasper looks across the room at me for one brief second, apologizing to me without words. “The vote failed and the motion is denied. Slate, you know what to do.”
His brother murmurs, “Yes, Prez.”
Jasper looks like he’s about to explode or throw up as he grabs the gavel and slams it down on the table. “This meeting is over. Let’s all go have a well-deserved drink.”
I don’t move because I’m still trying to figure out how I’m going to explain to Tommy that he got downvoted by Rock of all the people. Getting refused by the founder of the club is gonna be humiliating for my friend.
This doesn’t make any sense. He said that Tommy is a fine man but not Sons material. But I know all the way down to my bones that he’s a perfect fuckin’ fit for our club. What the hell does Rock see that the rest of us don’t? Truth be told, I’ve always respected and admired my uncle. He started this club from nothing and made it one of the strongest in the region. After my father died, he’s been like a second father to me. It was out of respect for him and the life he’s built here that I decided to move to Cedar Falls after I left the military. The one thing I’m completely sure of is that Rock is probably smarter than the rest of us put together. He said we’d all see what he sees soon so I have to trust his words are true. What I don’t have to do is like it.
I stand up, push my chair back under the table, and head out to deliver the bad news to my best friend. He’s going to ask why, and it sucks that I don’t have an answer to give him.
Tommy is still by the retaining wall when I come out through the clubhouse door, except now he is on his feet pacing back and forth in the gravel.
When I walk up his expression blanks out. “Since none of the brothers will look me in the eye, I’m gonna assume the vote didn’t go my way,” he says, always the clever one.
I struggle to respond but finally manage to push the words out, “Yeah, that’s about the size of it. Look, I’m sorry, . I really thought this would go down differently.”
He freezes in place and I watch the realization that he just wasted a year of his life click into place. He’s busted his ass for this club, put himself at risk when another club attacked and has been putting in sixteen hour days between our gun shop and prospecting. He’s been working towards a goal that will never be realized.
“Who voted nay?” he asks after a long moment of silence.
“You don’t wanna know,” I shoot back, hoping he’ll drop it.
“I need to know, Flint. I need to hear you say it out loud for closure’s sake.”
I don’t want to say the name standing out here in the open, where other club brothers can hear us talking about it. I do it anyway, because he deserves to know.
“It was Rock. Everyone else voted yes and he nixed it with his nay vote.”
His head jerks to the right and his eyes close for a brief moment, as if he can’t make himself believe it.
“I’ve never wronged Rock or this club. Did he say why?”
“No, unfortunately he didn’t. He just said you were a fine man but weren’t right for the Sons and we’d all realize that soon.”
“That sounds like a bunch of bullshit to me. None of that tells me what I did wrong.”
“I know, bro. I wish he had given an actual reason, but he didn’t. If he’d said more, I would have told you all about it.”
“Fuckin’ fine,” he says gruffly, taking his cut off. “If they don’t want me, fuck ‘em. I’m gonna turn this cut in and take off.”
“Stop, bro. You don’t have to do that right away. Stand out here with me and let your temper cool down for a minute. Don’t go in there while you’re angry and risk saying something that will turn friends into enemies.”
“I’m not stupid enough to do something like that. Just because they disrespected me doesn’t mean I’ll do the same to them.”
He shoulders his way past me, walks up the steps to the clubhouse and slips through the door before I can stop him. I follow him because he’s my best friend and he’s fuckin’ hurting. Inside Slate is standing at the end of the bar with a line of whiskey shots lined up in front of him. It’s barely ten in the morning and I’ve never seen him drink this early. Maybe he’s as messed up as we are over his old man’s rejection of Tommy.
He knocks back a drink and turns to greet us. It’s clear that he’s been waiting for Tommy to turn in his prospect’s cut. Slate is the kind of VP who would never expect a brother to handin his own colors to anyone lower on the chain of command than himself.
