Forever Zara: (novella 9.5) by V. Theia (ebook reader txt) 📕

Two president heads were better than one.

SEVEN

“The agreement of Prez’s.” - Jamie Steele

The Apollo Kingsmen boss had been waiting twenty minutes when Rider and mini-Rider strode into the diner. The kid let go of his father’s hand and headed to the counter on little legs, and started thumping it to get attention.

Jamie grinned, watching.

It was another minute when Rider plonked the kid in a highchair and reached across the table to slap his hand. “How’s it going, Jamie?”

“Can’t complain. You’re training them young these days.”

Rider half-grinned, taking his seat as the server came to drop off a mug of coffee and to refill Jamie’s now empty cup. “Zara’s sick, so I’m carting this one around with me. We can talk, but I gotta make sure my kid has some food first, or he’ll scream the place down.”

“I might have to remind him of this moment one day when he’s the Souls president. The day I watched him shoving chicken fingers in his mouth.”

“And where’s your sidekick today? Didn’t know the Velcro detached you two.”

Jamie snickered and inhaled the coffee steam. He was so tired needing the boost. “Amos is at the club, probably sleeping off a bender. Your call came when I was about to head home to sleep for a week.”

“Been busy?”

“You could say.”

His chop-shop was going from strength to strength but kept him out at all hours. Because of his close alliance with Rider and his Souls, he was able to use their ports to transport his goods across to Europe. Plus, he’d been to a few rallies down south lately, then sorting out shit with a chapter and then boosting funds into another chapter, so it didn’t go belly up. It was only in recent years he’d been able to make a profit from his club endeavors. His father, the then president, was more about fighting, fucking and taking drugs than making a buck. Jamie wanted hard-working businesses. He could fuck any other time, but his dick wasn’t earning him money.

When Rider’s kid got stuck into a plate of chicken fingers and carrots, Jamie asked Rider. “Has your place been hit with more cop focus?”

“Let me guess,” Rider smirked. “Officer Fielding?”

“Blonde bit, massive attitude?” Rider confirmed. “Yeah, that’s her. She’s come by my club five times like she wants to audition for a hangaround, pulling my boys over.”

“Yeah, I think she’s been taking lessons from that FED we had sniffing around a while back. She has a killer hard-on to make Chief of Police, I think. We have an inkling she’s on the mayor’s payroll. Wouldn’t worry too much about it.”

“It’s fucking annoying. She tailed Amos to the ports the other night; he had to double back.”

“The mayor tries to hit the MC’s every few years around election time to make it look good. His shit stinks worse than ours does, so he’ll bring his little sheepdog into line if I have to make him.” Jamie smirked. Cops would always come after MC’s, they were an easy target, or so they thought. He wasn’t dumb enough to leave anything to chance. One of the first things he’d implemented as president was to siphon all their money into legitimate businesses. Not like they were advertising about getting rid of enemies. Amos could dig a grave and never have it discovered, call it a skill. His VP was a lunatic with that shit. He used his magic potion, as he called it, which dissolved bones and DNA.

“My reason for the call is,” Rider went on, “have you heard anything about the Rebels’ rebranding?”

Jamie blinked. “Huh? Not a thing. No one even talks about those assholes anymore. It’s like Hades and crew never existed.”

“There was a sighting in Denver city the other day, a guy wearing the insignia on the back of his leather jacket.”

“Did he have a cut?”

“Unsure.”

“Might be something he bought from the Goodwill. A sour old lady selling her old man’s shit to make room for her new fella.”

“I considered that.”

“Who in their right mind would wanna start up the Rebels again? They only had one chapter, right?”

“Far as we know. My boys did months of searches and came up with nothing. Hades was too lazy to branch out. He wanted all the glory for himself.”

Jamie snorted. “He might as well have been running a pig pen for all the good that club of his was. Some of his guys had the brass balls to try to join my ranks.” Then added, “so you think this sighting is on the money?”

“My gut says yes. We’re looking into it now. If you hear anything…”

“Sure, man. I’ll keep you in the loop if I learn something new. We hated them as much as you guys did. The best thing about them going boom was there was no one else to work a deal with the Mexican’s. Ruiz is desperate to have another MC to help move his drugs.”

“One problem at a time,” laughed Rider, wiping food from his kid’s face.

Jamie loved his sister’s kids, could see Sebastian and Tanner joining the Kingsmen ranks one day. It was only recently he realized he wanted to be a father, but he needed an old lady first.

The pair continued to discuss shit for the next twenty minutes.

What he knew of Rider Marinos was he was fair, if you were fair with him. The pair often shared info when it suited both their MC’s. Allies stood side by side. They weren’t best friends who shared everything but the Rebels stepped on both their toes in the past. Hades had been that annoying dick rot no medicine could clear up. If they were coming back from the dead, Jamie wanted to know about it.

He stayed in the