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“Do you want me to come down now?”

“No, can you come first thing tomorrow? I’ll show you the garage and the three trucks we have waiting,” I let him know by the sound of my voice that I’m not yanking his chain. That’s the trouble with having Joker as a road name, it has people thinking I’m never serious.

“I’ll be here, and Bull is here so he can speak with you too. Get here as fast as you can in the morning, and we’ll set you to work,” I chuckle as I say the last because before Malik knows it, he’s going to have more work to do than he could imagine. Boredom will never be something he has to worry about again.

Walking back inside the office, I give Bull a huge smile. “Malik is coming down in the morning. He’s a mechanic, and I reckon we can dump the garage on him while we concentrate on the recovery side. He will be an excellent addition, Bull. We may be able to pull him in as a working prospect, too.”

Bull gives me a grin in return. “That’s something we can work on. We need a mechanic and more drivers. We need more brothers so we can cover the businesses efficiently. Judge was telling me that the dumpster business is turning business away because they cannot get the dumpsters out and back in fast enough.”

“I know when we got rid of the trash in the club it left the number of brothers down, but better that Bull, then the assholes we called brothers. We can build the club back like Pres told us. We keep our eyes open for good men who would fit into the club. Malik is one that would, and the crew that are working for Jeremy would also be perfect to propose as brothers,” I don’t hide the sneer when I mentioned the brothers being trash and gotten rid of, for me it was a no brainer, they were dragging us down.

“Truck did well to get Echo, Xero, and Dice into the brotherhood. We should, as you say, pull the ones who are working on the compound housing. They are all good men from what I’m hearing. I reckon we should ask Cilla if they have any skeletons we need to know about,” Bull laughs, and I can imagine Cilla giving us hell for even asking.

“Do you think Ayla is going to be bad? Can you imagine them both bringing dead people to the clubhouse? Tracker would have a great day trying to see and talk to them.” I look at Bull, and both of us can’t stop the laugh we both give.

Later that evening, I pulled Rita into an empty side room and bent her over a table storing boxes of Scalpel’s files and folders. I don’t hang around because let’s be honest this isn’t anything about relationships, it’s a simple case of getting your dick wet and moving on. Letting the tension go after a hard day at work. The club women know the score, and they are here for this one reason, so I’m not going to be overly sensitive about how they feel.

“You know, Joker, that one day you’ll meet your woman and she’s going to have a problem with you being with us all here at the clubhouse. You have been with all of us over time, and I’m not sure you will find it easy to get a woman to be forgiving about it when you bring her here, and she sees us,” Rita says as she pulls up her panties, if you can call them that. They are nothing but a piece of string that has to cut her ass when she walks.

“I can’t help what happened before I met someone, and I’m not going to live life like a monk while I wait for anyone to turn up and catch my eye. I am who I am, and they are who they are. I’m sure I will be fine with their past no matter what it may be. Now, come on, let’s go round two.”

Later in the evening, I pass Ghost a cup of coffee and get ready to run. “Here you are, Ghost.”

“Thanks, Joker,” Ghost gives me a head nod of thanks and takes a sip of the hot coffee but sprays it across the table he’s sitting at in the common room. “Fuckin’ asshole,” he bellows and I run for it, laughing while he does his best to catch me. “I’ll pay you back for this, Joker.”

“What did you do?” Rory asks as I pass her in the kitchen.

“I put salt in his coffee instead of sugar,” I reply while laughing my ass off. “He’ll get over it.”

“Oh, I’ll get you. Payback is a bitch,” Ghost bellows, and I laugh again as I race outside and jump on my hog.

I’ll take a ride around town, enjoying the evening air and the comfort of being on my girl. There’s nothing like setting off on a ride, whether it’s a slow circuit through town or a longer run down the open road.

Chapter 2

JOKER

Waiting for Malik to arrive, I quickly double-check the monitors, and see everyone is where they are supposed to be. The trackers are working perfectly, and I can see where Tread, Demon, and Winger are at this moment in time.

“Everything is as it should be, Bull,” I state as I look over my shoulder to where he is sitting behind his desk.

“Good. Did you say Malik will be here this morning?”

Nodding as I turn back to my station, eyes flicking over the screen. “Yeah, I told him first thing.”

Bull chuckles, “Well, check the camera feeds. Malik is in the garage and has his coveralls on, cleaning the place.”

I tap the keyboard and check the camera, and sure enough, Malik is working in the garage. “Seems that our man can’t help but get his hands dirty, Bull.”

I chuckle as I watch Bull step from behind his desk and head out to the garage. I’m the only man on the stations so I’m going to be stuck here all day.

It doesn’t take long before Bull walks back into the office with Malik behind him. “Hi, Joker,” Malik says in his deep voice before taking a seat in front of Bull’s desk.

Malik is 6’2” of pure muscle. An African American who I’ve known since we were teenagers. We’ve never been best friends, but we have a friendship that has lasted over the years because we hung out in the same circle of people.

Bull talks to Malik about the business and our lack of brothers to man the stations, the garage, and cover some recoveries. “We need someone to manage the garage. It would be a job where you would be responsible for everything involved. We need the recovery vehicles running, and if they have an issue, they need to be fixed as a priority.”

“I can do that, but you know it probably wouldn’t be a job that keeps me busy all the time. I work quickly and efficiently. I don’t like to waste my time and energy.” Malik looks from Bull to me and back again.