“She’s a liability!”
“Bullshit! And what does that matter to you anyway, part timer? When was the last time your old lady even showed up to Sunday dinner with the club?”
“She has Lupus!”
“So who is the fucking liability? Even before, twenty years ago, remind me what she did for the club? What? Nothing? Just because a lot of the old ladies now pitch in and do shit doesn’t mean it’s required.”
“She aint cut out for this life is what I mean! She is a liability, look at her! Could she even hold a gun if it came to a firefight?”
“Why would there be a firefight, Lee?” Luka asked calmly. “Unless someone went behind my back and is allowing trading in our borders again. Something I need to worry about, Lee? We gonna have fucking ATF coming around here again like they did when you had the bit in your teeth?”
“You are weak, Luka, she proves it. She represents everything wrong with the club now! Letting soft Cherry’s in, letting new patches bring in sweeties! No one should be allowed an old lady until they are 30, they way you all switch around so much!”
“I think you need to stop talking,” Luka said quietly. “Let’s get something straight. I do not answer to you, you answer to me. I have never claimed an old lady or even a sweetie in all the time you have known me. Ever. And I haven’t said shit about this girl becoming my old lady. Have I boys? Have I even mentioned her name?”
“No boss.”
“Never saw her before last night.”
“No Luka.”
“There. Seems you are the only one who is under the impression that I am claiming an old lady. Why is that, Lee? Let’s table that. As it happens, the Cherry isn’t useless. There’s a reason Alonso had her. She’s good with books. She is going to take over our books, free up Alan for more important things.”
“Alan is fine where he is!” Lee raged.
“He didn’t even want the job, you told him to do it until we found a replacement.”
“And now he is taking care of it!”
“All the same, she has a head for numbers. She will be taking over.”
“No, that’s a conflict of interest!”
“And your son doing them isn’t?” Luka asked, leaning back and propping a foot up.
Amelia could tell his calm and taunting manner was a slim facade. He was about to unleash.
“No, of course not! Alan is club first! Always was! This girl isn’t club, she is you!”
Luka canted his head slightly, his eyes glittering with danger. “We have a consensus here right now. All in favor of Alan stepping down from our books to attend to more important club business, say ‘aye’.”
There were ‘aye’s’ all around except for Lee.
“This is bullshit! There are people missing and the sit down isn’t scheduled for another half hour!”
“We have consensus, Lee,” Stavo told him. “Even if everyone missing said nay, they’d be outnumbered.”
“All in favor of Amelia here, who is actually qualified, taking over the books, say aye,” Luka said, still half smirking at Lee in an ‘I dare you’ look.
There were aye’s all around again except for Lee.
“We don’t even know this girl! She could be anyone!”
“I know who she is,” Luka said quietly. “Now let us untable the other matter. Why would you assume she was my old lady when yesterday this girl was an unknown to everyone? Stavo. Take Jay and Ben, go toss Lee’s room. Have Apex find the wire in my room. Unless you would just like to tell me where it is? Be granted some leniency?”
“You’re out of your mind!”
“As you will then,” Luka shrugged, lounging back again as two men stepped up next to the couch on either side of Luka, their hands on guns at their belts.
Lee looked at them, turning red. “I didn’t mean any harm! It was just to see where the next drops would be first! You are trying to cut me out!”
“Where is it?” Luka demanded.
“On the high shelf in that skull thing.”
Luka nodded at Apex who went to find the wire.
“I am not cutting you out, Lee. I offer you as much work as you show up for which is less and less. You want the good jobs, but you don’t show up for anything but your payday. You aren’t club anymore, you are Lee.”
“I’ve put my life into this club!”
“Being here while the club was here isn’t putting your life into it. PER put his life into it. He lived and breathed the club. For you it was something extra in your life. You left the club behind years ago.”
Lee turned and picked up an ashtray, throwing it across the room. “You weren’t even a cumstain in your mothers panties when I was giving my life to this club!” Lee raged. “I have been here! I helped make this club what it is today!”
“You got people put in jail! You got people killed and hurt! You made widows and orphans! That is no legacy, old man, that is a shame!”
Lee started to close the distance, but the two men intercepted him.
“Here,” Apex called, tossing the microphone to Lee. “Why don’t you go take a ride and cool off before the sit down, Lee.”
Lee growled in rage and stormed out.
Amelia looked up at Luka, her eyes huge. He gave her a smile and leaned in to kiss her head.
She stayed quiet as the men began talking to each other about business as usual. Who they were ‘protecting’, who they needed to collect on, who they needed to get their cut from.
She stayed silent as a mouse and listened to everything.
She was surprised when they all stood and Luka took her hand and led her to a large room in the back with a long table. There were chairs around the table, but also chairs back around the wall too so people besides the sitting council could sit in and listen or be heard.
The room filled fast and Amelia didn’t understand why she was there. There were other women there, all of them either in the lap of a man, or standing with their arms around a man while he sat.
The meeting was called to order and Amelia stayed curled up and quiet, even after Lee came in late and took his seat with a glare at everyone. She listened to everything, taking it all in.
When Apex brought up that Alan had been replaced as bookkeeper, there were a few murmurs.