Luka stepped out where Lee and Alan both had four men on them, pinning them to the ground.
Amelia got her first look at Alan and he was Lee twice over again, but younger.
“Lee Foster. Alan Foster. I call you both to account. You have been stealing club funds for personal use for years. I am guessing since before Per was even gone. You have been not only allowing, but condoning and taking payment for letting outsiders in our borders to deal drugs, weapons and people. Fucking PEOPLE!” Luka raged. “You let people believe your actions were club sanctioned, tying OUR name to this shit.”
“You are fucking weak, Luka!” Lee yelled. “Soft! You shouldn’t be running this club, it could be so much more without you!”
“It would be less! What you do, that isn’t club, Lee. That is just… petty criminal bullshit. No one here needs to go to jail to prove shit. That’s not what we are about. We make plenty of money doing what we do. Plenty. There was no reason to go back to the old ways, you are stuck in a time that is outdated. That’s not club anymore. We aren’t criminals like that. You know that. No drugs here, no guns here. And it should go without fucking saying that we don’t deal in human fucking lives. I am calling a summit. Your fates will be decided. Be here tomorrow at noon for your trial. Be ready, Lee, a reckoning is coming. Do I need to send boys with you? Are you so far gone as to need a fucking escort? Take their vests, their guns. Let them go. You will both be back here at noon tomorrow for the trial. You know what happens if you don’t show. Both of you. Go. Get out of my club.”
The two huge men stood up and glared around the room. Both of them landed eyes on Amelia and glared daggers before they left.
Luka turned back to her after they were gone. “You ok, Cherry?”
“Yeah. Thanks. Umm, thanks for leaving Jay with me. He saved me when Alan pulled a gun. Got me down and hidden behind the desk and safe. Moved the desk out of the line of fire in case something happened again. He made me feel safe.”
Luka half laughed. “Is this you giving him a good review because you feel some sort of… something towards him? You don’t have to. I know Jay and I picked him for a reason. He did his job like I knew he would. You don’t need to talk him up, I know already.”
Amelia blushed, but nodded. “Should I keep working on the…”
“Later. Come in and sit down, you need to eat. I need to eat. Apex, I want a full report and give Amy that folder. She’ll sort it.”
Amy sat with Luka at the bar as they ate, listening to all of the reports and what had happened. After, Luka let her go back to the office, but he went with her, talking on his phone and having people come in to give their reports.
In the evening, an older man came in and Luke stood up, grinning as he hugged the man.
“Luka, boy, good to see you,” the man said with a fatherly smile.
“You too Sam. Sam, this is Amy, my old lady. Amy, Sam. He leads our southern hills chapter.”
Amy gave him a nod as he smiled at her.
“She’s a knockout. Sorry to hear about your troubles, boy. There was a time I looked up to Lee. He got stuck in the past, couldn’t move on. Adapt. They say you can’t teach an old dog new tricks, but I am living proof you can,” he smiled, his eyes shining. “Guess this means no rager tonight?”
Luka laughed. “Oh, hell no. No, we are party’n old man. How many you bring?”
“Twenty two of us?”
“Then I am calling in all the girls from my new titty bar!” Luka laughed.
He pulled Amelia up and out, locking the door behind them before going out front to the packed main room.
In an hour, it was chaos. She had never been around so many wild and loud people, loud music, roughhousing and naked women. There were drugs out in the open, men and women doing lines of coke right out on the bar alongside shots. There were even people having sex right out in the open. It was over the top wild.
Finally, she leaned in and had to yell to be heard, even right next to his ear. “My head is killing me! Can I go lay down?”
“Yeah babe!” he laughed, picking her up and half tossing her in the air as he did. He was grinning, the joy in his eyes infectious as she laughed. He took her back to his room and shut the door, shoving her down to the bed and kissing her.
She turned, laughing. “You’re drunk!”
“Yeah I am! Kiss me!” he demanded, pulling her to kiss him again.
She kissed him a moment, then pulled away again. “You can go out to your party and your friends, I don’t want to keep you from them!”
“No, it’s fine. I want to be here. Kiss me!” he laughed.
His door opened and Lee stepped in.
Luka stood up quickly and pulled Amelia up, pushing her across the room towards the bathroom.
Lee lifted his hands. “I came to talk. I talked to Alan. He told me what he did, I didn’t know. Not about that. Yeah, I fucked up with the other things, but not stealing from club.”
“We’ll have this out tomorrow,” Luka said with a scowl.
“I know, I’ll be here. I wanted to come to you tonight. Talk to you man to man. You came into all of this late, Luka. You came in when Per was having second thoughts. You took that and ran with it. That wasn’t how things were supposed to be, we were…”
“We tried your way, Lee. Remember how it ended? Six of ours dead, five in prison. No. That was never the right way.”
“We just have to be smarter about it!” Lee said, stepping closer.
“I am not having this out with you again, Lee!” Luka said angrily. “You need to go.”
Luka turned his back, taking off his chest piece and when he did, Lee pulled a gun from the back of his waistband on his jeans.
Amelia didn’t hesitate as she shouted a warning while he was still drawing and darted in, ramming a knife-hand punch into his kidney. She grabbed the gun when he hunched and twisted, flipping and pulling the gun free as she rolled to her feet a few feet away. She ran forward and leaped to the bed, then vaulted off of it as she spun, landing the butt of the gun heavily across Lee’s nose. He went to his knees, holding his nose and she spun behind him, putting the gun to the back of his head.
Luka gaped at her and she let out a sigh. “Well that was a god damn shit show!” she yelled angrily, loudly.
Luke stepped forward. “Amy? Holy hell, did you just… save me?”
Amy stared hard at the back of Lee’s head, her face red.
The music stopped out front and there was yelling, then moments later the door opened and police poured in.
Amy stepped back and handed the gun off to one of them, then pulled her hearing aids off and handed them to another one. “I got everything we needed,” she told the man. She started to leave, but paused at the door and turned to Luka as he was being cuffed. “I’m sorry,” she said softly.
The officer she had given her things to followed her. “Agent Winfield, Agent Blaine is out in the van waiting for you, he wants…”
Luka didn’t hear more as they disappeared down the hall and he was shoved to the floor. His heart was crushed.
Three long days later, he was sitting in a holding room he had been brought to. He had been in it several times already being questioned.
This time though, it was her that came in the door. He glared at her, anger swelling up red hot. “Lying BITCH!” he raged, tears welling.
She looked down and waved off the officer who started to step in. She sat down and set a folder on the table, but didn’t look up as she sat quietly.
“Nothing to say, CHERRY?” he demanded. “How? How did you do it?”