The six men from the Desert Dogs all stand along the walls.
Rio takes his large Bowie knife from his hip and passes it first to Vic, their president.
Vic shrugs out of his Desert Dogs cut and lays it across the table face down. With the blade, he cuts through the threads holding his old patches to the leather, then flips his cut over and cuts off the patch on the breast that reads president.
I see his throat bob and know it’s a big deal for him. He’s losing his position as head of his club. In exchange, he’s joining a much bigger MC, and for him, that’s the payoff. Still, I’m sure it’s not an easy thing to do.
When he’s finished, he hands them to Rio along with the knife.
Rio tosses the Desert Dogs patches in the brass bowl, pulls out his lighter, and lights the edge of one. Soon flames flicker upand consume them. The glow reflects in Vic’s eyes as he watches them burn.
Prez passes the knife to the next man down the wall, and each one in turn steps forward to remove his old patches and watch them burn in the growing pile of ash.
When that’s complete, Rio goes around the room to each man and passes out their new Saint’s Outlaws patches.
When that’s done, Rio slams the gavel down and calls their first meeting to order, and the men take a seat at the table.
He and Zig fill them in on our problems and run-ins with the Devil Kings. From the story Vic tells, apparently the Desert Dogs had issues with them as well, and have seen them around since we drove the Devil Kings out of town months ago. This is news to us.
The six of us originals all exchange a glance, knowing this isn’t good news. We’d all hoped the situation had been dealt with.
“Looks like they’re going to be an ongoing issue for us, boys,” Rio says. After a few more minutes of discussion, he slams the gavel down, and we adjourn to the bar for a round of shots, and the celebration begins.
The patch-over party lasts well into the night, and Rio calls in some of the hang-around women, which our new brothers appreciate.
The size of our club just doubled, and that’s going to take some getting used to. I’ve suddenly got six new brothers.
When we remodeled the inside of this warehouse, Rio had an eye to the future and made sure we had enough bedrooms built to house the additional men, so at least they’ve each got a place to crash.
It was interesting to find out in the meeting that some of the guys have automotive experience, so when Rio brought up the fact that our club owns a garage in town, some jumped at thechance to work there. It’ll definitely take part of the load off the rest of us, but the Saint’s Garage has been making good money and now we’ll be able to expand and add another lift or two. I know Rio already had plans drawn up to expand two more bays.
All in all, things are looking up for our club, even with the DKs lurking.
I toss back a drink and feel my phone vibrate with a text.
I lean to look at the screen.
When I see it’s from Luisa, I step outside to read it and light a smoke.
LUISA: I just wanted to say good night before I went to bed. I hope you had a good day.
I grin and take a drag of my smoke, then fire a response. She and I have been communicating since we were together three days ago.
ME: Goodnight, angel. Dream of me.
LUISA: I miss you.
I stare at that last message for a long time. On the inside, I’m at war with myself. I want nothing more than to climb on my bike and ride to her father’s land and see her.
On the other hand, I don’t want to get her in trouble or get myself shot.
I check the time. It’s almost 1am.
ME: Your parents asleep yet?
LUISA: They’ve been asleep for hours.
ME: Do you have a security system?
