Bullets to Bottles chapter 6
A week passed as Coyote tried to recover from being a human punching bag.
In that time, Swamp Man, along with Scarecrow and Demon, completed an overhaul on Coyote's Street Bob while attaching a sidecar to it. Brand new tires, cleaned V-twin engine, new air filter, new grips on the ape hangers, fresh fluids, full tank of gas, fishtail exhausts, polish on the 14inch ape hangers that made the chrome shine bright and the seat was customized for extra comfort on long rides.
Coyote had already gone stir crazy. If not for Angie calling him as well as him talking with their daughters, Angelica and Angelina, he would have gone postal.
Most of his days were spent either in bed, showering, billiard games, getting the royal treatment from the girls.
Juice, along with Mercy and the rest of SAMCAGO could see Coyote getting restless. He was tired of lying down and being so far from the things that mattered the most to him.
His Harley, his family and New York.
After 10 days, with his ribs wrapped up in bandages, Coyote got dressed, put his cut on and walked outside to the Rec Room where he met with President Harris.
"Where are the Nomads, Al?" Coyote asked, curious as to where the Nomads were.
"Scarecrow and Demon are in the wind, Swamp Man rode back to New Orleans, Tommy and Psycho are tethered to Quinn. Wherever the Nomad Pres is, they're with him." Al knew what Coyote was really asking. "You earned his respect in some strange way. I'm sure Chibs is going to reach out to you at some point."
"I'm wondering why SAMCRO didn't reach out to me yet."
"Coyote."
The SAMYORK Secretary turned to face the SAMCAGO Sergeant at Arms, who had a pre-paid phone in hand. "SAMCRO. They want to speak with you."
Coyote accepted the phone and put it to his ear. "Hello?"
"When we got word from Albino that you hadn't shown up, we got worried. Tried reaching your cell. Why didn't you answer?"
"I had my ribs kicked in and my insides turned into speed bags. Thankfully, the internal bleeding stopped and I'm able to breathe on my own again. That's why I couldn't answer my phone."
"Who did it, kid?" Happy said, He was curious as to what Coyote did or said to get a beating that kept him in Chicago.
"Are you at the table?" Coyote asked.
"Yeah." Happy said as he and the rest of SAMCRO was gathered together in chapel.
"I want Chibs to hear this especially." Bobby, Happy and everyone else looked to Chibs as Coyote spoke over the phone, which was put on speaker.
"I have nothing but the utmost respect for you as a man and a brother, Chibs. I acknowledge that you are a higher ranking officer. I do not hold anything against you. That being said, the Redwood Original shook hands with the New York Crew with the hopes of getting into liquor. SAMCRO agreed to certain terms and then tried to violate them."
Chibs, Bobby and Happy knew what Coyote was implying. "The deal is still on. I will speak with Albino. I'll call you back."
Hanging up the phone, Coyote looked at Harris and said, "I need to reach out to Albino in chapel alone. Is that possible?"
With a nod, Harris chuckled. "I hope you know what you are doing."
Coyote kept to his word and reached out to the SAMYORK President. An hour later, Coyote left the chapel, looked at Lino and said, "Reach back to SAMCRO."
Harris, Lino, Mercy and Juice watched as Coyote talked to the Redwood Original over the secure pre paid cell phone. Because they tried to use the Nomad charter to kill Juice, thus breaching the agreement struck between Charming and New York, Coyote made the terms abundantly clear.
"SAMCRO will pay a quarter of a million dollars to the New York Crew as a show of brotherhood." Happy, Bobby and Chibs knew it was more of an act of contrition and penance than a display of brotherhood but said nothing as Coyote continued. "You can pick up your shipments in Louisiana but it will be your own guys who will handle the pickup. You will have to pay out of your own pockets for transport back to Charming. You can also do the same in Illinois but the same conditions apply. Neither Chicago or New Orleans will lift a finger or float the cost for anything going to the Redwood Original. Albino was more than ready to have your shipments delivered to Vegas. Would have made a shorter run. Then Psycho was sent by Charming to perform pest control. You made your decision. We have made ours. Is this clear?"
Bobby, Chibs, Happy and everyone else nodded their heads solemnly. "Yeah. Completely clear." Bobby said in resignation.
"The next time we talk, Juice and I will be back home in New York." With that, Coyote hung up, ending the conversation.
Chibs knew he would have to tell Jax about this and the National President would not like any part of the news. None of them liked being beholden to another charter but they had to show respect to SAMYORK for letting them off easily.
The next day, Coyote got a look at his revamped motorcycle, complete with an attached sidecar. He was more than impressed with the work done on it. When Coyote asked Lino who did it, the SAMCAGO Sergeant said, "It was an show of respect from the Nomad charter."
When he was about to ask why the sidecar was attached, Coyote heard a voice behind him.
"Wait up, guys."
The two Sons turned to see Mercy Blanca running up to them with her bags packed, which were surprisingly few. "Coyote, you need someone to make sure you don't wipe out on the road. Juice, you need someone to make sure you stay on the straight and narrow. Me, I want to go up to New York. I hear it's the capital of the world."
Coyote and Juice looked at each other before looking at Mercy. Taking a slow breath, Coyote nodded towards the sidecar and Mercy wasted no time getting into the sidecar with her bag tied to the rear luggage rack. Reaching into her bag, Mercy handed Coyote a note. "It's from Quinn. He wants you to go there. Gory and Dizzy are on the way and Snake Doctor will meet up with us on the road. Lino already brought them up to speed. "
With that, Coyote and Juice, along with Mercy Blanca, rode out of the city of Chicago to the woodlands in the middle of nowhere.
As the trio rode out, none of them saw the silver Road King riding behind them in the distance or the hunters waiting ahead beyond the horizon.
Coyote and Juice rode together through Indiana and Ohio in a staggered formation before they noticed a rider appearing almost out of nowhere on a Road Glide with custom fairing. As the rider drew closer, Coyote pulled to the left and Juice pulled to the right in order to clear the way.
Juice saw the snakeskin detail on the gas tank and the confederate flag flying from the rear of the bike with the American flag flying alongside it.
He motioned for them to follow. Mercy tugged on Coyote's side and motioned to the rear view mirrors, signing the number 3 with her fingers. Coyote knew what that meant.
Three more riders came out of nowhere and were right behind them.
It was not difficult for Coyote to know who they were. One glimpse at his rear view mirrors and he recognized Quinn and his officers.
They rode on past the cities, going deeper and deeper into the woods until the buildings and concrete roads were replaced by trees and dirt roads.
On the way to the cabin, two other Sons came up from the distance and joined up with them. Coyote instantly recognized them as Dizzy and Gory.
The sun shone through the trees, casting shadows and light upon them in lines. It was only as the sun began to set in the distance that they arrived at the cabin. The rider in the lead led the motorcade to a hidden tunnel nearby the house.
Not only was the tunnel deep enough to park and hide their Harleys, there was an escape passage to get them out in case of retreat and another passageway that led under the ground to the cabin.
With their motorcycles secured and the tunnel hidden again from sight, the eight Sons and Mercy made their way inside the cabin. Once inside, the generators were turned on and the cabin was made livable.
On one side stood Coyote, Juice, Gory and Dizzy with Mercy in tow. On the other side stood Quinn, Tommy, Psycho and Snake Doctor.
Since he was still recovering from his wounds, Coyote shook hands with Dizzy and Gory. "How did you guys find us?"
"Quinn reached out to us. We were out here for a while until we spotted you and here we are, Coyote." Dizzy said.
"What happened to you, Coyote? You look like someone hung you upside down and used ya for a punchin' bag." Gory asked.
"A disagreement." Coyote said cryptically as Psycho looked at him from the other side of the room where he and the Nomad Sons were getting settled. The SAMYORK Secretary and the Nomad SOA Sergeant at Arms stared down each other before Snake Doctor called them to attention.
"Alright, everyone. We're here on business so let's get to it."
There was a long table in the center of the dining area. One side faced the wall and the other faced towards the living room area. Coyote sat at the head of the table as mediator. To his left was Snake Doctor, Tommy Moran and Psycho. Quinn took the foot of the table. On Coyote's right was Gory and Dizzy with Juice at the end, which meant Psycho was looking right at the former SAMCRO member with a death glare. The only thing that prevented Psycho from doing anything was Rane Quinn who sat right next to him.
Knowing that she had no place within club business, Mercy went into the kitchen to see what she could put together for dinner.
Once they were sure that no one was going to be maimed or killed, Snake Doctor took a flash from his cut and put it on the table with two shot glasses while Gory and Dizzy took out detailed maps of their respective turfs.
Pouring an even amount of Apple Pie shine in each shot glass, Snake Doctor put one in front of Gory and one in front of Dizzy. Each took their shot glasses, raised it and drank the contents.
Dizzy and Gory looked to each other and nodded in silent agreement that the Apple Pie Shine was worth the ride out to the woods.
"That's only a taste of how we make our shine in Laurel County." Snake Doctor said, proud of his shine and already eager to set up a new line of distribution with Pennsylvania.
Dizzy showed Snake Doctor the 20 various speaks across Pittsburgh while Gory showed the 22 speaks scattered around Philadelphia. None of them were lavish or stuck out. In fact, no one would ever know there were speaks unless they knew who to talk to or what to say.
When it came down to talking cash, Coyote made it clear to Dizzy and Gory that the price was not up for negotiation. $600 dollars per case. When it came to the percentage given back from all the profits and sales, Coyote had already done the math. "Does 20 percent sound good for you, Snake Doctor?"
"20 percent sounds very good, Coyote." Snake Doctor said. While laying out the details for a pickup location, the former Army Ranger noticed via his peripheral vision the faded marks on Juice's neck. He knew those marks all too well.
With the Nomad charter as witnesses, Snake Doctor would be pushing through two monthly order deals. Pittsburgh would order 2 cases to start with two more the next month. Philadelphia would pay for 3 crates to start with and paid in advance for 2 the next month.
All in all, Philadelphia was in for $3,000 dollars while Pittsburgh got in for $2,400 dollars. Snake Doctor would receive $600 dollars from Philadelphia and $480 dollars from Pittsburgh in percentages.
Taking a third glass, Snake Doctor poured a shot for Coyote and gave it to him as a show of brotherhood and thanks for helping him get a 20 percent kickback from all profits as well as delegating to Gory and Dizzy the pricing and portion control for the shine.
After eating the meal prepared by Mercy, everyone went to get some sleep.
Waking up at about midnight, Juice crept out of his room and went down the hall, passing several doors along the way.
Going through the living room, Juice saw Psycho sleeping while sat up on the floor against the sofa where Tommy was sprawled over, lightly snoring. Quinn slept while sat up in the big armchair.
Going into the kitchen, Juice found a jar of Apple Pie shine. When he was about to drink some, Juice heard something being cranked from outside.
Following the noise, Juice found Snake Doctor on the front porch, sat in a rocking chair, cranking up an old Victrola phonograph. Once it was wound up, the Nomad Son put the needle in place on the vinyl record.
At first glance, Juice imagined some country singer to come belting out of the phonograph.
He never expected to hear Billie Holiday singing 'Strange Fruit'.
"I bet you didn't see that comin', did ya?" Snake Doctor said, turning around to face Juice with an empty shine jar in hand. "Come on, brotha. When it comes to shine, you never let a brotha go dry."
"Never pegged you for a fan of that music. It's older than the both of us." Juice said as he filled Snake Doctor's jar with a good dose of Apple Pie shine.
"I had a girl way back who loved Billie's music." When the song came to "Black bodies swinging in the summer breeze. Strange fruit from the poplar trees.", it struck a cord in Juice.
Snake Doctor took a big swig of shine. "I never gave much thought about the song until I wound up on the wrong end of the rope."
Pulling down his shirt collar, Aaron Stevens a.k.a. Snake Doctor showed Juice the noose marks around his neck and collarbone that he would carry the rest of his life. "Like you, I went against a crew, almost got killed and by some miracle, I escaped the noose. What I want to know, kid, is who tried to string you up and why."
Juice couldn't bring himself to say it, which only made Aaron take stabs in the dark. "Was it the AB?"
Juice shook his head. "Was it black? Brown? Yellow? Ruskie? Irish?" Again, Juice shook his head. Only now he couldn't even look up anymore.
That's when Aaron understood what was not being said. Getting up from the rocking chair, Aaron pulled Juice into the light and examined Juice's neck. "What happened?"
"Back in Charming, a cop threatened to oust me to the club about who I was. To keep him quiet, I had to help him with bringing down the club on drug muling and gun running. I did a lot of bad things. I lied to SAMCRO, killed a brother and pinned a crime on him that he was innocent of and it was only when I got this damn Men of Mayhem patch did I try to..." Juice halted as he tried to breathe only his lungs felt like they were closing up from within his ribcage. "I couldn't even do that right."
"What did that cop have on ya that had you swingin' on a chain noose?"
"My father was black. The club doeesn't take on black members. I thought I'd be stripped of my patch, they'd take my motorcycle and Tig would roast my ass like a marshmallow to get rid of all my ink."
Aaron looked at Juice with an unreadable face before drinking every drop in his shine jar, took a sigh and raised the glass jar. He would have shattered the jar right across Juice's head.
The gun shot that rang through the air out of the darkness shattered it in Aaron's hand.
Aaron and Juice ran back in the house. Inside, the other Sons had already tapped the gun stash kept in the cabin in case of emergencies.
"How many did you spot?"
"None but I'm betting that there's more than one."
Several more rifle shots sounded off simultaneously. Quinn counted the shots and estimated that there were about 7 shooters with rifles. He didn't want to stick his head out to see what else they were packing.
Dizzy and Gory trench crawled into the room with shotguns in hand and their sidearms loaded and holstered. Coyote trench crawled a bit slower since his body was still not at 100%. "Mercy snuck out to the tunnel. In case we have to run, we won't have to look for her."
Quinn thought about it for a second and said, "Coyote, take Juice and Mercy to New York. Get on your bikes and ride out. We got this."
Coyote nodded and tossed Psycho the shotgun he pulled from the cupboard before leaving with Juice through the tunnels to the bikes. Mercy was there waiting for them.
"We got to go now. No looking back. It's New York or bust." Coyote said as he and Mercy got on his Street Bob and Juice got on his Super Glide. As though it happened by fate or by circumstance, they heard gun fire from inside the cabin loud enough to muffle the sound of their engines revving up.
Juice and Coyote wasted no time in hauling ass out the underground exit.
An hour later, they got onto the highway and crossed the border into Pennsylvania.
A/n: Alright. They are on the final stretch and it's straight on to the finish line that is New York City. Will they get there in time? What surprises await them? Can Juice be saved or is this his final 'great escape'? Find out in the next chapter. P.S. Review if you can but please do not troll or burn me on the reviews, anonymous or not.