5
Little Toy Bikers and a Woman on the Run
Chapter 304 Sons Meeting Begins
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The clubhouse was ready for the meeting. Gemma's crew of crow-eaters gave the place a thorough cleaning. Afterward, Juice did his own version of cleaning. He swept every inch of the clubhouse for electronic surveillance.
Phones would be handed over tagged with a number and a duplicate tag given to the phone's owner. Sack was in charge because as a prospect, he wouldn't be allowed inside the meeting. He would be at the door doing phone check. He even had shelves where he could neatly store the phones. It was important that the brothers not have to wait for him to dig through phones to find each one. That kind of screw up could even be big enough to keep him from getting patched.
There would only be full patched Sons allowed in the clubhouse during the meeting. Due to the large number of members at the meeting, it was going to be held in the main portion of the clubhouse. The table with the carved reaper had been carried out into the main area of the clubhouse. The small tables that had been in the clubhouse area had been folded up and stacked against a wall and all the chairs were arranged around the room randomly. This was an outlaw MC. They didn't arrange their chairs in neat rows. That was for PTA and City council meetings.
After the meeting with Alvarez, Scarlett had come by and given Jax his dose of medication. He wanted to complain about how ridiculous it was that he couldn't be trusted to give himself medication, but he kept silent. He was alive thanks to Tara and Scarlett and he'd promised to obey instructions and he kind of liked this caretaking side of Scarlett.
The medication really knocked him out. He'd been asleep in the apartment for a couple of hours when SAMCRO began greeting the members from the other charters.
In the outside area, two hang arounds were each tending a large square electric skillet with hot dogs wrapped in bacon cooking with fat slices of onions. Next to the cooks was a table of hot dog buns and bottles of mustard and ketchup.
The smell was irresistible. It wasn't long before all the men were eating a hot dog and holding an ice cold bottle of beer. There were also soft drinks, water and bottled tea available.
Gemma and the female friends of the club including crow-eaters had done their usual outstanding job of getting things ready for the big meeting. It was a major point of pride for Gemma and reflected well on Clay that his old lady could put together this nice spread.
Tonight after the meeting, that's when non members would be allowed in and the party would really pick up, but for now, there was serious business to discuss.
Jax joined them carefully using his crutches. If he were honest, he would admit that he needed them. His leg didn't hurt much thanks to the pain meds, but it was weak and he didn't want it to give out on him.
He sat at a table and Opie got him a hot dog and a beer. This was going to be his only drink of the night. He couldn't mix liquor and pain meds. Well, not a lot of liquor. One drink wouldn't kill him.
Clay had been watching the crowd and checking to make sure everyone was there before they opened up the clubhouse.
Sack immediately faced a nightmare trying to hand out numbers to a group of men who did not form orderly lines. They busted his balls, but he expected it. No one complained about handing over their phones. That had become standard for most chapters. They just all wanted instant service and Sack was a prospect so abusing him was practically required.
SAMCRO sat at the table in their usual positions with Clay at the head of the table, Jax on his left and Tig on his right. Opie, Juice, Bobby, Piney and Chibs were around the table. Kozik and Happy had been visiting, so they were also at the meeting. Jury and Needles were attending their first meeting with other charters since the Devil's Tribe was patched over in Indian Hills, Nevada.
The other chapters represented as far north as Washington and as far South as Arizona. The other Sons chapters too far away to be at the meeting had all expressed solidarity with their brothers and would support whatever decision was made at the meeting.
Clay opened the meeting by banging the gavel. For a group of outlaw bikers, they all followed rules of order. If they didn't, there would be anarchy and mayhem which was their general approach to life just not MC meetings.
The room instantly grew silently and Clay looked around the room pleased by the large turnout.
"Last night, me, Jax, Chibs and Tig were meeting with one of the Irish in a business meeting. In came four guys with guns and tried to kill us. Damned guys didn't hit any of us except Jax who took a couple of rounds in his Kevlar vest and badly sprained his ankle going after them."
Everyone chuckled at the poor marksmanship, but no one believed that Jax had really sprained his ankle. They all suspected he was covering up at least one bullet wound because they would have done the same thing. Bullet wounds could come under law enforcement eyes. Better to cover up by claiming another injury.
"Three of their guys didn't make it back," Jax said with a grin.
Everyone cheered.
Clay used the gavel to return the meeting to order.
"The guys are the Calaveras Lodi. There are two members still alive Esai Alvarez and Hector Salazar. They are a Mayan brother club."
"A Mayan patchover," Jax added stating the obvious.
"Not any more," Clay said. "Marcus Alvarez the Mayans Oakland chapter president met with me and Jax claiming the Calaveras Lodi's plan to end SAMCRO was unauthorized."
The room erupted in shouts of disbelief.
"Of course we didn't believe it," Jax said. "Do we want to go to war?"
There were enthusiastic shouts of "hell yes!". An attack on one was an attack on them all. The Mayans had tried to wipe out a Sons chapter. That retaliation needed to be extreme.
Clay waited for the room to calm down.
"Of course we know that Alvarez was behind the plan to wipe out SAMCRO. Hell, his kid was one of the shooters, but do we really want war?"
Happy shouted yes first. He could always be counted on as an enthusiastic killer.
"What if we could cripple the Mayans, spill their blood without spilling ours and force them to pay a high price without going to war?" Jax suggested.
"Alvarez will kill his own son. He and the Mayans will either kill Salazar and his son or pay us to do it. He'll put a bounty on their heads-$5,000 for Salazar and $10,000 for Esai. We'll send pictures to all interested Sons."
"That isn't enough," Jax said. "Two dead wannabe Mayans for trying to wipeout SAMCRO. Alvarez has said if he kills the two including his son, he will let SAMCRO verify the kills. That isn't good enough. Two to be killed for trying to wipeout SAMCRO. This sets a dangerous precedent."
"We have a source," Clay said. "Alvarez is under tremendous pressure to fix this and stop a war."
Clay couldn't tell his brothers that his source was Nero, the president of all the Mayan chapters. Nero had plans for the Mayans as an MC and he wasn't about to let Alvarez's blind ambition and stupidity stop him.
"If he wants to avoid a war, he better plan on making us one hell of an offer," Jax said.
Jax's words were met with cheers.
"Here's the offer," Clay said.
He lit up a cigar. Now was the time to sell the offer.
No surprise in this chapter, but it's almost here—within the next three chapters.