Chapter Six

“No. Silver, no. I mean… OK, yeah, at first there were questions. Like, almost two years ago, when Wolf walked away from Kirk Jensen’s dirty deals and mercenary contracts, and took you boys legit, the word on the street was that Wolf had lost her nerve, his hunger for the life. Truthfully, I was told on the QT that Wolf’s decision made a few of the other one-percenter Presidents consider doing the same thing, but none of them had the smarts or the guts to make a club profitable by going strictly legal. The general feeling was that Wolf made a good call, and that he’s one of the few that can make a go of it.”

“But?”

“But… well.” Nell shifted a bit. “Then your ex-member Dawson Kinney started a separate one-percenter MC behind Wolf’s back, and took a bunch of your guys with him. Nobody does that, as you know… nobody. Once you boys patch into the life, that’s it, and that’s it for life. What Dawson and those guys did was the biggest betrayal to every code that an MC family holds dear. ”

She paused, watched as Silver nodded his blond head.

“So.” Nell shrugged. “Everyone braced for the payback. The retribution. Wolf is not the kind of man who accepts deception and disloyalty and frankly, if he’d gone to war with Dawson and The Blood Crew, Wolf would had the full support of every MC I can think of. Including Fox and the rest of Gunner’s boys.”

“Yeah. Fox told me. Told Wolf too.”

“And then – well. Then nothing. Wolf took the insult smack in the face, swallowed it, let it go. Carried on building up the club’s legit businesses, recruiting new guys, and watched as Dawson picked up all of the blood contracts from Jensen that Wolf had just quit. Wolf didn’t go shoot up the Blood Crew clubhouse, didn’t go looking to build up an army of allies, didn’t hurt Dawson and his boys at all. When nothing happened, people didn’t know what the hell to think. I mean, nobody could believe it, let alone understand it.”

“You don’t say.” Silver took a long, slow sip of his drink, the movement somehow petrifying for its calm and cool. “And now?”

“Now?”

“What the hell do people think now?”

“Silver… hey…” Nell was getting seriously freaked out now, being faced with this chilling stranger. “Look, nobody thinks anything bad about Wolf –”

“No?”

“No. Jesus, no. Silver, c’mon. I’ve known you and the rest of The Road Devils for a long, long time, right? Gunner and his Howling Highwaymen respected you guys, and even though he never saw Wolf in person after he ascended to President, I know that he respected Wolf’s decisions and triumphs after taking over. What the man has done is nothing less than a miracle, and if he’s decided that letting all that shit with Dawson go is the best move, then it is. Wolf Connor’s judgement has always been bang-on, even when he was just a patched-in club member without significant power and authority. He’s smart, and that’s always been clear.”

Silver softened a bit now. “Yeah. He is.”

“People don’t really understand why Wolf has made some of his choices, but guess what? Nobody has to get it. Why does Crusher Alcott do half of the messed-up shit that he does? Nobody knows. Why did Dawson do what he did? Fuck knows, right? The entire Fallen Angels leadership made nothing but crap decisions since the dawn of time, in my opinion, but they had their reasons, I’m sure. Fox has made some stupid shit decisions, as you know full well and I’ve told him so but at the end of the day, he’s President. Club Presidents do things all the time that nobody understands, and everyone comments for a while, then shrugs, and moves the hell on.”

“So everyone’s shrugged and moved on about Wolf?”

“Yeah. I asked because I’m dying of curiosity. Maybe that was out-of-line of me and if so, I’m sorry. I asked about Wolf and Dawson for me, Silver, not because of any chatter going on around here. I’m a nosey old bird and I like to know shit.” Nell shrugged, grinned. “Occupational hazard of running a bar frequented by my husband’s MC guys, I guess, and having my ear talked off by drunk patrons who spill heavy-duty secrets.”

Silver laughed. “Bartenders are like therapists and priests, huh?”

“You know it. I’ve heard plenty of crimes, crying, and confessions over too much whiskey, believe me.”

“Oh, I bet you have.” Silver shook his head. “And since it’s you asking, and nobody else… the truth is, I think that Wolf let things go with Dawson because he saw no up-side whatsoever to escalating the situation. If he’d started that game of retribution, he’d have to react when Dawson inevitably hit back, then wait for payback for that, always waiting around for the next hit, then having to get revenge for that, well… nothing else would get done. Know what I mean? Conflict is so goddamn time-consuming and takes total concentration and paranoia to do it right, and Wolf had shit that he wanted to do. I think the man focused on the big picture, and decided to stay on course and fuck the distractions. He wanted to change our lives, and he just put his head down and did that. He has done it.”

“That simple?”

“I think so. He’s a man of commitment, patience and his word. We all always knew that about Wolf, but we just never saw any of those things this way before.”

“Wow.” Nell stared at Silver for a few seconds, admiring his unquestioning loyalty to his President. “I – yeah. I guess it is that simple.”

“Mmmm-hmmmm.”

“New topic?”

“Hell, yeah.”