Chapter Two-Hundred and Forty-Four

Chapter Two-Hundred and Forty-Four
Shaking her head, London went on, “Dad made his bed seven years ago and now he can lie in it. Before Chris and I leave, I will bring all this out in the open and he’ll have to finally face the music.” 

“Why don’t you let us see what we can find out about this before you leave?” Hawkins asked her. “If this is going on around here, we can take care of it.”

Cash nodded his head. “This club has long stood on the rules and we vowed a long time ago that we wouldn’t let drugs come into our town and now we find them right under our nose. But we’re gonna need your help. We will clean this mess up but we need to know all the players.”

London nodded. “I can do that but you have to be careful. These men aren’t fooling around. They will come here and try to take you out.” She made sure to sign everything she said to them the whole time. She wanted Chris to know what was happening.

“Do you have any idea who they work for?” Wilder asked. “I mean it's not like they would do this on their own. Even they have to have money and the backing to cover their asses.”

London looked at Chris and kept signing to him…Telling him what the others were saying. 

Chris looked at her and nodded. Then he signed something back to her.

London sighed hard and nodded. She looked over at the men who waited and said, “This is what we know from some evidence I’ve seen. They work for the Braza cartel. These guys run their labs here in the States and after the drugs are shipped out, they take them by river and connect up with another boat in the Mississippi River to carry the finished drugs somewhere south. I’ve heard they have an MC somewhere south of Kansas City to deliver the drugs to the dealers.”

“So they got an MC working with them as well?” Kota growled. “Do you know who they are?”

London shook her head. 

Chris signed something.

London sighed. 

He signed and she shook her head again.

“What did he say?” Hawkins asked. 

London glared at him and said, “He said Dad would know, but I don’t want our no-good father to know anything about this. All he’ll do is scream and yell at us about minding our own business and that we don’t know what we’re talking about.” She snorted. “As if we’re dumb or something. We know what the hell he’s doing.”
Hawkins agreed with her. “Plus, if he knew, he might tell this group about us and that wouldn’t be good until we know exactly what’s going on here.”
Kota looked around the room and said, “Ok, so right now, we have to hide any trace of London and Chris. Nash, bring their stuff inside and hide the car. We can’t leave it out in case Ronnie and his friends come looking for them.” He gave London a nod. “If you will give Nash the keys, we can move this along.”
She took them out of her jean’s pocket and handed her car keys to Nash.

Nash left the room and a few minutes later he brought in the bags London packed this morning. Then he went back outside.

They all heard the car start up and drive away. 

London thought about asking where he was taking it but she didn’t. Looking over at Hawkins, she said, “I can’t ask you guys to do this. It's not your business really.”

Hawkins shook his head. “It isn’t like that, girl. When we started this club thirty years ago, we all decided we weren’t gonna deal drugs. Yeah, the money was nice but we didn’t want to end up in jail or dead along the way. We lost a few members because of it but we started out legit and we’ve been that way ever since.”

“They also vowed not to let drugs near this town,” Kota said. “We live here, we shop here, our kids will go to school here, and we own businesses here. We’ve been up against drug dealers before and we’ve always run them out of town. This isn’t any different.”

Wilder spoke now, “We do need to know that if this goes viral and I have no doubt that it will, your dad is going to face the music along with his friends. Are you gonna be ok with that?”

“As long as the whole truth comes out, yeah, I can live with that. When everything is said and done, me and Chris can go somewhere where no one knows us to start over with a clean slate. But everything has to come out and the guilty have to pay for what they did. That’s all I ask.” 

“So be it.” Kota growled. 

“So who besides your dad is getting money under the table to help these guys?” Titan asked.

“I know of at least two. Deputy Hal Roark and Mayor Trey Ritcher. But that’s all I know of,” London told him.

Wilder shook his head. “I can’t believe either Chief Allen Lemmer or Sheriff Mark Carter would put up with that shit.”

“No, they wouldn’t.” London shook her head. “Hal has to keep his cover or risk everything. He’s lied so many times I’m surprised no one has caught on yet.”

“And Mayor Trey?” Cash asked.

“Yes, Trey likes the benefits that come his way. He gets a kickback every month or so,” London stated in disgust.

“Such as?” Kota asked.

“Such as that spanking brand new Mercedes parked in his garage. I saw Sonny delivering it last week.” 

Hawkins growled. “He’s been telling everyone that his father died and that he was getting the Mercedes from his dad’s estate.”

London rolled her eyes and said, “Trevor Ritcher died a couple of years ago and he never had a Mercedes. And even if he did, where did the other expensive cars come from? Or his Rolex? What about his wife's diamonds and all her Gucci bags and shoes? I could list a lot of it, but really, there is so much even I don't know about. They took a two-week cruise to the Caribbean last month and that is not cheap either.”

“How do you know all this?” Boots finally asked.

“Four years ago, my mom was still alive and she and my dad were fighting one night. She told him he had to stop with all the lies and stop taking the money from them. She had just found out his secret and he told her he couldn’t and she better shut up about what was going on or the five boys wouldn’t be happy. She told him she didn’t care if they were happy or not. She was gonna bust up this ring. My dad told her she couldn’t. It was bigger than just him and the boys. Granite Falls was now one of the biggest distribution points and no one could stop it now. She said she would see about that. Two days later, she was dead." Tears glittered in her eyes.