Kale, p.23
Kale, page 23
part #2 of Texas Kings MC Series
“Because of the wenches.”
“Well, yeah. I was going to tell you about them. How did you know? Let me guess. Brenda.”
“Yep. She told me all about them. That I may need to be assertive once or twice to establish my rank in the pecking order of things.”
Kale laughed until he cried at that one. When we stopped at a red light he reached up and wiped his face with his hands as he kept chuckling.
“Be assertive? Establish your rank? Damn, Brenda is the master of understatement.” Kale looked over at me and smiled. “Did she tell you exactly how she did that when she was coming around?”
“No. She just said to do what I thought was best but to be assertive and never back down.”
“Yeah. She pulled a sweetbutt off of Sonny’s lap and drug her outside by her hair. She slapped her around a little bit and made the bitch apologize for touching Sonny. After that Sonny couldn’t even get one of them to bring him a damn beer they were so afraid of Brenda.”
“Wow. Really? Brenda seems so nice.”
That caused Kale to laugh even harder.
“Well, she does.”
“Brenda is great. You’re right. She’s nice when it’s deserved. She’s a ruthless bitch when it’s deserved too.”
“Of course. We all have that ability. It’s in our DNA.”
“I didn’t say a word.”
His reluctance to agree or disagree with my words had me laughing now.
“So, will I have to assert myself at the club? What about the bar?”
“Definitely and yes. However, at the bar, I suggest you not drag anyone around by their hair. It’s a place of business, you know.”
“Duh.”
“I’ll tell you now, flat out, none of my brothers or I have ever touched any of our employees or dancers. Ever. Hard and fast rule set out by Smokey from day one. We hire them on and keep them safe when they are with us. It’s their choice of profession and it’s our job to make sure that they are safe while they do it. No drugs or side work is allowed to affect the club. Ever.”
“Good. That’s good. All I know about strippers or strip clubs I learned on television.”
“Not much to learn. You put a bunch of women in a room together for any length of time and there’s usually a cat fight or two.”
“Um. Yeah. I think I’d know about that.” Kale and I laughed together.
We were silent through the rest of the ride and I watched the town pass by the window until he pulled into a parking lot and went around to the back of the building. He parked in a reserved space and then opened his door. He tsked to the dogs and they jumped out one after the other to stand beside him. I hopped out and met him at the front of the Bronco.
“Congratulations on your new job.”
“Thank you. I better get in there. I heard my boss might punish me if I’m late.”
“Yeah. He might just spank you until you begged him for something better.”
“In that case...” I turned to walk back to the Bronco. Kale laughed and pulled me into his arms. He put his soft lips on mine and within seconds I was warm and ready for more.
“How do you do that?” I asked him as I nibbled on his bottom lip.
“What?”
“You kiss me and everything else falls out of my head and I just want to get naked with you.”
“It’s my superpower. It only works on you, though.”
“I better be the only one you use it on or you’ll get more than a spanking.”
Kale laughed and dropped on last kiss on my lips.
“Come on, Rocky. Let’s get inside.”
O=O=O
KALE
“Hey, babe. You about done for the night?” I stood in the doorway to Terra’s new office. I’d been there for a minute or so just watching her going through a list of documents.
“Yeah. Let me mark my spot. I have quite a few questions for you. Do you mind if I take this with me?”
“Leave it here, babe. It’s not going anywhere.”
“No, I’m serious. I need to look at this some more. I don’t think that your guy was stealing from you.”
“Then what’s so important that you need to take this home with you?”
“I want to look through this some more before I say anything. I’m taking this with me though. Can we go tomorrow and get the books from the other places? I want to compare some things.”
“Okay. I’ll call the guys and have them take them out with them tonight. At least the paper ledgers. The rest is all on a backup that we have access to anytime.”
“Yeah. Call them and have them take the stuff out tonight.” Terra looked up at me and leaned her head toward me. “I mean that. Have them bring the books home with them tonight. I want to leave the house first thing in the morning as soon as the banks open. I’m going to need your Dad with me or whoever is in charge of the accounts to run to the bank first thing. Can you make that happen?”
I stared at her for a second and then pulled my phone out. I sent a text to each of my brothers to make sure and take the books home with them. I got answering texts and responded again.
Rather than text, I called my Dad.
“Son?”
“Not an emergency but I need you to meet us at the bank in the morning. The minute it opens. Terra found something. I’m not sure what yet. Can you be there?”
“Will do. Meet me there at ten ‘til nine.”
“Okay.”
I hung up with my father and looked back to Terra.
“Anything else we need to do right now?”
She sat there and looked around the office for a second, obviously deep in thought.
“I don’t think so.” She clutched the ledger book and the large manila folder of receipts against her chest as she stood up. “I’m ready to go.”
“The guys are doing the same thing at each place right now. Come out in the hallway.”
I put the master code into the door panel and entered a few more numbers. I changed the code to a random set of numbers that I then typed into my phone. I tested the old code and when I saw that it didn’t work, I tested the new code. The green light came on and I opened and closed the door.
“So, no one but each of you will be able to get into the offices now?”
“Right. Bird suggested it. Since we have you now no one else should go in there but one of us or you.”
“I’m ready.” Terra walked toward the back door, her head down, deep in thought.
I got the dogs settled in while Terra got in on her side and did her belt. I waited until we were a few blocks from the bar to ask her.
“What’s going on?”
“He’s laundering money. Not stealing your money but laundering it for someone else. I found twenty-five thousand in this quarter alone and that was at first glance. We’re only in the second month of the quarter, Kale.”
“So how does that work? I know what laundering money is. I just don’t know how it works.”
“There are deposits in here that seem too large. But after they’re made there are payments for different things. Like a second payment to the electric company for an even higher amount than the original. But according to the statements, the second deposit went to a different bank than the first one. One of those is not really the electric company.”
“Oh. So, one of those is someone else’s account, not to pay a bill.”
“Right.”
“So, let’s say he does fifty grand in this quarter at the Slipper. He does fifty grand at each of the other places too. You have five bars. That’s a quarter of a million dollars every three months.”
“Holy shit.”
“Yeah. And if the authorities find out, they’ll shut all of your shit down and wrap your whole family up in red tape and charges while they leave you broke and penniless.”
“Fuck me.”
“So, I find it, figure it out, stop it and there ya go. Done. No need for the authorities, we fly under the radar and hope that whoever this fool was working for doesn’t kill us all in our sleep.”
I handed Terra my phone. “Text my brothers to come to my house now.”
“Ummm. Walk me through it.”
“Through what?”
“How do I do it?”
“You push the buttons and text them.”
“Well, no shit, Sherlock. What buttons?” Terra snapped at me and then put her hand on my arm. “Sorry. I don’t know how to text. Let me just call them. I think I can figure that out.”
“I didn’t even think, babe. Sorry I snapped. I’ll show you how tomorrow. We need to go get you a phone anyway.”
I listened quietly as Terra called each of my brothers. I argued with myself on whether to call Smokey in yet. I decided to wait until I had spoken to my brothers and then we could call him over after he dropped Mom off at the diner in a few hours.
“Okay. They are all headed over to your house. Our house.”
20.
O=O=O=O=O=O
I leaned down and kissed Terra on the forehead right before I pulled the sheet up closer to her chin. She was sleeping like a baby right now and I didn’t want to wake her to tell her goodbye.
Last night while my brothers and I sat quietly around the table, Terra compared the books for each of the clubs. Within two hours she had found the same pattern of discrepancies for each business.
Occasionally large deposits followed by double payments to places like the electric company or the water company. Without the actual bank statements in hand with copies of the canceled checks she couldn’t be one hundred percent sure of what she was seeing but the pattern was disturbing none the less.
As she pored over the books my brothers and I discussed the plan for today. Daughtry had a follow up appointment at the doctor this morning that he couldn’t miss. I was going to meet Smokey at the bank to shut down all activity on our accounts and open new ones. If someone else had access somehow, we were going to close that avenue off.
Bird and Clem would be taking John and Mattie to find George, our bookkeeper. I brought Terra in last night and hadn’t let George know she was coming in to take over his job. I wanted him around to explain things to Terra, if necessary, before I canned him. It was a little underhanded, but I didn’t trust the guy to begin with, so it didn’t bother me at all.
From the information Terra had found he had some explaining to do for us, not just Terra. She had made a list of things that she found odd and had worked until just an hour or so ago. I finally drug her away from the table and into the bedroom. She was asleep the minute her head touched the pillow.
I walked into the living room and greeted Fain, who would be staying at the house while Terra slept. If she needed something when she woke up, Fain could take my Bronco and run her around town. From what I had figured out about Terra so far, I knew she wouldn’t go anywhere until she had solved the puzzle that George had made of our ledgers.
“Just stick around here and watch TV for a while. She’ll probably sleep for a few hours at least. She just got to bed a little bit ago.” I walked into the kitchen and Fain followed me.
“If Stache needs to go somewhere you want me to call you first?”
“Nah. She can go where she needs to. My guess is she’ll want to stick around here.” I cored an apple and cut it into quarters, sliced open a couple of oranges and threw a handful of blueberries onto a plate for the birds. I added a handful of carrots and two celery stalks to the plate before I moved over and put it on the stand between the large wooden perches in the middle of the table. I called for Merlin and Scarlett and they both flew into the dining room for their food.
Fain sat down to watch the birds eat.
“There’s an even number of everything. Don’t let Scarlett get greedy with the oranges. The dogs are in bed with Terra.” I walked over and took my cut from the hook by the back door. “And don’t teach them to say anything fucked up. They’re already assholes most of the time.”
O=O=O
“Bird already found George. He’s headed out to the barn with him now.” Smokey told me as I got off my motorcycle in front of the bank. “I told him to make sure and leave his face alone, he needs to be able to talk. Now, want to tell me why we have our accountant hog tied in the trunk of Clem’s car?”
“Yeah. About that. Terra was on the books for like five hours last night and is almost positive that he’s been laundering money.”
“That son of a bitch.”
“She wants us to halt everything with our accounts and get new ones. Make sure to take off any automatic drafts and such, take off all the people that can sign except for us.”
“Okay. We’ll go in and talk to Dennis. I’ve been working with him for years.”
“Then, we can go play with the squeak toy.”
O=O=O
TERRA
I walked into the living room, thinking that I was alone in the house. At most, maybe Kale was somewhere around. I had no idea there was going to be a stranger in the living room.
That’s why I screamed bloody murder and ran back into the bedroom, the dogs hot on my heels.
I heard someone, the stranger I assumed, tap on the door. “My name’s Fain. Kale told me to stick around.”
“Okay! Thanks!” I squeaked out, mortified that my first impression was in a tank top and a pair of lacy panties. “I’ll be out in just a second.”
“No worries, Stache. Take your time.”
I decided to go ahead and shower for the day, hoping my blush would fade by the time I was done. I dressed in purple cami and a pair of cutoff jean shorts that Jenna had loaned me while we were in Salt Lake. I twisted my hair into a bun on the top of my head before I left the bathroom.
I needed an iv drip of coffee and something to eat so I could dive back into the books. Considering that all of my knowledge was from textbooks and no actual experience in the field of accounting, I had been thrown into the deep end right off the bat. I wanted to make sure that I didn’t miss anything so that Kale and his brothers could react accordingly once they had all the information.
I went out into the living room and took the bull by the horns. “Hi. I’m Terra. Nice to meet you.”
Fain took my hand with a firm grip and shook it. “Nice to meet you too, Stache. Good to see you, finally.”
“Do I look like you imagined?”
Fain threw his head back and laughed.
“Um. No. Nothing at all like we thought you would.”
“That’s a good thing, I’m sure. Have you had breakfast?”
“Oh, I don’t want to be a bother. You go ahead. I’ll get something later.”
“Do you know how to cook?”
“Yes, actually. I love to cook.”
“Well since you’re stuck here, teach me how to cook something, please. Do you mind?”
“No, I don’t mind at all. You don’t cook?”
“Never had the opportunity. Can you teach me how to make an omelet? We have all sorts of stuff that would be good in one.”
“That I can do ma’am. At your service.”
Fain turned out to be a damn good teacher. He showed me the best way to cut up a bell pepper so that there was very little waste, taught me a neat trick on how to dice an onion and then, out of necessity, showed me the correct way to chop things so that I didn’t cut my fingertips off.
He and I were standing at the stove working on the second omelet when the back door opened. Smokey and Kale walked in, followed by Bird and Clem.
“Hi, guys! Can I make you omelets for breakfast? Fain is teaching me.” I giggled and waved the spatula around. “I’m being domestic and shit.”
Kale walked up behind me and kissed me on the neck as his brothers and Dad laughed at me.
“Well, by all means. Feed me, woman!”
Smokey, Bird and Clem all wanted one too. My first three attempts had turned into more of a scramble, but my last three looked a lot like an omelet should. I buttered the toast and passed it out to the guys, and then walked around and refilled everyone’s coffee before I sat down to eat myself.
I was surprised to see that none of them had touched their food while they waited on me to sit at the table with them.
Once I sat down and picked up my fork, every single one of them dove into their food. I looked around the table and saw that every single one of them had covered their omelet in hot sauce. No one spoke for a few minutes and I started to get worried. I
“Good job, Stache. This is good.”
“I’ve never seen anyone eat hot sauce with eggs.”
Every one of them looked up at me in confusion.
“That’s just how you eat them.” Clem shrugged and put another big bite in his mouth.
“Here, try a bit with the hot sauce, sweetie.” Smokey put a big bite on his fork and held it toward me. I put my hand on his and took the bite off his fork.
“Holy shit!” I choked down the bite. “What is that?”
“It’s hot sauce.”
“That’s lava!” I stood up and went to the sink to fill up a glass with water. I took a few sips and then sat there with water in my mouth, hoping it would tame the burn.
“It’s not even hot!” Bird picked the jar up off the table and looked at it. “It’s only medium!”
I swallowed the water and then stuck my tongue out like a dog. My eyes were watering and there was sweat on my brow. The guys laughed at me while they ate more of the lava covered eggs.
“Here, hon. Take a drink of milk. That’s supposed to help. Or a bite of toast.” Kale slid his glass of milk in front of my plate and I took a sip.
“It’s getting a little better. I don’t know how you guys are still eating.” I took a bite of my perfectly good omelet.
Clem finished first and took his plate to the sink. As he passed Bird and Smokey he stacked their plates and took them with him.
“Thanks for breakfast, sis. Damn good food.” Clem patted my shoulder as he walked past to sit down.
