Chapter 16 - The Midnight Council
The clubhouse was packed tighter than it had been in five years.
Every bench, pool table, and overturned crate was occupied. The air was thick with blue cigarette smoke, the smell of stale coffee, and the low, rumbling murmur of men who had spent their lives fighting battles the law books never wrote about.
At the center of the room, standing beside the massive stone fireplace, Bear pinned three documents to the wooden post with a heavy hunting knife.
"They're coming for the trust," Bear said, his voice cutting cleanly through the murmur of the room. "Not because they give a damn about the kid, and not because they care about the house. They want the land behind it for commercial development. Pendelton filed a motion in district court this morning to challenge the guardianship on the grounds of environment and lifestyle."
A low growl rippled through the men standing near the back.
"Lifestyle?" Tiny barked, standing up so fast his chair tipped over backward and hit the concrete floor with a deafening crash. "We put that kid through school, she's got better grades than half the high school freshman class, and she draws flowers all over my favorite toolbox. What's wrong with our lifestyle?"
"Nothing," Knox said, stepping up to the post and crossing her arms over her leather cut. "Except it doesn't fit on a corporate spreadsheet. The lawyers want her isolated, vulnerable, and easy to manipulate so they can force a signature on the trust release."
"Not on my watch," a voice called out from the back—a veteran rider named Dutch, whose left arm was covered in faded military tattoos. "What do you need, Bear? You want us to pay a visit to Mr. Pendelton's office in Billings? Remind him how the local real estate market works?"
"No," Bear said, shaking his head slowly. "Not yet. We play this by the book. Their book. Only we hire the best damn family law attorney money can buy, and we back him up with every piece of documentation, school record, and medical checkup we've gathered over the past fourteen months."
"And if the judge is in their pocket?" Tiny asked.
May you like
Bear pulled the hunting knife out of the post with a sharp thwack and held it flat against his palm.
"Then we make sure the courtroom is so full of people who care about that kid that the judge can't breathe without seeing us," Bear said. "We ride to Billings on Monday. All of us."
