The Road Devils Motorcycle Club - Trax

Chapter 7

TRAX

The workday at Road Devils Motors was just getting underway. I sat with my usual cup of black coffee looking over yesterday's receipts. They looked good just like the rest of the week had been. Even though this was the club's garage, it felt like mine. I ran it my way with guys I handpicked myself. It was losing money, lots of money when I took over. Strut has no business sense whatsoever. My previous boss almost ran this place into the ground, but Bear gave me the reigns and I made it my goal to turn this place around.

The numbers every week proved I had. I was looking forward to church today when Code went over the money each of our business enterprises earned. The garage was not going to make us millionaires by any means, but it was a steady legitimate form of income that the club needed.

Code was our resident math whiz and computer genius. Bear let him work a little differently than the rest of us. All patched members of the club earned an income from either businesses owned by the club or by someone else. We all needed to be legitimately employed. It made the club look legit and helped us sometimes out when we needed it. Code was not only the Treasurer of the club, he also developed computer programs that he sold on the side. The kid probably brought in more money than the rest of us combined.

I had worked here at the shop since before I joined the Road Devils over way too many years ago. I had always been good with my hands and fixing things were easy. Tinkering with cars was what I had always done. RDM, Road Devils Motors, allowed us to make money by fixing any motor vehicle that came in, plus we had a place to work on our bikes.

Before I took over this place was a dump and people from town rarely brought their cars here. Strut was also a mean son on a bitch to everyone and ran a half-ass garage. I never bitched to Bear about the conditions in the garage. It wasn't my place to rat out a fellow brother even though working for him was shit.

When Strut was encouraged to retire, I became the boss. I spent the first-week cleaning and organizing the garage. It had driven me crazy for years not being able to find anything. The space was looking more professional from the start. I had the guy wear work shirts with the names on it so we didn't look like some rinky-dink fix-it-up place.

Customer service improved and by that I mean we were no longer calling the customer assholes and fuckin' morons when they brought in their vehicles. I convinced Bear to let us take credit card payments instead of just cash and the business began to pick up. It made me feel good. So did that extra two grand I got as a bonus a few weeks ago. That was still sitting locked up tight in my safe.

I drained my coffee cup before turning my attention to the computer on the messy desk. I two-fingered typed my way into the computer program Code had developed for us. At times it still confused me but I could usually get to where I needed to go without too much cursing. Today's schedule popped up and I couldn't help but smile that it was full. As our business increased, and I ran out of brothers that wanted to work here, I also convinced Bear to let me hire a few guys from town. Club business was kept away from here unless it was after hours, and I had hoped having some local guys would bring in more business from the town.

And it did.

So much that we had a waiting list as times to get work done.

I was reviewing the work schedule to see if I could pitch in before we had church this afternoon. Once I left for the club, I rarely came back. I had a local guy, Mickey who had proved dependable. He ran the place when I wasn't here. There was a car here for an oil change that I could see the guys maybe not getting to. That's where I was going to pitch in.