Post by Admin on Jul 3, 2023 1:41:19 GMT
Victoria Strader’s Childhood Home
Eldorado Avenue, London, Ontario
October 21st, 2022
“I’m glad the kid is awake.”
The weakened Meghan Kelser-Strader looks at her baby brother and gives him a small smile and nod. It was good Veronica had awoken from her coma. The whole family had been in a constant state of distress over it, even Victoria, who caused it.
“Me too. It was hard watching her and not being able to do anything to help her.”
“Naw, you being by her side and Meeks making the bedroom an advanced hospital room was integral to her waking up and coming back to us.”
“Thanks for saying that, Johnny. I feel that Victoria, Veronica and Cara are being forced to pay for my sins, and the old man’s.”
John sits down beside Meghan on the living room couch and puts his arm around her. Their heads leaning against each other, showing the bond of the Strader siblings.
“You know, it wasn’t too long ago that you told me to hang out with my kid, get to know her, because I wasn’t the old man. You told me not to let shit like that bother me and not to let it prevent me from getting to know Mackenzie.”
Meghan lets out a small scoff.
“Sounds like pretty solid advice. I should really learn to take it now and again.”
“Just know your girls love you to pieces. So do the little ones.”
A few tears roll down the former Strader Matriarch’s face, thinking of her babies.
“I can feel time working against me. I look at my adult first-born daughters and my twins and it’s breaking my heart that I won’t be there for them or watch the babes grow up.”
“Don’t think like that. Meeks is gonna be there for them. So will I. We will make sure your children have all the love they could have. Dustin will be there, too.”
“Oh, my sweet Dustin… We found immense love and companionship together and I’m going to die and leave him alone to deal with everything.”
John squeezes her gently, trying to reassure his big sister the best that he can.
“Dustin will adjust. He’s a tough man. He loves you and will honour you till the day he dies.”
“Speaking of love and honour… I know you were getting close to Calaway. Where you at with all that?”
John shifts in his seat. The question was an uncomfortable one as he, for years, avoided matters that surround the heart.
“Nowhere, Megz. You know I am not one to be with someone or love someone. It’s just not in the cards for me.”
“John, don’t give me that line of bullshit. You can’t bullshit a bullshitter, remember?”
“(Scoff) Doesn’t mean I won’t try. Listen, I don’t know where it’s at. She has other men in her life, she’s a mother, a sister, a daughter etcetera. She can do much better than me.”
Meghan sits back, breaking the bond of their heads leaning against one another, and looks into the icy blue eyes she shares with him and their late-old man, Scott Nash Strader.
“Damn it, Johnny. YOU deserve love. YOU deserve happiness. YOU deserve to be a loving father and YOU deserve to be someone’s loving partner.”
John goes to reply, but Meghan doesn’t give him the chance.
“You need to stop beating yourself up for what dad did to you. What he did to me. To Cara. To Victoria. To Mackenzie. It’s not your fault you haven’t been in your daughter’s life. The old man made the choice to run Natalia off for reasons only Scott understands. You should call Calaway. I see the way your eyes light up anytime her name is mentioned. Stop fighting it.”
“Megz, listen… I know you are right, but you are asking me to flip a switch on my anxieties about it all to take a chance. It took me years to recover from what Natalia did when she left me and raised our kid in secret with money from the old man. I never got to confront him for it. I gave that man my life. I have turned our small club out of Winnipeg into one of the top ten MCs in the entire world and I am sitting here afraid to let my heart love someone and to get to know my kid.”
Meghan tilts her head and lifts his chin with her hand. Looking into his eyes, she gives John a reassuring smile as her hand moves to cup the side of his face. Meghan was a natural mom, and it definitely wasn’t lost on any member of the family.
“John, life is fleeting. If you asked me ten years ago if I saw myself happily married to a man that had a blood feud with our family and had two beautiful children, I would’ve called you crazy. Now, the cancer thing really sucks - - -”
“- - -No shit.”
Meghan replies, raising her brow with the smile that meant “Shut-Up.”
“As I was saying, I am glad I took a chance. Some would say it’s unfair, but you know me. I have been learning to take it on the chin since I learned the old man was my dad. Or feeling like you got mule kicked in the ring and have the same thing happen in your relationships where you are scared to put yourself back out there. Anna, Engel, and Craiford… I was terrified. Was I gonna add to my list of failed relationships? And you know what?”
John looks away with a small laugh that finds its way out of him, exhaling through his nose.
“You’re glad ya did.”
Her hand comes back up, forcing him in that older sisterly way by his chin and looks into his eyes.
“Yeah, I am. Stop letting dad’s mistakes define who you are. Look, we all have some piece of dad in us. Meeks has his unconditional love for all of us. You are all the best parts of dad. I got his cut-throat approach to EVERYTHING. Hell, we all share a genuine love of motorcycles, but none of us are him.”
“Maybe you are right.”
“I am right.”
John’s hands come to his face, rubs his eyes and pulls down on his face with a laugh.
“My Asian contacts have offered me quite the deal, but it’s going to take months to set up.”
“Smack?”
“Yeah, I refuse to get into fentanyl. That’s a dirty game.”
“Coke and smack isn't a dirty game?”
“Megz, we both know that any fuckin’ game in this life is dirty, but it’s how we earn.”
“Maybe it’s time to think of the future of your club and this family and move away from that?”
John is quiet for a moment.
“Megz, it hasn’t been about brotherhood since the 1960s. I mean, sure, there are many that I would take a bullet for, but it’s a business and I would be a fool to move away from that.”
“Just be careful. You know the feds will try to infiltrate you, if they haven’t already.”
Brothers of Mayhem Clubhouse (Billiards Hall)
Dallas, Texas
June 30th, 2023
John, the visiting International President sits to his best friend’s left, a handsome movie star looking Mexican-Spanish descent man, Marcus “Spike” Santorelli. The feeling around the table is tense, and it had everything to do with the prison pipeline John had set up in Canada that ran from British Columbia to Nova Scotia.
“The Canadian charters are the only ones getting rich off this smack-fuelled pipeline.”
“I understand your grievances, but the Brothers of Mayhem Dallas Charter has its own pipeline.”
“That’s right, we supply all the performance enhancing supplements to the southern universities along the Bible-Belt, and we don’t need to take on anymore, especially with the five-oh that’s been sniffing around.”
John could always count on Spike to have his back, even when it looked to split his charter. John looks at the rest of the table and tries to reassure them.
“Look, eventually this charter will work with our sister-club, the Femme Fatales in Arizona, all the way up through Washington State. Our Asian contacts will only deliver south of the border, and I need a few of the charters to stay out of this part of our business.”
“John’s right. We earn our own way. We don’t need the heat of the DEA and ATF.”
The table grumbles as Spike slams the gavel down. The seven members leave the chapel in the back of the Billiards Hall, leaving Spike and John alone.
“Do we know who the rat is?”
“I have it narrowed down to a hangaround and a prospect. Nailz and Dino.”
“Keep me posted, last thing this club needs is for word to get out within the ranks about fuckin’ rats infiltrating. I need this pipeline to happen, and once it’s rolling, we can set up a couple of crank labs to supply the college and university athletes.”
Spike laughs and nods.
“It’s crazy how they suck that shit up.”
“Between sports and exams, they’ll take just about anything.”
“Do you ever feel the weight of our choices?”
“Honestly? No. You know I don’t have a conscience about that. I am more concerned that our brothers make the bank to care for their families. The sooner we have that cash rolling in, the less desperate we are and the choices we make are smarter.”
“Speaking of making smart choices, you are chasing Calaway, right?”
John smirks.
“Fuck, between you, my sister and my nieces, you all are driving me fuckin’ nuts. But yes, I am on my way to see her when I leave here.”
Spike reaches over and pats his best friend on the shoulder.
“Good to hear, brother. Go on and get out of here. If anything comes up, I will get a hold of ya.”
Circle K (Close to Alexandra Calaway’s Home)
Dallas, Texas USA
July 1st, 2023
John parks his Panhead to the side of the popular convenience store, grabbing some Miller High Life to take to the woman who has grabbed a hold of his cold and closed off heart, but that wasn’t true anymore, as he had stopped seeing his favourite escorts since he and Calaway had gotten closer. John was changing, and he wasn’t sure how to handle that change. His phone rings, and pulls out an old school flip phone, and sees Tamika’s burner number pop up on the call display.
“What up, Meeks?”
“Johnny, Simon called me a few minutes ago.”
“I guess Allison got ahold of him after all, eh?”
“He says there is a rat in your Dallas charter that’s relaying all the information to the RCMP back home.”
John almost stops in his tracks, but continues inside the store.
“From your silence, I am guessing you already knew that?”
“Spike has smoked them out. It will be handled. But I asked you to stay out of this shit, Meeks. We need the head of this family to be clean on all fronts. Plausible deniability.”
“You're my twin brother, Johnny. I am always going to have your back.”
“Tell Simon I know, and I have it handled. It will be taken care of in the next 72 hours, if not sooner. Trash that phone. I will get you a new one.”
“Ok. Go see your woman.”
“Already on my way.”
John snaps the flip phone into two pieces and pulls out the SIM card, snapping it in two as well. He stuffs it into his leather kutte, that Strader sneer burning brightly.
Harley Davidson Bike Show
Houston, Texas
July 2nd, 2023
Alexandra Calaway and her daughter Ashlynn walk along with John’s daughter, Mackenzie Korcynski, looking at the new 2024 style Harley’s while John hangs back with the long-time friend and cameraperson to the Strader Clan, Harold, who has his camera positioned on his shoulder, signalling to John it’s a go. John, his semi long dirty blonde hair slicked back, and Ray-Ban sunglasses covering his icy blue eyes, gives his signature smile to the people watching at home.
“Since I joined IWF, I have faced a fucking a banana, a guy in face-paint and a woman who has done nothing but win over the last couple of years. I may have been out of the game after the bullshit that Project: Honor was, but it doesn’t mean I haven’t paid attention to the business. My sisters, my nieces… they have been turning heads and making history as I have grown my MC to epic proportions. I know my old man is smiling up at the progress I have made. It’s unbelievable how much I like him, but also how different I am.”
“The old man sought glory in everything he did. Whether that was becoming the National Sgt. At Arms of the red and gold in his home state of Texas, to being a World Champion five times throughout his career, not to mention all the other championships he had won along the way like being the longest reigning Trash N’ Thrash Champion in the long defunct High Impact Competition, or his record setting nine time tag team title wins with 8 different partners. He wasn’t much younger than I am now when he entered the game. People said he was too old, trying to tell him he was a new version of the old scene.”
“My niece, Veronica Strader, soon to be Veronica Cain, has been making waves. She isn’t doing it like Serenity Holmes holding six titles at once, but taking a championship at a time and making history setting runs. She’s gonna be the one in this family to take us back to the top. The true Heir to the Strader Monarchy.”
“Yet, here I am, in a tournament of sorts called Heir to the Throne. I’ve stated since the beginning that I am not interested in the wins, the titles, and the glory. I straight up enjoy hurting people, that’s why I do this.”
That, and a way to launder his criminal misdeeds.
“So I am up against James Gilmore at Sacrifice. A man who has made his own career something to be admired, a former IWF World Champion, and now will stand across the ring from me. This whole Heir to the Throne, it’s something that’s embedded into my family. Some people might have thought when my old man met his maker, living longer in this life than most have a right to, people thought I would take the mantle.”
“My late sister, the incredibly talented, loving, and beautiful soul Meghan Strader, took the reins as the rightful head of our family because she had earned it through the blood, sweat and tears she spilt for the Strader name. Her time was cut short thanks to the unforgiving enemy that is cancer. Again, some would’ve thought I would take the throne as my own.”
“My twin sister, Tamika Strader, sits upon the iron throne with the crown of thorns. That is our legacy because she is the right woman for the job. When the day comes for me to sit upon it, I won’t take it. Why? Because I don’t want it. I have my legacy I am building, and that’s the Brothers of Mayhem Motorcycle Club. Keeping the territories we have taken over safe for the people that live in them. Providing them anything and everything they need.”
“So James, I am not gonna stand here and dismiss all that you have accomplished, and will probably continue to accomplish, but I’m also not going to let you walk right over me. You will have the biggest fight of your life at Sacrifice. I can promise you that much.”
John somewhat catches up to the three most important women in his life. He watches Mackenzie with Calaway’s daughter, and the big bad biker can’t help but smile.
“See, James, I already have a throne, with two princesses and my very own Queen that I wouldn’t trade in for this world because for whatever reason, they have accepted me for who I am, for better and for worse. No one has before, outside of my family.”
“I’m aware of my path in this life, it was basically written before me and Tamika were even conceived. We all have our lot in life. Mine is brotherhood, family, and my three girls. If you want to be the IWF’s Heir to The Throne, you are gonna have to get through me, James. I am already the King of my castle.”
John sneers for a moment, before he catches up to Calaway, Ashlynn and Mackenzie. His left hand tuffles Ashlynn’s hair and she makes a face at him, as he pulls Mackenzie in, kissing her on the top of the head then turning to Calaway, his right hand cupping the side of her face before planting a kiss on her. He pulls back slowly, the two smiling at one another. John looks at us one last time.
“The only question is, can you put me down before I break you into two?”
The scene fades as the “modern family” goes on to enjoy the rest of the Harley Davidson Motorcycle show.
