Page 38 of Iron Hearts
I pulled the postcards out of my pocket and a pen out of my cut and sat with my thoughts, which were much calmer but fleeting now.
I had no idea what to write, but I was sure I would come up withsomething.
CHAPTERSIXTEEN
Rarity…
“That’s bullshit.”
I didn’t need to say it. Big Dawg had it handled. He wasn’t about to take any gaslighting off Charlie, and I wasn’t either. I didn’t say anything. I just let my resting bitch face do all the talking.
Several of the Iron Horse’s employees had already quit and walked out. I was still on the fence but would quickly make up my mind based on how the argument about to go down between Big Dawg and upper management shook out. Right now, Charlie was sweating bullets, and the old adagepeople didn’t quit bad jobs, they quit bad managerswas floating around in my thoughts.
I didn’t think Charlie was going to survive this argument or the incident as a whole. The owner was doing the math, the calculations clearly going on in his deep brown eyes, even if the rest of his face was inscrutable.
I’d known Rob since I was knee high to a fuckin’ June bug, as my gram and gramps would say.
He and my dad had gotten along. My dad even helped Rob with some metrics and financials at one point.
I could never remember being sodisappointedin my “Uncle Rob” as I was right now.
He should probably fear my mom calling his ass up. I’m sure she’d thought about it. I didn’t know if she had already or not.
Rob’s eyes flicked in my direction and I knew he noted how unhappy I looked, but I just kept my mouth shut.
Did Iwantto keep my mouth shut? No. Did I know that if I did, it would bother the shit out of Rob, and he might take me more seriously andaskmy opinion?
Yes.
I was playing the game to get the best results, and the best results would be to get rid of fucking Charlie and get somebody in here to manage the place who had the iron pair of testicles necessary to call the unpleasant shots.
Shit,Icould do a better job than Charlie. I just didn’t have the experience or even thetimeto until the boys were in school, and even then, I didn’t know if that was what I ultimately wanted. Running a bar like the Iron Horse was…a lot.Way above my pay grade right now, that was for sure – but that was the point I was trying to make. Charlie sucked at it that bad. Sure, he made sure we never ran out of things or whatever, but the actual security side of things, and things besides just the payroll and ordering and stuff?
Yeah, he sucked.
“Rarity, what ‘cha thinking?” Rob asked,
“Depends,” I said. “Am I talking to Rob, my boss and the owner of the Iron Horse, or am I talking to ‘Uncle Rob,’ who I grew up with?”
He grinned at me and asked, “What’s the difference?”
“Whether I’m being real or not,” I said with a shrug, and there was a smattering of laughter.
“Let’s start with Rob the boss,” he said.
“Okay. The last couple of nights of operation were a train wreck on the security side of things. Charlie doesn’t listen, and he doesn’t always enforce the rules or he tells Big Dawg to let it slide. Dawg should have pushed back more on night one – but when night two went down?” I shook my head.
“And Rob the uncle?” he asked, looking uncomfortable.
“You should have been here last night from the time that we opened. The cops should have been called, and the Scorpions should have been 86’ed before the Bastards even showed up. You know how these cock goblins work. It’s been the same shit since the fifties and the sixties. They might as well whip their dicks out and piss on their territory, andthis—” I flailed my arms, gesticulating wildly. “Allof North Florida isBastardsterritory, so youknewthey were coming. Big Dawg was already down for the count. Charlie,” I looked at him with disgust, “clearly isn’t up to the task, and if my dad were alive, he’d have some serious shit to say right now.”
The staff around us all sat or stood with their mouths open, and Rob burned with embarrassment as he stared into my eyes, one of them looking even worse for the tinge of purple and deep bruising around it.
“Last night wasbullshit,and everyone here knows it. You’ve already lost half your staff. You need to lose him.” I pointed at Charlie. “And you need to be present for a while until you replace him. And if my mom doesn’t stop bugging the shit out of me to quit,youcan deal with her. I’m tired of hearing it, and honestly, you’re on strike two – three strikes, you’re out. The money is the only thing keeping me here. Your wages are some of the best ones around the area, and the tips can’t be beat. That’s theonlyreason I’m even considering staying because point blank? I want my brothers to be there when I get married. Iwantto be able to get married. I want to live a long life and die of a ripe old age and not die in some stupid bar fight turned firefight between a bunch of guys making up for their small dicks.”
Rob’s eyes shone with laughter, even though I knew he wasn’t laughingatme – just at how I wasn’t afraid to mince words and how I’d phrased things. He sniffed, nodded, and said, “Tell us how you really feel.”
“I believe I just did,” I said, grinning. Charlie looked like a landed fish and I shot him a dirty look.
