by K E Osborn
“So, now that we can see each other, you know my name, it’s only fair that I finally get to know who the fucker is fucking everything up for me.”
He smiles and strides up to me. “Mad Dog, you need to calm yourself. You’re in no immediate danger, stop acting out with bravado to cover how terrified you are.”
I scoff and roll my eyes. “Please, you don’t scare me. You probably have some really lame name like Roberto or Alonzo, or maybe Martina? You could be a woman, your voice is kinda high-pitched.”
He purses his lips and shakes his head. “Mad Dog, be civil.”
“Oh, like you’re going to be civil? Tell me this is going to work in my favour today, and that I’m going to walk out of here being able to keep my gun and drug trade. Now, that would be civil. But you walk into this country thinking you own it and can just take over, you’re nothing but the scum living between my toes,” I spit.
He breathes in harshly through his nose, his nostrils opening up wide as a vein twitches in his neck. “You’re right, things aren’t going to go well for you, especially if you don’t cooperate. I’ve been nice, I’ve played fair. I’ve let your club stand without burning you insignificant little runts to the ground. Now let me tell you, Mad Dog McNamara, I know everything about everything in this State. I know everything about everyone in your club. I know all their families, and I know all their secrets. I can bring you down with a simple click of my fingers. You think the Cartel is a simple organization? No, Mad Dog. We are a worldwide commodity. We rule businesses, courthouses, law enforcement, we have our hand in every slice of pie imaginable. And you? You’re nothing, but an annoying little insect buzzing around my head, that I can’t wait to squash and watch the blood ooze all over my hands. So, Mad Dog, you want to play with the big boys, then test me, see what I’m really capable of, because I’m dying to let my darker side out and stop being so hospitable to you and your thugs.”
Swallowing hard, I grit my teeth shuddering at his words, wondering how much truth they hold. If he has his finger in everything, especially the heat, he can have us brought in at any time, for anything. This changes my position slightly. But not entirely. He may be bluffing.
“Well, if you’re so big and mighty you must have a strong name to go with this confidence?”
He rolls his eyes, turning his back to me and huffing. “God, always so focused on my name. The suspense is killing you isn’t it?” He turns back to face me, and I raise my eyebrow waiting for him to talk. He opens his mouth and then closes it again making me exhale in annoyance. “You see, Mad Dog, they say patience is a virtue. Wouldn’t you agree?”
Licking my bottom lip, I shake my head. “I’ve always been more of a go get ‘em type of person myself.”
He chuckles and nods. “Yes, I can see that in you. Well, my name is… José can you come and untie Mad Dog please?” he calls out making me exhale in utter annoyance. This guy’s a complete fuckhead.
José walks in, along with Manuel, and they walk up to Blade and me and untie us. The rope grazes my skin causing friction burns as José violently removes the rope. Pulling my arms back around to my front, I rub my red and blistered wrists.
“José is your employer seriously a little bit… you know… dumb in the head?” I ask and José smirks and turns back toward the man.
He nods his head, and José turns back to face me with a giant smile on his face, I don’t have time to think before his closed fist smashes into the side of my face. A sharp pain radiates through my skull and my eyes clench as I fall to the side, a deep mahogany desk catching my fall. My eyes open to see Blade stepping forward in a mad rush, but Manuel grabs him, holding him back and I raise my hand ordering Blade to stop. He halts his movements, watching me as I groan to myself and stagger standing back upright to face José.
“Seriously, one of these days, José, you and me are going to have an altercation, and it’s going to be sweet.”
He grins, and his eyes squint into thin lines. “Oh, how I look forward to that, Mad Dog.”
“Okay, enough comparing your cock size, I’m sick of this game. Mad Dog, it’s nice to finally meet you. Well, not nice as such, really it’s just a formality, so it’s not pleasurable at all. But I digress, my name is Jesús, and I’m the Leader of the South Australian syndicate of the Mexican Cartel. Pleasure to meet your acquaintance.”
A smile creeps across my face, and I can’t hold back my chuckle. He furrows his brows and purses his lips. “Something funny to you?”
I shrug and tilt my head. “Your name is Jesús? Like… as in Jesus? Did you choose your name or were you born with it?”
He takes a deep breath flaring his nostrils and crossing his bulky arms over his chest. “My mother called me Jesús, she is a deeply religious woman, and I for one am honoured to carry the name. Plus, it’s not pronounced like Jesus anyway you ignoramus.”
Shaking my head, I laugh. “No, but it sure is spelt like it. Man talk about having a God-like complex.”
Blade tries to hold back his smirk, but a small chuckle escapes his mouth.
“Do you know what’s even funnier?” I ask.
“Oh please, do enlighten me of your good humour, Mad Dog,” Jesús mocks.
“You’re Ingratos bastard Marco, the one who went missing? Yeah, well, we had him, we tortured him, and you know how?”
Jesús winces slightly, so slightly I almost missed it, but it was there. “Hmm… I have no idea, but I’m assuming painfully?”
“Oh, you’re gonna love this. It was by crucifixion. Ha-ha, can you fucking believe it? Your lackey, Jesus’ lackey, the lackey of Jesus was crucified. Not on a cross, mind you, we just hammered stakes through his wrists and feet, but still what are the odds? This is fucking like something from Monty Python, right?” I laugh a harrowing belly laugh as Jesús and José glare at me.
“The name is Jesús, not Jesus, you say it two completely different ways,” Jesús spits at me.
“Oh, sorry, did I offend you? I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings. Maybe Mary here can wipe away your tears.” I point to José, and he rolls his eyes at me and huffs.
Jesús curls up his lip marching over to me, the rage permeating off him in waves. His face is bright red and every muscle taut and tense. He storms up to me, putting his hand in his pocket. Glancing down, I watch as his hand comes back up holding something small. His hand flicks up toward my neck and unexpectedly a blade flicks out, the cool metal sliding right along my jawline. Tensing up, I stand still as the blade presses against my throat.
“You might want to simmer down your sarcasm, Mad Dog, remember you’re here on my terms? If you want to leave here at all, you might want to start behaving in a decent manner.”
Clicking my tongue against the roof of my mouth, I glance down at the knife as he digs the blade in slightly further. The sharp sting of the tip piercing my skin is followed by the warm trickle of blood slides down my neck through my beard. “Okay, I’ll behave. Just tell me why I’m here.”
“Straight to the point, just like you said. Okay. My offer. You choose to willingly stop with the lackeys distributing your E tablets, and I’ll leave your club alone. But, if you go behind our backs, and try to distribute without our knowledge again, we will come after you, without hesitation.”
Smirking, I shake my head. “Jesús, that’s not an offer, that’s horse shit. You’re telling me to give up good money, and to stop trading in something my club has been doing since its inception, thirty years ago. Why would I give it up for you?”
He sniffs, rubbing his chin and pulls the knife away from my neck, taking a step back. “Okay, you want me to play hardball? Then you give me no option. You stop your distribution. You pull your lackeys, you get out of drugs and guns completely. One hundred percent. I mean all the way. Change things up. Go into a business, make money legitimately. I really don’t give two flying fucks how you source your income, just not through drugs and guns in South Australia. You hand in your supply of everything you have in sto
ck at the moment and, in return, I won’t go after your family.”
My chest tightens and a cold shiver runs down my spine, but I don’t want him to know I’m rattled so I play dumb. “My club is my family.”
“Oh, so if I went after a fiery little red-head called Willow, and sliced her open in front of Dylan, how exactly would that sit with you? And then after Dylan was a mess from watching me slice open his Old Lady, I would dice him up, too. Then to top it all off, I’d bring in Amelia and fuck her so hard she would bleed like a river. Then I’d torture her right in front of you, making you watch every second as you take in her pain-filled screams, knowing you were the reason she was going through that pain, all because you wouldn’t give up the drugs and guns for the sake of… business. It would be a shame.”
An insatiable wave of hatred and anger boils from within me. My fists ball at my sides, and my muscles clench all over my body. Hearing him talk about my family like that was excruciatingly painful, and imagine it in my head was even worse. My neck tenses as my jaw clenches, my eyes twitch as I stare at a smirking Jesús. The anger consumes me as everything blurs around me. I lunge forward screaming at the top of my lungs reaching out for him. My anger is an untamed beast, with the ferocity of a caged lion, ready to attack. But before I can reach him I’m pulled back, my arms held to my side as I groan, kick and scream to get to him.
I’m losing the plot.
No one talks about Millie that way, no one!
“I’m going to fucking kill you myself,” I yell. Jesús shakes his head with a sigh and raises his eyebrow.
“No, you won’t, because if anything happens to me, contingencies are in place. If I die, what I just said will happen to your family, slowly and painfully. If José dies, same thing. If we hear of you trading with your lackeys, well I’ll give you three guesses as to what happens, but my guess is you only need one.”
My bottom lip trembles as my heart races in my chest, and my breathing is so rushed and harsh spit is flying out of my mouth. “What did I do to you?”
Jesús frowns and tilts his head. “Oh, come now, you know this isn’t personal. I just happened to step into your territory, but I appear to be the bigger and better dog as it were. Sometimes a dog just has to know when to… roll over.”
Slumping my body and relaxing in the grip of whoever has me, I close my eyes clenching my jaw tight. The fucker has me, and he knows it too. Glancing through my blinking eyes, I look at Blade, and his frown lines are etched deep into his forehead. I’m pretty sure he thinks I should cave, I’m pretty sure I should too. I can’t risk Mille and the kids. Sure Willow doesn’t mean too much to me, but she means everything to Dylan, and I can’t lose him too. Losing another child, that would end me. There’s only one solution.
I have to give in.
It goes against everything I believe in, against everything I stand for, but I think of Chops right now and what he’d advise me to do. And if he were here, he’d tell me to take the deal and let the drugs and guns go. I’ve pretty much already let the guns go, so I just have to take the hit and find other avenues of profit.
How the fuck I’m going to do that?
I have no idea.
But I’m going to have to find a way.
“Okay,” I mumble.
Jesús raises his eyebrows and tilts his head. “Okay?”
“Okay, deal. I’ll cease everything, find other avenues of profit and my club and family are off your radar. No harm comes to anyone involved with the Satan’s Savages.”
Jesús smiles and nods his head once. “We have a deal. But try to fool me again, Mad Dog, or go behind my back… I won’t hesitate on my methods of retribution.”
Nodding, I take a deep defeated breath. “Understood.”
“Do you have any questions?” Jesús asks.
“I have a shit load, but only one really comes to mind.”
He tilts his head and smirks. “Shoot, well not with a gun. That would be unpleasant.”
I’d love to shoot him right now!
“How did you know where our meets were when we were meeting with the gangs to set up deals?”
He smiles and nods. “Ah yes. Don’t you just love how José and my men would turn up when you least expected it? You know those bugs you had installed around your clubhouse?”
Opening my eyes, I glare at Jesús wondering how he knew about those. They were there to catch out Stealth and Sentinel. “How do you know about those?”
“Interesting you had cops in your midst. I was wondering how long it was going to take you to act on that information, but anyway, that’s not what we’re talking about. I had my tech guy tap into your bugs so we could listen in. That’s how we knew the locations of the meets. We’re sneaky little buggers. Right, well now that that’s settled, would you like a drink? Whiskey? Bourbon? Or are you a wine type of man? You can never judge a book by its cover, you know,” Jesús asks cheerily, gesturing toward the mini bar he’s standing next to.
“If you don’t mind, I’d rather get back to my club. I obviously have arrangements I need to make.”
Jesús nods with a smile. “Of course, I know we’re on good terms now. We’re practically best friends…” he smiles, “…but, I’m going to have to put the sacks over your heads again on your way out. We can’t have you knowing where we’re located… you understand?”
Manuel walks over to me with the black sack, and I exhale and nod as he places it over my head again, and tightens the drawstring at the bottom. My hot breath smacks me in the face as everything turns black.
This is seriously fucked up!
CHAPTER SEVEN
I’m still pissed off from meeting with Jesús yesterday, as I sit in the clubroom eating and moping about. Chops is with me, and he hasn’t really left my side since I got back. I think he honestly thought I’d be coming back from the meeting yesterday in a body bag. Gotta admit, for a second there… I did too.
I notice Blade coming over to me, his mouth turned down in a frown and his brows furrowed as he carries his tablet. Shit, this can’t mean anything good!
“Prez, I got a message on the tablet from Jesús. He’s asking for us to bring in all our stash.”
Exhaling grumpily as I shake my head, I look over at Chops. “We’ll have to go to Cupiditas to grab the eccys from Papi. Then take what’s left in the Chop Shop and bring them to Jesús. I hate that he’s beating me on this, but I can’t….” I pause and Chops nods.
He places his hand on my shoulder in a show of support. “I know, old man. I know what Millie means to you. We’ll find another way to make a profit, you’ll think of something, you always do.”
Nodding, I look back up to Blade and glide my bottom lip between my teeth. “Get your brother ready, we’re heading to the whorehouse.”
Blade nods and walks off to gather his rabies infested brother, and I take a deep breath preparing to head down to the beach for a meeting with some whores.
***
Before we left for to the whorehouse, I asked Blade to pull up the security footage from the business. He’s good at what he does, and can tap into their feed.
What we saw shocked us.
A police protection unit was out the front of the premises.
So we held off heading there until we watched Papi leave with his missus. Surprise for us—the police escort left with them.
Turning to Chops, I raise an eyebrow and tilt my head. “What the fuck is that about?”
He shakes his head. “I have no idea, but we should definitely go and find out.”
Nodding, I click my tongue to the roof of my mouth. Blade puts the tablet away, and we head outside to our Hogs to get ready for a trip to Cupiditas.
The ride takes a while from Virginia, but it’s fucking awesome to feel the breeze against my face and the vibration of the engine between my legs. Being free against the wind is a calming sensation like nothing else. No medicine or hippy meditation crap can beat this feeling. Being a biker really does have its perks.
The loud rumble of our engines purr down the street as the upmarket facade of Cupiditas comes into view. There’s six of us riding, me, Chops, Acid, Blade, Penetrator, and Manson. We pull up out the front of the business, and duck walk our hogs into the sidewalk. The giant one-way windows make me smile, as I’m sure the people inside are probably freaking out at the six burly bikers pulling up outside. Well, five burly bikers and fucking Acid. We kick out our stands, jump off our Hogs, pull off our lids and step off making our way through the front door of the business. The place is awesome, not whore-house-like at all. Very upmarket and… clean.
“Well, well, what do we have here then?” I ask in a menacing tone to the woman standing tall in front of me. She’s strikingly gorgeous with her long brown hair and athletic body. My cock twitches slightly from just looking at her. Shame she’s a whore.
“A bunch of hairy bikers by the look of it,” she retorts making me chuckle. I like her, she’s sassy. Shaking my head, I look back at my brothers, and they all smirk obviously liking her sass too.
“Well, looks more like we have a bunch of mouthy whores to me. Bitches who better watch what they say.” If she wants to play with words, I can play back. My brothers grin and start moving closer toward her, as I notice the red-head at the desk beginning to look more than a little nervous. The brunette stands tall and looks me square in the eyes in defiance. “There are no whores here, thank you. I only employ top end escorts. But I guess you guys think all women are whores. Especially your old ladies, right?”
I glare at her with a grunt. She knows nothing about my Millie. “Listen smart mouth, you better watch yourself. Wouldn’t want your pretty face to get damaged like that shining little Star now, would you?” I decide to mention Papi’s girlfriend, the one we messed up a little to show Papi that we mean business. I know she works here, so this woman in front of me would have been affected by Star’s bashing too.