by K E Osborn
***
We pull the van up outside of Cupiditas. Opening the back of the door, I step out giving a cocky, lopsided grin right toward the one-way windows, knowing that Violet is probably looking right at me.
Penetrator moves to the rear of the van grabbing Sheila’s deadweight body from the back of the cage and lifts her up, as we all stride toward the doors. Chops opens it for me, and I march in with Penetrator carrying Sheila behind me.
“Good afternoon, ladies. Don’t you touch that phone, Angel darlin’,” Penetrator advises as he lowers Sheila onto the cold marble floor with a thud.
Violet races over putting her hand over her bloodied mouth, I’m assuming to make sure she’s still breathing. Her body relaxes as she takes a deep breath.
She turns as she stands up suddenly, her rage channelled toward Acid as she starts throwing punches at him. Her fist connects with his jaw, but he ducks out of the way of her following blows before grabbing her arms and pulling her to him tightly. We all chuckle watching her freak out, she really is a little pocket rocket.
“Let me go you fucking freak,” she yells and Acid laughs grinding his cock into her. She frowns and pushes back on him, but he holds her securely. “I swear to God, I’m going to fucking kill every last one of you arseholes for hurting Sheila. You better sleep with one eye open because I’m going to fucking—”
“Boss, shut it,” Angel yells at her stopping her mid-tirade.
“We don’t take too kindly to death threats, Boss lady. We take them very seriously, in fact. And you should know how serious we can get. Just look at your friend over there, lying lifeless and all bloodied up. She’s just lucky she’s a whore or her insides would be ripped open as well as her flesh,” I growl as she races forward out of Acid’s grip and lunges at me. Acid grabs her hair and kicks the back of her knees, which makes her fall straight onto them right in front of my cock. She struggles against Acid, and I laugh along with the other guys. This bitch really has fight in her.
“She’s feisty, Mad Dog. Maybe we could keep her?” Penetrator asks mockingly.
“Hmm. We’ll see if she behaves herself or not. Now seeing as you’re in the right position, suck my cock and we’ll call it even,” I declare pulling her hair so she slams into my cock against my jeans.
She laughs and shakes her head the cocky little bitch. “The only thing I’ll do with your cock, is bite that itty bitty small excuse for a thing off, then I’ll spit it out and stomp on your pathetic excuse for a dick,” she yells.
Smiling, I shake my head. Stupid slut. “You have no idea how much of an enemy you’ve just made.” I forcefully let go of her hair and slap her across the face so hard she falls to the floor.
She grabs her cheek as blood trickles from her mouth. “Fuck off! Get out of here, and if you touch my girls again, I swear to God—”
“You’ll what? Huh? You’ll come after us with a feisty attitude and empty threats? Good going, little girl. You think you’re so tough? This… what we’ve done to Sheila is only the tip of the iceberg. You give us our drugs or the money for them, and this all goes away. It’s as simple as that.”
She pulls herself up from the floor and straightens her shoulders. This bitch is tough I’ll give her that. “I’ll tell you what, you piss off and go get fucked. Ask the fucking cops for the goods. They’re the ones who took them, not us. Leave me and my business the fuck alone or next time I won’t be so hospitable,” she spits through gritted teeth as she glances back at Sheila broken on the floor.
“Boss, just give them the money,” Angel whispers.
Violet shakes her head in a defiant stand against us.
“I see you’re the brains behind this operation dear, sweet, Angel. Maybe we can turn you into a devil, hey? How’s that sound?” I ask, and Violet’s anger surges again as she runs forward slapping me across the face. The sting shocks me, and my anger boils over as I pull on her arms to stop her from hitting me any further. “You hit like a fucking, pathetic excuse for a girl, you know that? And I’ll tell you something else, if you don’t give us the cash for the drugs, one girl will go missing every day until you pay up. Got it slut? Starting with little miss Angel over there. The thing is, this time, they won’t come back to you all bloodied up. No, this time they’ll be returned in a body bag, and that will be your fault … Boss!” I tell her making it clearer that I’m not mucking around, as my brothers laugh for emphasis.
Violet looks back at Angel, who's holding herself and softly crying. The darting around of Violet’s eyes shows me that she’s considering this, she’s wavering, and threatening her friends and family is the right way to save mine. I know I’m looking like the bad guy in all of this, but if I don’t do right by Jesús, Millie and Dylan are going to suffer, or die because of it. So this might seem extreme, but I would do anything to protect them!
Violet looks at me and shakes her head. “Fine, I’ll give you the cash, but once I do, we’re done! You got me? No more visits… no more beatings. Done. Finished. Caput. You got it?”
“Sure, sounds fine to me. What do you think, boys?” They all nod. “Okay, so two-fifty should cover it,” I say and let her go.
“Okay, two hundred and fifty dollars coming right up,” she says and walks off toward another room.
We all laugh, and I shake my head at her obvious confusion. “No darlin’ that’s two hundred and fifty thousand you owe us.”
She opens her eyes wide in shock. “What? No way!” She folds her arms over her chest and huffs.
“Right boys, let’s go,” I call out, and Penetrator reaches out and grabs Angel by her hair. She screams as he drags her toward the door.
“Okay, fine, two-fifty K and then you fuck the hell off and out of our lives for good. You got me?”
Penetrator lets go of Angel, and she rushes back toward Violet. Gator’s twin comes rushing out from down the hall, and he pauses when he notices us then wraps an arm around Angel.
Okay, so those two are a thing. Good to know.
“Everything okay here, Boss?” he asks, and we all laugh.
“Yeah, everything’s fine,” she says through gritted teeth as she walks toward, I’m assuming, her office. The air in the foyer is thick, you could cut it with a knife. Gator’s twin is staring at us harshly, but he looks like a teddy bear beneath those muscles, and so I know he wouldn’t try to take us on.
“I love how you’ve redecorated the place since we were last here, Angel,” I tease.
She chews on her bottom lip saying nothing, but she cuddles into Gator’s twin further as my brothers chuckle, taking in how everything looks pristine once again like nothing happened from when we were last here.
Violet walks out with a few wads of cash. “Now get the fuck out, you piece of shit.”
“No need for unpleasantries, Boss. It’s been a pleasure doing business with you,” I say in a teasingly pleasant attitude. I put out my hand for her to shake and she raises an eyebrow and huffs.
Rude!
“If you think I’m touching your filthy hand you have another think coming. I don’t know where your disgusting mits have been, probably up that guy’s arse for all I know,” she spits at me, and I can’t help but notice Angel glaring at her. I’m glad someone in here is sensible.
“I can see you’re not happy with the way we’ve conducted our business dealings with you, Boss, and for that, I apologise. Please pass on our fondest apologies to Star and Sheila, and just know that they’ll not be hurt again. Thank you for your donation,” I say eloquently holding up a wad of cash. “We will be on our way now. Have a nice day, won’t you?”
“Fuck you, you pig!” she yells at me as Gator’s twin notices Shelia and rushes to her side.
“Oh, and I’d probably get her to the hospital. Who knows what injuries she might have sustained,” Penetrator suggests as we all chuckle and turn to walk out of the building.
“If I see you back in here again, I will call the cops. We’re going to have an emergency call button i
nstalled, so if we see you out the front we will press it, and it will inform the police to come straight away. I hope you understand that you dickhead,” she yells getting up my goat.
Turning around, I glare at her and lean forward. “Boss, it would be wise not to threaten us. And just so you know there’s always a time period from when you press the button to when they arrive. And in that amount of time we could easily have slaughtered you all and taken everything we need before the cops even show. I hope you understand that,” I jeer back to her in a menacing whisper, then I turn and storm out of the building with my brothers trailing me behind.
We get outside and I turn to Chops. “That went okay, right?”
He nods. “Yeah, not too bad, we got the cash, that’s all that matters.”
Nodding, I get into the passenger side of the Crafter. Taking a deep breath, I feel relief. I feel bad that Violet is stressed because of me. I know I’m fucking her up, I know I’m making her life a misery, but I’m doing it for Millie and Dylan. I have to do this for them.
After a long drive, Penetrator pulls the cage into the compound, and we feel like we’ve had a win. We have the cash for Jesús. Boss is cautious about us now, knowing we’ll do anything we want and she needs to stick to the rules, and I feel okay with where we are at.
Stepping out, I walk inside the clubrooms to see Chops waiting at the bar. Nodding my head, I walk up to him and go to sit down when my phone rings. Rolling my eyes, I pull it from my jeans and look to see it’s Jesús. Furrowing my brows, I grunt and swipe the screen.
“Jesús, so lovely to hear from you.”
“Why Mad Dog, it’s always a pleasure.”
I roll my eyes again at how fake we are with each other.
“What can I do you for, Jesús?”
“I’d like to know when you’re available to make the shipment delivery? I’m not an impatient man usually, but I’m getting impatient with you.”
Wincing, I grit my teeth. “We can bring it all to you now if you like?” I ask trying to hide my aggravation at this bullshit.
“Excellent, let’s meet in say thirty minutes at the red warehouse on the outskirts of Gawler. You know the one?” The slight chuckle in his voice doesn’t go unnoticed, and I wonder what that’s about.
The red warehouse is the same one we took out Stealth and Sentinel. He must know about that too. Fuckhead knows everything.
“I know it well, see you in thirty,” I say.
“And Mad Dog, make sure to bring everything. We don’t want to have to keep going with this back and forth bullshit we seem to do with you all the time.”
My muscles clench and my neck twitches. “Sure, that won’t be a problem Jesús, you win this time.”
“Yes, well, we’ll see won’t we?” He hangs up the phone, and Chops raises an eyebrow and tilts his head.
“We gotta go give the stash to Jesús now, at the warehouse.”
Chops nods and exhales. “Wow, this really is all coming to an end. Thirty years of dealing with guns and drugs, and it all comes to a stop today.”
Huffing, I swallow hard and nod, not knowing what to say to that. It really is the end of an era. This club has to change, and I’m still not sure how.
CHAPTER NINE
We pull up with Blade in the Crafter with the supplies, and myself, Chops, Manson, Penetrator and Acid on our Hogs. We wanted to come in numbers just in case. This could possibly be our last encounter with these Cartel cunts, and who knows what might go down. As the saying goes, safety in numbers.
Jesús, José, Manuel, and the other two usual lackeys are standing by two Escalades as we dismount our rides.
“So, the time has come, Mad Dog. Are we going to do this the easy way?” José asks, and I turn my lip up, glancing at him momentarily then turning my attention to Jesús.
“We brought everything we had, there’s nothing left. Everything that’s in the cage is what we had on our premises. We’re giving you everything.”
Jesús smiles and nods. “Good decision. Did you get everything back from your lackeys, too?”
Taking a deep breath, I was wondering if I was going to have to hand over the money for Papi’s stash. Obviously, I am. “Yes and no.”
Jesús tilts his head and moves his jaw from side to side. “No?” he questions his eyes squinting slightly like he’s extremely pissed off.
“The cops raided the place one of the lackeys was storing the eccys, they took the stash. So no we don’t have it—”
“That’s very… disappointing—”
“But we have the cash as a replacement for it instead. To give to you,” I tell him before he decides to get his gun out and make some holes.
He smiles wide and opens his eyes in apparent shock. “Forward thinking, I like this side of you, Mad Dog. How much cash are we talking?”
“Two fifty.”
He smiles again, and takes in a deep breath through his nose, his nostrils flaring out wide. “Hmmm… not a massive sum, but it will do. Okay Manuel, Roberto, Alonzo grab the rest,” he orders. Nodding to Blade, he opens the back of the van which is loaded up with crates of AK 47’s and duffle bags of eccys.
“I’m sorry to take thirty years of trade away from you, Mad Dog, but all’s fair in drugs and war,” Jesús says twisting the words from the popular saying.
Half laughing, more at the disappointment of my hard work walking out of my cage into theirs, I shake my head. “I don’t for a second think you’re sorry Jesús, I don’t accept your apology, but I will be glad to leave you and your wife behind.”
He raises an eyebrow. “My wife?”
“José, he’s your partner, right? You guys are a couple?” I tease, and he smirks as José grunts rolling his eyes.
“Oh, Mad Dog, you and your little digs, I will miss you. Maybe we can catch up every now and again, just for shits and giggles?” José quips, and I smirk shaking my head.
“Yeah, there’s definitely something in there about you and the shits.”
Jesús laughs and José frowns, turning his back to me and storming off toward the Escalade. “Mad Dog you really do get up his goat. I swear you two have some sort of amazing chemistry. It really floors me,” Jesús comments and I roll my eyes.
“It’s called repulsion.”
Jesús chuckles again and nods. “Right, well, for putting up with the takeover, please accept this cheque. We know it isn’t worth everything that you’ve given us today, but it’s a token of thanks for surrendering to us finally.” He hands me an envelope, and I flare my nostrils in annoyance.
First, he wants to take all my shit and then he’s giving me money as pity. Fuck you Jesús, fuck you! “I don’t particularly want your money.”
“Hmm, I know it might seem like a pity handout, think of it as more of a trade. Like we’re purchasing the E and guns from you… a fair trade.”
Raising my eyebrow, I purse my lips. “I fully expect this cheque to bounce.”
He smiles. “I’d love to see the look on your face when it doesn’t.”
“We’ll see. So we’re done now, right?”
He smiles and nods. “Yes, all ties are cut. As long as you stay out of drugs and guns, everyone is safe.” He puts out his hand for me to shake.
Instead, I grunt and shake my head. “Not gonna happen, Jesús.”
He shrugs and tilts his head. “Fair call. Was a pleasure doing business with you Mad Dog.”
“The pleasure was all yours,” I mock and he grins, nodding his head, then he turns walking toward his Escalade.
With a sinking feeling in my stomach—it feels like the end of an era but also the beginning of something new has just dawned—I swallow hard and mount my Hog. I feel lighter somehow. Like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders. Sure my drugs and gun line are gone, but so are the fucking Cartel. They’re now officially off our backs and my family are safe. Now I just need to figure out how to turn Cupiditas into our business so I can bring in some profit for the club.
***
It’s the next day and last night Chops, and I came up with an idea of how to get things moving in the right direction. We pull up our bikes at Cupiditas and park them. I can’t wait to see how Boss Lady Violet is going to react to us being back here. Walking through the front door, she storms toward me in her usual raving manner. “Our business is done. Get the fuck out or I will call the police, and then they can arrest me for kicking your ass,” she explodes as she storms up to me.
“Oh, little Violet, you should know by now that our business with you will never be done,” I say menacingly and cock my head to the side observing her rising anger.
“I don’t care what you think, Mad Dog, I paid you for the drugs and now we’re done. If you ever come back again, I won’t be so civil,” she blatantly yells in my face.
“Dear sweet Violet, the problem is that the two-fifty you donated isn’t quite enough.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” she bursts out folding her arms over her chest while my brothers laugh at her outburst.
“Well, we thought the two-fifty would cover our costs, but it seems the drugs were worth double that. So, I’m going to need another two-fifty K, or I take another girl,” I declare testing the waters.
“Do you think I’m made of money? Get fucked! You’re not taking another cent from me or my business. If you want another girl then take me, but you sure as hell aren’t getting close to any of my workers, and you sure as fuck aren’t seeing another red cent from me, you fucking prick,” she spits at me while I smile at her. I love her feisty attitude. I love it, and I hate it.
We’re not really here for money, I’m just here to tease her, so I tilt my head to the side and shrug. “Okay,” I say politely.
She furrows her eyebrows at me in obvious confusion. “Okay?”
“Okay, that’s fine. We didn’t think we could get any more from you, but it was worth a try. Thanks for your hospitality, Boss. Angel sweetheart, it’s been a pleasure. Until next time, I bid you a fond adu.” I whistle and turn as my brothers follow me toward the door.