He knew there was about a 25% chance the younger asshole would shoot him. However, if clubs hated nothing else, it was cleaning up a murder in their own bar.
“The Knights of Valor don’t take kindly to the hospitality you’re currently showing.” Slade smirked at the look of confusion that skittered across the man’s face. “Tell you what, though.” Slade stood. “You just lower that fucker and maybe we’ll only maim you instead of kill you out right.”
He kept his tone light and was sure the fact he wasn’t appearing afraid of being on the death end of a 0.38 was not only confusing the SB lackey, but unnerving him as well.
Slade caught several SB members grinning or smirking out right behind the asshole’s back. None of the other club members made any move to intervene. Not only was that a positive sign for them, but it spoke volumes of how the club felt about the younger man.
“Don’t move!” Slade chuckled at the guy when he shouted at Lita and Spider standing up from their stools.
“Hard not to move if you want us to leave.” Slade shook his head and not a single person thought the movement was anything but a condescending sign over the guy’s stupidity.
“Now,” Slade stepped closer to the Satan’s Blades’ ladder climber. “You gonna try to use that and get maimed or find us someone who will tell our brother we are here?”
“Jesus, Rowdy,” another club groupie muttered at the same time Slade saw the man twitch.
That twitch was all it took for all three agents to have their weapons in hand. Of course, Rowdy panicked and pulled the trigger of his weapon. Members of the Satan’s Blades hit the floor. The shot didn’t hit any one of them, but instead shattered a bottle of booze behind the bar.
Still, that didn’t stop Slade, Lita, or Spider from returning fire. Three shots hit Rowdy. One went through the forearm of his gun hand, another went through his shoulder on the same side, and the last went through his thigh.
A few of the Satan’s Blades that had hit the floor drew their weapons. Thankfully, they were seasoned enough not to open fire. Still, Slade knew they could have been slaughtered, but Eliminator wouldn’t care so he couldn’t either.
“You warned him.” Lita grinned.
“Stupid fuck.” Spider chuckled.
“Can’t fix stupid,” Slade agreed.
All three agents casually put their guns back into their vests and re-took their seats at the bar. They were hyperaware of the several guns that were aimed at their back, but each man acted as if the fact they could be shot in the back of the head wasn’t worth their time to worry about.
Rowdy moaned and cursed from where he lay on the floor, but it seemed the rest of the Blades were ignoring his ass just like Slade, Lita, and Spider were.
“So,” Slade began casually as if there wasn’t a damn firing squad at his back and a guy possibly bleeding out on the floor behind him.
“My brother’s name is Payne. Give him a call for me, if you would beautiful.”
Slade once more gave the barmaid a smile that he knew was charming and waited for her to do as he asked.
***
Pop
Pop, Pop, Pop.
Payne looked up from Trigger’s bike to Keg who returned not that long ago. Without a word, they both had weapons in their hands and were running toward the bar.
In the two years Payne had been undercover in Satan’s Blades, he had only heard gunfire coming from the direction of the bar once. That one time had been a rival club member trying to kill the SB member who was sleeping with his wife. Of course, Spark didn’t know the bitch was married, let alone the wife of a member in one of the largest Latino clubs in Miami. Luckily, the shot was aimed more to scare than to kill. But, that was only one shot. This was four.
The agent in Payne inadvertently thought the secession of shots after the first sounded like a coordinated return fire. As he ran toward the back of the bar, he was aware of Keg hot on his heels.
Payne had no reason to think the backup that he had called for would result in a raid. That wasn’t how INET worked and the minimal shots fired he heard only confirmed this wasn’t a raid. If it was, there sure as hell would’ve been more gunfire. Still, that didn’t stop Payne from taking the precaution of stopping outside the back door of the bar.
Keg slammed into the wall next to him and Payne was impressed that the man didn’t just throw the door open. The fact that the guy was smart enough to not go barging in balls to the wall, raised Payne’s opinion of the guy. In fact, when Keg looked at him as one of his partners would do when awaiting his signal to breach, Payne’s opinion of the man rose higher.
“All right, don’t kill anyone if you can avoid it,” Payne ordered Keg and gave him a nod to pull the door open.
The man yanked the door and Payne felt him at his back as if they had trained together before to breach a hostile environment. Payne’s gun was raised in front of him while he scanned around the interior of the bar. Several of his club brothers had their weapons drawn and pointed at a trio of bikers who sat at the bar like they didn’t have a care in the world.
The little ass kissing shithead Rowdy was whining on the floor about being shot. Shot he was and Payne had to stop himself from smiling. The little brown-noser was always waving around his gun like it proved he was a bad ass. As far as Payne was concerned, a few bullets in the fucker’s body was a lesson the asshole needed to learn about waving his gun around.
“Shit,” Keg muttered from next to him and Payne wasn’t sure if the man’s curse was because of the other club members aiming their guns at the back of the heads of the unknown bikers or if it was because of Rowdy’s injuries.
Whatever the reason, Keg’s curse summed up Payne’s feeling about the whole cluster fuck that was currently taking place. He knew the club members who stood with their weapons drawn so he ignored them and focused on the trio at the bar who faced Sonja.
A quick glance at Trigger’s wife showed she didn’t feel threatened or stressed by the men who sat across the bar from her. That was good because Payne knew that if anything happened to Sonja, their lieutenant would do way more than lose his shit. His glance at Sonja was brief before his gaze settled on the club patch of the men sitting at the bar.
Knights of Valor.
“Shit,” Payne cursed softly, but apparently not quietly enough because he caught Keg tense in his peripheral vision.
Hello, backup. Only fucking Slade could stir up so much shit in less than fifteen minutes into an op.
Payne suppressed a chuckle. He had no idea what Slade’s cover name was, but knew he didn’t need it in order to diffuse the current cluster fuck situation.
“Jesus Christ, brother!” Payne spoke loud enough to cause every head except Rowdy’s to look in his direction. He lowered his gun while he stepped forward and continued, “do you go anywhere without killing someone?”
Slade turned his head at the sound of Payne’s voice. He almost didn’t recognize his teammate after not seeing him for two years. Payne was still a muscular as hell mother fucker. His dark blonde hair was the same color, but longer than the last time Slade had seen him. The same could be said for his goatee. Slade wasn’t even sure if the braided shit that dangled from what used to be a neatly trimmed goatee could even still be called that because it was closer to a beard now.
Tattoos still covered Payne’s arms from wrists to under the sleeves of his T-shirt. Slade thought that some of the un-inked skin that used to be on his teammates arms was now covered because there were colors that Slade didn’t recall decorating Payne’s arms.
“I warned him.” Slade stood and ignored the weapons that were still pointed toward him, Lita, and Spider before smiling at his teammate. “And, he’s not dead.”
Payne laughed, stepped closer to Slade, and wrapped his teammate in a bear hug. That seemed to break the tension in the bar. None of the agents had to look in order to know the Satan’s Blades club members had lowered their weapons.
“You couldn’t make a quiet
entrance?” Payne whispered against Slade’s ear.
“You do know me, right?” Slade breathed a reply against the side of Payne’s head.
When they pulled apart, Slade turned to Lita. He pulled his Thor look-alike teammate into just as tight an embrace as he gave Slade.
“You’re looking good, man.” Payne didn’t try to keep his voice low like he had done with Slade.
“You too, bro.” Lita grinned. He missed Payne and knew the rest of the team did as well.
When they separated, Payne looked back at Slade. He knew the other large rough looking man that was with his teammates had to be an agent. However, being under with the Satan’s Blades for two years had him way out of touch where the team he loved was concerned. They didn’t often bring in new members, but two years was a long time so Payne wasn’t surprised to see a new face standing in the midst of his teammates.
“This is Black Widow,” Slade indicated Spider. “Widow for short. He joined us a few months after you headed down here.”
“Nice to meet you, man.”
Payne shook Widow’s hand. He knew he would learn the man’s real name eventually, but he didn’t need to know it right now.
“These friends of yours, Payne?” Keg’s voice pulled his thoughts away from their newest team member.
Payne turned toward Keg and immediately noticed that his club mate still gripped his 0.9 mil. Keg may be holding the weapon down next to his thigh, but Payne had no doubt the man wouldn’t hesitate to raise it if he sensed a threat. Keg was tense and Payne wasn’t sure what to make of the man’s body language.
All the other club members had gone back to whatever they had been doing before the chaos that was Slade descended on the bar. Rowdy was even gone from the floor, to where, Payne really didn’t give a shit, but Keg was still as tense as a string that was about to snap.
“Hell, yeah. They are my brothers!” Payne exclaimed loudly. “Before I moved down here, the Knights of Valor were the only family I ever had.” Payne looked lovingly at the three agents who now stood by the bar. “Shit, they even wanted me to start the KoV chapter in Florida, but running shit was never my thing.”
“I’ve heard of KoV, but didn’t know you had been a member,” Keg commented to Payne.
Payne chuckled. He knew he should have introduced his brothers to Keg, but he had no idea what cover name Lita was using. Thankfully, Lita instantly picked up on his que just like Payne had expected him to do.
“I’m Thor,” Lita stuck out his hand and shook Keg’s.
Payne knew how much Lita hated being called Thor and it took everything he had not to laugh that the man was going to be stuck with that name for this op. Sometimes Fisher was an ass.
“This is Black Widow, Widow for short as you already heard, and this is our Sergeant at Arms, Eliminator,” Lita finished the introductions. Keg and the INET agents nodded a greeting to each other just as Payne expected them to do.
“You know I’m gonna have to answer for the shit,” Payne grumbled lightheartedly.
“Nah.” Slade took his seat again and his fellow agents did the same.
Lita plopped down next to Spider and Payne took the stool next to Slade. Slade didn’t finish his sentence until Payne’s MC member, Keg, took a seat next on the other side of Payne.
“We politely stated we were looking for a brother.” Slade looked at Payne.
They both knew the asshole that pulled a gun on them was the one who would be held accountable for the bullshit that went down. Especially, since that little shit fired first.
Sonja hadn’t moved from where she stood on the other side of the bar. “You need drinks, Payne?”
“That’d be great, Sonja. Beers unless my brothers want something else.” Payne looked at Slade and passed him to the other INET agents.
“Beers are good,” Slade answered for all of them.
Payne didn’t speak again until Sonja gave them their beers and walked away to the other end of the bar. If nothing else, Trigger’s wife was discrete even if nothing ever did escape her notice and Payne expected Trigger to show up any time now.
“Still going to have to answer for the shit, bro,” Payne commented before he took a sip of his beer.
“I’m sure once your President knows that we weren’t only calling to check on a brother, he’ll be more than forgiving.”
Slade grinned into Payne’s questioning gaze before he took a sip of his beer. It didn’t escape his notice that Payne’s fellow MC brother’s body language changed. The man didn’t tense or anything so obvious, but it was clear that Slade’s words had him paying closer attention than he had been before.
“Oh?” Payne asked because it was expected of him. What he wanted to ask couldn’t be voiced, but he knew if they all played their cards right, even Payne’s medium level status with the club wouldn’t prevent them from being a part of whatever Slade was about to offer the Blades.
##~~##
Seven
Zep passed Hell’s Minions for the second time and caught three men entering the bar. The glimpse was short, but it was enough.
“That was Lita,” Knight commented and looked back at the bar in the passenger side mirror.
“It was,” Zep confirmed and continued driving down the road.
They had made the initial pass by the bar and realized there was a garage attached to the back. From the satellite photos, the garage looked like it was a part of the main bar. It was obvious the garage was where the Blades’ serviced all their bikes.
The only pictures they were able to get were from the drive-by. They could’ve pulled into the parking lot and drove around the side of the building to get more than a side shot of the garage, but that would’ve been like waving a red flag in front of a bull to let the club know they were being watched.
The second pass by the bar was when they caught Lita walking through the door. Just seeing their teammate gave them all the confirmation they needed that the rest of their team and Spider was in position to backup Payne.
It still bothered Knight that they didn’t know anything about the ICE agent who was embedded in the Satan’s Blades right along with Payne, and now the rest of the INET team. Homeland was being tightlipped about the ICE agent who they sent in to investigate the rumor that the Blades were supposedly delving into human trafficking.
The fact that they wouldn’t share the agent’s cover information only put all of them at greater risk. Fish gave ICE the cover names of the INET team, but there was no guarantee the ICE agent would get the Intel before the shit hit the fan. Knight could only hope he did even if they never knew his identity. Hopefully, they wouldn’t shoot the fucker when the shit went down to bust the Blades.
Zep circled around again, although they didn’t need to take more pictures of Hell’s Minions. Just seeing Lita’s large frame disappearing through the door and knowing he was following Slade and Spider was reason enough to do another drive-by.
As much as Spider scared the hell out of him, just knowing the man was inside the bar with Slade and Lita was cause enough to make Zep not want to be close even if his teammates did.
“If Lita is going in,” Knight paused and glanced at Zep. “He’s following Slade.”
“Yeah, he would be,” Zep replied almost absently.
“Where they are, Spider is as well,” Knight commented needlessly in a quiet voice and waited for the anger Zep exhibited before at the mention of the ATF agent’s name.
“Doesn’t matter,” Zep said through clenched teeth that he didn’t even realize he was grinding.
Knight had several replies that argued how it did matter, but he bit his tongue. Riling up Zep about Spider wouldn’t do them any good, so if his team member wanted to ignore the fact that Spider was in Hell’s Minions with Slade and Lita, likely Payne as well, then Knight would roll with that.
Zep was prepared to argue with anything Knight threw at him in regards to Spider. What he wasn’t prepared for was Knights silence. At first he thought the man was
trying to determine what he could say that wouldn’t set him off, but after driving three blocks before he turned around and Knight still hadn’t said anything, Zep glanced at his teammate.
Knight turned his head to look at Zep when he sensed the man turn to look at him. He didn’t say anything, but was sure Zep got the message Knight sent him in his own look. Knight knew all about having shit from the past that he had no desire to talk about and after giving some thought to Zep’s reactions to Spider, he understood. Not only understood that it was a wound that no one, no one, needed to be poking into, but one that wouldn’t tolerate being poked.
The expression Zep received when he met Knight’s light blue eyes was all too knowing. The man might not know the details of his history with Spider, but he understood there were some secrets that never needed to be shared. What Knight’s secrets were, Zep didn’t care.
All he cared about was that somehow Knight realized this wasn’t something to push at him about until he got an answer. Zep wanted to be relieved, but he couldn’t when he slowly approached Hell’s Minions for the third time and realized again that Spider was inside.
Knight held the small digital camera up to his eye again and was snapping pictures. They didn’t need more since he had taken plenty on their first two drive-by’s of the bar. Still, he snapped shot after shot.
They were almost directly in front of the bar when gunshots reach their ears. Even with the windows up on the SUV and the A/C blowing, the sound of multiple gunshots was unmistakable.
Zep heard the shots and reacted instinctively. His foot smashed down on the break and jerked them to a stop before he slammed the vehicle into park. He had his seatbelt off, weapon drawn, and was halfway out the driver-side door before he was roughly yanked back.
“Get your ass back in here!” Knight hissed and grasped Zep’s bicep in a death grip.
His seatbelt was cutting into him and Knight prayed Zep wouldn’t break his hold. If his teammate did, there was no way Knight could extract himself fast enough to stop the man from barging in, guns blazing, into the biker bar.
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