Inferno

by Harley McRide

  Some guys had a way about them, when they were alone with a woman they were nice and talked normal, but when they were around other guys, suddenly their attitudes changed and they were all about showing off for the guys. It was annoying, but Boomer, she felt like he would be different, hell, all of the biker men she had met were different, why, because they were confident and didn’t need anyone’s approval on how they were. It was refreshing, and Boomer, well he was just cut from a different cloth, he was smooth, sweet, but could be a complete asshole as well by how his voice sometimes changed and his hardness would show when he talked about certain things, she just knew he was different.

  She was really surprised that he was so relaxed while they were walking too, the guy was tall and at some points of the tunnel he had to bend way over in order to get through. Talking kept her from feeling a little claustrophobic but basically it was Boomer’s voice and relaxed conversation that kept her from freaking out.

  Boomer had put some of the MREs in his pocket and when they stopped for lunch in a crevice, Georgie had burst out laughing when he had handed her the small pouch that held plastic utensils, salt, pepper, a wipey, and other things that went with a meal.

  “Look how cute these are?” she said holding up a tiny little bottle of Tabasco Hot Sauce, she had never seen one so small, they literally held like five drops of the hot stuff inside them.

  “Yeah yeah, you know women seem to love those things, guys just are happy they have something to make the food taste better. Not sure what that says about us, but it is still true.” Boomer grinned.

  “Come on, seriously, this is like the tiniest bottle of hot sauce ever, like it could be a doll’s bottle of hot sauce, or if you take the little tiny label off, it could be like a pop bottle for them to play with their Barbies,” Georgie said and held up the little bottle in between her fingers.

  “Woman, you cannot use a bottle from a manly MRE men eat in the military, in the field, where they are protecting our freedom as a toy for a blonde bimbo,” Boomer said.

  “What? Why?” Georgie said. “Maybe they use them for their GI Joes, who knows, just saying they would be perfect.”

  Boomer laughed and shook his head. “Whatever.”

  “Yeah,” Georgie teased. “That’s right, you know I am right. I am saving this little bottle, I have to show my mom and sister.”

  “I don’t know if we have enough room to carry that thing, I mean, it being so clunky and all,” Boomer teased and she rolled her eyes and grabbed his little bag and pulled out his empty little bottle.

  “I am taking yours too; in fact, it is now my mission to gather all the tiny little bottles I find and take them with me. By the time we are done, we could have a six glass set.”

  “For your Barbies?” He laughed and she glared at him.

  “No, I will save them for my daughters,” she snapped and put them in her pocket.

  Boomer looked at her closely, and said softly, “I bet she would be a beauty just like her mom.”

  “Really?” Georgie snorted. “Most guys when you mention kids run the other way.”

  Boomer seemed to think about it for a while, he wasn’t averse to having kids, he had never really found anyone he could see himself staying with that he would want to have his kids. Georgie had come into his life like a battering ram, he was thinking of shit he had never thought of before. But he was in the club, and he wasn’t going to give it up. He had seen what happened to Fling and Sunny, it had almost destroyed them. There was no way he could go through that, Devon had been their oldest, and they all still missed the cheerful little kid who begged nearly every day to ride on the back of one of the Furies bikes. Could he do it? He could with the right woman he figured.

  Boomer shrugged and said, “With the right person, I could see myself having a few kids.”

  They were silent the rest of the meal and when they stood to begin their trek again, Georgie hugged him and kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you,” she whispered and he frowned.

  “For what? Far as I can figure at this point, I am surprised you’re talking to me. I mean, we have blown up a building, and a tunnel where we had just left one and were in the other. I am making you trek down in the middle of the fucking earth so the authorities don’t know what’s going on, because if they find out, I am probably going to be thrown into jail for something or another, since I’m not real popular with most police forces, even in Mexico,” Boomer said and loosely held her to him with his hands on her waist. She grinned up at him.

  “For all those things you just named, and because without you, I would still be stuck in that gross room freaking out by myself and waiting for them to come and kill me,” she said and Boomer smiled.

  “Well, I think you would have figured something out, you don’t seem like the type of woman who would just sit there while they played games with the Ops.” Boomer laughed and she shrugged.

  “Maybe, or maybe not, I don’t know, but I know I don’t know because you were there, and you are the one who saved me. So thank you.”

  Boomer leaned down and kissed her softly and then said against her lips. “Baby, it was all my pleasure.”

  She sighed and then let go and brushed off her ass and said, “Okay, let’s get a move on.”

  Alejandro looked at the man who walked into his hotel room in Juarez and glared at him. “What have you found out?”

  “The Furies have left San Diego, Fling is with him as is about half of the men. The rest remained on the compound, but the other club who is close has apparently decided they are going to help them in some way or another.”

  He nodded and said, “Make sure we know exactly where they are at all times. When they hit El Paso, I want to be there waiting. If we plan this right, we can take them all out and be done with it. It doesn’t matter at this point who is left, we take out their leader, and they are finished.”

  The other man nodded and hesitated to even say anything but finally he did. “Sir, how are we going to get over the border without detection. The American Government has us on their watch list. I don’t think they will let us through.”

  “Of course they won’t,” Alejandro snapped. “We don’t need their permission for this though, I have already secured our way across the border, called in a few favors and made sure men knew they owed me.”

  The man nodded and then backed his way out of the room, leaving him alone to think. This had taken longer than he would have liked, his sister was ready to come here as well and that would never do. She was volatile on a good day, if she showed up, the authorities would certainly find them. She was out for blood and didn’t care who the hell knew it.

  Chapter Nine

  Fling and the Furies pulled into Las Vegas late but still early enough to find the man they were looking for. Creed and Fork had given Bear his name, seemed Dante and Zeke from the Ops were blood brothers with the man and he was solid. Since the President of the Ops had spoken for him, Fling knew the man had to be cool.

  They pulled into the parking lot of the casino the man ran and looked around, it was packed still, which meant business must be good but still Fling and the others were wary, walking into a place like this, dressed in their cuts and jeans, they were going to stick out like a sore thumb. It may not be exactly the best idea but they had little choice. They needed some serious firepower with them, and they couldn’t carry what they need to El Paso. If the cops pulled them over, they would be thrown in jail quicker than you could say, ‘fuck me sideways’.

  “Ricco Di'Midea is expecting us,” Bear said as he joined Fling who was still looking around, making sure they weren’t followed.

  “Fine, you guys stay out here, hopefully this won’t take long,” Fling said and began to walk next to Bear.

  “You’re sure he isn’t going to have a problem helping us out?” Fling asked.

  Bear chuckled. “How much do you know about Z?” he asked and Fling frowned and shook his head.

  “Not much, I mean, I have met him of
course, but anything beyond that, not much.” Fling said and Bear chuckled. “Okay then, Z and Dante are brothers. Their father is first gen Italian in the US, Angelo Di'Midea wanted one of his son's to take his place as the Consigliere of the Acciai Family, but two of his son's, Dante and Zeke, had made their own paths in the Ops Warriors. Ricco is the last son, and he is working his way up there, right now he is a Capo, which means he has pull in the family. This casino belongs to the Acciai family, who just so happens to be Nike’s family. They are connected,” Bear said as they reached the doors and Fling snorted.

  “Sounds like Peyton’s place.”

  “You have no idea, with the Acciai and the Roarks both there, yeah, we could have a family war if shit goes down,” Bear said and Fling chuckled.

  He knew the Acciai family was connected, which meant they were the Mafia, there was no question these men walked a fine line with their own business, but would it be enough to get them to help them? Even with Nike’s connection, Fling was still not sure, they weren’t Warriors, and so therefore their good graces may not stretch this far. Still it was a shot they were going to need to take. They needed some firepower before they got to El Paso.

  They made it to the front desk of the hotel when a man dressed in an expensive tailored suit approached them.

  “Mr. Di’Midea has been expecting you, please follow me,” the man said.

  Both men froze and looked around and Fling laughed and said, “Damn, feels like we are on Punk’d.”

  Bear shook his head and said, “After you.”

  Fling glared at him. “Making the Prez go first, really? You are supposed to be an Enforcer.”

  Bear smiled and said, “Yeah, well, Ricco has a rep, he won’t come right at us, we need to watch our backs, if he wants someone taken out, he is a Capo, his soldiers will take care of it.”

  Fling laughed and shook his head. “Make sure you watch our backs then; I won’t let some pussy mafia take me out.”

  Bear nodded and then followed the man in the suit down a corridor that couldn’t be seen from the desk, it was behind a partition. They made their way to the center of the casino where the security offices were, and an elevator that went only down to where the vault was. They looked around, taking in the security, and Fling was impressed. There were guards everywhere, and they weren’t dial-a-cops either, they were wearing guns, and not pussy hand guns, they had M60s, which could cut a man in half. There was no way those were fucking legal here.

  Fling nodded as the suit stopped and motioned to the office and Bear followed him inside. There was a woman at the desk, shit, she was hot. Long blond hair, and freaking legs that seemed to go on forever, she wore a tight little dress. She smiled and waved them through, fuck, if neither of them had old ladies they would have ignored that and stayed to talk to the skirt, shit.

  When they walked into the large office, which had to be one of the largest he had ever seen, a man was sitting behind the desk on the phone. It gave Fling the opportunity to really look at the man. He was dressed in a suit of course; however, this one had to be high class, the gray color almost shown from the material it was made out of. Fling hated suits, they were too confining, but this guy looked like he wore them every day for leisure. He had class, Fling noted as he listened to the well cultured deep voice. Yeah, Sunny would call him a hottie, Fling thought and rolled his eyes, a guy shouldn’t be that good looking if he was mean. He needed to look weathered, but this guy, he looked polished and pristine, he probably didn’t get his hands dirty at all.

  “Not acceptable, I want that shipment in our warehouse no later than midnight, if it isn’t, you will be held personally responsible, and you do not want me to do that, I promise you,” Ricco said smoothly into the phone, no one could mistake the threat he just gave to whoever was on the other side of the line. “No more excuses, if it is not there, I will see you at twelve o’one and I will show you how I deal with people who try to fuck me over,” Ricco said and hung up the phone and looked at Fling and Bear and grinned. “Bear, man, how are my brothers?”

  Bear chuckled behind him and said, “They are fine, Ricco, you should give them a call, they said your mom is hounding them to get you to come for a visit.”

  The man nodded and stood and walked smoothly from behind the desk, he was tall, and not muscular, but he wasn’t skinny. He looked more like a cat that was prowling, the danger in his eyes was unmistakable. Fling stood and waited for him to come closer before he nodded and said gruffly, “Name is Fling.” The man raised an eyebrow at him using his road name and not his real name, but Fling wanted to test the dude before he got down to business.

  “Nice to meet you, Fling,” Ricco said and held out his hand. Fling reached out and expected his hand to be smooth, and not have a firm grip. He was mistaken, when the calloused hand hit his and gripped it firmly. Fling instantly knew he had been wrong about the man. He didn’t sit behind a desk and order people around to do the dirty work, nah, this guy handled shit himself, respect.

  “You too, Creed said you could maybe help us out,” Fling said and Ricco nodded and motioned to the chairs in front of his desk.

  “Yes, he called me already. I must say I am a little surprised the Ops didn’t help you more?” Ricco said slowly, looking at Bear and Fling curiously.

  Fling nodded. “They would have, but we need someone outside of the biker world to help us with this for now. This family, they aren’t a rival of the club, it is personal. When we are done, no one will be left standing, and to be honest, we needed someone who could help us out but still not risk getting caught with any of this. We need someone with a few connections that could help us out. Creed said you had them, that is good enough for me.”

  Ricco nodded and looked at Fling closely. “So what do you need from a man who runs a casino in Las Vegas?”

  Fling almost laughed out loud, the dude sounded like he thought we were wearing a wire or something. “We need firepower, we need cover from someone in El Paso so if shit goes down like I think it may, and someone calls the cops, we need to know to get the fuck out of there. It will take at least two days; we go down, make sure our people get there safe, and out of town, though I assume we will need some backup from someone there. The Acciai family had reach we heard, especially in that town. We may also need somewhere to go right afterward, this would be the best place, far enough away from El Paso, but not too far for the people we need to get out of there. This shit cannot touch the Ops, they have too much shit going on right now as well, we can’t ask them to take on our shit. Not asking you to either, just need a favor, one we will pay back when you need it.”

  Ricco looked at Bear and then said, “And what exactly will the marker entail, should I need it?”

  Fling said, “No limitations, I need this to happen.”

  Ricco leaned back and nodded slowly and then he picked up the phone and dialed a number. “Mr. Acciai, I will be extending a favor to the Furies MC club so myself and two men will be leaving for El Paso tonight, we will be visiting your brother, is it possible he would be willing to put us up in his hotel?”

  He was silent but stared right into Fling’s eyes, never blinking, never changing expression, just staring at him, almost daring him to look away. Fling refused, he would bow to no man. Ricco grinned and said, “Thank you, Don Acciai, I will make sure I bring the good stuff from the vault, your brother has good taste.”

  Fling leaned back and nodded to Bear who was grinning and shaking his head. “Looks like we are going to have some company.”

  “Well, considering who we will be meeting, I welcome it,” Fling snorted and Bear nodded.

  Ricco hung up the phone and then stood in an oddly graceful yet menacing way, he prowled to the outer office and we heard him say, “Tiffany, call Raphael and Marco, have them meet me at the car, tell them we will be leaving town for a few days, we will buy what we need when we get there. Then call Stefano and tell him to stock the SUV and tell him I will be taking the storage key for El Paso with me,
I will let him know if we need anything else.”

  Fling and Bear stood as the man walked back into the room and clapped his hands loudly and rubbed them together. “Ready, I need to work off some frustration from a situation I have myself, this seems to be right up my alley and something the Acciai family will be more than happy to help with.”

  Boomer and Georgie finally got to the next cavern, which had beds as well as more water, food, and space. She took a deep breath when they got there, for some reason seeing the room made her think there was more air in here. However, it was still stale and she couldn’t wait to get out into the fresh air, how the hell had others done this trek in the past without going completely mad?

  “Come on, baby,” Boomer said and led her to a basin where he began to pour water from a huge water container that sat above the basin. It was cold, and she didn’t give a shit, when Boomer handed her a towel she soaked it in the cool liquid and then rubbed her face first, then her neck, and down her chest as far as her shirt would allow. When Boomer pulled two small baggies from the shelf and handed her one, she almost started crying, soap, a small brush, deodorant, toothpaste, and a toothbrush. Heaven, she thought and then Boomer chuckled and said, “Wow, you haven’t done that all day, thought you had stopped it, glad to see you are still cute.” Georgie rolled her eyes and then looked down at her shirt and then to him, he grinned bigger and said, “Don’t be shy on my account, I swear, I won’t look.”