by Jessie Cooke
“You saying I should take a pass on the revenge killing?”
“No. I’m not the one that watched the guy shoot my mother and if I had been, I’m sure I’d be even more anxious to kill him than you are. So, I’m not telling you that you shouldn’t, I’m just telling you to think long and hard about what it might do to you in the long run.”
“Honestly, I probably wouldn’t be thinking about it at all if it weren’t for the Maggie/Ediger thing. I’ve been imagining the day I could look this bastard in the eyes and see the kind of fear there that my mom had to have been feeling that night when he pressed that gun to her head, imagining it for almost twenty years. But what do I tell Ediger?”
“Do you know where the guy is?”
“Sort of. Ediger told me he’s staying with his cousin on Martin Luther King, but not the exact address. I’m sure I could find him, but Ediger has guys watching him. His guys are already suspicious of me and that mess yesterday didn’t help anything.”
“I’ve got a couple friends from New York watching Sabrina and her mom until Ash and Sledge make it down there, by the way.” Bruf had been telling the truth when he told Sabrina that Ash was going to be in Florida for a wedding, but since he was going anyway, Wolf sent Sledge with him and they were going to stay and watch Sabrina until they were sure she was safe. Someone was feeding information to the Owls and the Feds. Bruf wished they could figure out who that was; it would solve half their battle.
“Good,” he said. “She’s homesick. I want to wrap this shit up as quickly as I can so that she can come home.”
“Then what?” Wolf asked him with a stern look on his face.
“I’m in love with your sister,” he said. He knew that it sucked to tell her brother before he told her...but Wolf needed to hear it, almost more than she did.
“You’re in love with her?”
“You seen me chasing tail around here lately? This is the longest dry spell I’ve ever had in my life and it’s self-inflicted, man. I love her and when she comes back, Wolf, I want to be with her.”
Wolf cleared his throat, pursed his lips, bit the inside of his cheek, and finally, about the time he had Bruf squirming in his seat, said, “I guess you’d better think a little harder about what to do with this Bulldog guy. I think my sister...likes you...but I doubt she’ll wait twenty-to-life for you to get out of prison.”
“Is that your way of giving us your blessing?” Bruf asked with a grin. Wolf grunted, and Bruf took that as consent and left there feeling like he’d at least accomplished something. The rest of his day was going to suck no matter what he decided to do, so he was going to hang onto that feeling for as long as he could.
Bruf was approaching the front gates around the shop when he saw Cubbie. The prospect was coming out the side door of the shop, which wouldn’t be too unusual, but it was what he stuck in his pocket as soon as he saw Bruf that made him take notice. It suddenly occurred to Bruf that Cubbie had been there that night...the night that he and Sabrina had made love and then made plans for her to go to Florida. He couldn’t remember all of their conversation that night, but he was sure there had to have been mention of the baby. Yes, Cubbie was long gone by then, but it had never occurred to Bruf to check Blair’s house for listening devices. Little motherfucker was working for Maggie, or Ediger.
Bruf lifted his hand and waved at the kid as he drove out of the gates. Cubbie waved back and smiled. He didn’t look nervous at all, and Bruf wondered if he was just that stupid...that he was spying on members of the Westside Skulls and he wasn’t smart enough to know how pissed off Wolf was going to be when he found out. Bruf drove around the corner, found a place to park the bike between an SUV and a pickup, and waited. What he’d seen Cubbie stick in his pocket was a DVD. Maybe it was a music CD, or one of the porn videos that floated around the club...but Bruf had a feeling that it was one of the surveillance DVDs...one that probably had pictures of the prospect planting bugs.
A few minutes went by before he saw the black van. He pulled out into traffic and stayed a few car lengths behind the van. Cubbie was running errands for the club. He stopped at the supermarket on Blackstone Avenue and came out with three bags of groceries. After he put them in the van he headed downtown. Bruf followed him to the tailor’s shop and watched Cubbie go inside and come out with a garment bag that probably had vests inside. The tailor shop was where they had their patches sewn on...a patch that Cubbie supposedly hoped to wear one day...or was he an FBI agent? Maybe he wasn’t just a spy...maybe he was a cop. Bruf had a hard time seeing it. The kid was not the sharpest tool in the shed, not to mention a little bit socially awkward. Or maybe that was just an act too...he just didn’t know, but he was going to find out.
Cubbie’s next stop was the cigarette store. He came out with six cartons of different kinds of cigarettes. He put them in the back of the van and as he closed the doors, Bruf’s fist landed in the center of his face. The kid hit the ground and looked up at him, dazed, confused, and bleeding from his nose.
“Bruf? What...? Why did you hit me?”
“You tell me, Cub. What’s in your pocket?”
“My pocket? Nothing...” Bruf reached down and pulled him up to his feet.
“There’s nothing in your pocket – are you sure?”
“Yeah, I’m sure. Bruf what is this? What’s going on?” Bruf dragged him over to the driver’s side of the van. He pulled the door open and, still holding onto Cubbie with one hand, he looked inside. “What are you looking for, Bruf?”
“The DVD, Cubbie, where is it?”
“The DVD?”
“Don’t play with me, kid. If I have to look for it myself, you may as well be unconscious on the pavement. Where the fuck is the DVD?”
Cubbie’s eyes gave him away. He was trying hard to figure out what to do. In the end, he decided that since Bruf would tear the van apart anyways, it probably wasn’t worth a broken nose or cracked skull. “In the visor,” he said. Bruf reached up and pulled the visor down. A gold DVD fell out. It was unmarked and Bruf recognized it as one of the ones they used in their surveillance cameras.
“You stupid little bastard. What’s on it?”
“Nothing...just me...”
“Just you doing what?”
“Putting a bug in the phone in the office. I forgot to turn off the camera before I went in...so I replaced the DVD.”
“Wolf is going to kill you.”
The kid looked like he was about to cry. “I know.”
25
Bruf had called Maggie and told her he was going to be late. She was pissed, but he had to deal with this first. He called Wolf then and asked him to meet him in the office. The club was busy with people having breakfast and shooting the shit. A few of the guys tried to talk to Cubbie but he wouldn’t even look up at them as they walked through. When they saw Bruf taking him into the office, a hush fell over the room...and they all just knew. Wolf was sitting at the table and one look at the kid’s green face probably told him all he needed to know.
“Sit,” Bruf told him. Cubbie nearly fell into one of the chairs. He was still looking at the floor but Bruf wondered if he could feel the heat of Wolf’s stare as he did. Wolf didn’t know why they were there, but one look at either of them had to tell him it wasn’t good. Bruf had already decided, without even asking the kid, that he was definitely a paid plant and not an FBI agent or a cop; he was way too unsophisticated.
Wolf looked at Bruf and said, “What’s going on?”
“You want to tell him?” Bruf asked the shaking kid.
Cubbie swallowed hard and still without looking up he said, “I’m the one that’s been planting the bugs.”
Wolf frowned and looked at Bruf again. “I caught him changing out the DVD on the surveillance tape in the shop this morning.”
Bruf could tell that Wolf was trying to keep his anger in check as he said, “You working for the Feds?”
“No,” Cubbie started shaking his head. “I’d never talk to the cop
s...”
“Look at me!” The kid raised his head and looked at Wolf. “I let you into my club, my house...I let you be a part of my family and this is how you show your gratitude. Who the fuck is paying you to be a rat in my house?”
Cubbie started to slowly shake his head. He swallowed again. “Nobody’s paying me,” he said in a shaky voice.
“You’re not getting paid? How fucking stupid are you then? What are they doing for you? You have some drug charges in another state? You kill your daddy in his sleep? Someone sucking your dick for the information?”
“No,” Cubbie whispered...and then that was it. Wolf looked at Bruf and Bruf shook his head. He was sure Cubbie was working for Maggie. There was no way Ediger was using this guy, he was way too skittish. Ediger would have him shitting his pants with a look. The silence in the room was almost deafening as Wolf stared at him. Suddenly Wolf raised his hand and slammed it down on the table in front of him and said:
“You’ve got three seconds to start talking or Bruf here is going to waste you right here in my office. I’ll have your body cut up and distributed in so many different places that it’ll be like a jigsaw puzzle they’ll never be able to put together. I might still do all of that...but I’m feeling fucking generous today so I’m going to give you that three seconds to explain yourself.”
“Amara...” That one word...that name...made Wolf’s head spin like he was possessed. He was suddenly on his feet and the kid was on his too, but only because Wolf grabbed him by the front of the shirt and pulled him up...and shoved him back into the wall. The kid was crying now and Bruf almost didn’t blame him.
“Amara? Amara as in my fucking ex-wife, Columbian bitch, Amara?” Still shaking almost uncontrollably, Cubbie nodded again. “Talk!” Wolf slammed him into the wall again. A knock at the door told Bruf the guys in the other room were getting worried. He took out his phone and texted Smoke,
“We’re okay. Get everyone out of the club. Tell them to take their nosy asses to work.” He got a thumbs-up back from Smoke and then he turned his attention back to Wolf and the kid. Cubbie looked like he was trying to work up enough saliva to form words, but he wasn’t having much luck. Wolf was still holding him against the wall by his shirt and his big fist was pressing into the kid’s throat. Bruf wondered if he could even get enough air to talk, but he stood back and let Wolf handle things. If he wanted Bruf’s help, he’d ask for it.
Wolf slammed him back into the wall again and said, “I told you to talk!”
In a squeaky voice Cubbie said, “My dad owes them money...”
“Them? Amara and her father?”
He shook his head. “Amara and her old man.”
“Her old man? That piece-of-shit, washed-up fighter?”
“No. She’s with one of the Giovannis, Max...he runs the east side of Brooklyn.” Wolf looked at Bruf. Bruf was kicking himself. After Amara tried to kill Wolf and he banished her and her family from his territory, Bruf had guys watching them for a while. He knew they’d moved to New York and then her father had gone back to Columbia. Amara was working in a nightclub and whoring herself out to the highest bidder...but they hadn’t seen any sign of trouble out of them for so long that after a while he pulled the tails and the club was slowly forgetting she ever existed. Wolf’s new old lady was just that...a lady, something Amara had never been. As much as Wolf had worshiped her, the rest of them despised her, and were happy to see her gone. Of course, they would have all been happier if she’d been dead or in jail, but at least she was gone.
“Sorry, Boss...last time I checked on her was about a year ago when we talked about pulling the surveillance.” Bruf didn’t make excuses. If it turned out that he had some responsibility in all of this, he’d take it.
Wolf dropped the scared kid down into a chair and growled, “How? Who the fuck are you really and how did she talk you into this shit?”
“Max Giovanni was my stepfather. My mother passed away a few years ago, but he let me stay. He’s been good to me. He came to me and asked me to do this for Amara. I couldn’t tell him no...I mean, I could, but I owed him so much...”
“How old are you?” Wolf asked him.
“Nineteen.”
Wolf looked at Bruf again. Bruf could see that Wolf’s initial murderous rage was being toned down into something more like seething anger. There might be hope for this kid to see his twentieth birthday...if he had half a brain.
“What does she want?” Wolf said, leaving the kid there and pacing toward the front of the room. “What’s her end game?”
“I’m not sure...”
Wolf looked at Bruf again. Bruf walked over and Cubbie flinched before he even got close. Bruf grabbed him by the back of his neck and stood him back on his feet. Getting close to Cubbie’s ear he said, “I’ve got a suggestion for you, kid. You can take it...or you can leave here in those pieces the boss was talking about. Find your balls. You’re caught, so man up, look him in the eyes like a fucking man, and answer his questions, truthfully. A lie is not going to get you out of here alive...I know this, because I’m the guy that gets to put the first bullet in the moron that thinks the president of the Westside Skulls is stupid enough to buy his bullshit. Now none of us has all day, so start at the beginning and don’t stop talking until the boss here knows everything there is to know about the deal you made with the Columbian she-devil. Do you understand me, Cubbie?” Bruf felt the kid shiver against his hand, and then he nodded. When Bruf let go of him, Cubbie focused his eyes on Wolf’s face and said,
“She told Max that you raped and abused her. She said that she tried to kill you because she couldn’t take it anymore. Max wanted to send someone out...or come out himself and kill you. He’s like obsessed with her. Everything he does is for her or about her. He was good to my mom and me, but I’ve never seen him like he is with Amara before. He’s killed two of his crew, on the spot, for disrespecting her.” Bruf saw Wolf’s expression change just slightly. There were a few incidences while she was first lady of the club where men had been stripped of their patches and punished in other ways for what Amara reported to Wolf. Bruf didn’t have to be a mind reader to know that Wolf had regrets. “Anyway, she said that it would be better if they could get something on you to give to the Feds. She said that killing you would be too easy. She didn’t want you dead, she wanted you in prison so...” He stopped and swallowed hard before saying, “These are her words...”
“Just spit them the fuck out,” Wolf told him.
“She wanted you in prison so that your whore would have to visit you there.”
“What exactly did she think she was going to get on me, to be able to send me to prison?” Wolf asked.
Cubbie slowly shook his head. “She told me to be looking out for any big rides and try to get in on them...take pictures of everything and pay attention to small talk. She had me put one of the devices on the phone at the gym, she said you were...” He cleared his throat again, “She said you were stupid and that you would hang yourself someday, we just needed to give you the rope.”
“So, who is listening to these bugs?” Bruf asked. “The FBI?”
Cubbie shook his head. “No. Amara has guys listening all the time. She says she’ll take it to the FBI when she gets something...”
“Bitch is playing with our lives,” Wolf said. “She told those fuckers up on the hill about Sabrina’s baby, didn’t she?” He was yelling at Cubbie, but the kid looked clueless.
“Um...I’m not sure. I don’t listen to any of it. She doesn’t tell me what’s going on, just where to put the wire taps...” He reached up with a shaky hand and wiped the sweat off his brow. “I’m sorry, Wolf. I came here thinking I was doing a good thing for her and mostly for Max...but I’ve seen you with your old lady and your sister and everybody else. I tried telling Max a few weeks ago that I didn’t think Amara was being straight with him, but he just got really pissed...and then he told her. She called me and told me that she was going to tell you guys I was ratting you
out to the cops and you would kill me.” He laughed to himself and said, “I should have let her, I guess. At least this would have been over a week ago.”
“Sit down,” Wolf told him. “Sit in that chair and don’t move.” He flicked his head toward the door and he and Bruf went out. Smoke had cleared the place and was standing guard at the door. “Keep an eye on the kid in there,” Wolf told him. He didn’t say a word to Bruf, but Bruf continued to follow him. They walked out the front door of the clubhouse and Bruf followed him through the little parking lot, past the shop, and out through the front gates that were open for business now. Once they were out on the sidewalk that ran along a busy, major street Wolf said, “She’s just been fucking with us. This is how that FBI agent knows about the frat house. Amara probably only gave her that much information, but not enough to arrest us or turn us over to ATF, just yet. She’s feeding your brother information about Sabrina and God knows what else...We’re like her own personal chess game.”
“What do you want to do, Boss?”
“What I should have done in the first place when she tried to kill me. I want the bitch gone this time, for good.”
Bruf nodded. “I’ll check in with FBI and then I’ll gear up and get ready to go...”
Wolf shook his head. “No. Ash and Sledge are already headed out that way. Last I checked they were in Ohio. Sledge has connections in New York, that’s where they’re from. I’m going to let them handle this...it’s a bad time for you to take off.”
“Okay, what about him?”
“Fuck...that bitch used this kid as sure as she used me.” Wolf dragged a hand through his beard and shook his head. “Fuck, I don’t know yet. Have Smoke take him through and show him where every single listening device is at. Tell them not to move them or touch them, I just want a diagram of where they’re at and I want to know how long they’ve been there. I want to know just how much information this bitch has and just how many things have been fucked up over the last year because Amara was pulling the strings.”