by Rae B. Lake
“Easy does it Wire, you wouldn’t want to threaten a government official would you?”
Clean bumped Wire from the other side, he had to cool down, there was too much at stake for him to blow the whole plan now.
He let out a breath, “What do you want?”
“Good boy,” He motioned for Wire to come with him, “Let’s chat.”
“Say what you got to say, I don’t think I should be in the same fucking space as you right now.”
“Suit yourself, you got a job to do.”
“What?” I asked trying to see what he was getting at. The usual protocol between us and the Boys of Djinn was we gave them sixty percent of what we made from everything.
“You speaking up now?” He glared at me and looked back at Wire as if what I had to say didn’t matter. Now I was the one who had to keep my anger in check.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Wire asked.
“I need someone resolved, you’re going to do it. I’ll send you the details, I expect that shit done by the end of the week.” He turned and tried to walk out.
Everyone looked straight at Wire, it was one thing to give up the cash but now to be his trigger? Fuck that, there was no way.
“Get the fuck out of here, I’m not getting anyone for you, take that shit to your own club.” Wire said squaring up just a little more. Everyone got in line behind him. If Liam wanted a fight he would have to fight all of us.
“Yes the fuck you will and you will fucking like it too. If I tell you to crawl you will fucking crawl. If you don’t, I will rip every part of your life apart with all the dirt I have on you and your so-called family. You think what we did to Cherry and her little boy was the worse? Fuck around and you won’t see Lily until they drag her rotting corpse from the bottom of the river.”
I could almost feel Wire explode in anger. Everyone grabbed onto him before he could rush him but it didn’t stop the shit coming from his mouth. “If you ever in your fucking life put a motherfucking finger on her, you will wish for me to take your life. I will destroy you in every god damn way I can think of. Try it, bitch!” He screamed at the man. Clean did his best to get him under control but nothing besides moving him from the area was working.
I rolled up to Liam, “Give me the information and get the fuck out.” I said wanting to be rid of this man as soon as possible.
“Her name is Kristina Lee, her mother stole from us.”
I shook my head trying to piece together what he was telling us, “Her mother? How old is this Kristina?”
“Six, they usually have playtime around twelve in the afternoon, I want you guys to make that shit spectacular. Hang her ass from the monkey bars or something inventive like that.”
“What the shit? You want us to kill a baby?” Ripper spoke up from where he was, everyone’s mouth gaping open in disbelief.
“Are you out of your mind, you know damn well we don’t do no shit like that.”
“Well Ryder, it’s a new day. You are working for the Boys of Djinn now, you will kill a kid if I tell you to kill a kid. Shall I dig back into Charity’s file? I am sure we could find something else to put her away for? Prostitution maybe?”
I knew he was trying to bait me, I wouldn’t fall for it.
“Just send over the information. We’ll get it done.”
He clapped his hands, “Wonderful, when?”
“Look, don’t press us. We will get it done and until then just fuck off.” I rolled away, I couldn’t stand to be in the assholes presence for one second longer.
I rolled back into church where Clean had kept Wire until the makeshift meeting was over. I told him what Liam’s orders were. There was no way.
“Well, I guess that’s that. It’s time to end this shit.” Wire got on the jack immediately and called Archer, whatever they had was what we would use against the Boys of Djinn. We could only pray that it was enough.
Chapter 19
My brothers came through, there was more information between all four of them to keep the boys of Djinn in our pocket for years to come but we couldn’t just depend on them not wanting to mess up what they had with FBI, we had to make sure that they completely forgot all about us.
We ran into a snag when it came to actually get Liam Sr in the same place as Liam Jr. He wouldn’t even acknowledge that the boy existed let alone agree to be in the same place as him.
Of course, having proof that a high ranking government official was rubbernecking with a known mob boss was enough to have daddy Djinn come down for a little meeting. We told him that we would part with the photos for a substantial amount of money, that he would have to come himself or we would leak the photos to every paper who would have them.
He agreed, of course.
We managed to set up a meeting with him down by the docks.
There wasn’t a doubt in my mind that after seeing all the shit that these so-called FBI agents had done there was no way that Liam Tremblay would stand by and be associated with any of them. He would have to take action to make sure his past life wasn’t dug up and exposed.
We were as ready as we were ever going to be. At least I was almost ready.
“Cherry, you have to get up babygirl,” I was supposed to go with the boys to the meeting. Wire wanted as many as the original members there as possible, but Cherry was doing everything she could to delay me.
“No. No. The last time someone I loved went out to meet the enemy they didn’t come back. No.”
I understood her fear, no one thought this was going to be a particularly violent meeting but we never knew. It wasn’t something I could promise.
“Charity. I know you’re scared but we can’t keep going how we’ve been going, we have to do this and get this shit over with. We can’t have another situation like Vilanuevas, we just can’t,” I kissed her on the forehead and pushed her off onto the bed. “I don’t make promises I can’t be sure I can keep but I promise I will do everything possible to make sure I come home to you and LJ.”
“Well just don’t go, then you won’t have to promise me.” She screeched.
“Cherry you asking me to go against my brothers. You want me to abandon them?”
She dropped her head, she was really stuck between a fucking rock and a hard place. “No, I would never. Just come back to me ok?”
“Have some faith babe, we got this.” I slid down to my chair and rolled out to the van outside.
Everyone was quiet, not even was Clean making his usual jokes. It was game time.
Liam Trevelyn was already at the docks with four security officers.
I rolled out of the van, Wire, Archer and Prez came out behind me. Shepard, Rooster, and Rock were in another van behind us. Ripper, Clean, and Tex stayed in the vans in case shit went bad.
Liam Sr looked pissed, he whispered back and forth between the security, I could only assume it was to give them some sort of orders.
“What’s this about?” He asked as we made our way towards him. “I don’t have time to come to the…” He stopped talking and put a hand over his eyes, for some reason trying to get a better look at us.
“Ryan?” He asked, speaking my name as if he knew me personally. “Alex?” He called to Prez. “Are you kidding me, is that the Wings?” He smiled brightly before he basically ran over to where we were standing pulling a heavily confused Prez into a real hug. “Holy shit, how have you boys been? What is this?”
Wire looked around, this meeting was going as far left as anyone would have thought. We figured maybe he would be upset that he was being blackmailed, or maybe he would try to have us killed, or maybe he would cry and beg, we thought everything but not this.
“You know us?” Wire asked.
“Of course I do.” He almost self consciously rubbed a hand over his face, “Oh, I guess you wouldn’t recognize me. I had to have a lot of work done.” He looked down at me, “Ryder, it’s me. Genie.”
Chapter 20
I backed away from the man in front
of me. I stared at him, it was impossible. This man looked nothing like Genie. I knew Lance “Genie” Miller, or at least I had in the past. He was one of the founding members right along with Prime, and Mick. In fact, he was Mick’s younger brother. That’s the Genie that I knew.
“The fuck you are,” I said.
“Don’t be a shit, yes it is. Don’t look at my face, I know it’s different I had to get it changed, can’t you remember my voice?”
I looked over to Prez who was still looking as confused as ever. The man did sound like Lance but there was no way, he was trying to play me. “Yeah, if you’re Lance, you know us well. Prove it.”
He sighed out, “It’s been years, I don’t know anything from that last what twenty years.”
“Say what you know.” I barked.
“I know you are all bark and no bite. Do you still like to cuddle with the girls after sex? Prime was the President when I was there, he had a granddaughter, I think her name was Maddy or Madison. Um, let’s see,” he looked around the crowd. “Oh, Dillon, is that you?”
Wire nodded once.
“Damn boy, you got big. I remember you when you were much smaller. You tried to steal Prime’s wallet. Prime bought you your first bike, it took you all of three tries to get it down, like you were born to ride.” He looked over the rest.
“I don’t see anyone else I know. I don’t know… Oh wait, Ryder, you shot me! Here look.” He unbuckled his pants and pulled them down turning around to show us his ass, “See, I scared you while you were coming back from doing a pickup. You thought I was trying to rob you and as I tried to get up and run you shot me in the ass.”
“You were always trying to fucking prank someone.” It was him, my eyes didn’t recognize the man in front of me but those memories could only be known by him. They weren’t written down anywhere, there were no pictures, they were personal stories that only the family knew. This man was my brother.
“I can’t wear my kutte anymore but the wings have always been in my heart,” he stepped close to me, bent down, opened his shirt and pulled out the small chain that we reserved specifically for our ol’ ladies. Our insignia and the word Genie engraved in the platinum pendant.
It was him, this was Genie.
“Holy shit!” I grabbed him hard by the neck and hugged him as if my life depended on it.
“It’s true?” Prez started walking towards us. I looked over Genie’s shoulder and answered.
“Fuck yes, it’s him.”
Prez jumped on his back, and Wire came over to join in on the hug.
After a few minutes, we all backed away, huge smiles on everyone’s faces. We came here thinking we were making a new enemy only to find our brother instead.
“Wait a minute, Prime said you died. I’m so fucking confused. What happened to your face.”
“He had to, it was part of my cover. The last rides I remember were taking the warheads over the border. Prime was down to do one or two trips but once he figured out we were in too deep he tried to back out. Turns out people that are in deep with nuclear arms don’t just let you go. So he did the one thing he swore he would never do. He fucking snitched. He walked right into the FBI headquarters and told them everything they needed to know about the bombs being brought in. He figured he would do some time but that isn’t what they wanted, they wanted him to go undercover. They wanted him to stay on, but that would mean he would have to leave everything behind, his daughter, his granddaughter, his freedom, all of it. I couldn’t let that shit rock, that man was my president, I would have done anything for him. Besides I had no children, both my parents were dead, the only thing I would leave behind would be Mick and I knew he found new brothers with you guys. I knew he would be alright. So I offered myself up, they accepted and I died. Only Prime knew I was still alive and he was sworn to secrecy. I had the plastic surgery done, I started the Boys of Djinn with a few of the other FBI agents, it was a bullshit club but we had to have something up and running in order to pull everything off. It’s been a crazy ride.”
By now everyone was out of the vans and listening to Genie talk.
“How’s Mick? Why didn’t he come?”
Shit.
I held his coat it was as close to a hug as I could get at the moment, “Brother, I am so sorry, Mick was killed.”
He looked at me, a horrible look crossed his face before he put his face in his hands and cried.
“We were in the middle of a war with the cartel and Mick got caught in the crossfire. He shouldn’t have been there. That’s on me.” Prez said from the side.
Genie, raised his head, “No, that is exactly where he should have been, with his brothers. If I couldn’t be there when he took his last breath I am glad that you guys were there.”
“This is all well and good, all this family reunion shit but who is going to step up and put a bullet in this traitor's fucking face?” Rooster called out from his position against the van, a smoke hanging from the corner of his mouth.
“What? Who the fuck is that? I’m not a traitor.”
As much as I hated to admit it Rooster was right, the Boys of Djinn, the same crew he said he formed with other FBI agents, had been terrorizing us for months.
“Lance, tell me you didn’t get your club to try and run us out of town?” I asked praying that I wouldn’t have to be the one to blow his head off if he said yes.
“Are you crazy Ryder? I have been in Canada for over ten years, I disbanded the Boys of Djinn as soon as all that shit was done with the bombs. I had no use for them any longer.”
“If that’s the truth, then why has your son been trying to make us his bitch for the better part of a year?” Archer spoke up from the back.
The anger that exploded on Genie’s face was enough for me to know that he had nothing to do with that.
“Liam?”
“Yup.”
“Motherfuck!” Genie turned and rubbed his hands through his head, he turned back to us, “First of all, that dipshit isn’t my biological son. I thought so for a while, but I found out when he was fourteen that he wasn’t, he was my assigned brother's son. I tried to keep him in line but all he wanted was to kill and steal. When he turned eighteen, we told him the truth about his true parentage. I thought that was it, I mean they all even followed in their true father's footprints and joined up with the FBI. I tried to keep in contact with Liam when I came over and changed my name to Trevylan but he was obsessed with bringing the Boys of Djinn back, he said that we could rule again as a family. He’s outside his fucking mind. So I cut ties with him, refused to visit or let him see me. I had no idea that he was messing with y’all.”
“He has all this information on us, photos, who our families are. He had my wife thrown in jail and her kid taken from her for a time. He threatened us with jail time.”
Genie looked confused, “I don’t know how he would know all that. I told him stories but never anything that would actually lead anyone to you. Just reliving the old times.”
“What about your brother, rather the FBI Agent that was posing as your brother, would he have known about us?” Shepard asked.
“Yeah, but there is no reason he would tell.”
“Would he tell if his life was on the line?” Archer continued with the cross-examination.
“I suppose, why?” Understanding dawned on him, “Fuck me, is he dead? They fucking killed him? They killed their own father?” He nodded a few times, “It makes sense that they would have photos and all the information. Ali kept tabs on you guys for as long as I could remember.”
More pieces were falling into place, “He’s the reason the cops never fucked with us? Not because we owed you guys a favor?”
Genie laughed, “Is that what Prime said? It was one of the conditions for me going undercover, the department was supposed to turn a blind eye to you guys. They would get my life but in return, my brothers would be protected. You guys gotta do some really fucked up shit to get on the radar and I knew you weren’t those kind
s of people.”
“I guess that protection is over now huh?” Clean said
“No, I am still stuck here in a way so you should all still be protected.”
“Yeah, you may need to go check the expiration date on that paperwork, the Boys of Djinn have been robbing and fucking up our people for a while now.”
“What? Robbing?” He looked at me, “How much Ryder?”
“Upwards of seven million.”
“Oh shit, y’all doing alright for yourselves huh? Maybe that’s why y’all popped back up on the radar, you start bringing in that much cash, big brother wants to know where it’s going. No matter, you’ll get it back. On my word, I’ll make sure you get every dime.”
“You fucking traitor.” Liam Jr’s voice rang out from behind us.
I had totally forgotten, that we had set up a trap to get Liam Jr here at the same time as Liam Sr, I hadn’t even heard them pull up behind us.
Chapter 21
“Why the fuck are you talking to them! They are the enemy, they owe us!” Liam screamed, his gun pointed directly at Genie.
“Liam, what are you doing? They are not the enemy, this is my family. You dumb fuck, these people have kept my people safe, they kept my home safe, they are good people. They don’t owe us anything, we owe them.”
Liam shook his head, a crazed look in his eyes. “No, no, I remember all the stories, they would all be in jail if it wasn’t for you and my uncle.”
“Me and your father! I am your uncle. You know this Liam, you have to accept it.”
“No! That man was a traitor too, that is why I dumped his ass in the snow and let him die.”
“What the fuck.”
“This bitch.”
“This is bullshit.”
There were murmurings behind him, apparently he was talking about things the rest of his crew had no knowledge about. Ali Djinn’s children just found out their own brother killed their father.
“Liam, that was your father. He loved you before he knew he was your father; how could you do that?”