I got into Richards about 10AM. Headed right for Tex’s house, which was in a shitty neighborhood full of gangbangers and meth heads. Figured his place was the best bet for what I wanted to do.
I parked the bike a street over and snuck through his neighbor’s place to Tex’s backyard. As I entered the rear gate, his Rottweiler Bowser started barking up a storm – but he quieted right down when he recognized me. I’d played with that dog since he was a pup. I tossed him a couple cheeseburgers I’d picked up from McDonald’s especially for the occasion, and he let me pass right on through.
Tex never locked his doors. Even with tweakers living down the street, nobody was stupid enough to fuck with a Midnight Rider with a Rottweiler.
I pulled my .45 as I walked inside the house, just in case. No need: Tex was passed out on the sofa, a litter of crushed beer cans and a half-empty bottle of Old Thompson whiskey on the stained rug.
“Tex,” I said, nudging him with my boot as I holstered the gun in the back of my jeans. “Wake the fuck up.”
He blearily opened his eyes.
“…Jack? …” he mumbled. A second later, he sat bolt upright like he’d seen a ghost. “Jack?! What the fuck?!” he blurted, now wide awake.
“Good to see you, too.”
“I said ‘what the fuck,’ not ‘good to see you,’” he said crossly.
“I decided to interpret it in the best possible light,” I said as I sat in the threadbare recliner opposite him.
Tex whipped his head towards the back of the house.
“What the hell – why didn’t Bowser – ”
Then he closed his eyes in pain. The hangover and the realization of what had happened both hit at the same time.
“You fed him somethin’, didn’t you,” he groaned as he held his forehead.
“Couple of cheeseburgers.”
“Great, now he’ll have the farts all day.”
“You’re welcome.”
Tex held his head in his right hand and looked at me through one squinted eye. “Is this about the Roadhouse? You come to even the score?”
“No.”
“Then what the fuck’re you doin’ here, Jack?”
“I came to talk.”
“Came to talk, or came to get me fuckin’ killed?”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean – ”
Tex made his hand into a pistol, put his finger up to his temple, and dropped his thumb like the hammer on a revolver.
“Pow. If Lou knew you was here, he’d shoot me in the head. Wouldn’t bother to say ‘Hey,’ neither.”
“Then I guess he better not find out I’m here.”
Tex watched me resentfully. “What do you really want?”
“I gotta say, you don’t seem real happy to see me.”
“That old fucker in that Christmas story wasn’t real happy to see those fuckin’ ghosts, neither.”
“Is that what I am to you? A ghost?”
“Might as well be. You’re a dead man if Lou catches you in Richards, that’s for damn sure.”
I sat there looking at him in silence for a second. Then I said, “Get your phone.”
“Why? You want me to call Lou and make it official?”
“No, I want you to text Bucky, Fishbone, Lee, and Indiana. Get ‘em over here, but don’t tell ‘em it’s me.”
“It’s like… five in the fuckin’ mornin’, man.”
“It’s ten.”
“I know you been outta the MC for a minute, but five and ten AM are basically the same fuckin’ thing.”
“Text them. And let me see it before you send it.”
“Yes ma’am,” Tex grumbled as he pulled out his phone.
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He sent the message, which said he would meet them all at Lee’s house, and that it was important. Life or death important.
Once they’d all assembled at Lee’s and texted back Where the fuck are you? I had Tex tell them, Change of plans – get the fuck over here ASAP.
“They’re gonna know this ain’t me,” Tex said.
“How’s that?”
“This ‘ASAP’ bullshit. I don’t use fuckin’ acronyms.”
“You just used the word ‘acronym.’”
“So?”
“It’s a hell of a lot more complicated than ‘ASAP.’”
“I’m what you might call an idiot savant in that regard,” he said in his country drawl. “But I still don’t use fuckin’ ‘ASAP.’”
“Maybe you got one of those ‘word of the day’ calendars.”
“Do I look like a guy who’s got a ‘word of the day’ calendar? Hell, do I look like a guy who’s got a fuckin’ calendar?”
With his greasy hair, unkempt beard, and sweat-stained t-shirt, he had a point.
“And why the fuck did you make ‘em go to Lee’s, if all you wanna do is get ‘em over here?” Tex complained.
“I want them all to show up at the same time.”
“Why, may I ask?”
“Because I don’t want to have to repeat myself four times.”
“Well hell, Jack, it may help, since I still got no fuckin’ clue why you’re here.”
“Shut up and have some hair of the dog. Your hangover’s making you cranky.”
Three of the four made it; Bucky was the only no-show. They arrived about an hour later, proving nobody either knew or cared about the meaning of ‘ASAP.’
First I heard the motorcycles pull up. Once the engines cut off, I heard them cursing out in the front yard at Bowser.
“Tex, get this goddamn dog the fuck outta my face ‘fore I have to shoot it!”
“BOWSER! GO ON, NOW!” Tex yelled, and the Rottweiler stopped barking.
The front door opened and Fishbone, Lee, and Indiana ambled into the tiny front hallway. I heard them before I saw them, their boot heels clunking on the decades-old, warped hardwood floors.
“Tex, what the fuck’re you doin’ textin’ at the ass-crack of dawn?” Lee yawned.
“And what the fuck’s with all this ‘ASAP’ shit?” Fishbone called out.
Tex looked at me like, See?
Indiana was the first to walk into the room. As soon as he saw me he stopped cold, and the other two basically plowed into him.
“What the fuck, Indiana – ”
Then they all saw me, and the room went quiet.
“Jesus Christ,” Lee whispered.
“Hey guys,” I said neutrally.
They all looked back and forth between me and Tex, like they were trying to figure out if this was a set-up or not.
“Why is it that every time one of you fuckers see me, I feel like I’m at my own funeral?” I asked.
“Maybe ‘cause Lou’s fixin’ to throw you one,” Tex said.
“Jack,” Indiana said, “let me just be the first to say, I’m real fuckin’ sorry about how all that went down at the Roadhouse – ”
“Thank you, Indiana, but that’s not why I’m here. Where’s Bucky?”
They all looked at Tex again, who shrugged.
“Didn’t answer,” Fishbone said.
“Probably balls-deep in a hooker, if he’s even conscious,” Lee said.
Indiana continued, “Jack, let me just say, I AM sorry about that shit. I wanted to step up and help, Jack, I swear to God I did, but – ”
I was getting a little pissed now. I’d thought I was over it, but I guess I wasn’t.
“I said that’s not why I’m here.”
My tone was a little shorter than I meant it to be.
“Then what are you here for, Jack?” Fishbone asked.
“I need you guys to leave town for a while. Tell Bucky, too, when you get a hold of him – and Sanford and Craig, too. Tell them they should get the hell out of Dodge – immediately – and stay gone for a week or two. Anywhere, doesn’t matter, as long as it’s at least three or four hours away. Out of state would be better.”
They all stared at me like I had a horn growing out of my forehead.
>
“What?” I demanded.
“Look, whatever the fuck’s goin’ on between you and Lou, is between you and Lou,” Tex said. “It don’t concern us.”
“This isn’t about me and Lou – ”
“The fuck it ain’t,” Lee muttered.
I glared at him. “You got something to say?”
Lee kept quiet. So did Fishbone and Indiana.
“I got somethin’ to say,” Tex snapped. “Eyeball. Chuck. Benjy. Wild Bill. Cowboy. Jergens. Irish. And Vince. That’s what I got to say.”
My stomach tightened. Other than Benjy, those were all the Midnight Riders who had tried to kill me, Kade, and Fiona.
And now they were all dead.
“What’s Lou been telling you?” I asked.
Tex’s fixed me with a cold stare. “Enough. Where’s Kade? You kill him, too?”
“No, he’s recovering from getting shot by one of Lou’s assholes,” I snarled. “In fact, Eyeball and Cowboy tried to kill me at my house two nights ago, right before they torched it to the ground. Vince, too, I guess, from what you said. And Chuck, Wild Bill, Jergens, and Irish tried to kill me and Kade yesterday at Lou’s meth lab, right before Lou put five bullets in Benjy’s back.”
Everybody’s voices started overlapping.
“Meth lab?!”
“Bullshit – ”
“No fuckin’ way – ”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Tex said, waving his hand to shut the others up. “You’re tellin’ me Lou’s got a meth lab?”
“Yes.”
“And you’re tellin’ me Lou killed Benjy – not you.”
“That’s right.”
“Why the fuck would he do that?”
“Because Benjy killed that stripper a year ago – remember her?”
“Yeah, so?”
His flippancy about Ali’s death enraged me; for the first time, I wanted to bitch-slap him.
“SO,” I snarled, “besides the obvious point that she didn’t deserve to die – Lou was trying to cover his tracks. He was the one who put Benjy up to shooting her.”
“And why the fuck did he do that?”
Shit.
I knew exactly how the answer was going to go over.
“Because Lou suspected her of being a snitch for the DEA,” I said.
The other three by the door cursed.
Tex shrugged. “Then I’d say the bitch got what she deserved.”
I stared at him angrily. “We turned over a new leaf three years ago, Tex. We said we weren’t going to do that shit anymore.”
He sneered at me. “I think it was also implied somewhere in there that we weren’t supposed to kill other brothers in the MC.”
“Maybe you should’ve told that to Lou before he sent them to kill me,” I snarled.
“I think there’s some things you ain’t tellin’ us, Jack. And I think those things are probably the one bit of truth in all this bullshit you’re shovelin’.”
This was not going how I’d wanted.
“I came here to warn you assholes to stay away for your own goddamn good – ”
Tex ignored me. “Like, who was at your house the other night when Eyeball, Cowboy, and Vince allegedly decided to torch the place?”
“Allegedly’s a big fuckin’ word for a guy who doesn’t use ‘ASAP.’”
“I guess it was on that Word of the Day calendar, motherfucker,” Tex said coldly. “Was that whore from the Roadhouse there at your house? That private eye bitch?”
My hands tightened into fists. I was glad my gun wasn’t within easy reach, because Tex would be a dead man if it was.
“Her name’s Fiona, and don’t talk about her that way,” I snarled.
“Was she there or not, Jack?”
“That has nothing to do with – ”
“WAS SHE FUCKIN’ THERE OR NOT?” Tex roared.
I glared at him. “Yeah. She was.”
The reaction from Lee, Fishbone, and Indiana was less than positive.
“Uh huh,” Tex drawled. “And have you been in contact with Sloane and the Bastards lately, Jack?”
Now I stared at him in shock.
Did Lou tell them EVERYTHING that’d been going on?
“I think that look on your face pretty much answers my questions,” Tex said. “‘Course, it looks a little suspicious that you didn’t volunteer that information up front.”
I suddenly got a cold feeling in my gut. I couldn’t say what it was, exactly – just the sense that something wasn’t right.
I glanced at Lee, Fishbone, and Indiana. They were all tense.
I looked over at Tex and saw his right hand was sliding between the cushions of his sofa.
Though he looked outwardly calm, a bead of sweat slowly trickled down the side of his face.
Then he moved.
I lunged up out of the recliner, grabbing my own gun from the back of my jeans.
Tex came out with a piece of crap .38. Of course, being hungover, he wasn’t nearly as fast as me.
I pulled the trigger.
BLAM!
Tex’s right shoulder sprayed red, and the .38 dropped to the floor.
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“JESUS GOD, HE SHOT ME!” Tex screamed.
I swung my gun around at Lee, Fishbone, and Indiana. They all stood there frozen in shock, staring at Tex bleeding on the sofa.
“ON YOUR KNEES!” I yelled as I kicked the .38 out of reach.
The three of them slowly got down on their knees and put their hands behind their heads.
“OH JESUS, HE SHOT ME, HE SHOT ME!” Tex continued to screech.
“Shut the fuck up or I’ll shoot you again!” I roared.
He stopped saying anything intelligible, but he still whimpered and groaned.
The only silver lining to this entire situation was that for the neighborhood Tex lived in, a gunshot at 11 in the morning was nothing out of the ordinary. The fact that it was from a Midnight Rider’s house made it even less noteworthy. If anybody called the cops, they would probably show up in an hour, if they ever showed up at all.
“Now somebody want to tell me what the fuck is going on?” I demanded.
“Jack,” Indiana said in an overly apologetic voice, “I am REAL sorry about that bullshit that went down at the Roadhouse – ”
“Shut the fuck up about the Roadhouse!” I shouted. “What’s Lou been telling you?”
“Just what I fuckin’ said,” Tex snarled through his moans. “You killed eight Midnight Riders, you’re still with that traitor whore, and now you gone and sold out the club to Sloane and the Bastards.”
I stared at him. There was no way to refute any of what he said about Sloane, since secrecy was key to the whole fucking plan.
Fiona was right; I should have never come.
“And if anybody – ” Lee started.
“Shut the fuck up,” Tex hissed.
“If anybody what?”
Tex glared at me hatefully. Then he reached over with his good arm –
“AAAH,” I said, pointing the gun at him again.
“I’m gettin’ my phone, you trigger-happy son of a bitch,” Tex spat.
“I’ll get it,” I said, and reached for his phone where he’d tossed it on the couch.
“Didn’t fuckin’ think to look at any of the other messages, huh, smart guy?” Tex sneered.
I went back to the main text screen and saw one from Lou.
50K to the man who brings me Jack Pollari. Dead or alive
I scrolled up to read more messages.
Word on the street is Jack is working with his ex Sloane and the Bastards to take down the Riders. Leave Sloane and the Bastards alone, I reached out to them and am trying to work shit out. But if you see Jack, take care of business
Jack just killed again. Wild Bill, Benjy, Chuck, Jergens and Irish. I’m gonna kill that motherfucker
Jack back with that traitor bitch Fiona – they’re murdering us for revenge for me kicking him out of the MC. Eyeball Vince and Cow
boy dead
Tex shook his head. “You sell out the club for a piece of snatch, and when Lou kicks you out, you try to fuck us even more?”
I put the gun to his head.
“Call her a piece of snatch one more time,” I said coldly.
Tex swallowed hard as he looked up at the barrel pressed to his forehead.
“Jack… you don’t have to do this,” Indiana pleaded.
Lee looked at me accusingly. “You really have lost your mind over that chick.”
“That ‘chick’ was looking for the guy who killed her cousin,” I snapped. “Lou used her as an excuse to betray me. He planned that night at the Roadhouse for months – maybe years – and not a single one of you motherfuckers stood up for me.”
The words coming out of my mouth surprised even me.
“So it really is all about the Roadhouse, then,” Tex said scornfully.
I turned back to him. “…maybe it is. Why didn’t you say something that night, huh?”
When he just stared at me hatefully, I turned to the other three.
“Indiana?”
I looked at them one by one, pausing between each.
“Lee?… Fishbone?”
They all stared shame-faced at the floor. Except Tex.
“Ain’t it obvious?” he asked.
“No, it’s not.”
“You betrayed the club, jackass.”
“I didn’t betray the club. The club betrayed me. You betrayed me.”
Tex laughed, then winced and wheezed as he clutched his bleeding arm. “I didn’t hook up with no PI cooze. ‘Specially not one tryin’ to frame us for shooting a DEA snitch.”
“She didn’t frame anybody – Lou and Benjy did it.”
“So fuckin’ what? She deserved it! Back in the day, we woulda done a hell of a lot worse to a snitch than just fuckin’ shoot her!”
“This isn’t back in the day,” I shouted. “And for you to throw that away and just bend over for Lou – after everything we accomplished, going legit, going legal – ”
“Goin’ legit, goin’ legal,” Tex said mockingly. “Nobody wanted to go legit or legal, you stupid asshole.”
Midnight Obsession: A Midnight Riders Motorcycle Club Romance Part 4 Page 36