“I’m going to do one of two things,” Leo said softly. “I’m going to make you a hero and you walk away alive, or I am going to kill you where you stand. Those are your only two options. Which you choose is entirely up to you. Bring the merchandise!” he called out, his eyes never leaving the man’s face and his gun never wavering.
Several members of Lima 6 lugged canvas totes out that they dropped, unzipped, then dump the contents out.
“That’s all the drugs you have lost in the last couple of months. Drugs that I took from you. So here’s the deal. You take your drugs and you leave. Lima 6 is out of the drug business effective now. Or, you can die. It’s your choice.”
“You’re just going to let me go?”
“That’s the deal. I have no desire to start a war with the cartel. But whether you live or die, Lima 6 isn’t doing your dirty work anymore. If you want to run drugs through our territory, you are going to have to get them past us. You seem like a smart man. Wouldn’t it just be easier to find another route?”
“How do I know you won’t kill me anyway?”
“Because I need you to get home to tell your people we’re done being your bitches. I leave you here, with the drugs. How you get home with the drugs is your problem. But think about it. You return with over a hundred million dollars’ worth of drugs that the cartel thought they had lost. All for simply finding another way to bring your shit into the country. Seems like a pretty sweet deal to me.”
The man licked his lips. “I need to talk to head of the cartel.”
“Bullshit. You’re The Investigator. You are sent in to solve problems. I am giving you the solution to this problem. You just have to be smart enough to take it.”
Leo waited a moment for the man to decide then hardened his face as he prepared to pull the trigger. “Times up!”
“Wait! Okay! I will take the deal!”
“Smart man,” Leo said as he stepped back and pulled his weapon from the man’s head. “Now that we have an understanding, there is something else I want to know.”
“Fuck you! You got what you wanted.”
“Don’t press me, Ricardo. You’re not out of this yet. I just want to know who set up the hit on Lima 6.”
“I don’t know what you are talking about.”
Leo’s pistol popped back up and centered on the man’s face. “Then maybe you are not as important to the cartel as I thought you were and I should just kill you anyway.”
“Wait! Okay. I know. We made the hit, but it was your President that gave us the names and locations. That fucking backstabbing bastard. Looks like he fucked us both.”
Leo heard the rumble of outrage ripple through Lima 6. “Don’t worry. I’ll see that he gets his. There was another hit, earlier. A truck ran down a couple of my closest friends. Was that you too?”
“No. Just the one hit, set up by your President.”
Leo lowered his weapon again. “Good enough. Don’t fuck me, Ricardo. We can both come out of this a winner if you just stick to the bargain.”
“The two labs that were hit. That was you?”
“Yeah. It was us. We’ve mauled each other pretty badly. But I can call it even if you can.”
Ricardo stared at Leo a moment. “Yes. Even. And we will find another route for our product. We can’t trust you gringo bastards anyway.”
“Oh, but you can,” Leo countered. “You can count on us to step on your dicks every chance we get. So don’t give us the chance. Do we have an understanding?”
“We do.”
“Let’s get out of here,” Leo called waving his hand over his head to call his men together.
***
The van was still there as Leo pulled the bike into the garage, but he didn’t care. Not anymore. Jamie was standing there when Leo stepped into the kitchen.
“It’s done,” he said as he pulled her into his embrace and held her tight. “Now there is only one more thing to do.”
“I want to be there.”
“I wouldn’t have it any other way. Copper is going to set it up and this should all be done in a day or two.”
Jamie tried but she couldn’t hold her tears and she wept softly as Leo rocked her gently. She wasn’t even sure why she was crying. Relief that Leo had hadn’t been killed or injured, gratitude that he had managed against all odds to pull Lima 6 back into the light, and perhaps remorse over the loss of Will that had been buried under a cold hatred for Ron Terrill. All these emotions mingled, leaving her feeling out of sort and certain of only one thing. Leo Graves was her knight and she would never give him up.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Leo rolled over and stretched, reaching for the warm softness next him, except she wasn’t there. He patted the bed a moment before forcing his eyes open. He had sat with her last night, Friday, as she returned the bar’s hours to their original four pm until two am. With the cartel problem resolved and all but a handful of Lima 6 now on Leo’s cleaning crew, they agreed that she should be safe. He turned and squinted at the clock—six-oh-six—then propped on an elbow and looked about the room. By the time they got home, and made love, they hadn’t fallen asleep until nearly four. What in the hell is she doing up so early?
He got up, urinated, then went in search of her. He found her sitting on her couch, looking through some old pictures. She hadn’t heard him and he paused in the doorway to just look at her. So beautiful, tough and strong.
“Are you okay?”
She jumped slightly at his words, then turned and smiled at him. “Yes. Just… I don’t know. It’s so hard to believe it is almost over. It’s been almost four months since Will was killed and so much has happened.”
“I know,” he said as he moved to sit down with her. “But in a few hours we can begin to put this behind us. We can start to heal. Both of us.”
“Yes, I know. It just feels like a piece of me has withered and died inside. After Will’s death I couldn’t think of anything except revenge. And now? Now I don’t know what I want. I feel lost and hollow inside.”
“I know how you feel. I felt the same way after my platoon was wiped out. But I found my way and that hollow place has been filled with something else. You.”
She smiled at him and touched his face, watching his face relax at her touch. “I don’t know how you stood it all those years. If it weren’t for you…”
He pulled her hand to his lips and kissed her fingers softly. “I’m here for you. For whatever you need for as long as you need it.”
She made a sound, half snicker and half sob, blinking rapidly to hold back the tears. “I need you to take me back to bed and just hold me. Tell me everything is going to be okay. I’m lost, Leo. I don’t know what I feel. I don’t know where to go from here. I just know that I love you and can’t even think about living without you.”
He stood and held his hand down for her. When she took it he pulled her gently to her feet then scooped her up into his arms. “Then I shall carry you until you find your feet again.”
She relaxed into his strong embrace, laying her head against his shoulder, secure in the knowledge that he would never drop her, that he would carry her to the ends of the earth if that is what it took. But she knew that wouldn’t be required, that his love for her would guide her through the wilderness and out the other side. It would just take time, time for her wounds to heal, but heal she would.
He carried her down the short hall to her bedroom. As he softly placed her in her bed she smiled that she thought of this place as hers, but his place as theirs. His house was more home than her own now. He settled softly onto her, wrapping her up tight and holding her close. She felt tears threatening again, and she let them flow, not trying to be strong. As tears leaked from her eyes, he kissed them away with slow touches of his lips, his warm embrace comforting her and making her feel secure, as if nothing in this world could harm her. Finally the tears stopped, and that hollow place was a tiny bit smaller, filled in from the endless depth of the love she felt from Leo. Hi
s deep rhythmic breathing warmed her neck as his touch warmed her body and his love warmed her soul. Feeling secure, warm and loved, she slid softly into sleep, and the hollow place filled in a tiny bit more.
***
“Are you sure you want to be here for this?” Leo asked as Jamie mounted his Harley behind him.
“I have never been so sure of anything in my life. I want to see that son-of-a-bitch stripped of his colors and kicked out on his ass.”
Leo smiled as he thumbed the big bike to life. After her moment of weakness this morning, the old ass-kicking, name-taking, Jamie was back. He had said he would carry her for as long as she needed him to, and he would. But he also sensed she was entering into the final phase of loss, acceptance. He was an expert on loss, and he knew that hollow place she felt was where the rage had been. With time that hollow place would be replaced with something else. Together, they were invincible and could handle anything that life threw at them.
Leo eased the bike out of the garage then stopped at the van parked across the street. They waited, the bike idling, until one of the men inside stepped out.
“We’re headed to the clubhouse for some business. No cartel will be there, but you are welcome to follow if you like. Do you have the address?”
The man gave Leo the middle finger as he laughed and Leo eased out on the clutch and started the bike rolling again as Jamie giggled in his ear. He smiled as he toed the bike smoothly up through the gears, her laughter sweeter and more delightful than any music.
It was two-thirty when Leo turned into the clubhouse parking lot. The outside of the clubhouse was complete with only the interior trim out remaining. If there was one good thing that came from the drug running, it was the influx of cash that allowed them to proceed on the clubhouse as fast as the workmen could go.
Because the interior wasn’t complete, and the weather was cooling as summer bled into autumn, the party was being held outside. Copper had set up the party as an excuse to heal the club. Ron was convinced that the hit on the drug exchange and the cartel earlier in the week was the Cuervo Cartel, and Copper had done nothing to dissuade that thinking. Ron thought the club was reforming behind him for protection, unaware of the trap that Copper had laid for him. Until Leo stepped off his bike.
“What the fuck is he doing here?” Ron demanded as Jamie removed her helmet. “Get him the hell out of here.”
“I don’t think you have a clear picture of what is going on here,” Copper said as Leo walked up. “You see Ron, it wasn’t Cuervo that hit you. It was us. The true Lima 6, not this perverted pile of shit it has become.”
“You! You lying backstabbing pieces of shit! I’ll kill you all for this!”
“You would know about backstabbing, wouldn’t you Ron. You ordered the hit on Tuck and Two-Tone. You gave the information to the Prieto Cartel so they could hit the very men that were trying to prevent you from getting involved with the cartel.”
“That’s a fucking lie!” Ron screamed.
“Is it? Thirteen men, Ron. Thirteen men killed because of your treachery. We bagged The Investigator. He gave you up. He told us that you fed the cartel the information on who to hit, and where.”
“That’s a lie! You can’t believe I would do that,” Ron cried, looking at the members. “He’s lying to protect himself!”
“We all heard it with our own ears,” Greg said.
“Is this true, Ron? You ordered hit on our own brothers?” Tyler asked, looking at Ron in disgust.
“It’s true,” Copper said. “All of it. Leo saw it coming, so Ron rigged the game. He killed Tuck and Two-Tone to stack the board. Then he had ten brothers killed. And Will. Jordan will never ride again because of him.”
Tyler grabbed Ron by the front of his colors. “I trusted you! I stood with you through all this shit! How could you, you fucker!” he screamed before he fired a hard right into Ron’s gut. Ron doubled over with a whoosh of air as Tyler released him like he was made of shit. “I’m done with you,” he sneered as he stomped away.
“Anyone else?” Fitz asked. “Anyone else want to step away?”
“You’re making a big mistake, Leo,” Gigolo warned.
“Turn in your colors, all of you,” Copper said.
“Fuck you, Copper,” Ron gasped. “I’ll fucking die before I give them up.”
Copper shrugged. “Suit yourself.”
Before anyone could react, Ron and his close supporters made a break for it. There were several shots fired, though Jamie couldn’t tell if anyone was hit. Leo pulled her away from the worst of the fighting and placed himself between her and the rumble. They had agreed to Copper’s request that they stay out of whatever happened and let the club sort it out. She peeked around his shoulder, watching as Ron’s men were overwhelmed. Kat and Michelle, Ron’s old lady, had their hands tangled in each other’s hair as they scratched, bit and cursed at each other. Several other women were likewise involved in duels of their own. Exotic had one woman down on the ground and was throwing punch after punch into her already bloodied face and even Karen, the most mild-mannered of the club women, held a knife against another’s throat as she held her from behind.
“Stay here!” Leo snapped as she heard a motorcycle start. Then two more. She whirled in the direction of the sounds to see Ron, Gigolo and Carson mounting up as Leo ran toward them.
“Copper!” she screamed at the top of her voice.
Copper looked up from his position on the ground with his knee in one of the members back and she pointed in the direction of the three bikes pulling away, bouncing in worry and excitement.
Leo took Carson, the last to try to pull away, in a flying tackle, knocking him from the bike. They went down in tangle of arms and legs, but Leo was up first, and delivered a whirling kick to Carson’s face that sent him to the ground in a spray of blood.
Cooper, Matt and Fitz were running toward their bikes as Leo sprinted toward his own. “Help him!” Jamie screamed, frantic with worry as Leo roared away in pursuit of the escaping members. Jamie whirled back, looking for more help, seeing the last of the insurrection being put down when Kat delivered a vicious knee to Michelle’s face that sent her to the ground in a heap. She then turned back in the direction of the fleeing motorcycles and covered her mouth with her hand so she wouldn’t scream in panic.
***
Leo grit his teeth as he passed another car with scant inches to spare. There was no way Ron was getting away. He had a head start, and was riding recklessly fast, but Leo was slowly reeling him in. And when he caught him, he was going to kill him with his own hands.
Ron made a light that Leo had to skid to a stop for. Before he could jump the red, Copper howled to a stop beside him and then they almost immediately shot across against the light, taking advantage of a small break in the traffic.
Ron had opened up a considerable lead while they were stuck at the light, but not so much that he could get away and out of sight. Once he hit highway 170 heading out of town, Copper and Leo put their heads down and opened the taps on their Harleys. They were slowly catching Ron when he got stuck behind traffic. They rapidly closed in on him, traveling at nearly twice his speed. Ron made a daring pass that nearly got him killed, but luck was with them and Leo and Copper blew past the hard braking car on the right in a wide spot.
Leo saw Ron glance over his shoulder before he braked hard and drove to the right, down a dirt road. Both Copper and Leo missed the turn, unable to slow fast enough to make the right turn onto the dirt road, but quickly circled around and took up the pursuit again. Harleys weren’t designed for his type of riding, but if Ron could make it, Leo knew he could too. He and Copper rode their bikes hard, swerving and skidding on the edge of control. Leo caught a movement out of the corner of his eye as Copper went down as their bikes jittered hard over the wash-boarded surface.
Leo slid to a stop and began to turn back to help Copper as he tried to kicked away from his downed bike. As he struggled to his feet he waved Leo on. Leo was
torn between his desire to catch Ron and to make sure Copper was okay. When Copper waved him on more frantically, he turned back to the chase, his bike crabbing sideways as it clawed for grip in the loose sandy soil, Leo bouncing on the pegs, trying to help the road bike get traction.
Leo gritted his teeth, nearly dumping his own bike as he slid and scrabbled through a turn. He was riding suicidally fast, but he would be damned before Ron got away. As he skidded through another turn, he popped out of Ron’s dust cloud, seeing Ron’s bike in the ditch as he did so. He slammed on the brakes and nearly crash again as the front tire locked up on the loose ground. As he dismounted he could hear the roar of Copper’s bike rise and fall as he battled his way along the dirt road.
Ron was lying under his bike in the ditch. He was conscious but unmoving. He looked unharmed, but then Leo saw the leg trapped under the bike, the bone sticking through the skin as he bled profusely.
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