by Kiki Leach
"What did Cherry have to say about your brother outside of his cock being too small to make it all the way in?"
I finished off my beer and tossed it into the trash along with the lid. "She told me that he paid her to fuck."
He laughed. "No wonder she went along with that shit. I knew she couldn't have been willing to do it on her own."
"No, old man," I said. "He paid her to fuck because he wanted to use her to bust up with Colette."
"Why?"
"Because if what I'm thinking is correct, and all signs are so far pointing to the fact that I just might be, he needed to make a clean break outta town after ripping off some of Lorenzo's cash."
"Are you fuckin' serious?" he asked me. I nodded. "Jesus."
"Him working those books and then giving up some dough for pussy? The shit makes all kinds of sense."
"Fuck." He snaked his fingers through his hair and locked his jaw. "How much did he end up giving her that night?"
"According to her, about ten grand in cash."
He whistled and lowered his eyes, then peered. "And you're sure there's no way -- I mean no chance in hell that it couldn't have just been some money he had saved up over the years or something? Maybe from when he was working part-time out here for Riggs or from what he earned at some point during his casino visits or the infirmary?"
"Nah. Everything he ever earned out here from working behind the bar and doing offhand mechanic shit was spent in maybe two or three years' time. The infirmary has never paid him enough for his skills and he lost more than he's ever earned while playing those slots. Probably one of the reasons why it was so easy for him to hook up with Lorenzo in the first place. Walk in unassuming and thick-headed about how shit works out there when it comes to earning cash playing those games, come out with a suitcase filled with so much green that you start thinking you're richer than God Himself."
"Christ. This means that we are genuinely fucked then, yeah?"
"Yep. My guess is that at some point down the line, if he hasn't already or won't by the time he gets here Friday, this son of a bitch will try and pull some shit with Riggs to get us to pay up in place of Jeremiah."
"And if he does, it'll be a win all around for him now just 'cause of this dumbass deal Prez made with him behind our backs."
"Mm-hm. And I'd bet every dime my brother stole from him that Riggs didn't even bother considering the fine print of that thing. For all we know, he could own us lock, stock and barrel and we wouldn't have a clue about it. Tracker could be right."
"Does your stupid ass brother realize just how much he might have fucked us over with this shit?"
"What the hell do you think his other reason was for taking off, old man? He doesn't give a flying fuck about any of us anymore."
He grinded his teeth. "Your old man must be rolling around in his grave over this asshole." I bobbed my head. His words hit me straight in the gut because I knew they were true. "You know Lorenzo's gonna find him at some point and have him killed, yeah? Might even break down and try to do it himself at this rate."
I looked away from him and sighed. "Yeah, I know."
"And are you good with that shit?" he asked me. "Because I know he's your blood and all, but--"
"Blood means shit when it leaves you hanging out to dry like he's done. And now that I've got Colette, it's putting a whole lotta things into perspective for me these days."
"Like what?"
"She's vulnerable to all this and he didn't even bother thinking about that part before he got his cock sucked and ducked out. In talking to Cherry, I thought he was trying to save her in some way -- make it look as if she had no more connection to him to keep Lorenzo from trying to take a swipe at her. But the truth of the matter is that he was only trying to save himself from start to finish, no more, no less. The rest of us were gonna be fucked up the ass with a lead pipe regardless and he didn't give a shit about any of it."
He raised his head to stare me in the face and glowered. "You know, brother, part of me gets the feeling that if he were standing right here in front of us right now that you wouldn't have a problem taking him out yourself."
"To tell you the truth, I don't think I would."
"Take him out?"
"Have a problem with doing it," I said.
We stared at each other for a few seconds in silence until the honking of a horn broke right through it. As a silver Town Car with blacked out windows rolled through the front gate, we both headed out of the garage and moved around the car that I was working on, sitting right in front of it.
Atom threw his hand out toward the lot and narrowed his eyes. "Who the fuck is this asshole?" he said. "Mayor of the goddamn city?"
I shook my head. "Nah, Mayor wouldn't roll up on us like this unannounced," I told him. "Looks like some other asshole in need of a tune up."
He snickered. "Well he better hope that he won't need this shit back in less than 28 to 48 hours or more with the way you've been working on things out here."
"Eat a dick, old man."
"You offering up to me, youngin’?" he shot back.
I didn't say another word to him after that as the car rolled to a complete stop in the center of the lot. I folded my arms over my chest and flattened my hands against my sides, then bent forward trying to get a glimpse of who the hell was behind the wheel. And that's when the back door flew open and a pair of black alligator shoes stepped out and to the ground.
"Holy. Christ." I looked over at Atom as he suddenly clamped his teeth together and locked his jaw. Then he swallowed hard and sucked in a deep breath. "It's motherfuckin' Lorenzo," he said. I glowered and turned back to the car, only to see that he was right. It had been a good few years since I had seen him in person, but no doubt that this was him.
He placed his hand on top of the door and hopped out of the car, removed his sunglasses from his face and eyed the entire lot from one end of it to the other. Son of a bitch was more than likely sizing up the space already for himself.
After shuffling around the door and closing it shut, he jerked the lapels of his suit and started making his way toward us. Atom folded his arms and tucked his fists beneath them, I figured to keep from throwing a punch. "You think Riggs knows about this shit?" he asked me, leaning in.
"Probably not," I muttered. "Otherwise, why would he bring his ass here first?"
"Well." Lorenzo stopped in front of us and opened his arms wide. "It's been a long time since I've seen this place in person, or either one of you in action." He turned to stare me in the face, then eyed me up and down. "Looks like being a grease monkey still suits you, Rome."
I snickered. "And being a walking piece of shit seems to do the same for you. Matter of fact, uh..." I looked at Atom and plugged my nose. "Turns out that smell wasn't the toilet that's been backed up inside the clubhouse, it was you coming to town and making your way back to our lot, unannounced and uninvited."
He placed his hands in front of himself and shrugged. "I was invited."
"You weren't supposed to be here 'til Friday, asshole," said Atom. "Does Riggs know you're in town yet?"
"No. I was hoping to surprise him with that fact. Is he around?"
I shifted my eyes from him and grinded the back of my teeth. "He and the other brothers are at the D&C."
He nodded and pushed out his fat bottom lip. "Probably trying to get shit ready for me," he said. "Make it look somewhat decent before I have to go in there and start tearing everything a part."
"What exactly are you doing out here before Friday?" I asked him. "Did somebody on your end happen to get shit all mixed up?"
He shook his head. "No. I was all good with the idea of meeting up here on Friday, but plans changed."
"What the fuck are you talking about?" Atom snapped.
Lorenzo stared him in the face and chuckled. "You've gotten funny in your old age, old man."
"Yeah, I'm a real motherfuckin' riot around here. Give me a clown suit and a cannon and we'll see what I can make d
o with your ass standing here."
Lorenzo chortled and shook his head again.
"So what are you doing here ahead of the scheduled date?" I asked him.
"My kid," he said. "I've got an ex that moved down here a few months ago with our daughter. We normally switch back and forth every other weekend but this upcoming Saturday is the ex's birthday and she wanted her home, so I agreed to take my kid this past weekend instead."
Atom snarled. "That shit's sweet and all for your kid, but it means that you knew before making that agreement with Riggs to come out here on Friday that--"
"I'd be making it in a few days early? Maybe," he said.
"Son of a fuckin' bitch."
"I'm hoping that you're speaking of yourself in that respect," Lorenzo told him. "Because I genuinely like my mother."
Atom lunged forward as his face turned bright red, but I threw the back of my hand into his chest, shoving him back. "You are a real asshole," he said. "You know that?"
"I guess in some cases, it takes one to know one."
"Yeah, but I don't go around dressing all my bullshit up in Armani suits and shoes that you had to go and kill a gator to get!"
"No, the brown coveralls do you well," he retorted. He darted his eyes over to me and snickered. "You too."
"Motherfucker, look." I stepped forward and flexed my arms. If anything, this prick was pissing me off to the point that I was ready to throw my own fist up his ass myself. "Let's just cut the bullshit, alright? We know that my dumbass brother is the reason you got hooked up with Riggs in the first place as far as the D&C goes. And I've also gotta a pretty good hunch that you're the reason he skipped outta town a few days ago too."
He smiled wide and rubbed his hand back and forth across his chin. "What makes you think I'm the reason for your brother skipping town?"
"Because he either knows that you're planning to screw us over and didn't want to be caught in the middle of potential gunfire--"
"Or?" he interjected.
"Or..." I stopped and swallowed hard. "He knew that he had to get the hell outta town before you came here and jacked him up for stealing from you. When I thought you were coming on Friday, I assumed that he was just getting a head start. But I'd bet every dime he more than likely stole from you that he knew about your ex's birthday and that you had planned to switched out your weekends. Him getting the hell outta dodge two days ahead instead of six sounds much more like Jeremiah."
There was a string of silence before he responded.
"Yeah, your brother is reallyyyy fucking smart, but also?" He looked straight into my eyes and grinned again, then he laughed to himself and dragged his hand across his mouth. He nodded. "He's is a stone cold motherfucking snake in the grass asshole. Just a vile and worthless piece of shit who didn't deserve half of what I ever gave to him. He came looking to me for a chance at a gig that paid him more than nine dollars an hour after seeing me around here a few times and down at my casinos when I'd make time for coming around to check them both out on the ground floor. But I kept blowing him off because he came off like a desperate bitch looking to bust my nut."
"Alright so if that was the case, what the hell changed your mind?" I questioned.
"After my original bookkeeper quit to go and start her own family and some other shit, I figured it was better to have a man for the job, seeing as how he couldn't get pregnant. Bastard was never at the top of my list, but he came calling me up after hearing that the spot was vacant and said that he was willing to get paid whatever just to help me out." He dropped his hands around his waist and adjusted his slacks. He cleared his throat. "I told him a single fuck up, I could let it slide, because there I times in which I can be quite generous before gutting an asshole to his death. But any more than that and he was out. For three and a half months, I thought we were all good and then I started noticing little changes in the numbers. Shit being typed over, written over, splotches of white-out being dabbed in clumps on top of damn near every page he would hand over to me at the end of the day. I wanted to believe him because I didn't have any actual proof of him stealing anything from me, except maybe a coke or some shit from a few broken vending machines. There was nothing on the cameras at either place and each count of money came up correct every night. And then two weeks ago, I get a call from him asking me to help out your Prez." He pointed. "I told him I didn't think it was a good idea businesswise to get involved with the Reapers and your D&C because I work in the business of making money, not in losing it. But after talking to Riggs, I was somehow convinced to draw up a contract and sign on the dotted line." He turned to Atom and smirked. "I own 51% of that shit now, by the way."
Atom threw up his hand and shook his head. "Jesus CHRIST!" He turned to me and exhaled. "You see?! I fuckin' told him this shit would happen. So did Tracker. Fuck." He ripped his cell from his pocket and stormed off into the club.
Once the door was closed, I turned back to Lorenzo and glowered. "How the hell did you manage to get away with that shit?"
He bellowed. "The simple fact that your Prez can't read anything less than 10point Arial font on a piece of paper."
"But Tracker can."
"I'm aware, which is why I was determined to make sure he wasn't around when this deal went down," he said. "Look, your brother fucked me over. I don't necessarily blame you for that shit, or your club. But until I find out just where the hell he is, I'm going to need some collateral, as well as a return of my funds. Unfortunately, that leaves you and the rest of the Reapers stuck in the middle of this shit. Along with his wife."
I blinked and furrowed my brows, convinced I had misheard. "What?"
"His wife. When he initially told me about her, she was just his girlfriend then, but after meeting her today outside her classroom and seeing that giant rock on her finger -- no doubt paid for with my money--"
"Hold up a second, are you talking about Colette?" I asked him. He nodded. I leaned my head aside and peered. "What the fuck makes you think she's his wife, asshole -- And what the fuck were you even doing up there at her school?" I stepped closer to him, balling my fists and grinding my teeth.
He lowered his eyes down to my hands and shifted his jaw. "You need to calm the hell down, alright? My kid is enrolled in her class."
"Since when?"
"Since my ex became a permanent resident of Culver City a few months back, just like I fucking said," he told me. "Jeremiah's the one who tipped me off about Wayland Academy and Colette, saying that she was one of the best grade school teachers around. I passed the info onto my ex and our kid was enrolled in her class the next day."
"Did Colette know who the hell you were when she saw you?"
"No clue until I told her," he said. "My name anyway, she doesn't know anything else, nor does she need to. Until or unless any of this shit just so happens to go south."
"Is that why you went up there today, to check her out?"
"Something like that," he replied through a chuckle. "But you know, she's a cute one. Looked really good when I saw her today, nice tits and a good ass. I've only had a few chocolate bars in my life, but I guess there'd be no harm in trying another. And if she fits nicely around my cock, well then--"
I pulled back my fist and slammed it into the center of his nose before he had the chance to say another word. Son of a bitch went flying across the lot like a baseball hit during a homerun and landed on the pavement near a pile of engine free bikes. His driver jumped out of the car as soon as he landed and started running toward me while screaming in another language I couldn't understand. He looked the size of a small dog, so when I turned to look him in the face, narrowing my eyes and snarling like an animal in need of a rabies shot, he stopped and started shaking. I snapped my fingers and jutted my chin toward the car, and in the time that it would take a cat to flee from the street as soon as it saw a hungry dog on the loose, he ran back to the driver's side and hopped in, slamming his door shut and locking the rest.
I headed over to Lorenzo as he
rolled over on his side, groaning and clutching his nose with his right hand to keep the blood from gushing out onto his shirt, suit and tie, which were already ruined by dirt and oil from the ground. When he realized it was no use in trying to keep his shit clean, he dropped his hand to the pavement, spit pools of blood from the corner of his mouth and wiped his nose with the sleeve of his jacket.
"This shit cost me five thousand dollars!" he spat, his front teeth clinched.
I stared down at my coveralls and made a face. "This shit cost me five." I dropped down to a squat in front of him and lowered the toe of my right foot on top of his fingers as they lay flat on the ground. He hollered out as the pressure turned his hand dark blue, then I leaned in and hooked my index and middle fingers up into his nostrils. A fighter was never something he was known for being. Handling money and guns was all he and his crew were ever good at doing which is why for so many years he had been hoping to take over a club that would handle all the muscle for him while he sat back looking like the waxed statue of Al Capone. "The chick you've been describing of wanting to spin around your limp cock, motherfucker is my wife, not Jeremiah's. Mine," I emphasized. His eyes grew and his brows lifted. He tried swallowing but couldn't since he was forced to breathe through his mouth and instead coughed up more blood. "You ever come around here saying some shit like that about her again, I will gut you like a motherfuckin' fish, yeah? I don't give a fuck how many assholes you send out here after me in retaliation for it -- I will gut you like a mother. fuckin'. fish. And as far as seeing her again, that shit's not gonna happen either. I find out that you even drove near that school, and it's over for you. Are we clear?" He quickly bobbed his head.
I yanked my fingers out of his nose and he fell straight to his back on the ground. I pushed myself back up to my feet and stood over him. "And the ring she was wearing was bought with money from my own goddamn pocket," I told him. "If my brother did anything with the money he stole from you, it was handing it out to random pussy to help get him off." He rolled his eyes to the corner and tried staring up at me. Then he coughed up more blood and turned his head to the side to spit it on the ground.