by Rae B. Lake
“This is bullshit.” I wouldn’t hold a dog in this room, let alone a person. “Where’s this proof you have? We have to make moves. Now.” I’m starting to get agitated, as I can hear people walking around. No one knows we’re here, but there’s no telling when someone will discover us, even if it’s by mistake.
“It’s outside this door, but that’s where the problem is, that area is all open. Even if they don’t know we’re here, they’ll see us. We have to be ready to run.” She says in warning. I can see the apprehension on her face. She knows this will probably be where we get caught. “Remember your promise.” She whispers as we get closer to the door.
“Fuck that. I didn’t promise anything.”
She pulls my arm until I am looking at her, “You really going to let them have me?”
“Cariña, no one is going to do anything to you. Just stay close to me. My bike is on the other side of the compound, so as soon as we get this stuff, we gotta get the fuck out.”
“Ok, ok, I’m with you.”
I open the door, and just like we thought, there are a few people who seem to be walking around, and more in the corner, playing dice. How the fuck are we supposed to get past them without bringing them all down on us?
“Nando, Miralo!” Someone screams, and the whole group of them rush over. I hear the door open. They must have found the man I killed, shit. It’s now or never. We wait for a second, and then we both rush to the fireplace.
“Get this shit and let’s get the fuck out of here.”
Just like Cariña said, there’s a hidden area under the fake logs. She pulls out a large dark brown envelope from underneath. “Here it is.” She rushes back over to me and hands me the envelope. The amount of trust she has in me is incredible. Surely, she must realize I could have killed her the minute she gave me this information.
“Let’s go.” I pull on her hand, and we run over to the door.
I open the door, and right on the stairs is an entire small crew.
“What the fuck is this?”
My brain freezes for a second, but only for a second. I haul back and kick one of them in the face, then jump down and punch another in the face. It knocks him into the rest of his boys, just like a domino.
I look for Cariña and see she’s on the side of the house already, waiting for me. My bike is out the back. I break away from the small group of them and take off. Cariña is right by my side as I run. I hear them screaming in the house that there’s been a breach. I just don’t see how we will make it out of here, but getting caught is not an option.
*pop, pop, pop*
Shots ring out behind us, and I see a few of the Cano’s trying to catch up to us. The only thing I have going for me is the Cano’s will accept anyone at any age into their ranks. None of these little boys know anything about killing a man. They’re just obsessed with the gangster lifestyle. None of them seem to know how to shoot the guns in their hands, but I’m not going to depend on that, though. It only takes one shot.
Surprisingly, we make it to my bike and jump on. I can hear the sound of cars roaring to life behind me.
“Hold the fuck on.” I bark at Cariña. I’m about to push my bitch as fast as she will go. It’s been a long while since I have had to, but I know she can handle it. However, if I run into any obstacles, we’ll be fucked.
I have got to get back to the clubhouse.
I weave in between towns, my cruiser topping out at one hundred and forty miles per hour. The Cano’s keep up with me. Shots ring out from time to time, but they aren’t hitting anywhere near me. I don’t even have the time to turn around to see how close they are. All my attention is on where I’m going. Wiping out at this speed would kill Cariña and me. I won’t give them the satisfaction.
I want to figure out a way to warn the boys at home, but again I don’t have the time. All I can do is hope I’m far enough ahead of the Cano’s that I’ll be able to get inside before they catch up with us.
We’re on the road for a solid fifteen minutes at this speed. We pass several cop cars, guns going off, and pedestrians having to jump out of the way any time one of the cars behind me swerves out of control. Not one of them even attempts to chase us down. This is Puerto Rico. There are more corrupt cops here than there are good ones. They’re all probably on Fernando’s payroll.
That isn't the only problem, though. It seems like every little town we pass, the number of Cano’s following us grows. They’re gathering reinforcements.
I’m bringing a whole army to my home.
Finally, I make it back to the neighborhood. I can see the large stone building on the opposite side, and I know I’m almost home free. The Cano’s must know that as well, as they speed up, and the shots get closer.
*ding, ssssssss*
“Mierda!” I look down and can see a spray of dark liquid coming from my bike. A plume of dark smoke rises from my back tire, and when I look down at my display, I see that instead of the one hundred and thirty I was just doing, my speed has dropped drastically to ninety. I can see the whites of the Cano’s eyes in the car behind me. All he has to do is put his foot on the gas, and Cariña and I will be under his front bumper.
“AZ!” Carina screams from behind me as the fucker bumps us from behind.
“Hold on. Just hold on.” I yell back and throttle up as much as I can.
I hear another engine rev up and then a loud crash of metal. My head whips around for a second, thinking the car behind me lost control. I’m stunned at what I see. It’s the townspeople. They’re throwing rocks, pushing cars and carts in the way of the procession of cars behind us. None of it’s stopping them, but it is slowing them down. My town has my back.
Mi gente.
Now there’s space. I push my bike as hard as I can. It sputters and groans, but those wheels keep spinning.
I ride up the final hill and almost cry when I see a line of my brothers in front of the clubhouse. Guns are drawn, ready to take everyone down.
“Azriel, straight through.” Digger bellows as he holds the front door open for me. I don’t even stop my bike. I just ride it in. Once inside, I hear the continuous popping of guns and tires squealing to a stop.
“Cariña, stay behind the bar with Oro and the rest of the women,” I order before I run back outside to help my brothers.
“AZ, what the fuck is this shit?” Lobo yells as he pops off another two shots.
“Cano’s. She wasn’t lying. I got the proof, and Fernando ain’t going to let me keep it.” I see another two little gangsters trying to move to the side of the building. They’re trying to flank us.
“Bastardos…ser fuerte!”
Vado yells and moves forward, shooting everything in his line of vision.
“Ah, fuck!” Gorro goes down, a gaping hole in his upper chest.
Even with all the brothers, we are still outnumbered. Even if they aren’t hitting shit but the side of the building, we’re still pinned down.
Every time I look up, they seem to be getting closer and closer. A loud whistling sound slices through the air and the sound of a body falls to the ground. Another, then another.
“What the hell is that?” I ask, confused as fuck as to how these bastards are just randomly getting shot and in the head at that.
“They got a fucking sniper!” One of the Cano’s screams.
Sniper?
I turn to look at Vado, who looks just as confused as I am.
“Fuck me, that is the sexiest shit I have ever seen in my life.” Luis, one of my patch brothers, says. My eyes follow to where his are trained.
“Oh, shit.” I can only see the long barrel clearly, but that honey brown mop of curly hair belongs to one of our girls.
Joda.
Another body falls, another headshot. The girl who makes most of her money acting like a baby is lighting these motherfuckers up.
I hear shots coming from behind us.
“Fuck! They are in the damn clubhouse!” Lobo says, and he runs back in.
Bodies are littered in front of us, but it seems like Fernando put in a call to every one of his fucking factions on the island. They’re coming from everywhere.
“Vado, we gotta get inside. We can hunker down. They won’t be able to get in.” The walls of the clubhouse are all stone, and if worse comes to worst, we can all take one of the tunnels from the hidden rooms out to the other side of the property. We’ll have a better chance of getting away from inside the clubhouse.
“Joda, get your ass inside now!” Vado screams up at our guardian angel before he ducks and runs in. I follow right behind.
We all make our way inside and bolt down the doors. They’re going to need to set a few bombs off to get inside this clubhouse from the front. Unfortunately, the area that leads to Seda isn’t as secure as the front. There are at least a dozen Cabos in the clubhouse, all trying to take us out.
Oro is behind the bar with the girls and an AK-47 in his hands. He is taking out as many as he can as they try to filter in through the back doors.
“Stand the fuck down!” A voice I don’t recognize screams through my clubhouse. I turn toward it and see Fernando’s gold plated gun pressed against Vado’s head.
“Mother fuck!” Lobo turns his gun to Fernando, and just as he does, one of the Cabos turns their gun on him. Suddenly, instead of a gunfight where we held our own, now we are all detained at gunpoint.
“You fucking assholes. You don’t know when to leave shit alone, do you? No one was worried about your old asses. Yet you had to show up on my shit with my old bitch. You’re just looking for a bullet in your heads, aren’t you?”
“You talk a lot of shit, Fernando,” Vado says, completely poised and calm.
“Shut the fuck up!” Fernando hits him with the butt of his gun, forcing him back a step.
“Bastardos…Morir bien.” Lobo orders.
This is it. There’s no way we all leave here alive.
I keep my finger on the trigger, ready to squeeze at any second. Out of the corner of my eye, I see a flash of brown hair.
“Pendejo!”
“Cariña, no!” I scream, my gun swinging in the direction she’s racing toward.
“What the fuck?” Fernando turns quickly, pushing Vado and trying to swing the gun toward the new threat, but he isn’t quick enough. Cariña jams a large knife into Fernando’s gut before he can push her away.
“Puta!” Fernando cries as he cradles his hands around the knife sticking out of his gut. “What the fuck you just standing there for? Kill her!” He screams, his voice squeaking with emotion.
“No! Listen to me! German! Pito! Josue! Listen to me! El es una rata! He is working with the CIA. He’s playing all of you.” She speaks quickly, knowing she doesn’t have much time.
The vibe of the room changes instantly, from charged up with homicidal intent toward us, to confusion and tension toward their leader. I watch as the eyes that are supposed to be focused on the RBMC flick between Fernando and Cariña.
“You know me. I’ve been around for years. I’ve seen more than any of you have ever wanted me to see, but the proof Basilio found was enough for Fernando to kill his uncle to make sure you didn’t find out.”
No shots fired. Cariña might actually pull this shit off.
Fernando is the leader for the entire Juracanos Gang on the island, but where there is a leader, there are always those who want to take it over. Seems like these three, German, Pito, and Josue, were the ones to do just that.
“Don’t listen to that bitch. She’s a liar. You dirty cunt!” Fernando turns his gun on Cariña, but just as he does, one of his men puts a gun to his head.
“De que esta hablando?” he asks.
“What the fuck, Ricky? How the fuck should I know what she’s talking about? I had to kill Basilio because he was going to try to take over. Maybe that’s what this bitch is spewing about. She wants her place on top. Now that Basilio ain’t here, she knows I’m going to end her life!”
“The fuck you are!” I growl.
“Rosie, you got three seconds to prove that shit.” The man next to me, I think his name is Pito, says.
Cariña runs over to where I am and puts her hand into my cut. Pito’s hand twitches and the gun pointed at me moves in her direction. She keeps his eye and slowly pulls out the large brown envelope I’d stashed in my inside pocket. She opens it and shows him the photos and paperwork.
Photo after photo of Fernando coming out of the police station. Written and signed paperwork. Hand-drawn maps of the insides of several gang dens. Full names and photos of various members of the Cano’s gang, photos of Fernando in the holding cell with several police members. It was ridiculous how much evidence was right there in that little folder.
“Wait, here, listen to this.” Cariña dumps the envelope onto the floor, and she drops down to her hands and knees in front of me, looking for something. Finally, she finds it. It’s a small SD card. “Your phone?” she puts her hand out, and the man gives her his phone. She inserts the SD card, and within a minute, she’s playing audio of Fernando’s voice. We can hear him clear as day giving exact locations and names of who would be at a pick up. He even described one of his soldiers, down to the color of his fucking eyes. There was no doubt now.
“You’re a rat,” German says, and the guns once trained on us all swing toward Fernando.
I bend down and pull Cariña to stand behind me.
The Cano gang is imploding, and it’s all going down right here inside my clubhouse.
“This is bullshit! How can you listen to her! I started all of this. You were nothing before I brought you up, Pito! Kill them now! Kill them!” Fernando screams at his men. His breath is coming fast, and tears are threatening to fall from his eyes. He’s fucked, and we all know it.
Two loud pops sound out, “Ahh!” Fernando screams as he falls to the ground, the muscles in his legs ragged and exploding out of the holes in each of his legs.
Vado’s gun is still smoking as he speaks.“Crawl on your stomach like the snake you are.”
“Malvado, seems like we have our shit to deal with. You got a space where we can handle this trash?” Pito speaks, as he, German, and Josue follow behind Fernando. The rest of the Cano’s follow behind the three of them.
“Yeah. Oro, take them to the farm.”
“You got it, Vado.” Oro hands Digger his AK and walks with the Cano’s to the side of the compound where they’d be able to get to the cleared field.
Within seconds, all of the Cano members have cleared out of the clubhouse, and all that’s left is the destruction of a gunfight that should’ve ended in our death.
“AZ, I gave you an order.”
Vado’s eyes are clear and focused.
They are locked on the woman who is clinging to my back for dear life.
I look around at my brothers. Garro is still bleeding like a stuck pig no matter how much Millicent tries to help him, but Vado is more concerned about what I’m going to do with Cariña.
“En Serio?” I try to keep my wits. I can’t believe this is what he is thinking about now. The woman just pretty much disbanded one of our largest threats, she saved his life, and she’s obviously not a threat, yet he is still going on about her.
“AZ, I don’t give a fuck what happened afterward. I told you to take her the fuck up that mountain and kill her. Tell me, how is it possible for her to be standing here in front of me when she’s supposed to be dead? How you do that?” Vado moves in closer to where I stand.
My fists ball up, and for the first time since I have become a member of the Royal Bastards MC, I want to kill this motherfucker. I know the second I raise my hand, I'll have at least four bullets in my head from everyone around me. My thoughts turn to giving up. I can easily take off my cut and deal with Jameson later, but I decide against that. I’m as much a part of this crew as he is, maybe even more. When shit needs to get done, I’m the one they call. When people need killing, it’s me who handles it. I’ve never had an issue fo
llowing orders before, no matter how fucked up it is. But this, this is wrong. I could be biased because the woman has been blessing me with some of the best pussy I’ve ever had in my life, but the punishment doesn’t seem to fit the crime in this case. Yeah, she fucking lied, and yeah, she could still have an ulterior motive, but the woman just saved his ass, and this is the way he chooses to thank her by demanding I still follow through on his order.
“You need to rethink what you asked me to do.”
“I don’t need to do shit.” Vado walks closer to me, the rest of the crew walking behind him. They would support him to the end, and if that means having to go through me, then that’s what they will do.
“Jesus Santisimo!” Cariña snatches herself away from my back and tries to step in front of me. I reach back and hold her firm. “AZ, let go of me.” She tugs again, and when I turn to look at her, I can see that she isn’t scared but pissed.
One thing I know, never piss off a Latina.
I let her go, and she moves to stand right in front of me. “Vado, you want me dead, you do it.”
“You are not in a position to give me orders.”
“No, I’m not. All I know is you have a real fucking problem with me, and it’s personal. I don’t know what it is but if me saving your ass and your club is not enough to exonerate me, then fuck it, you do it.”
Vado’s eyes are clear and deadly, the clear blue seemingly frozen over. “Why didn’t you help him?” he asks, never once taking his eyes off her.
“Neno?” she asks.
I ease up a bit. Neno is Vado’s baby brother. He thinks she had something to do with his death.
“Si, mi hermano, why didn’t you help him?”
She shakes her head in response, “I tried, I swear I did, Vado. They overpowered me. There was nothing that I could do.”
“No, not then. Then it was too late; by then, it was a lost cause. But my Neno was a good kid. He was in college, and he loved life. When his life ended, he was a strung-out junkie with more track marks on his arms than skin. He was nothing like the brother I knew, and I couldn’t get to him, I was locked up. My brothers here didn’t know where to find him, but here you tell me you were with him when he died. Por que no lo ayudaste?”