by K. J. Dahlen
“Conrad Bane is making a name for himself in this town. He’s tied to the Benali cartel in Mexico and the Ratz in Louisiana. I don’t know what these ties are but I’ve heard he’s tight with both groups.” Charlie wrote and pushed the paper toward Bull.
Bull glanced at her after he read what she wrote. “How do you know this?”
Charlie shrugged. “It’s just a thing you hear on the streets. Everyone knows it but they don’t talk about it, well they do, but only among themselves never to strangers.”
“So because it’s a rumor it must be true?” Tank snorted.
Charlie turned her head and glared at him as she wrote furiously, “I saw the people he associated with. I’ve watched him for two months. I knew the faces of the people he saw.”
“How does a girl like you know the Benali cartel?” Hawk asked quietly.
“They come and go and people on the street talk.” She wrote in the notebook. “They come by boat from the border region of Texas, Mexico to Texarkana via the Red River and while the bosses talk, the Ratz unload the boats.”
Just then, Mustang joined them at the table with a laptop in his hands. “I couldn’t find much on Bane but I did find these pictures.” He swung the laptop around so the others could see what he found.
Charlie shivered but couldn’t make herself look at the pictures.
There were photos taken on the beach. Conrad was with three lovely model thin women. They were all barely dressed and Conrad was holding a cigar in his hand. He was about six foot tall with dark hair and dark eyes. His skin was dark and he didn’t have much chest hair. One shot showed the man’s bare chest. His eyes were hidden by sunglasses and the only clothing he wore was a swim suit.
Bull stared at the man in question for a moment. He could feel the rage growing inside him again and he resented it. Just as he was about to look away from the photos, he saw a shadow on the man’s chest. He frowned and studied the photo more intently.
Looking over at Mustang he asked, “Can you enlarge this photo focusing on Bane?”
Mustang hissed. “I can try.”
“Did you see something?” Judge asked.
“Maybe…” Bull muttered.
Mustang worked his magic and soon, the only thing they could see in the screen was Conrad Bane. The shadows were magnified but one shadow stood out. It seems it wasn’t a shadow at all rather it was a tattoo of some sort.
The longer he studied it the more familiar it became. Suddenly, it clicked where he’d seen the mark tattooed on Conrad Bane’s chest. “Son of a bitch!” Bull swore and pushed back his chair at the same time. He gripped the edge of the table in preparation of flipping it but never quite lifted it.
“What do you see that we don’t?” Judge demanded.
“Look at his fucking chest and tell me that isn’t the same tattoo Salim had on his chest?” Bull demanded. “Then look at his left wrist. Do you see it? They also share the same fucking birthmark. Haling made sure he checked every body personally until he found that fucking birthmark, so he would know which one of the dead was Salim.”
Judge and Hawk frowned as they studied the mark on Bane’s chest. Then they stared at the man’s left wrist. On his wrist was the dark red stain that matched the same one Salim had. They swung around and faced Bull. “If we did, it would be a lie and you know it. What the fuck is going on here? Why does Conrad Bane and Salim Malik share the same tattoo and birthmark?”
“Does this place have a printer?” Mustang asked.
Bull nodded and gave him the wifi password.
A few minutes later, Mustang had printed off a copy of the photograph of Conrad Bane. Then he began a search of the man in question. After twenty minutes or so, his frown deepened and he looked at Judge. “Boss, there’s something funny going on here.”
“What do you mean?” Judge asked.
“I mean the information I’ve found on Conrad Bane only goes back seven years. I can’t find anything about the man before then.”
Bull snapped his head around and glared at Mustang. “What the fuck does that mean?”
Mustang pointed at the picture of the man in question. “The man we know as Conrad Bane didn’t exist in this country before seven years ago. I found his passport entry but I can’t get more info from that. I don’t know who he is or was, but I have more digging to do. He should have more records somewhere. He had an entry into the United States but that was in the year 2009. He entered on a visa that only lasted a year and there is no exit anywhere I can find. Whoever he is, the man is here illegally.”
Bull rolled his eyes. “Well, that doesn’t surprise me much. Customs and ICE doesn’t pay attention to their jobs very well.”
“Yeah well, we have to find out exactly who he is and why he’s got the same tattoo as Salim had,” Judge stated. “And we need to do it quickly before he can find us or rather Bull. If Charlie is right, he’ll be looking for Bull.” He turned to Bull and asked, “Where did he want you to meet him?”
Bull shrugged. “He said he was at a hotel downtown. He has a suite there or something like that. I wasn’t really paying attention because his meeting wasn’t going to happen.”
Bull’s phone rang again and when he pulled it out of his pocket, he frowned. Looking up at Judge again he said, “The bastard is calling again.”
“Answer it,” Judge urged.
“Hello,” Bull answered.
“This is Conrad Bane and I don’t suggest you hang up on me again.” He snarled.
“What the fuck do you want with me?” Bull demanded. “I’ve already told you the contract with Smokey died when he died. As far as I’m concerned, we have nothing to talk about.”
“Oh, but we do.” Conrad growled. “Smokey assured me the contract was good and I extended him a line of credit on the agreement you shared with him.”
“Well, I can’t help it if you didn’t read the document before handing over the green. So not my fault and now, you can’t collect it from Smokey so it looks like you’re out the money,” Bull stated.
“But I won’t be out anything,” Conrad told him with a chuckle. “I’ll get my money back from betting on your next fight, and the fight after that for the next year. I might let you go then but we’ll see about that when the time comes.”
“But I’m not fighting anymore,” Bull insisted.
“Oh yes, I think you are.” Conrad chuckled evilly. “Because if you don’t, I will tear this town apart until you come to me and if you make me wait too long, I’ll be very upset. Innocent people will die and it will be all your fault. Their blood will be on your hands.”
“No their blood is all on you, you bastard.” Bull growled.
“I’m giving you fair warning.” Conrad snarled. “I’ll give you seventy two hours before the mayhem begins. Not a moment longer. After that, I’ll burn this fucking town down to the ground.” Conrad ended the call.
Bull was so enraged he wanted to throw his phone but he didn’t. He did slam it down on the table. “That rat bastard,” he yelled.
“What did he say?” Hawk asked.
“He’s giving me seventy two hours to come to him or he going to burn this city to the ground and innocent people will die because of it.” Bull had to fight to keep his temper.
“Can we tip off the police?” Tank asked.
Charlie shook her head and began writing a message down in the notebook.
Bull looked over at her and read what she wrote. Then he growled. “Charlie says he owns the cops in this town, not only cops but judges and lawyers too. Here and Texarkana.”
Judge crossed his arms over his huge chest and glared at her. “What would Charlie like us to do about this?” he asked snidely. “She seems to know more about what’s going on here than we do.”
Charlie glared at the man but didn’t say or write anything else. Instead, she gave him the finger.
It was a gesture Judge didn’t appreciate. He growled and took a step toward her and Charlie scrambled to get to her feet.
She wouldn’t run from him but she was going to show him she wasn’t scared of him either, even if he was over a foot taller than she was.
Bull got between them quickly enough. He looked at one then the other. “We don’t need this right now.”
In the silence that followed, Mustang called out, “Hey guys, I might have found something interesting here.”
Everyone’s attention turned to the other man.
Mustang looked up from his laptop with an evil like grin on his face. “You know that tattoo on Bane’s chest? The reason Salim had one like it is because it’s an old family tattoo. Every male in the Malik line has one. They earn it when they become a man at the age of fifteen.” Mustang shook his head. “What a fucked up family the Malik’s are. To earn the tattoo the boys have this ritual they have to complete. They have to add to the family wealth by taking something valuable from an enemy. Usually, their lives along with a trophy of some kind.”
“How the hell did you find that out?” Tank asked with an astonished expression on his face.
“I have my ways,” Mustang smiled. “They may not be legal but they’re there if you know where to look.” He shrugged. “I know where to look. Sue me.”
“And if you get caught?” Tank growled.
“I’ve never been caught yet.” He grinned. “And I don’t plan too. I know how to hide my searches and I don’t share the info I go after.”
“Did you find out who this bastard is?” Bull demanded.
Mustang nodded. “His real name is Adhir Malik. He’s Salim older brother by two years. Old man Malik had four sons and each one is worse than the last. The two remaining brothers, Adoma and Makam are back on their home ground working with Adhir to solidify the pipeline. They ship the drugs out and Adhir brings them into this country.” Mustang turned to Bull. “I don’t think he’s looking to make money off your fights. He’s been looking to take the whole team out for killing Salim and for daring to disrupt the pipeline, his major moneymaker. We’ve been dodging attempts on our lives for a while now.”
“You guys too?” Bull asked. “I’ve had a couple close calls myself but chalked it up to being in the wrong place and the wrong time. I never once thought of a connection to Salim. I didn’t know he had family over here.”
“We still need proof that the drugs are coming into this country via the cartel and being disturbed by the River Ratz,” Hawk stated. “We need that proof before we can go to anyone with any power to stop this.”
“Maybe we can get Senator Ritcher involved in this.” Judge threw out his name. “It might be worth political points for him to stop a drug pipeline in his state.”
No one noticed Charlie shaking her head or the fact that her hands were shaking and her eyes filled with dread.
Chapter Five
While the others began collecting evidence, Bull stared down at the street below. Everything was quiet at the moment but he didn’t trust Conrad Bane or the Ratz to keep the peace. He knew Conrad was trying to find him and that he wouldn’t stop until Bull was standing in front of him.
The rage he felt growing inside him was banked at the moment but Bull knew it wouldn’t stay that way if something else bad happened in his town. He thought of Smokey and his girlfriend. Smokey had been close to sixty and ready to retire when Bull met him three years ago.
Smokey worked with him building his body back up after his injury. It had taken him a year and a half to get his body back in prime shape and then another half a year to make the fighting ring. This last year, both Bull and Smokey made money from the fights and Bull was well on his way to making the heavyweight championship. He only needed two more fights and he could take home the belt. Now he would never know. But that didn’t matter, Bull discovered.
What did matter was that Smokey was gone and someone had killed him over a stupid piece of paper. Well maybe, it was a little more than that but his past shouldn’t have cost Smokey his life.
Bull glanced back over his shoulder and glanced at Charlie. She was sitting back on the bed with her arms wrapped around her knees, rocking back and forth. She didn’t seem to be looking at anyone in particular but instead, she was drawn into her own memories.
Bull frowned and turned to join her on the bed. As he sat down next to her, he cupped her chin and drew her gaze up to him.
Charlie’s eyes were unfocused for a moment but then she noticed him sitting there. She stared at him for a moment then reached for her notepad. Scribbling for a moment, she showed him what she’d written.
Bull frowned as he read her words, then he stared at her for a moment. “Are you sure of this?”
Charlie nodded.
“Absolutely sure?” Bull insisted.
Charlie nodded again.
“And how are you so sure?”
Charlie grabbed her notebook and wrote something more down. Turning the notebook back to him, Bull read her words and swore when he was done.
Turning to Judge, he yelled at the other man, “Commander, we got a problem.”
Judge looked at Bull and Charlie and said in a weary voice, “What now?”
“Charlie says she’s seen Ritcher in Conrad’s company,” Bull announced.
“How do we know that’s true?” Hawk asked.
Charlie growled and wrote something in her book. Tapping on the page, she waited for Bull to read her statement. “I DON’T LIE.”
Bull read her words and shrugged. Facing his men he told them, “I believe her. I think she knows more about this than we do and we should at least listen to what she has to say.”
“I think maybe she’s hiding a very big piece of the puzzle here and I don’t like it,” Judge commented as he stomped closer to where they were. “I don’t think she’s being completely honest with us and I find it hard to trust her without all the facts. After all, why would Commander Seth Ritcher have anything to do with a man like Conrad Bane? When he was in the military, he was as straight as they come. I can’t believe all of a sudden, he would turn completely around and become dirty.” He paused for a moment then had to ask, “How did she see all of this anyway? Bane and the Ratz, the cartel, Ritcher in Bane’s company? It just seems too much of a coincidence for me. For one thing, we don’t know anything about her and I can’t trust someone I don’t know. I’m gonna need proof of this so called connection before I’ll consider what she has to say.” Shaking his head he continued, “We barely know her name, let alone anything else about her.”
Charlie began scribbling in the notebook. Then she handed it to Bull and turned her back to the room. Hot tears rolled down her cheeks and she closed her eyes to shut out the pain.
Bull got to his feet and stomped over to where Judge and the others were standing. “This is bullshit and you know it.” He growled. “She’s only trying to help.”
Judge shook his head. “That’s not how we work and you fucking know it. We only trust what we can prove. We have no reason to take her word for anything. Like I said before, we barely know her name. We don’t know her story, where she comes from, how she knows the players or what the help happened that got her beat up. Now she tells us someone we know and have trusted in the past is in cahoots with drug runners and cartel? I find that just a little bit hard to swallow.” He looked around at his men then turned back to Bull. “We were a team back in the day. No one could touch us we were so close. We fought the good fight and we would still be doing it if Salim hadn’t fucked us over. After the ambush, we were sent home with two dead bodies and more questions than answers. You went your own way which was what you had to do at the time while the rest of us began our own battle against the drug trade here at home. It took us four very long years to find out what little we have now.” Judge stepped in closer. “Don’t forget, you called us in this remember? Yeah, she’s helping us connect the dots and all but until I know for sure she’s not gonna fuck us over, I can’t take what she says as gospel. She was right about Conrad Bane but I find it hard to believe that Seth Ritcher would give up his soul to
the man in question.”
Bull reached up and began rubbing the back of his neck. “Yeah, that doesn’t make sense to me either. Ritcher was always so straight laced when I knew him.” He turned and looked over his shoulder at Charlie. When he looked back at the others he said in a quiet tone, “I know you have issues with her but there’s something about her that I trust. I know it doesn’t make any difference in the long run but my gut is telling me to protect her. She needs us to believe in her.” Spreading his arms out wide he said, “She needs someone to believe in her and that someone is gonna be me.”
Judge shook his head. “We need time to see if what she’s telling us is true or not. If it is, we can make our plans.” He paused the narrowed his eyes at Bull. “Is that acceptable to you?”
Bull stared at the man for a long minute then nodded slowly. “It will have to be won’t it?”
“Why don’t you try and get my information on this girl, the more we know about her the better we’ll feel about her,” Hawk suggested. “Talk to her while we check deeper into the backgrounds of the players involved, or at least the ones we know about.”
Mustang went over to his computer and began typing. “I’ll look deeper into Bane. There has to be more about the man.”
“Go back further than five years and see how long he’s been here,” Judge told him. “I think this route has been set up longer than five years.”
Mustang nodded and continued to type in commands.
Judge looked over at Wild Child. “I need to know more about the cartel they are using.”
Wild Child nodded and began searching out the Benali cartel on his laptop.
Judge looked at Tank. “Check out the members of the River Ratz gang.” Then Judge turned to Hawk, “I need you to check on Ritcher. Charlie says he’s partners with Bane, I need to know if that’s true or not. If it is, then what happened to us after the ambush needs to be made public. It’s time we had those answers.”
“That will be my pleasure.” Hawk snarled. “And if I find out it’s true, I’ll hunt down the son of a bitch myself and pull his confession out of his guts.”