by K. J. Dahlen
“No! You know me Jax…” Bruno let his voice fall away.
I knew what he was thinking…’working around the clock is how I grieve, how I survive, how I win in life.’ But despite Bruno’s insistence that he was fine, coupled with his complete contempt for Antonio, he’d still lost a son. His only son. And Bruno had shot him himself. That could hardly sit well with any man.
I wasn’t about to sit around and watch my hero crumble before my eyes when I could do something about it.
Then, a second later, Bruno lifted his shot glass in the air in cheers to me before he took a swig of his whiskey. I should’ve known better. He didn’t give a damn about vacations, or even sleep. As long as his club and business was safe, he was just fine.
Bruno gave me a slight smirk. “Anyway, wouldn’t be fair would it? You’ve never taken a vacation either. You got straight back into work the next day after every job, every killing, every fight, haven’t you? Since the first deaths you were responsible for, it’s always been business as usual the next day. Hasn’t it?” He arched an eyebrow at me.
Although it seemed an innocent enough point for Bruno to be making, something about the way he spoke and looked at me suggested that he was alluding to something else. Something far more biting. I asked myself whether I was just being paranoid about those first deaths I’d always felt I caused…the deaths of Jesse and the two prospects, Max and Danny.
Our conversation went on, but I all I could think about for the next four rounds of drinks was…now that the little bastard Antonito was dead and now Bruno had caught a bullet for me and saved my life, perhaps I should confess to him what really happened that night. With everything, the man had done for me. How could I continue lie to him? I had no more excuses. I used to blame my feud with Antonio on a lot of things. I felt in my heart I couldn’t bullshit Bruno any longer about what happened ten years ago at the factory by the docks. Finally, I reasoned that I could never respect myself as president of his club without telling him the entire truth.
Four whiskey shots later, I decided, balls to the wall that I would tell him… “Bruno, there’s something I’ve gotta let you know,” I declared.
He sat back in his chair with a wide, merry grin on his face.
“No, I’m not bullshitting you, Bruno!”
Bruno crossed his arms over his chest and stared at me, completely serious, as though his intoxicated body was in a flash, wiped of all traces of alcohol. “So?” he asked.
I could feel his eyes burning into mine. “You remember back when I started prospecting for you?”
“I’ll never forget that time in my life.” Bruno’s face remained expressionless.
“Yeah, well there’s something about that time in my life I’ve never told another living soul.”
Bruno frowned and his eyes narrowing on mine. “I’m not sure I follow.”
There was a pause as I hesitated and wiped my forehead on my shirt sleeve. “You remember ten years ago when two prospects from our club and a man from the Bloods died at Askeys grain factory? Well, I’ve always blamed myself becaus—”
“I already know about that, Jax,” Bruno said, sitting forward and slapping his knee.
I froze momentarily as my blood ran cold. My entire body braced itself, half expecting Bruno to hold a gun to my head for what I’d done. He couldn’t know the whole truth or I would have already been in my grave. My stomach burned at the thought of what he would do. He despised bullshit, and I had kept the truth from him for a decade. He detested being lied to, made a fool of, or of anyone who made excuses. He would give it to you straight and he expected the same from others.
His face softened. “After ten years together Jax, finally you decide you want to confess your sin? Max and Danny… Those young ‘rappers,’ as they liked to call themselves. I remember them. I remember them very well. I also know you, maybe better than you think.” He sat back in his chair. “I heard the same rumors you boys did.” He shrugged, and continued, “What? You don’t get to where I was back then without hearing things on the street. Hearing and paying attention to what’s being said.”
“You knew about it?” I asked, confused. How did he know anything about what had happened that night? Why the fuck hadn’t he ever brought this up before if he’d known? More to the point, why hadn’t he put a bullet in my head for what I’d done? It didn’t make any sense to me. Then, I wondered why he still trusted me in spite of what I’d been involved with and for lying to him. Lies by omission were still lies according to Bruno. Like everyone else that deceived and damaged his MC, even Antonio took a bullet. Why not me?
Almost annoyed by his reaction after ten years of guilt plaguing me I said, “You don’t even sound angry. It was real bad what I did.”
“It was a fucking stupid ass thing to do! But it was good and it was bad,” Bruno concluded, reaching for his beer. “I’d have thought you would have come to me a lot sooner, but I’ve always respected the fact that you didn’t run away. That’s the good part. Well, for you. It showed me that even at the age of seventeen that you were a good man. A good man who cared more about his life at his club than his own life itself. I could have killed you for your role in what happened that night. You understand that?”
I nodded in agreement, dumbfounded while still considering the points he just made.
Bruno explained further, “But you decided to brave the guilt and live in fear just to be in my club. You were prepared to accept your fate like a man if the events of that night ever were to ever catch up with you. I always admired you for that. That was when I knew you were more than just talent for my MC. You were a leader.”
“How did you know?”
Bruno chuckled. “Well, the three of you always hung out together. You were inseparable in the early days. You and those two were always scheming on another way to earn the money to buy your first bikes. It was quite entertaining really…until you wound up in deep shit.” Bruno shrugged and then shook his head in mild regret for what had occurred. “Then, there was the way you acted around me in the months after that night. I could only assume you were there together that night. At least, you got out alive. I doubt it those two would have made it into my club anyway.”
I sat there feeling entirely stunned as he spoke.
Bruno grinned slightly, as though he’d been waiting years and years to have this conversation. “So come on, tell me…how did you survive that incident when Dagger from the Bloods’ died? That always rather impressed me.” He sat back in his chair smugly.
“Well, it was Dagger that helped me out of the wreckage. After I was able to scramble free of the debris on top of me, more of the building collapsed ‒ killing him.”
Bruno’s smirk died on his lips as his eyes widened in disbelief. My words hit him like a mac truck. I suppose he never guessed that part
“We weren’t wearing our Devils jackets; we just looked like three young stupid kids. He followed us to stop us but we’d already fallen,” I added. “He followed us down there and ended up dying in my place.”
Bruno laughed in his throat. “You mean to tell me that man helped you out of the kindness of his fucking heart? Oh, please. Let me tell you something, Jax.” He leaned forward in his chair his eyes fixed on mine. “I knew Jesse Mariano back in the day. We used to box together before his MC torched my brother’s business and then killed him.” He paused briefly and bowed his head in respect. “Hell, I would have asked Jesse to join my MC if he weren’t already a member of the Bloods. Tough as steel, his heart was cold as ice. He was a big man, all muscle. Hell, he made me look small. Tough looking, tough talking, and tough acting. You know why they called him Dagger right?” Bruno paused for a beat. “He was a killing machine that would slit the throat of anyone who crossed him and could throw a knife into a man’s heart from fifteen feet away, killing him instantly. God, I would have loved to have a man like that in my MC. Disciplined. Lethal. A real beast.”
My phone rang and I pulled it out of the left pocket of
my jeans. It was Dino. Whenever he called while I was out, I would get a sudden sinking feeling that something terrible may have happened to Chloe.
Holding up one hand in apology to Bruno, I clicked the answer button and put the phone to my ear. Almost instantly, Dino spoke, “The whiskey shipment has been sold! In Coronado. Right under our fucking noses,” he exclaimed, his voice suffused in outrage.
“Fuck,” I hissed under my breath.
Bruno stared at me, puzzled.
I didn’t want to tell him this. If any trade of this scale was going down in my town, I should have known about it. “What do you know?” I asked abruptly. I could feel the heat of the anger rising within Bruno. He knew the news wasn’t good.
Dino explained, “It’s too late to catch them ‒ the buyer or the supplier. Apparently, this happened yesterday morning. Here’s the story…so about an hour ago, I was walking down the high-street to grab some groceries from the supermarket for Chloe. Next thing I know, Vinnie from my poker club knocks on the glass front of a small restaurant on my left. He was sat at a table with his girl. I stepped inside the restaurant to say hello and he casually offered to buy me a drink. I recognized his girlfriend…Molly, Maggie…something or other from about town too.”
I knew the girl Dino was talking about. Maggie Rose. A good looking, leggy chick with red hair. She’d flirted with me for a short spell a few years back, but I always found she was real nosey and loved to gossip. Loose lips would get her in deep shit one day, I’d always predicted – I didn’t want any part of that.
Dino continued to explain, “I said I’d stay for a quick one. Vinnie and I got a beer. Then he asks his girl what she wants and she asks him for a Dalmore 62. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.”
Fuck. We were the only people this side of the US that imported Dalmore 62 whiskey.
Dino continued, “I asked myself whether our whiskey from that stolen shipment had been sold off for cheap. How else could the girl have gotten a taste for it? She works in a clothing store for Christ’s sakes. Vinnie didn’t say a word. As I would expect, he didn’t know what Dalmore 62 was…. Anyway, the second I heard those two words, I clicked the voice recorder on my phone and recorded what the girl said. She saw who sold and purchased the whiskey but there’s not much information to work from. I’ll send the audio recording now…If she knew something about the stolen whiskey, I wasn’t going to miss a word of it. Sorry I couldn’t help more, brother.”
“Thanks, Dino,” I said, before hanging up the phone.
I told Bruno what Dino had told me and he promptly demanded, “Let’s hear it!”
I waited for the recording to show then clicked play…
A faint male voice called over to Vinnie and Maggie. Their voices talked over each other in the foreground. “You’re in the wrong town let alone the wrong restaurant. Dalmore 62…I wish! That’s a good one.”
I supposed the other voice had come from across the room, perhaps from the barman in the restaurant.
“What’s the problem? I just wanna try it. I wanna see what all the fuss is about,” Maggie protested.
“Fuss?” Dino’s voice asked, “What do you mean by that? Have you tried it before?”
“Not yet. All I know is, it can’t hardly be expensive. I saw crates and crates of it being loaded from three shipping containers into a huge truck around the back of Al’s Bargain Clothes store. I work there you know. And I know what I saw,” she insisted.
“What! When did this happen?” Dino asked.
“Yesterday. About eight o clock in the morning.”
“But you saw who took it. Right?”
“I’ve had enough of this, I’m getting a beer,” Vinnie said, his voice trailing off toward the bar, leaving Dino and Maggie talking.
“Tell me what happened and if you saw who took it,” Dino urged, emphatically.
“I saw the guy, yeah. I was having a ciggy out-back before my shift started. A large white truck pulls in. I thought it was bringing clothes for the store. I was going to step off the curb to go over and tell the guy that deliveries of stock for the store should be brought through the side entrance. But I never got the chance.”
“What happened? This is very important,” Dino said.
“The whole thing seemed to have been perfectly coordinated. Four big looking men jump out of the front of the truck; three walk over to the shipping containers, unlock them, and fling the doors wide open. The other guy goes to the back of the truck, opens it up and four more guys jump down from the inside of the vehicle. I stepped back into the shadows and just watched to see what they were doing. I mean this stuff doesn’t happen every day. And the cool thing? None of these guys even saw me.”
“But you said you saw them. Did you see any of the men up close?” Dino asked.
“Yeah, I got a real close look at one of them. Tattooed, tough looking with a military cut. The man appeared at my side asking for a light. Tried to flirt with me but I wasn’t having none of it. I reached for my cigarette box, where I tucked my lighter, and offered it to him so he would go away and he took the lighter too!”
“What?” Dino asked.
“I know! The nerve of some people,” Maggie replied.
“No! I mean the man who approached you. What else did you see of him?”
“Don’t really remember. Oh! But he had the grossest looking hand I’ve ever seen, only four fingers on his left hand!” she shrieked. “He was damn cocky too. ‘Thanks, Darlin.’ He said with a wink. The cigarette wagging in his mouth as he spoke. Then he walked off.
“What a bastard!” Vinnie’s voice came back in.
“Urgh… not my type at all!”
“He better not be,” Vinnie’s voice called.
“Anyway, I had to know what they were up to. I had no idea what those men wanted, but Al is a good boss, if somebody was stealing from him into of those shipping containers I was going to find out who done it. Maybe I’d get a bonus or something, you know?”
“Maggie you fool!” Vinnie exclaimed. “Imagine what those men could have done to you.”
The girl continued, “They were lifting heavy crates and the man who had asked me for a cigarette was busting opening one of them with a crow bar. Anyway, it was broad daylight and I had work to do. So, I pushed a shopping cart to the cart return near the shipping containers. The guys were making so much damn noise they didn’t even hear me.”
Bruno and I looked at each other, seething with anger and shaking our heads at the arrogance of Jumper to do the whole trade in broad fucking daylight. In our own fucking town.
“So, I’m watching everything through the gap between the open door and my side of the container at the far end. The four-fingered man was texting on his phone. As I watched him, I see a posh-looking silver Chrysler with blacked-out windows pull in. A man in a suit steps out and the four fingered man shook his hand. Then he reached down, snagged a bottle from the crate, and pours it into a shot glass. I took a picture of the bottle. Look, you can see on the label, Dalmore 62. I suppose it was a sample or something because the man in the suit gave a nod and then another man got out of the car and hands him a briefcase. I bet there was a bunch of money in there. Or Drugs!”
Dino cut in, “Did you get the number plate or a picture of these men. Who were they?”
“No. But look, I got a shot of the bottle…Its right here. Look.”
Dino let out a frustrated exhale.
“Anyway, in less than half a minute later, the vehicles were gone. It was bizarre.”
….The recording cut out.
“It was Jumper. Jumper sold the shipment.” I shook my head. “Cocky fucker. All that in broad daylight.”
“What the hell is going on? Antonio took the shipment, how the hell did the Bloods get their hands on it?” Bruno snapped.
Shit, I’d forgotten how angry Bruno had been about losing his $200K worth of whiskey. “We figured this out before. For some reason, they were working together.”
Bruno
couldn’t endure that the president of the Bloods’, the club that killed his brother, had just sold his whiskey.
That whiskey operation was the only thing keeping the economics of the club on the straight and narrow and it had worried me for months.
Bruno’s face grew so red with fury I was sure that at any moment blood would explode out of his shoddily stitched-up bullet wound.
We sat in silence for a moment, staring at our beers.
“Jumper is a threat to our business, our lives, and our MC. He came into my fucking town and I didn’t know about it. He needs to go!” I yelled, slamming my fist on the table. Although, it didn’t feel right calling the Black Devils my club. Especially not in the presence of Bruno.
“Jumper needs to be killed. Immediately. He nearly killed you I’m sure of it, and he just sold my whiskey,” Bruno said.
“I can’t track him. He’s hiding out somewhere. We’re going to have to just wait until he appears and be ready.”
Bruno shook his head. “Fuck it. I know what we’re going to do. I won’t lose my club over this and I won’t lose you, Jax. But we need to act fast. My worry is that Jumper could strike again at any time. Our only hope for justice is to get him killed – professionally. You’re going to have to trust me on this one. You won’t like what I have planned but I’ve been in this game a long time. You’re going to have to let me take the lead. What do you say, Jax… one last score for old Bruno?”
I didn’t respond.
“One last job, Jax. To annihilate that son of a bitch. Then, I’ll retire knowing my club is in good hands.”
“What do you have in mind?” I asked reluctantly.
“You’ll see. He’s a dead man! I swear to you.” Bruno gave a long pause then gave me a half smile. “You know I can’t do it without you.”
I snickered. “That’s called emotional blackmail.”
“I’ve built you up over a decade, Jax. I think I’ve earned a little bit of leeway here.”
We finished off the last of our drinks. Even though I didn’t know what it was yet, Bruno’s latest plot didn’t sit right in my gut. I gave a heavy exhale. I had to trust him. “When do we start?” I shouldn’t have promised anything. Not before I knew what this next score was. I’d given my word to Bruno though. Giving my word meant I was bound by it until we saw this operation through.