by Amber Burns
“Not cops,” I said once the noise stopped. “Just consider us concerned citizens that want you guys to fuck off our stretch of highway.”
“This shit is going to cost money to replace,” his voice rose an octave. “You’re going to pay--”
“We ain’t payin’ for shit, motherfucker,” Coleman snarled. “We here to tell you to fuck off, now take the hint and fuck off before we hurt your dumbass.”
“There are ten of you and more of us,” someone hollered from inside the building. “You’re telling us to fuck off? You’re on our turf!”
“Correction,” I smirked, liking the intimidation that Coleman’s deep snarl had added. “You’re on our turf. Also, what you see isn’t always what you get. I know for a fact that you’re down two,” I made a show of messing with the obvious scrape on the side of my head. “I’m pretty sure that means there’s more people out here with better aim here then you know. So, the real question is, do you want to stand the chance to lose more people? Or do you want to be men and accept you got yourself into something you didn’t expect.”
“If this is part of your turf,” the man before us started, his hand still up as if he were going to placate us. “Where does your territory end?”
“We claim the highway, you’re free to keep this city,” I offered. “The only hitch is I got people out here that are Boneyard by association. If you start trouble, it’ll bring us to your door step.”
“And what brought you to our door now?” he eyed me and started to backtrack a little bit. “This is the first word I heard about Boneyard Brotherhood. No one said shit when we first set up shop here. We’ve been here a year. Why are you just now coming to complain?”
“We have business on this road,” I rolled my shoulder. “When I went to check on said business two of your people tried to hold us up. You shoot at people you don’t know you’re not going to walk away from the confrontation. The difference between us,” I motioned between the two of us as if it were just he and I in the conversation. “Is we don’t have the desire to bring the cops to our door. But, after having to put down two of yours, it was determined that you need to be set straight.”
“So,” he nodded. “That’s where Bill and Andy are? You put ‘em down?”
“In our defense,” I shrugged. “They asked for it.”
“So, this,” he motioned to the lot of us. “Is to see whether or not we’re asking to be put down? And you said you don’t want to get the cops attention? Seems like this,” he gestured to the shot out windows. “Is going to get the attention of the cops. Aren’t you breaking your own code by shooting up my club there, son?”
“You’d think that, but given the positioning of your clubhouse, what are the chances that the sheriff will ride by here unless they were tipped off?” I smirked at him, “I could’ve tipped them off instead of making the long ride out here. I’m betting you are serving alcohol without a license. There’s a good chance that there are illegal substances in there, too. What’re the chances your poison of choice is meth?” I rubbed my jaw as I seemed to consider it. “But what’s the fun in that?”
“It’s just more fun to throw your dicks around and look like you’re better than everyone here?” He sniffed, rubbing his nose. “We’re not moving. Given the fact that you’re saying you claim the road, we will not keep you from using it. All that considering you’ve killed two of our men and shot out the windows of our club,” he shrugged. “If that’s not good enough for you fuckers I sure would hate to see just where this would go.”
I glanced at Martinez, and he gave me the side eye, this seemed like what we came here for.
“You copy that?” I asked to the man who was listening in my ear.
“Who you talking to?” He looked confused as if he finally realized there was a blue tooth ear piece on my head.
“You get all the windows blown out?” Wilson gruffly asked.
“All of them,” I assured him. “He pulled a gun, but obviously didn’t pull the trigger. All the gunfire was from our end, not theirs,” I shrugged lightly because it hadn’t been the first time I had a gun pointed at me. “Did you want us to shoot someone while we were here?”
“Who the fuck are you talking to?” the man looked indignant as if I refused to answer him.
“Tell him that this is the only warning he’ll get from us,” Wilson’s voice was a low growl. “Give us anymore issue and Crazy Aces won’t be an issue for anyone else.”
I straightened and leveled a look at the guy that was in front of me, “What’s your name, man?”
His expression seemed to relax and tapped on the patch on his left side of his cut, “They call me Screech.”
“I didn’t ask for a dumbass nickname. What’s your fucking name?” I barked, managing a straight face even though I was entertained.
“Stan,” he said, the grin that had been on his face melting. “Do I get to know who you were talking to? And who you are for that matter?”
I tapped on my own cut where the patch announced my name, “Cole. You don’t get to know who I was talking to. If you do find out it’s probably going to mean game over.”
“Hey man,” Stan kept his easy going expression, “Hopefully this fuss can be the start of a great friendship between our clubs.”
I smirked slightly because I doubted that.
“Don’t hassle old people. I’ll fuck you up. You’ll go from being Screech to being a grease stain on the road.” I gave him a nod, like I didn’t just threaten him. “We won’t ask for no tax and offer no violence as long as you realize that you have to coexist with us and the people that live in your community. The sooner you stop trying to bend people to your rule, the better things will be.”
“Yea,” Stan still had a grin on his face, though I saw a tick in his jaw. Something told me this wasn’t over. This seemed to go over entirely too easily. “Yea, I got you. We’ll behave, and we can coexist,” he threw a horrible salute back at me. “If you’ll forgive me, fellas, we got a mess to clean up. I guess we’ll see you when we see you?”
He raised an eyebrow at me, and there was something about his stance and the set of the shoulders that made me realize that he was saying one thing but meaning something entirely different.
“We’ll be in touch,” I said grimly as I hefted up my helmet to put it back on. Then, I kicked my motorcycle to life, and a chorus of growls followed mine. I walked my bike backward then turned it back onto the road.
“What do you think?” Wilson asked me as our group got back onto the road.
At first, I wasn’t sure I heard it, but I answered in a light shout, “This ain’t over.”
“You don’t think so?”
“Fucker is two faced, he was saying what he thought we wanted to hear,” I glanced at the guy riding to my left and spotted Miller. “If and when we do runs we’ll need a group to do it. It’s not safe for anyone to do solo.”
“Let’s wait and see how fucking stupid they are. Keep an eye out to make sure you’re not being followed. We’ll meet at the yard,” Wilson didn’t say much else, just ended the call.
I grimaced, the wait and see attitude was going to get someone hurt. I gave the guy to my right a cautious glance. His expression was exposed and looked pensive. I had to wonder if this was something he expected when he joined us. After this, it would be time to see if he could hack the serious side of the Boneyard.
26
“No one got hurt,” Tillman said as we started to flow into the clubhouse. “On either side. This is a good thing.” His optimism wasn’t something I felt. “Get in out of the cold. Cindy has a beer waiting for you. Stick around, the night ain’t over. We’re gonna talk about what went on and the impressions you fuckers got.” He gave me a hard look, “Make sure everyone stays even after they drained their snakes and taken off their vests. This meeting is mandatory.”
I nodded, not willing to argue because I wanted to see what all of them had to say. We had made it back without any signs of a tail
. Martinez had drifted to the back of the pack with Hernandez and Jones, I thought to keep an eye on our rear. I didn’t ask him to do it, but the initiative was appreciated. In reality, it was more along the lines of keeping us all safe. If someone were to ride up on top of us we were vulnerable, they could either plow into us with a larger vehicle or open fire. Either way, it would lead to a lot of us dead.
It was something that crossed my mind, the only reason I kept to the front of our pack was because I had been dubbed leader of this mission. One of the flaws to being named Enforcer. I was satisfied with the willingness to some of these guys to step up and protect their brothers. That’s probably the mentality that brought them to the military and then onto us when they finished their service.
I turned to look at Wilson, my eyes narrowing as I watched him listen to the report from Jones. His expression was hard, his eyebrows down. To any outsider, he may have looked pissed. But I could tell he was taking every bit of information the man in front of him was giving him.
“Come in,” Tillman lingered at the door. “No one is getting out of here until a full meeting is done.”
“Some of these guys have jobs,” I said after a length. “A lot of them work the shop. What time does the shop open?” I looked to Hernandez, drifting back to the conversation with Redding.
“Ten,” he said with a slight shrug before lifting an arm to spy at his watch. “It’s four am, that’s four to five hours worth of sleep. We’ve had worse sleep schedules.”
“I’ll call Sid,” Tillman pulled out his phone. “The shop can be closed for a day.”
“Might seem obvious if they do contact the police,” I started to argue. “I wouldn’t trust that fucker further than I could throw him.” I was moving towards Tillman with the intent of cutting off his call to Redding. “Keep the shop open.”
“It’s not going to hurt anything to close the shop one day out of our usual schedule. Sid is there every day. If there are any regular customers they are aware of his issues,” Tillman waved me off as if my concerns weren’t legitimate. “They can assume that it came to a head to the point that he wasn’t able to open the shop. I’ll tell him this, and he’s smart enough to create a reason for the shop to be closed. Give the guy some credit.”
“I’m not questioning Redding,” I snapped.
“Good,” he nodded towards the main part of the clubhouse. “Start getting reports from your men about how this ride through went down. As soon as I get done with this, I’ll help, and we’ll all be able to get home and in bed.”
I growled and found an empty table, looked at one of the guys milling about as they waited to give their report.
“Nguyen,” I barked at the slim Asian man. “Plant it,” I motioned to the chair in front of me.
I watched him jump at my tone, he didn’t hesitate from approaching me though. His narrow eyes looked tired, and he sat, probably grateful for the opportunity to go ahead and put in his two cents.
“You’re going to take my report?” he raised an eyebrow. “I thought Wilson was going to.”
“We’d be here all fucking night if we waited on him,” I leaned back in my seat and folded my arms over my chest. “Let me know what you saw, your impressions and thoughts over this evening.”
“Well,” he cleared his throat then mirrored my positioning. “I think your judgment on Stan was pretty spot on. I wouldn’t trust him to not call cops on us. The only thing, if you remember, was the reasons that he wouldn’t want to contact the sheriff on. He had serious signs of being a meth addict. His teeth, from what I could tell, were rotting out. He had sores on his face, and I would be there’s probably track marks on his arms and other places,” he paused to rub his face, his expression showing just how tired he was. “That would be enough for any law enforcement personnel to question any kind of complaint he was trying to make.”
“What branch did you serve in?” I asked out of curiosity.
I saw him blink in confusion then frown at me, “Navy. Six years. Why?”
I shrugged, “What was your rank and rate?”
He frowned at me then pinched the bridge of his nose, “AE fourth class.”
“Enlisted? Not an officer?” I probed still.
“Yea,” he snapped at me. “The token smart Asian didn’t want to go to college first. Why are you trying to put me into a stereotype? You are the first asshole to do this here, and I’ve been patched in for three months.”
I raised a hand and leaned forward towards the table, lowering my voice so the conversation would just be him and me.
“How are you with computers?”
I watched his brows draw together as he tried to figure out my reasoning.
“So, so. Not everyone follows stereotypes. Are you a ‘roided out jock?”
“Played football in high school,” I admitted and shrugged. “Didn’t need steroids.”
“There a reason behind these questions?”
“Yea,” I knocked on the table between us. “I have a sensitive subject, a special job that I need a special person for. You know how to tap into a person’s background?”
Something seemed to click, and his frown deepened as he spoke, “I’m not a hacker, not by any means. I can probably find the right kind of person you’re looking for though. They’d be outside of the club so it would cost you.”
“I’ll pay,” I assured him. “I want you to give me a price and get me into contact with the person that can help me. This project,” I motioned between us. “Does not get discussed with anyone else.”
“What about Wilson and Ted?”
“They’ll find out about it, don’t worry. Give me your number, and we’ll talk out the details in a more secure manner.”
I handed picked up my phone and started to program his number into my contacts as he told it to me.
“This your first dangerous ride?” I asked once I had saved his info. He gave me a nod, not looking up from what he was doing, “What are your thoughts on it.”
“The setup you had us in seemed solid. I kind of wished we had a car of our own following us to help guard the rear. I couldn’t help but keep looking over our shoulders the entire way back,” he shook his head. “I’m never that paranoid, but it feels like we poked a snake with a stick. Now, we’re just waiting for it to bite us.”
I grimaced and nodded because I felt the same way. “There’s so many ways it could’ve gone wrong, but we got lucky that they were smart enough to not open fire when we did.”
“Yea, well, I know I’ll be hitting the range after this. Not tonight, but you get what I mean. Watching Hernandez hit that beer bottle while it was moving was some impressive shit. I’d like to have skills like that,” he admitted.
I snorted because I doubted I could’ve done it myself. “You and me both,” I offered him a hand. “Wilson’s got shit to say after all of this. So you’ll have to stick around, but I want to thank you for having my back and being ready to stick up for the Brotherhood.”
A smirk tugged at his lips, and he took my hand, squeezing it hard.
“It’s for the Brotherhood,” he echoed. “Hell, I first thought we were just a bunch of fuckers that road motorcycles together. This is the first time I’ve ever felt powerful.”
“We’re not outlaws in the same sense that club is. Not to say we’re not dancing on the line of what’s legal and what’s not,” I said as I released his hand. “The longer you’re here, the more reasons you give us to trust you, the more you get let in on. You understand?”
Nguyen nodded, and his face went serious. “You’re a band of brothers that I came to willingly. I’ll sacrifice what’s necessary to prove my worthiness of this patch and this cut.”
“You follow the code,” I said. “You have our backs, and we have yours. That is what will make you worthy.” I paused and grimaced, “Sorry about the stereotyping.”
He snorted, “I’m used to that shit. It’s always fun to point out to people that I was shit at math.” He stood, “Yo
u can get back to me later today on this project you have for me. I’ll probably be dead asleep as soon as I hit my bed.”
“You and me both,” I chuckled and watched as he went to the bar, getting a drink from a tired looking Cindy. Tired was something everyone was wearing. Time to make shit go by a little bit faster, I didn’t look away from the bar, but I called out the next name: “Miller.”
It didn’t take long for the man in question to find his way to me, he sat down in front of me and looked just as tired as everyone else.