by Evelyn Glass
“I don’t know… maybe,” Jules said slowly. “I don’t know who I can trust, other than Will. But killing members seems like a bridge too far.”
“Would you have said that about muling drugs yesterday?”
“Why would he do that? If this is true, it will destroy him!” Jules protested.
“I don’t know, Jules. I just know that you were taking over the club—”
“I was not!” Jules objected.
“You were. Whether you intended it or not, the club was looking to you more and more for guidance. You were becoming their leader. Todd probably saw that too. Maybe he is just trying to hang on for as long as he can.”
He thought about what Rachel said, and try as he might, he couldn’t fault her logic. “Shit… what am I going to do? If you’re right, I’ve shit in my nest. He’ll never trust me again.”
“You need help. You need someone on the inside. Someone that can keep you in the loop.”
“I don’t know who I can trust. Spence maybe.”
“Will.”
“Your brother?”
“Yes.”
“How is that supposed to work? He’s just a prospect.”
“Have him cozy up to Todd. He can tell you when the next intercept is. Maybe you can follow the drugs and see where they go.”
“Todd won’t trust him. Will and I are too close.”
Rachel thought for a minute. “Then let’s break you two up. I have an idea.”
***
“You’re sure about this?” Will asked.
“Are you?” Jules responded.
“Hell no. But I can’t think of a better way. Roshambo for who gets the first shot?”
“Just make it count,” Jules said with a grimace. “How about you two? You ready?” Jules asked Pam and Rachel.
“I’m just going to pretend she’s Schneider,” Rachel grinned.
“Yeah… I had a beef in college with someone that kind of looked like you,” Pam said to Rachel.
“Just try not to break all the tables,” Rachel said to Jules as she patted him on the chest.
***
Three hours later, Jules was sitting at a table with several Forsaken 99 members as they teased him about Rachel giving him the cold shoulder. He laughed it off, claiming she was just mad because she thought Pam was hitting on him.
A little later, Pam came in and sauntered up to Jules and the rest of Forsaken 99. “Hey boys,” she cooed. “Buy a girl a beer?”
“What about Will,” Jules asked, playing his part.
“I still like him, but he’s just not doing it for me anymore. Not like you are for Rachel,” she said with a sultry look at Jules.
“Goddamnit, Jules… what is it with you and the chicks?” TC asked good-naturedly. “Can’t you leave some for the rest of us?”
“Excuse me brothers, I need to buy a lady a beer.”
Jules rose and led Pam to the booth in the back corner. “You ready?”
“I’m so scared I’m about to piss myself,” she whispered.
“Okay… try not to get hurt.” Jules parked her than sauntered to the bar.
“You’re on,” he said quietly.
“What if I just pull out the gun and shoot her?”
Jules had to work hard not to smile. “Make it look good, but try not to get hurt.”
Jules put on a frown and then smiled as he turned and walked back to Pam.
“Drink your beer, then get out!” Rachel said as she banged the mug down on the table in front of Pam, slopping the beer over the side and making it foam.
“What? Why?”
“Because I don’t want some whore in my place. Go back to the street corner where you belong.”
That must have stung because Pam’s face turned red. “Well, if you could satisfy him, then maybe he wouldn’t be sniffing around.”
Now Rachel’s face turned red. “Get out.”
“Fuck you. Come on, Jules.”
Will walked up. “Come on Pam. We don’t need any trouble.”
“No trouble,” she said as she stood up and got in Rachel’s face.
“You had better back off, bitch…” Rachel snarled.
“Will’s right. Let’s go,” Jules said taking her by the arm.
“You’re not leaving with her,” Will said, pulling Pam away from Jules.
“Look… prospect… she came over to me. Unless she is your old lady, if I want to leave with her, then I will. Got it?”
Jules could see that every eye in the bar was focused on the drama playing out. “Let’s go Pam,” Jules said.
Pam gave Rachel her best nasty smile. Until Rachel’s slap hit her.
Rachel pulled the slap as much as she thought she could and still sell it, but the way Pam’s head snapped back, she was immediately concerned she might have actually hurt her. She needn't have worried as Pam came at her like wildcat, driving her two steps back and into the wall. Fully into it now they tangled their hands in each other’s hair as they cursed and yanked at each other’s hair and clothes.
Jules and Will waited a few seconds before pulling the women apart. Other than a slightly pink hand print on Pam’s cheek, and some clothing and hair in disarray, they appeared unharmed.
“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Will yelled at Jules.
“You need to mind your place… prospect,” Jules sneered.
Jules told him to make it count, so Will let fly with a hard right that connected solidly with Jules’s cheek. Jules stumbled and went down, but popped right back up. “That was your first, and last, mistake.”
“Bring it asshole.”
“No!” Jules barked when the club members started to separate them. “He needs to learn his place.” He waded in, throwing a couple of hard punches, only one of which made it to its target. He and Will had agreed that the women could just pretend, but they were going to have to get bloody if Todd was going to believe he and Will had really had it out.
Will stepped back and shook off the stars from Jules’s punch. Jules could punch like a fucking gorilla! He came in hard and fast, trying to get inside, but Jules connected again, a bruising shot to the ribs that drove him back.
Rachel watched as Jules and Will fought. She and Pam had promised not to intervene, but she was dying as the two men began to get bloody. “Kick his ass, Jules!” she suddenly shouted, realizing that if she didn’t do something she wouldn’t be able to see him for a while. And she desperately wanted to be with him tonight, to nurse his wounds and, if he was up to it, fuck his brains out. She had fought for her man, and won, even if it was only pretend... and she would have him.
She saw Pam look at her in shock before realization dawned. “You can take him, Will!” she cried.
The two men went hard to the floor, scrabbling and kicking, both bleeding from the nose and mouth, and Jules from the cheek. They rolled over, shoving tables out of the way as they tumbled. Finally Jules got Will in a nasty choke hold, his arm under his chin, cutting off his air.
Will hauled on Jules’s arm with one hand, clawing for his face with the other, the muscles on both men’s arms standing in stark relief as they strained and grunted. “I give!” he finally croaked.
Jules let him go then shoved him away. “Next time you come at me, prospect, I will fucking kill you,” he panted.
“Fuck you,” Will coughed as he sat up holding his neck.
“This is all your fault!” Rachel shouted at Pam. “Get out before I kick your ass again!”
Jules and Will struggled to their feet. “Come on, Pam,” Will said has he took her by the arm and escorted her out, wiping at the blood on his face.
Jules watched them leave, wiping at his mouth and nose. The moment the door closed behind them, he turned on Rachel. “As for you…” he said before he pushed her hard against the wall again and kissed her for all he was worth. He had heard her cheer him on as he fought her brother… and he was going to fuck her stupid when he got her home.
Chapter Twenty Seven
“What happened to you,” Ellis asked the next morning as Jules stepped into Rachel’s house.
“Part of the plan,” he smiled. “Will, the other guy in the van with us, and I had a fight. I talked to Todd and… something is going on. Something bad. Will and I are trying to get to the truth. This,” he said waving at his face, “is to try to get Todd to trust Will.”
“I’m sorry amigo. Drugs are very bad. It causes friends to turn on each other.”
“Well, in this case, it was all an act. A painful one to be sure, but Will and I are together on this. What I need from you Ellis is bait. Something I can give the DEA to make them deal.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know… what do you know?”
“Everything.”
Jules grinned. “Then this is going to be a piece of cake.”
While Jules talked with Ellis, Rachel spoke with Manuela. Manuela couldn’t speak but a few words of English, but with Rachel’s rudimentary Spanish, and plenty of hand gestures, they managed. Manuela was quite pleased with Rachel’s small home and insisted that they were well equipped, though when Rachel looked in the refrigerator, she could see they were low on milk, juice, and other items the children would need. She began a grocery list as the four small children smiled at her shyly with wide brown eyes.
As she was completing the list, her phone rang.
“How’re you feeling?” she said by way of greeting.
“Okay. Your boyfriend has a punch like being kicked by a horse,” Will said.
“How’s Pam? I didn’t hurt her did I?”
“I’m fine,” Pam’s voice came over the phone.
“I was concerned that I slapped you too hard.”
“It was a pretty hard slap, but I kind of hammed it up a little. You okay?”
“Yeah. But… we’re okay, right? No hard feelings?”
Pam’s merry giggle came through the phone. “Are you kidding? That was fantastic. I have never had a man fight for me, I mean really fight for me. I don’t care if it was all planned. I was so turned on that when I got Will home I—”
“Pam! Wait… there are kids here. Hang on a minute.” She moved back into the living room with Jules and Ellis. “Okay, sorry, what were you going to say?”
“Nothing, really. Just that we had a long, hard night. You?”
Rachel flushed and then cupped her hand around the speaker as she whispered. “We couldn’t wait to get home. As soon as the bar closed, Jules bent me over my desk. Then we did it again when we got home.”
Pam laughed again. “We may have to do this again sometime. Maybe without the guys actually trying to kill each other.”
“If you two are done comparing notes… I need to talk to Jules,” Will said.
“He’s right here. Jules! Will wants to talk to you,” she said as she handed over the phone.
“How you feeling?” Jules asked.
“Like I’ve been stomped by a horse. You?”
“About the same. What do you need?”
“Todd called me. Seems it didn’t take long for word to get out about our… spat… to get back to him.”
“And?”
“And he grilled me pretty hard. I basically told him I still wanted to be in Forsaken 99, and I could work with you, but as far as being friends, that was done.”
“What did he say?”
“Not a lot. He seemed very pleased that I kicked your ass. He doesn’t like you very much, did you know that?”
Jules chuckled and let the dig pass. “Why doesn’t that surprise me? Do you think he will pull you into his inner circle?”
“Don’t know. I will reach out to Dwayne and Gigolo when I can. We’ll see what happens.”
“Okay… just watch your back.”
“Got it,” Will replied as he killed the call.
***
“Get what you needed?” she asked as they sat in her car.
“Yeah. Enough I think. He said there was no retaliatory hit -- that he knew about -- after the hit at the bar. It also seems the cartel has another route into the states that bypasses Forsaken 99. He wasn’t sure, only that Forsaken 99 was out of the picture. But if that is the case, I don’t understand why we are still running intercepts. He also said the reason the cartel hasn’t hit us after we torched their second lab is they thought it was the Cuervo Cartel that hit the place. So if they didn’t hit Fish, Bell and me… then who did?”
“I think the answer is obvious.”
“Todd?”
“Who else?” She couldn’t understand why he couldn’t see it. It was like there was a blind spot when it came to his club. She decided that it was her job to keep shining the light there until he saw the club for what it was.
“That doesn’t make sense. I don’t see what benefit he would get from having us killed.”
“We talked about this, Jules. Todd is going off the rails, flailing around. I don’t think he has a plan and is just making this up as he goes. That’s what makes him so dangerous. You can’t predict what he will do next. You may have to face the fact that Forsaken 99 is also muling drugs. That would explain why ‘Forsaken 99 is out of the picture’ but you are still running intercepts. That’s where the exchanges are happening.”
“I hope you're wrong.”
“I know. I do too,” she said then touched him on his cheek again. He relaxed, but she could see the darkness trying to take him and she was determined that it wouldn’t have him, not again. “It will be okay. We’ll find out what is going on and you can take the club back. You can make it a force for good again. You and Will, okay?”
Jules nodded and smiled, but she could tell it was forced.
“We need to go grocery shopping. The kids need milk and cereal and some other stuff. You can call Schneider and set up the meet, or whatever you are going to do. We’ll get through this.”
His smile was a little more genuine this time. “Yeah… okay.”
***
“She wants to meet him,” Jules said as he stepped out of the car to help Rachel load the bags into the trunk. Why Rachel had shopped, he has sat in the car and worked the deal with Schneider.
“When, and where?”
“Your house, three pm today. She is driving down from El Paso.”
“Is that safe? What if she just swoops in and arrests him.”
“Then he won’t talk and she gets nothing but an illegal alien bust.”
“But if she plays ball…?”
“Then she can take credit for bringing down the Andres Cartel… and doing it on DEA’s turf. That is the part that she really likes. She is a nasty one, willing to knife anyone in the back to get to the top.”
“I’m going to be there.”
Jules sighed. “Why?”
“Because it’s my house, that’s why.”
“Fine,” he said with a small shake of his head.
“You’re learning,” she teased.
***
“So we have a deal?” Jules asked Schneider.
“I will have to get the District Attorney to buy off on it… but I think I can convince him,” Schneider purred.
“No games, Schneider. Protection, amnesty, and a path to citizenship for Ellis and his whole family. For that he will tell you everything he knows about the Andres Cartel. The document had better be signed when you come back.”
“I should take them into protective custody now.”
“No deal. We do it my way or we don’t do it at all.”
Rachel watched Schneider squirm and she smiled. Ellis had given her names, dates, locations… the works, but it was all verbal. She needed it on paper, and signed, to make her case. She was all but panting for the information, but she didn’t like that Jules was calling the shots. So take that, you bitch!
“Fine. We’ll do it your way, Jules,” she said as she rose. “But if he disappears your ass will be mine, understand?”
“You’ll get what you want.”
Schneider smiled as she gr
abbed Jules by the crotch. “Aren’t you just momma’s little helper?” She turned to Rachel as she released him and her smile grew nasty before she looked back at Jules. “You fuck me on this and you’ll see me get what I want.”