BREAKING THE RULES: Forsaken 99 MC

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BREAKING THE RULES: Forsaken 99 MC Page 36

by Evelyn Glass


  They finally checked into a mid-range motel near the local university. As they settled in Rachel sent Liv a text, telling her they had followed the drugs and that Jules would like to meet with Marsh and discuss the future of the club and his role in it.

  As they drifted toward sleep with Rachel wrapped comfortably in Jules’s arm, Liv had not responded to her text, but she wasn’t worried. If Liv wanted Marsh to meet Jules, there was little doubt in her mind he would be there. It was only a matter of time.

  Chapter Thirty Nine

  Rachel and Jules were approaching Alpine when her phone chirred with the arrival of a text. She fished the phone from her purse and read the message. “We’re set. Liv wants to know if we can meet tonight, about nine o’clock, at HNH.”

  “It works for me.”

  Rachel typed a moment then held the phone in her hand. Moments later it buzzed again. “We’re set. She said she is coming with him.”

  “Probably for the best. Marsh and I aren’t exactly on friendly terms at the moment.”

  “I’ve known Marsh for a long time. He’ll come around. He wants to do the right thing, I’m sure of it. He just needs something to help him realize he has to go against the club to save the club.”

  “If this doesn’t do it, I don’t know what will.”

  ***

  A little before nine, Marsh and Liv walked into He’s Not Here. It’s not a busy night and the few other customers watched them, some warily, others with barely veiled contempt, as they moved to a booth and sat down.

  “Angie, cover for me,” Rachel said as Jules rose from his stool and moved to join the couple.

  “Marsh. Mind if I sit down?” Jules asked as he glided to a stop.

  “Doesn’t appear I have a lot of choice,” Marsh said as he glared at Liv.

  Jules slid into the booth next to Liv, Rachel sitting down next to Marsh and placed a beer in front of each of them. “Look, Rich, I know you and I have had our differences of late, but this is about the club and what it means to Vallecito.”

  “The club you shit all over when you went to the DEA.”

  “I know that is what Todd told you, but I told you truth after the hit by the Andres Cartel. I didn’t rat out the club to the DEA, and Ellis didn’t sell us out. If we had, then the DEA would be crawling up our ass already.”

  “Baby, listen to him!” Liv implored. “He was your friend once, loyal to the club. Jules didn’t turn on the club, the club turned on him.”

  “You don’t know shit about it!” Marsh snapped.

  “I know the club is going bad, baby. I know that, and you do too. Just listen to what Jules has to say.”

  Rich Marshall glared at his old lady a moment then turned his attention back to Jules. “Why should I believe a word you say?”

  Jules tossed two dozen photos on the table. “Rachel and I took these yesterday.”

  Marsh didn’t move to pick them up. “So?”

  Jules sighed. “I guess we are done here. I’m sorry Liv. I really thought Marsh and I could do something.” He moved to get up and Rachel followed his lead.

  “Jules! Wait! Please, baby, for me?” Liv begged Marsh. “Just give Jules a chance. I know you don’t like where the club is going. Please, Marsh. Just… open your eyes for one moment!”

  Jules sat back and waited. Marsh finally picked up the photos and flipped through them quickly. “So? Todd, Gigolo and Lloyd are talking to someone I don’t know. Big deal.”

  “Do you know where this is?” Jules asked.

  “Is that the dairy bar out on 118?”

  “Yeah. Do you know why they were there? Why Rachel and I were watching?”

  “Because you don’t have a life?”

  “Because I was tipped there was going to be an intercept there. Some intercept, huh? A bit friendlier than when you and I used to run them, don’t you think?”

  “Who tipped you?” Marsh asked as he looked at Liv.

  “Doesn’t matter. But I found out.”

  “This doesn’t prove anything. It could be nothing.”

  “Could be,” Jules agreed before tossing another twelve photos on the table. “These were taking in Odessa four hours later.”

  Marsh picked them up and thumbed through them, then placed them on the table and looked through the others again. “Fuck…”

  “Yeah. Same truck the cartel arrived in. Then Gigolo and Lloyd drive that truck to Odessa, leave that truck, and bring another one back? Notice they are not wearing their colors? Yeah, I’m sure it’s nothing. They probably drove all the way to Odessa to deliver some flowers.”

  “So we are running drugs for the cartel now? Goddamn that Todd Webber.”

  “You still think the hit a month ago was all the cartel? Or maybe the cartel acting to protect their pipeline?”

  “Every member that was hit knew about the muling?”

  “Every last one. And not one other.”

  “Fuck.”

  “Now you know. The question is, what are you going to do about it? Are you going to just sit back and let the Andres Cartel run Forsaken 99. Is that what you want to be, part of a drug cartel? I didn’t sign on for that. Did you?”

  “Baby, listen to him. You’re a good man. I know this isn’t what you want. This is your chance! You can make a difference again! A positive difference!”

  “Rich, you’re one of the founding members of Forsaken 99. You remember how Vallecito was. The drugs and the violence. You helped clean up this town once. Do it again. Be a hero again. Be our knight in shining armor again,” Rachel said quietly.

  “This is our home,” Liv said. “Five years ago, when I followed Forsaken 99 here, I came for the parties. But Vallecito gave me a home. They didn’t care that I was some biker’s old lady. I don’t want to see Vallecito go back to the way it was in the beginning. This is my home now and I want to protect it.”

  Marsh stared into his beer, spinning the mug on the table. “I don’t like this anymore than you do,” he said, talking to no one in particular. “But I don’t see how I can change it.”

  “You can’t,” Jules said. “I can’t. None of us can do it alone. But together, we can. We can take the club back. We can make Forsaken 99 mean something again.”

  “Why do you even care? You’re not part of the club anymore. We threw you out.”

  “Because I owe it to Fish, and Bell. I owe it to Kristen, Pam, Will, Rachel, Wade, Boggs, Blake, and everyone else whose blood is on my hands. I owe it to them to make this right so these men are remembered for the sacrifice they made for Vallecito. I want them to be remembered for what they did, not what that fucking Todd is doing now.”

  “Yeah,” Marsh agreed soberly. “But even the two of us, I don’t know if we can take back the club. I think I can convince Spence to get on board, but only because you told me this right after the hit. If you were to bring this to me now, I probably wouldn’t believe you. Not from just some pictures. And maybe not over just muling drugs. Todd is keeping Vallecito, the town itself, clear of the violence.”

  “But for how much longer? The Cuervo Cartel is trying to push Andres out. If this is Andres’s last viable pipeline, how much longer until they start hitting us here? Before the cartels left us out of their fight, but Forsaken 99 is part of the Andres Cartel now.”

  “Baby,” Liv said softly. “I don’t want to live like this. Something has to change. You have to leave Forsaken 99 and we have to go somewhere else, or you have to help Jules take the club back and make it what it was.” Liv paused for a long moment as she reached across the table and took his hands in her own. “Baby… I’m pregnant. We’re going to have a baby. But—”

  “What?” Marsh nearly shouted, causing everyone in the bar to turn to look at him.

  “We’re going to have a baby. Vallecito is not any place to raise a baby. Not the way things are going. I love you, and I can’t leave you, but I won’t raise our child here.

  Rachel and Jules stared at each other with wide eyes. Neither saw that co
ming. “I think you two have some things to talk about. Why don’t you use my office,” Rachel offered as she slid out of the booth, Jules scooting out right behind her.

  “Thank you,” Liv said as she looked at Rachel with tears in her eyes, then slid out of the booth, never releasing Marsh’s hands.

  “Holy shit!” Jules whispered as they returned to the bar to give Marsh and Liv some time to talk alone. “Poor Marsh!”

  “What do you mean, ‘poor Marsh?’”

  “Talk about a one-two punch. Did you know about this?”

  “No! Did you?”

  “Hell no! I wonder if Liv finding out she was pregnant is what started all of this?”

  “I don’t know, but maybe. That explains why she didn’t finish her beer the other day, and didn’t touch the one I brought her tonight.” Rachel paused a moment as she thought. “She planned it this way,” she finally said. “She waited to tell him until he had a chance to talk to you. She could see him thinking about it and she gave him a push. I’ll bet you my last dollar if he hadn’t started to come around she wouldn’t have told him and would have just scheduled a trip to Dallas.”

  “For an abortion?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Jesus. That’s heartless.”

  “Yeah. But I can’t say I blame her. If the town is actually going back to the way it was, I wouldn’t want to bring a baby into this world here either.”

  It took about a half-hour before Liv and Marsh reappeared from Rachel’s office. Both of their eyes were red and they had obviously been crying. Seeing Liv’s still bruised face made Jules cringe inside, imagining how Marsh must feel after beating his pregnant old lady.

  They walked up, Marsh’s arm around Liv’s waist. “I’m in,” he said, coming straight to the point. “I’m tired of being the bad guy.”

  Jules smiled and offered his hand. “You were never the bad guy, Rich. And now you are going to prove that to the town.”

  “We should bring this to the rest of the club. They—”

  “No,” Rachel said quietly. “Not yet.” All three turned to look at her. “Remember how you reacted when you first stepped in here? You weren’t interested in anything Jules had to say. Talk to Spence, if you think he will join, but nobody else. I’ve seen men’s macho bullshit before. It feeds off itself. You bring this to the club like this, you will be lucky if either of you get out alive. Let Liv reach out to the other women of the club. Find out who we can turn and who we can’t. Then bring the men in slowly, one at a time.”

  Marsh and Jules looked at one another. “She has a point,” Marsh said.

  Liv smiled and stepped in close to Marsh. “Women are smarter than you men give us credit for.”

  “More devious at least,” Jules agreed.

  “You guys get ready to do the fucking. Rachel and I will figure out who needs to get fucked,” Liv purred, her voice pure sex.

  “You okay with this?” Jules asked as he looked at Marsh. “She’s carrying your child after all.”

  “You just let me worry about that,” Liv answered for him. “I can take care of myself. I have stomped more than one bitch into a greasy spot that has gotten out of line. I can do it again.”

  Marsh smiled at her then looked to Jules. “Ain’t that the truth. Before you joined, she—”

  “If you ever want me again, you will stop right there,” Liv said, her tone adding weight to her threat.

  “See what I mean? Just be careful,” Marsh said pulling her in tight and kissing her quickly on the lips.

  “Always,” she replied.

  ***

  “What the hell?” Jules asked as he rose off his stool again as the windows strobed with lurid red flashes. He strode to the door and opened it, staring at a Vallecito de Grande firetruck sitting in the parking lot with its strobes flashing.

  As he tried to figure out what was going on, a DEA SUV pulls to a stop in front of the door and Schneider stepped out from behind the wheel.

  “What the hell is all this?” Jules growled as Schneider stopped in front of him.

  She slapped a folded piece of paper into this chest. “Fire inspection. Seems there have been some concerned citizens worried about the safety of this establishment.”

  Jules took the paper, opened it, and read the text. “What game are you playing, Schneider?”

  “No game. Now step aside so these men can do their work.”

  Jules stepped back inside and handed Rachel the document. As the firemen cleared the building, she scanned the paper. “This is Schneider’s doing!” she hissed.

  “I know. Just keep your cool.”

  “Keep my cool! I’m going to have close until the report is complete. Friday and Saturday are my two busiest days!”

  As the last of the customers filed out and the firemen began their inspection, Schneider sauntered up. “I want to talk to your supervisor!” Rachel demanded.

  Schneider smiled and pulled a card from her back pocket and wrote a number on the back. “Here you go. Of course, he won’t be in the office until in the morning, but feel free to call and leave a message. I’m sure he will be very concerned about what you have to say.”

  “Why are you doing this?” Jules demanded.

  “What? The fire inspection? I just reported to the Vallecito fire chief that he should be concerned about code violations. With all the damage done to the place lately, there could be some shoddy repairs. I could be mistaken, but I thought I smelled smoke when I was here last. He thought it better to check it out. Just to be safe.”

  Rachel could feel her skin burn as she poured herself a double of Southern Comfort, tossing it down to try to dampen her impotent rage. “Someday Schneider, you’ll get yours.”

  “Yeah. We’ve had this discussion before. As I recall I offered you your chance, but that luscious brother of yours stepped in. It’s too bad too. I was looking forward to soothing him after I kicked his sister’s ass.”

  Jules grabbed Schneider by the arm and hustled her across the bar and away from Rachel. “Oooh, I like take charge men,” she purred as he spun her around to face him.

  “What the fuck are you doing, Schneider?”

  “Nothing. Just watching out for public safety.”

  “Bullshit! Rachel has nothing to do with what you want!”

  “Jules,” Schneider purred again as she stepped in close. “It doesn’t have to be this way between us. We could work together to solve our problems. Just the two of us. I could take down Forsaken 99 and the cartel, and you could build another club to play cops and robbers. I would go away and everybody wins.”

  “You can just go fuck yourself!”

  “I would much rather do that with you. Haven’t you ever wondered what it would be like? You and me getting all sweaty? Trust me, I can make you forget all about little Miss Barkeep over there.”

  “I’m not going to shove my dick someplace I won’t even poke a stick.”

  ***

  Rachel had been watching as Jules and Schneider talked intensely but quietly, then Schneider went stiff and stepped back. “I’m going to break you, Rivera! I’m going to take down your precious Forsaken 99 and you with it!” she snarled loud enough for her to hear.

  “Give it your best shot, you skanky bitch!” Jules sneered back.

  For a moment, Rachel thought Schneider was going to slap him, but she backed off another step and smiled. “Have it your way, Jules. I’ve tried to work with you, but you just don’t seem to get it. I guess you are not a bright as I thought.”

  “Smart enough to not get into bed with you.” Jules turned on his toe and strode purposely to Rachel before pulling her to him and kissing her lustily. After he broke the kiss, Rachel turned her head so she could see Schneider as Jules held her, and with elaborate slowness, gave her the middle finger as she smiled.

  Chapter Forty

  Rachel was sitting at her kitchen table wondering if slitting her wrists or blowing her brains out with her pistol would hurt more. It has been four days s
ince Schneider pulled her little stunt with the fire inspection. While having Jules all to herself at night is nice, and he had performed admirably keeping her from being bored in the evenings, sitting around doing nothing all the time was making her crazy.

  She hopped up from her chair and paced around the kitchen again. Jules had dropped her off at her house on the way to work this morning and she had spent the morning scrubbing the place top to bottom just to have something to do. If they ever get the Forsaken 99 problem under control, she is going to spend a week sleeping in the backyard, even if it is on the ground, just to be outside!

 

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