Ronan
Thismotherfuckerwastesting my patience and I couldn’t tell if he was egging me on to pump me up for the job we were about to do, or if he got his kicks from watching me squirm. Cézar rode his bike to avoid any chance of me having any sort of discussion with him and I wanted to punch his stupid face in for it. Though the car ride with Calaveras was quiet and long, I was plenty satisfied knowing Kane’s ass was going to be numb and completely destroyed by the time we got to their compound.
We followed behind the bikes as the two of them rode together like old friends in the front. Eventually, Cézar threw his arm out to the side to signal us to pull off onto the side of the road. We turned our headlights off, Cézar swung his leg off his bike gracefully and I could make out the “LOBO” patch that curved around his club’s name on the back of his leather cut.
“Lobo?” I asked Calavera and he answered in his ghostlike voice.
“Road name,” he vaguely explained, and I was glad I didn’t bother with small talk during the ride. Clearly, this guy couldn’t manage full sentences. Maybe he didn’t need to.
“Because of his last name?” I asked him, looking up at the only guy who’s ever towered over me.
“Because he’s always got the pack’s best interest in mind.” And damn if that wasn’t enough for me.
I didn’t want to respect the bastard who would always look at me like some kid who would never be good enough for Cecilia. His people certainly respected him though, and I was having a hard time pretending like I couldn’t see why.
He walked over to the van and opened the trunk revealing a beautiful stash of weapons that made any good soldier’s mouth water. I reached for a Glock 23 and loaded it up before putting it in the back of my pants as a backup. I grabbed a few knives and tucked them away into my boots. I grabbed another Glock and kept that one in my hand and I looked at Mateo to see he was making the same selections. I smirked at him turning up the corner of my lip because this was the shit we lived for, this chaos is where the roots of our bond sank into.
“We’re going to go through the thicket of trees, it’s about a ten-minute walk and we’ll be able to sneak into the compound unseen this way,” Cézar said, pulling out a single flashlight from his pocket and turning it on as we marched through the tall grass into the dark clearing.
The caw of a crow in a nearby tree made Mateo jump back with fright and Calavera cracked up laughing so hard that he was slapping his knees and wiping tears from the corners of his eyes.
“You almost shit yourself!” He told Mateo and Cézar had to shush him like a badly behaving child. Watching such a giant fearsome guy laughing so freely and wildly actually put me in a better mood and I ended up letting out a few chuckles myself as I slapped Calaveras in the back in a friendly manner.
“There are ten members left here, everyone else who didn’t want to stick around while their Pres did disgusting things to little kids, packed their bags and found a new Diablos chapter somewhere to call home.” He pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket and it was a blueprint of the clubhouse just a few hundred feet away from us.
“They’ll probably be off their asses drinking and on whatever drugs. Shoot first, ask questions later, but if there are any Cut bunnies around leave them out of it,” he warned.
“Cut Bunnies?” Kane asked him, raising an eyebrow.
“Anything with tits and a hatchet wound.” He explained before continuing, “Do you see this door here?” He pointed to the drawing on the paper. “This is the basement door, I need one of you to make sure there are no victims here, can you do that?” He looked at both of us, but Mateo answered first.
“I’m on it, I’ll sneak in through this side window.” He pointed to the piece of paper.
“This Pendejo here though,” he started and pulled out another folded-up paper from his vest’s inside pocket this time. “You don’t shoot to kill, not yet I need to take his patch while he’s alive.” He explains as he unfolded the photo of a long-haired Hispanic-looking guy.
We all nodded in agreement after Cézar asked if we were ready and we moved in silently as a unit. Mateo signaled us with a finger to let us know he was heading towards the back of the house to find a way into the basement.
“I’ll go in through the other side, count to ten, and then burst in,” Cézar said to us and we began our countdown as he took off to the opposite side of the clubhouse that Mateo went in.
“Eight, nine…” I said and the mass of muscles next to me shouted, “TEN!” as he ran back for momentum and threw his weight into his shoulder as he slammed into the clubhouse front door. There was no time to think, as soon as the door broke open it was pure chaos. Tits, beers, and bullets were flying everywhere. The scum that was leftover in this MC clearly didn’t even give a shit if they accidentally killed one of the women they were about to fuck.
I kept a mental screenshot of the guy we weren’t supposed to kill, and aimed both of my guns, shooting them off at the same time. Calavera was stabbing some dude in the throat, and I took out four of them with clean headshots. A few more guys poured in from a back hallway, and thankfully these guys were too wasted to be shooting straight. I took a knife from inside my boot and threw it with as much force as I could, and it hit right into another guy’s eye.
There were four guys left by my count, and from what I could see they were all hiding from their fates. “Come out come out,” I sang, loving the way the adrenaline rushed through me on a righteous kill. No, I’d be sleeping like a baby tonight knowing we rid the world of these dirty fuckers here. A bullet whizzed by so close to me I could feel the heat against my skin. I pulled the last knife out of my boot and threw it in the direction without paying too much attention but the scream and the sob I heard let me know I hit a target.
I walked towards their bar and found my knife wedged in some bald guy’s thigh.
“Please, please, don’t do this!” he begged, but unfortunately for him, today I was judge, jury, and executioner.
I pulled my knife out of his thigh and cleaned it off on his shirt before putting a bullet in between his eyes. The girls who didn’t get shot by these fuckers were running out the door and I could see Mateo was already out there waiting for them, with a few kids in tow.
My upper lip curled back in disgust, and I didn’t even bother to ask the other guy if he had any last words before I took him out too. I heard a crash and turned my head to see Cézar throwing the guy from the photo down the clubhouse stairs. He stepped down behind him and kicked the guy down the rest of the stairs before dragging him along the floor by his greasy hair.
It looked like the guy was practically dead already, but Cézar had a point to make and I sure as hell could appreciate that too. The crime was too big, and death was too good for this grimy piece of shit. Villalobos took out his phone and passed it to me. “Record this shit,” he said, pulling a cigarette out of his shirt pocket and lighting it with a deep drag.
First, he took the guy’s leather vest off and threw it into the ground. “I’d take your President patch, but to be honest, I think we’ll just burn your whole clubhouse down.” He said reaching for an open bottle of tequila that sat on the bar. Cézar took a big swig then pulled his knife out and in a single motion, he grabbed the skin on the guy’s chest where the DIABLOS LOCOS MC emblem was tattooed and sliced down like he was fileting a trout. Cézar tossed the patch of flesh on the ground in front of him and a wild sob left the man’s mouth as he trembled.
The guy was shaking violently from the shock, but it was the overwhelming smell of fear and piss in the air that fueled Cézar to keep going. His grimy dark hair was dripping from sweat as he fought to remain conscious, but he was probably better off letting go. I wouldn’t want to be on the other end of Cézar’s wrath, that much I knew for certain.
There was a demon shadowing through Cézar’s eyes, and it was a familiar one that called to me as well.
Kane burst through the front door not paying any attention to the wild mess and the dead bodies and his frantic eyes locked on mine as he heaved big gulps of air in and out of his lungs to catch his breath.
“We gotta get the fuck out of here brother!” He said desperately, startling even Cézar. I pulled my eyebrows together in question and he waved his phone at me. I felt the pockets of my pants and realized I left my phone in the van.
“What’s happening?” I yelled at him, feeling overwhelmed at too many things happening at once, and as I turned my head, I caught Cézar pulling the guy’s tongue out of his mouth and slicing it off with one clean swoop. He dumped the rest of the tequila over his body and tossed a lit match over him before exiting the clubhouse.
“The high-rise was compromised. Too many fatalities. I think they came in from the rooftop,” he said, still struggling to breathe. My brain was slow to process his words and too many thoughts were racing in my head, trying to make sense of what was happening at the moment.
“She’s gone, they took her!” he shouted, slapping at my face to knock the haze out of me. It worked but instead my rage was misdirected, and I punched my brother in the face in retribution.
“What do you mean she’s gone? Who took her?” I yelled at him, but he seemed to be fully out of answers for me, and it was probably the first time I had seen Mateo Kane look freaked out and unsure in my entire life. The fire was spreading through the clubhouse and Calavera pushed us out through the door since we were both frozen in place.
“Lobo,” I yelled out for him as he piled the three remaining women into the van with the rest of the kids. “We need your bikes, we don’t have time to go back to Grimm’s Reach. I have to get to my men now!” I let him know and he nodded in understanding as he threw me his keys.
“I appreciate the help, Zerkos. It’s good to have trained guns on jobs like this. Sorry, it didn’t pan out so lucrative for you. You need a favor, just call it in. The Diablos owe you,” he said, but he owed me a lot more than a favor.
“I need more than that. I need answers,” I said through closed teeth, pulling him by the shirt into me.
“I’m grateful for the help amigo, but the life I come from doesn’t allow me to spill secrets. I hope you can appreciate and understand that,” he said with a look that let me know he never planned to tell me a damn thing tonight.
“Cézar, I have to know!” I shouted.
“Listen, the things I’ve done to that girl. I wanna keep that shit buried with the rest of my skeletons you understand?” But I didn’t understand, and Kane was charging at him before I could register what he had said.
“What the fuck do you mean the things you’ve done to her?” Mateo asked, taking the words straight out of my mouth, and earning himself a look from Villalobos that said now he’d seen it all.
“I didn’t peg you for someone who shared Zerkos,” he eyed between me and Kane and I couldn’t fight the sneer that was painted on my face.
“Settle down, both of you. I didn’t mean it like that. She was my family, and I hurt her in more than one way. The best thing I can do for her is, keep my mouth shut and keep her secrets safe,” he said, and I pushed him away with a growl.
I pulled the Glock from my pants but the familiar feeling of a chamber pressing up against the back of my head let me know Calaveras had a quicker draw than I did. But I didn’t care, “I came here for answers, I’m not leaving without them.”
He started laughing an obnoxious laugh that had me clenching my fists together and peeling my upper lip up with anger. “I don’t know if it’s hilarious or completely sad that you still know nothing, Gringo.”
I shoved him again and it earned me a look from Calaveras that said he wouldn’t tolerate me laying my hands on his President again.
“I need to know Cézar,” I pressed again.