“There were five there last night too.” Salem meets my eye. “Five men, including the one who killed Smoker.”
“So eleven in total?”
“And whoever’s coming with the illegals through the tunnel,” I warn them not to forget. But there’s seventeen of us not including Curtis, our lookout. Salem’s strapping around his ankle has seemed to do the trick, and he’s barely limping as he strides to his bike. But he’d have to be half dead before he’d agree to being left behind. I’m just glad I’m not a man down as it looks like we could outnumber them. But I won’t be taking that to the bank until we’re certain.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Lost
We’ve been over our strategy so many times as soon as we arrive at the spot where we’re going to park up, men pile out of the trucks or dismount their bikes and assemble in the groups we’d agreed on.
Salem puts himself in charge of distributing guns and extra ammunition, as well as Kevlar vests. The guns had been brought in the trucks to avoid men riding bikes being stopped and found to be carrying, no one wanted to be dragged off to jail tonight. As men took their equipment, they handed over their cuts, more than one folding theirs carefully, and caressing it before giving it up. A lump comes into my throat as I hope all will be riding home wearing their colours by the time we’ve wrapped this up.
Niran and Grumbler are leading one team who’ll be going to the auto-shop. Their part of the plan is to take out the men guarding the captives. When it’s safe, they’ll free who they find there, get them into the same trucks used by the traffickers, and on my signal, take them to a hospital and drop them off. That part can’t happen too early as we want no one to be tipped off while the body count is still rising.
Grumbler himself has insisted he’ll take custody of Smoker’s body, and I’m happy to assign him that task, knowing he’ll treat our fallen brother with the respect he deserves.
I’m accompanying Dart and the rest of the brothers who’ll be concentrating on the restaurant itself. Again, our plan is to dispose of the men waiting for whoever’s coming through that tunnel tonight. Then, once the trapdoor is opened, the final piece will fall into place.
Will we get Alder? According to Shark, he could be there if he’s going to check the merchandise himself, but I think it’s unlikely. Still, my heart beats faster at the thought of going home to Patsy and telling her her problems are over forever. One day soon, if I have my way, I’ll be telling her exactly that.
I wait for the voice in my head warning me I’m going to fuck up, but Snake stays quiet and keeps any dead thoughts he may have to himself. If he appears, I’ll just tell him to go fuck himself.
Silent and serious men are waiting for my signal. This is it. I enjoy just one more moment of peace before letting all hell loose, in the form of Devils of course, all seeking retribution for the callous loss of one of their own last night.
“All clear?” I ask quietly.
“Clear.” Tonight it’s Curtis’s voice that comes over crisp in my ear.
Then I raise my chin and my hand, and that’s all it takes. Around me brothers slide into their pre-agreed formation like well-oiled cogs in a clock.
I’m in the lead of my team with Dart beside me. Keeping to the shadows, we walk down the street, approaching the restaurant with caution. We’re taking the chance the operation has run smoothly and undetected for so long, they won’t be expecting an attack. Of course, taking Shark out was a risk that his absence might be seen as a warning and that they might be more cautious tonight, but Plan B caters for that.
When we come to the darkened end of the block, I notice it’s because tonight the streetlights aren’t working. Purposefully for a trade best done out of sight, but also contributing positively to our mission. Dart and I split up. I, with Pennywise, Salem, Token, Deuce and Reboot to guide us once we’re inside, approach the back entrance. Dart and his team will go to the front and come in once I give the signal. We’re expecting the front door to be locked, but the windows are glass so tonight, in case there’s a lookout in place, he’ll need to use force to come in rather than taking the time to pick the lock. I’m hopeful the back door will be left unlocked for easy access for those coming from the auto-shop. But if need be, it’s dark enough there that Token will be able to work his magic and get us in.
As luck would have it, the door isn’t just not secured, it’s wide open, and I can hear voices inside.
I stand back, signalling unnecessarily for quiet as words float out to my ears.
“That asshole Shark hasn’t turned up again.” The accent is Hispanic.
“He could be running late.”
“Not the fuckin’ first time he’s pulled a disappearing trick. Well he’s not fuckin’ getting his cut from tonight.”
I grin in the darkness, glad Shark had proved to be unreliable, and that his non-appearance isn’t apparently any cause for concern.
“I left the back door open in case he turns up.”
“If he turns up, he’ll be running into my fuckin’ fist,” the man with the accent says.
“I hear you, Enrico,” the native English speaker agrees. “I’m going to have a smoke.”
“Sure, you’ve got plenty of time.”
I don’t need to tell them as Deuce, Token and Reboot follow my lead, pressing our backs against the wall, while Pennywise inches forward moving closer to the door, followed by Salem as back up.
The man coming out with a pack of cigarettes in his hand doesn’t have a chance as Pennywise’s strong arm pulls him back and expertly slashes his throat. Salem helps his brother carry the body out of sight.
Deuce mimes something, I nod showing it’s a good idea. He takes out his own smokes and lights one, then stands with his back to the door. His form is only a silhouette and should buy us a few seconds grace.
“Gordon? Get your ass back in here now.”
Deuce puffs on his cigarette making the tip glow orange.
“Did you fuckin’ hear me? Enrico wants you.” The man appears at the door and takes his final step forward. Salem and Pennywise have retaken their positions, and this time it’s Salem who does the honours.
Two down.
“We’re going inside,” I murmur quietly.
“Copy that,” Dart replies from his position out front.
I tap Reboot on the shoulder. He indicates the door, and waves to the right. I just wanted the confirmation as a reminder of where the storeroom with the trapdoor is. Then, I move to the lead and taking a breath, step into the lion’s den.
I can hear voices and raucous laughter, loud enough to cover the muffled sound of my boots.
“Who the…?”
The man who’s appeared from nowhere makes a move for his gun, but Deuce is faster, moving as quick as lightening to my side, covering the man’s mouth with his hand and holding him steady for Pennywise’s knife. This time we leave him where he’s fallen, no time to move him outside.
I eye a case of bottles and indicate them with my hand. Salem and Deuce take up positions outside the closed storeroom door, while Pennywise, Token and Deuce cover the hallway that leads to the restaurant itself.
“Distraction in two,” I speak quietly again.
“Got it, Prez,” Dart replies in my ear.
Then after counting the two brief seconds in my head, knock the case off the shelf.
It does the job.
We’ve taken out three men, but there’s Enrico left, and also the men who were laughing. At least two more from the different voices I’d been able to distinguish.
Oh, and the one who comes rushing out of the storeroom, allowing Salem to make his second kill of the night.
Three men come down the hallway. “What the fuck?” Enrico’s voice snarls. “You be fuckin’ careful, that’s my stock…”
He cares about the restaurant?
“I want him alive.” I don’t have to be quiet anymore.
What we don’t want is them shooting. A gunshot would war
n their comrades in the auto-shop, that’s if by now there’s any left breathing, but I can’t take the chance there are not as I haven’t yet had the all clear from my sergeant-at-arms.
Fuck, but I’ve a good team around me. Knives flash, punches are thrown, the air punctuated with oomphs and the sound of fists hitting flesh. Then there’s the sound of reinforcements making their way in from the front.
By the time Dart arrives Enrico’s been overpowered and Pennywise is zip-tying his hands, and the other two men are dead.
“Front of the restaurant is clear,” Dart tells me first. “Two men dead.” Then looks around and shakes his head. “Could have left something for us.” He nods at Token and Salem and the other body at their feet.
“You can have whoever comes up from the tunnel,” I tell my VP seriously. Then look around. “Anyone injured?”
As they’re assuring me no, the element of surprise and lack of expectation of any threat had made our job easy.
And I’m further relieved to hear, “All clear here,” coming in Grumbler’s voice in my ear. “Do you want me to open up the holding pens?”
Pens are where you keep animals. I hate the term that he’s used, but that’s exactly what they are.
“No, stick to the plan.” Like me, I know he’ll want whoever’s been imprisoned freed as soon as we can, but I can’t have screaming and traumatised women stepping in front of a gun. Or running off into the streets of San Diego sounding the alarm. I certainly don’t want the cops turning up and finding us surrounded by dead bodies. Quickest way to get a one-way ticket to a different type of pen than the ones Grumbler wants to open.
“Grumbler. You’ve got a truck coming up the road. Maybe nothing… Nah. It is. It’s stopping outside. One, no two men getting out. Doesn’t seem to be anyone else.”
“On it.”
Curtis and Grumbler’s voices cease. I’m holding my breath, looking around I see the others doing the same. Then the sergeant-at-arms voice sounds again. “Problem dealt with. Neither of them Alder, Prez. Looked like extra muscle.”
“Copy,” I confirm.
“Fuckin’ murdering assholes.” Enrico’s been swearing at us for a while, but I’d tuned him out.
Ignoring his protestations, I spit a question at him. “What’s the procedure? Who are you expecting through the tunnel? How many of your men?”
“Enough to fuckin’ kill you,” he rasps out.
I highly doubt that. Instead I turn to Reboot with the intention of telling him to open the trapdoor up when I pause. What if there’s a signal they wait for, and not getting it, hustle back through the tunnel instead? I can’t afford to miss anything, however small it might seem. I turn again to Enrico. “You want to live? Or die like your men?”
He huffs loudly. “As if you’re going to let me walk.”
“I might,” I tell him. “Or, I might not. But there’s a chance I’ll be lenient tonight.”
“Ain’t gonna cooperate with you.”
I raise my eyes to Pennywise who flashes his knife. The light glints off it just right. “I’m bored,” he tells me lazily. “While we’re waiting, can I carve him into bits?” Without waiting for my response, he slices into Enrico’s ear. Not deep by any means, but enough to sting and make it bleed. Ears bleed quite copiously, it would seem.
“No, no.” Enrico shakes his head as though to ease the sting, the movement sends blood flying around. His eyes go wide, clearly feeling the warmth dribbling down his face. He looks from Pennywise to me in horror. He hadn’t seemed worried about a quick death but having body parts cut off doesn’t appear attractive to him in the least. “If I help you, you’ll let me go, yes?”
“If you don’t, I’ll let Pennywise alleviate his boredom.”
My threat works. “The trapdoor stays shut. They phone me, and I give them the all clear. It’s only then it’s opened up and I move the planks back. It’s bolted from the other side.”
Thank fuck he’s speaking. If he hadn’t, we’d have fucked it up. But I’m suspicious, and take a menacing step closer, my height making me tower above the smaller, though fairly muscular, man. “You wouldn’t be lying to me, would you?” My voice comes out as a low growl.
He gulps. “No, signor. I’m telling the truth.”
“Can you hear without an ear?” Salem asks, conversationally. “I don’t know how this shit works.”
Pennywise replies in an equally even tone, “Probably the outer ear, yes. But not if I pierce the ear canal.”
Reboot flinches, but Enrico screams. “No. I speak truth.”
His English seems to be failing him, as is his bodily control. It’s Dart who points it out sneeringly, “Man’s pissed himself.”
Sure enough, there’s a wet patch on the front of his jeans. I’m pretty certain a man with such little control of himself is a man literally scared to death. I doubt he’ll be lying to me.
“They call. I reply. They open,” he tells me again, as if trying to convince me.
“Your men,” I ask. “Are they always the same ones?”
Enrico shakes his head. “Mostly, but I sometimes have others. And the men coming through aren’t always the same.”
That’s good news at least. I eye him again. “Your men all Hispanic?” He nods. I glance at who I’ve got. Brakes is the only one who’s half that ethnicity, and he’s with Grumbler in the auto-shop.
But then Enrico continues, “Had a couple of blacks working for me when we were running the drug trade.”
“Brakes and I are coming across. Dusty’s ready to relieve Curtis if that’s your plan. He and I can act as Enrico’s men.”
As Niran’s voice sounds in my earpiece, I think for a moment. Having Curtis on lookout is one thing, having him in the thick of everything going down is another.
“He’s close to being patched in,” Dart reminds me.
“I’ll do it.” I’d forgotten Curtis’s link was still live. “I’m ready, Prez.”
“Dusty? Take Curtis’s place, will you?” It had taken only a second to decide.
“What happens when they arrive?” Another question to the man whose pants are soaked through and stinking.
Enrico is still eyeing Pennywise warily. “One, two come up through the door. Then the merchandise. One, two more come after.”
Niran, Curtis and Brakes arrive and step into the room with the trapdoor. Hastily I go through the plan that I’ve quickly amended. “Help them up out of the tunnel, put them at ease. Get the immigrants up, then when the final fuckers come through, we’ll come in and take them out.”
“They’ll expect to see me.”
Enrico’s right. They probably will.
“You’ll be in my sights, fucker,” Pennywise growls. “One wrong move and I’ll torture you for hours.”
“Thought that was my job,” Salem objects.
“You can help,” Pennywise promises.
“Everyone wants to be a fuckin’ enforcer.” Salem rolls his eyes.
A phone ringing makes more than one of us jump. I nod at Pennywise who reaches into Enrico’s pocket and pulls it out. He holds it to the man’s bleeding ear and touches his knife to his other.
“They don’t come up, you’re Pennywise’s, you got me?” I ask. When my threat’s sunk in, I nod for him to answer.
“Enrico… Yes. We’re organised… Yes, now.”
I nod at Pennywise who slices through Enrico’s zip tie while Niran slides the wood back and forth removing the planks with ease. Then as he steps back, I ease back against the door, finding a viewpoint in the gap offered by the hinges.
There’s the sound of a bolt being thrown, then a man appears, grunting with the effort of lifting the wood, raising his chin when Curtis helpfully lends a hand. In a practiced move he pulls himself up and out of the void below. He nods at Enrico and gives little more than a quick unworried glance around, before indicating to someone still below.
A second man appears, taking the helpful hand offered by Niran. He then steps back.<
br />
“Subir.” He waves down into the tunnel and beckons upwards with his hand.
The next man is more hesitant and looks less athletic, struggling to emerge. Curtis steps forward to help. When the man is standing, he looks around, his eyes wide.
“America?” he asks, the word sounding unnatural on his lips, his voice full of wonder and hope.
When Niran agrees he has indeed reached his destination, the man falls to his knees and kisses the ground. His two escorts share a grin I find I don’t like, and silently promise as soon as I get my chance, I’ll wipe it off their smarmy faces.
A family appears next, the woman looking tired and weary. She hands up a baby which her husband takes from her. She’s weak, needing help from above and below to make it to the top. A child, about six, appears after her. The woman who looks like she’s not far from the end of her rope, then reaches for the baby which is placed back carefully in her arms.
One by one they emerge, all showing relief and emotion at having made it safely under the border, reaching the land of hope without being detected, unknowing that it could so easily have been the opposite. If Alder had his way, now they’re here, instead of a new life of freedom, they’ll be trapped in a hell even worse from whatever they escaped.
There are five men, two women, and the two children. Their condition shows not one of them has had an easy journey.
After the last one, another two men, not guides as they’ve posed to be, but guards appear.
“Transport ready?” The final man directs his question to Enrico. “Where are the girls?”
Fuck. My eyes widen. He was expecting them to be ready and waiting.
Enrico shrugs. “Had to take on new men. They’re still learning the ropes. They’re on their way now.”
“They better fuckin’ be,” the man growls. “Ain’t got time to hang around.”
Niran’s waiting for my signal, Curtis looking slightly nervous, but then he’s never been asked to kill a man before. I need Pennywise and Salem in there and quickly.
Being Lost: Satan's Devils MC San Diego #1 Page 36
