“My mother was best friends with Cuervo’s wife, Rosa. When I was a kid, she would take my sister and me to visit her. I never knew who Rosa was because my father, Cobra, had forbidden my mother to see her. She was just a friend to my mother as far as I was concerned. I never knew who it was I had visited until I left Mexico and started putting everything together.” For a solid year I investigated as much as I could of my family and who they were. “Rosa was my aunt, a sister to my father.
“Rosa was supposed to marry Matias’ father when he was the boss. That didn’t work out as you already know, so Cobra killed her and then my mother after she found out what my father had been planning to do with me. Marry me off to the Cartel boss’ son. She was going to run with me, and he killed her while she was trying to save my sister and me.”
“Why did you leave your husband?” Spider questions, and I can see the mistrust in his stare.
“Personal reasons only. I can’t share that piece until he is dead. One of us will have to die at the end of this. I am highly hopeful that it will be Matias.”
Blade runs a hand over his scruffy face. “What does Cobra have to do with the Cartel? He obviously traded you for something.”
I get up from my spot and walk to the window because I can’t show them the honesty on my face.
“I loved Matias once. When you grow up in the life, the things that happen seem normal, because it is your normal. I was given to Matias as a bargaining chip, or an alliance. My father was to mule drugs, women and children for the Cartel over the border.”
My spine straightens now that I’m done getting through the first half of my story, and I turn to face them. “They needed your territory, or rather Stryker’s, to get what they needed done. Matias schemed behind his father’s back to do two things, kill his father to take his place as boss, and start a club war.”
Taking a small breath, I finish the rest of the story. “Matias manipulated Cobra and Stryker into the war to get what he wanted. Matias made it look like Cobra was hauling through your territory. Then he ordered a hit on Cobra’s man while in Las Vegas to piss Cobra off, and hauled the cargo back before either of you could locate it. It looked like you killed his man, so Cobra came after your MC. With the bad blood between Battle Born and Los Reyes Malditos already happening after the killing of Cuervo’s wife, the entire thing was easily manipulated. As soon as the war broke out, I took the opportunity to get out of Mexico and as far from Matias as I could.”
Blade and Spider sit with the heavy cloud of lies and betrayal still keeping them from seeing the truth. “How can we trust you that Matias didn’t send you to sabotage the MC and take the northern territory as their own like they planned all along?”
“I have documents I can show you that I stole from him before I left, but you and I both know that’s bullshit. I do know that Johnny is being paid by the Cartel to maneuver the shipments for them. Cobra couldn’t get the job done so they moved in up here and tried to worm in through the old Prez and Johnny.” I take an exhale and hold Spider’s gaze. “You can spin whatever you want on paper, right, Spider?”
“I wouldn’t believe it even on paper.”
“You asked for trust from me and I have to ask for the same from you. This is my plan. I am going to take Matias down, one pillar at a time. I’m taking out key men working under him and weaken his resources before I go after him.”
Blade stubs out his smoke and bends forward, resting his forearms on his knees. “You could die, Kat. I don’t know that the club will back you indefinitely.”
It’s not a surprise to me to hear those words. I was expecting them.
“I know that, Blade. Even though Cuervo is my uncle, Vegas and Jenn my cousins, I’m under no illusion that I am not your MC family. We only have a mutual problem, and that is Cobra and the Cartel. I want them both dead. I can’t be the one to kill Cobra. Matias will know it was me and he will come. It is too soon.”
What I am asking is a lot. If they fail, their club goes back to war.
“He is the one behind your past Prez transporting the diamonds and kids through here. Cobra and Matias won’t stop until they get what they want. If we don’t take them both down, Matias will keep sending people until he wins, and you will never know who’s coming after you, after your family.”
“There is only one thing I know for a fact, and that is, Tony and Cobra have to die.” Blade gives me a lethal look, and, with a deadly sneer, he stands.
“You fuck me over, and you will know what it’s like to be hunted and skinned alive.”
Chapter 26
Tank
Waltzing into Kat and Tami’s house, I get a feel of their bare surroundings. Well, not exactly waltzing, more like breaking and entering, but I’m on a mission none the less.
If I were a secret hiding spot… I think Kat is going to have a stellar hideaway location for her most precious items. Probably her room where she has control over the environment and can remember where every last item was placed.
Hours go by and I’m on the verge of giving up. There are just bare bones in this place. Nothing identifying Kat or Tami. They have done well concealing their identities. It dawns on me that Kat may never store anything here. She could have a separate hiding spot, and even never in the same place for too long.
I do know that she doesn’t have the company of a man too often with the vibrator she has stored in her dresser. Flicking it on, I chuckle to myself. She must have put new batteries in this guy. I can only imagine the miles she puts on it.
Against my better judgement of stealing it, I place it back in the drawer. She would be one pissed off woman if she didn’t have her plastic toy to take the edge off. Another time.
There is nothing of importance in the house, which tells me that the woman has an alternate location. It’s time for the Road Dog to make some business decisions.
I leave her house and, as I come up over the hill, I decide that Solo and Pawn will be placed on stalk Kat duty.
On my ride back to the clubhouse, I formulate my plan. My mind is buzzing by the time I get to The Black Rose. I walk into the bar and find the guys I need to talk to first. As I explain their top-notch secret mission, they both grimace, and for good reason.
Pointing a finger into their faces, I growl at them. “Don’t fucking cry about it. At least you can go to the bar and take turns staring at Tami while the other one waits to tail Kat home.”
Neither one wants to argue with me, I am the reason they are standing here.
“Got it, we’ll let you know what we find,” Pawn gives in first. He’s just pissed because this will cut into their free time to fuck and smoke. Yeah, I feel you, my dick is sad, too. The sooner we solve the Kat mystery, the sooner we all get a boner a woman will take care of.
“Glad you see this my way. Don’t forget, if you fuck up, we are fucking toast with Blade and I can’t guarantee your safety with Kat,” I shrug.
I’m not entirely sure she wouldn’t put a bullet in their heads to protect her secrets and Blade won’t give each of us a mother of all beat downs. Risky business falling in love.
Solo’s head tilts a little at that last comment. “Are you kidding right now?” he whispers under his breath so that the others don’t overhear.
“She is a mystery.” And that makes me laugh because ain’t that the fucking truth.
Next, I text the V.P. of dicks, Axl, and let him know that I’ll be running home for a few days, to California, and that I’m stopping by to see Fuego, the California MC chapter Prez. He doesn’t respond right away, and I don’t figure that he will. He just got back from Las Vegas and he’s patching shit up with his Ol’Lady.
As I’m packing my shit for my trip, I feel an urgency to get this handled, and I can’t explain if it is because of Kat or because of a need to protect the MC. I do know, though, for some unanswered reason, that my mind knows I’m headed down the right road.
I stuff what I need in my saddle bags and hit the open road. That’s where the Road Dog is at
home.
I fly freely down the highway, over the mountain pass and through Lake Tahoe, taking the scenic route and letting my mind wonder. I realize that at the end of this trip, I may not find the answers I want, but the ones that are needed none the less.
Soon enough, as it’s getting close to dawn, I roll into the parking lot of the Battle Born MC clubhouse in California. This place has been here for about as long as the one in Las Vegas. Fuego meets me at the front door since I let him know I was on my way.
“Tank, ven a dentro,” he greets me with a wide-awake smile. I must be tired as fuck because I have no idea what he just said. I follow him to his office, and he’s holding a cup of coffee in one hand and a shot of tequila in the other, my pick.
I can’t help but laugh. I miss this asshole and it’s a test to see why I’m here. I take the tequila. He then laughs and walks around his desk, taking the coffee with him as he goes to sit in his chair. “Que pasa, mijo?”
After another shot, I tell my friend, brother and a man that I look up to, everything that has happened with Kat. I even tell him about what Spider told me. “She’s connected to the club. I just don’t know how yet and what the secrets are for.”
“Hmm, depends, mijo, is she protecting herself for good or bad reasons? Only time will tell. What does she look like? Describe her to me.”
I tell him everything I know, and, even with my foggy mind, I wonder out loud, “Do you know her?”
“Possibly, Tank. Does Blade know who she is?”
“I think so because they are holding this situation close until things are handled.”
Fuego sets the coffee down and trades it for a shot of tequila instead. “This is bigger than I thought possible. Trust your Prez that he is making the correct choice for us all.”
He rambles for a few moments before looking off into the distance. “You know the story of how Cuervo lost his wife, yes?”
Instantly, my mind sobers and wakes up, enraptured by the story.
“Rosa, she had a beautiful sister-in-law, she was married to Cobra. He killed her shortly after the death of Rosa for running away from him. She had two daughters. He kept the ninás and married one off to the Cartel later. It’s rumored the man kept them both as his, but—” He stops to prop his cowboy boots up on the desk. “One of them ran away and became what is known as the Black Widow. She lives in the shadows, waiting for the revenge, to kill the men she wants most, her father and her husband. She sounds like a fantasma, no?”
“Sure.”
Fuego laughs, “A ghost, Tank.”
“A ghost, yes, I would definitely describe her as a ghost. I don’t understand, how do they not know if she is gone?”
Fuego smirks, “You would think that would be easy to answer. The reason it is hard to know the truth is, they’re sisters, identical twins. The jefe, Matias, if he kept them both, who would know which one was which? If she is here, she is declaring a war against her husband. A battle to the death. No one leaves a Cartel boss and lives to breathe long enough to tell the stories. If his people found the truth, it would shame him greatly. He wants her dead.”
I sink back in my chair and legit cannot grab a hold of one feeling long enough to know what to do with it. Angry that she’s married. And she was mad at me for the situation with Topaz when she’s married? Sadness because she is married. Pissed off at the whole damn thing and just plain confused as fuck with this twisted tale.
“This is just a story, Tank, we don’t know if it is fact, yet. But that would make her Cuervo’s niece.”
“What is her name?”
“Katherine Castillo.”
I pull up my phone and google her name. That’s when her picture appears before me. My eyes memorize every detail of it. It’s her but without a trace of any tattoos on her skin. I check the date of the charity event this was taken at, and it can’t be her, it is too recent. So, in fact, Kat or Katherine, is a twin living a double life it seems.
I hand my phone over to Fuego and he looks at the picture, “This her?”
“No, that’s her twin. The Black Widow is real and full of tattoos.”
“The stories, there’s always a small piece of truth in them, but not a hundred percent. What are you doing next?” Fuego asks and sets his feet down on the floor.
“I’m going to sleep a few hours and hit the road south until I find out everything I can.”
Fuego has a couch in his office, I stand and stretch my sore body before lying down to catch a nap.
“Does this woman, the Black Widow, or Kat, as you call her, does she haunt you? Is this why you are here?”
I smile at my brother, “Sí, Fuego, she haunts the fuck out of me, and I need to know everything about her, and I don’t have a clue why.”
“None of us do, mijo, when we find our woman.” Fuego gets up and walks to the door. “Be careful, mijo, know I’m on your team, yeah?”
“Yeah, team building and shit.”
Fuego shakes his head and leaves me to sleep and have haunted dreams of the woman I can’t get out of my head.
It feels like I just closed my eyes when there’s something poking me again, and I swat at it with one hand. My ribs are jabbed again but much harder this time.
“What in the fuck!” I roar and jump up to stand over a tiny little Hispanic woman with a big smile on her face. Closing my eyes, I take a calming breath before I hurt this cute little thing, and run my hands over my face.
“Ve a bañarte mientras te lavo la ropa, sí?”
I stand there and blink, then blink again. She repeats herself and I just stand there, and we stare at each other.
“She wants you to go shower and she’ll wash your clothes for you.” Hawk walks into the room from the doorway and helps to translate. “Most guys here speak Spanish, or they learn quickly.”
“Ve, y te conseguiré un plato para cuando vuelvas,” she says, and I look over at Hawk. “Go shower and she’ll get you a plate of food, too,” he explains for her.
I’m about to argue that I need to get going, and I open my mouth to say so, but the five-foot nothing woman scowls at me, and, if I ever want to come back, I need to think better of it.
She walks past, knowing I will do as she asked, then looks at Hawk, “Cabróne.”
“What did she say?”
“Oh, she just called me a fucker. Vegas’ grandmother.” Hawk brushes it off like it’s happened a lot over the years. I wouldn’t doubt that it has since he cheated on Vegas when they were married and then she left the state. In the grandma’s eyes he’s responsible for taking the granddaughter away from her.
After I shower, I patiently wait at the table for who everyone in this house calls abuela, or grandma, to dry my clothes. She’s like the house nanny, housekeeper, cook and nemesis to Hawk. Way better than the club sluts. In fact, I see none. She must keep them away when she’s around. I would take her home to Nevada if I didn’t think Fuego would kill me for her.
Abuela places in front of me a heaping plate of beans, rice and some kind of meat with green sauce and a stack of hot tortillas. “Comer, niño.”
“Gracias, abuela.” I pick up a fork and she chuckles at me, then goes back to cleaning, leaving us to eat.
I look over to Fuego and see that he’s digging in using only his tortillas that are ripped in half, and then again as he picks up the food. He pinches the food underneath with the tortilla and shoves it into his mouth a bite at a time. This confuses me, hence why I am sure she left me a fork, so I make tacos, eating my food the only way I know how.
It’s a few beers later when she presents to me my perfectly laundered clothes. They smell so good. I pull the stack she offered me up to my nose and get down on one knee. “Come home to mi casa at the clubhouse, abuela,” I propose.
“Que seas bien, may you be good.” She pats my head and I hold my hand to my heart like she broke it, and laugh. “Women.” I brush it off and shake hands with Fuego and a few of his men, including Hawk. The bastard now has a club
bunny perched on his lap.
I’m back on the road a few hours later than I wanted but headed south to talk to a few contacts. By the time I’m in south California, I pull up every marker for information and hunt down every man that has ever owed me a favor.
Within hours, I find the biggest secret and why Kat is doing this. I sit outside a house with a very homey feel to it, and watch a family play in the yard. My heart hurts for this woman and what she has done to protect it.
After I confirm the marker I collected for information was true, I get back on the road and find the man that sent me the information. He said he would meet me, but he would also collect a ten-thousand-dollar fee on top of what he had already been paid. My mind races, because, if he sold the location of this family to me, then he more than likely would or has sold it to others already.
In a crowded bar in downtown Lodi, I park my bike down the block and leave my cut in the saddle bag to go meet my source. The dickhead smirks at me when I enter. Walking in, I mask my fury and give him my best smile, but, inside, the rage I feel for this asshole sizzles beneath the surface.
We grab some beers like old friends, and I finally ask, “How did you find that information on the family? Before I hand over ten grand, I want to know I am the only one with this information.”
“I worked under a man that helped falsify documents, you know, green cards and birth certificates and such. This hot Latina walked in needing information and work done.”
He takes a drink of his beer and, setting the mug down, he explains, “About a year ago, a man came in dressed hella slick and was asking about a woman that looked like the woman I saw but not the same. I knew one day someone would come asking, and here we are.”
“Did the man tell them about her?”
“They asked all the wrong questions, they were looking only for her. So, it was easy for him to lie and say no. My boss doesn’t give out information, if word got out, he wouldn’t have a business. You are the only one that knows.”
Escaping From Forever: Tank & Kat's story, Part 1 (Battle Born MC Book 5) Page 14
