Boog shoves me away from him as the door to our room shoots open. “Stay down!” He shouts at me, pulling his gun out to face whomever is intruding on us. I just knew some-thing like this was going to end up happening.
I do as Boog says and stay close to the ground, pulling our duffel bags close to me. Luckily, they weren’t far. I take quick liberty and grab the keys to Boog’s truck too, cause if anything goes my way, we’ll be getting out of this shitshow real quick.
A diabolical laughter greets us as I see a man come into our door frame. He’s maybe in his mid-thirties, but I recog-nize this bastard. It seems he’s gone from Rafael’s private sector into the gang life. Interesting, very interesting. The thing I had understood during my time in captivity with the cartel was that you were never tossed outside of Rafael’s circle of trust unless something horrific happened. Even then, if you were still alive, you’d have to live with the shame of displeasing your leader. Some men survived because they are like the cockroaches of the world, while others ended up killing themselves because they couldn’t bring that type of shame to their families.
The man who I recognize is no other than Ricardo Escobar, the man who hurt me in more ways than one could imag-ine. I don’t know much right now, but I know that I can’t let him recognize me, or else I’m toast.
I keep my head low to the ground and try to breathe as calmly as I can, even though my heart is beating a million miles a minute. I’m terrified, maybe even more than I was the night I was taken from my family. It’s one thing to escape your captors, but it’s another to face one of them years later, after you’ve finally stopped having the nightmares that haunted you for so long.
“Who the fuck are you?” Boog snaps at Ricardo. The frightened girl inside me thinks that isn’t a good idea. It’ll only make him retaliate, and you really don’t want him to retaliate. I should know. I’ve been on the opposite side of his torture.
“You don’t need to know that information, boy. I should know who you are though,” He says, and then falls into a bout of laughter much like the Joker from Batman does. “Oh wait, I already do! You are Booger, from the Reapers MC.”
“Yeah. What of it?”
“What are you doing down here, Booger?” His voice is turning more sadistic as each moment passes and I continue to keep my head low, not wanting him to see me. I can’t let him see me, or things can get so much worse.
“We’re just passing through.”
“We? Oh, what a pretty girl you have there.” I hear Boog take a step in front of me, shielding me from Ricardo. Dios Mio, Boog doesn’t even know about my past with Ricardo. It’s not like I’ve told him about everything in full detail. “I think I’ll take a look at her,”
Just like that, the sound of a gunshot rings through the room. I shoot my head up, searching all over Booger for a bullet wound, but I see Ricardo on the floor instead. At that sight, I breathe a sigh of relief. “Princess, keys.” I toss Boog the keys, pulling the duffels into my arms and stare at Ricardo, and at that, I see the recognition flash across his face.
I want to tell Boog to finish him off, to end his life so no one has to know, but I can’t. The only thing I can manage to do is put one foot in front of the other and run like my life depends on it. Because quite frankly, it does.
Chapter 8
BE CAREFUL WHO YOU TRUST. THE DEVIL WAS ONCE AN
ANGEL.
-UNKNOWN
Booger
“Whoa. Slow down, will you? What happened!?” Damon asks me as I floor the gas, pressing the phone to my ear.
“There’s a fuckin’ gang down here, Damon. How did we not know this shit?” I hiss out. From the corner of my eye, I spot a state park and pull down the path, parking in one of the spots. There’s no way I can keep driving like this, with my heart pumping a million miles a minute.
A sigh greets me, “Never had any problems when I was undercover with the Demons. Rage cast them all out, and the ones that were around worked for us. These must be new players. You see anything that can help us identify them, tat, anything?” I think hard for a moment, yes, he had something on his neck. Fuck. What was it?
“Yeah, he had a viper on his neck.” “Motherfucker. That’s the Vibora.”
“You say that like it’s supposed to mean somethin’ to me. We don’t deal with these fuckers back in Montana. Tell me what you know.”
“Rumor has it, they work for the Mexican Cartel. My guess is they tried to swoop in and claim the territory after they heard about Rage being offed,” Damon says to me. The wheels inside my head are turning a mile a minute. “Obvi-ously they didn’t know the territory’s already been claimed. Stay put, we’ll be there in a couple hours and last time I got an update, the transport company delivering the trailers said they were gonna be there and setting everything up around five to six in the morning.”
“Fine. What do we do in the meantime?”
“You stay put, like I just fuckin’ told you to!” Damon snaps.
I take a deep breath, hating the fact I can’t do anything right now besides laying low. In this moment is when I look over to Camila and see she’s shaking like a cold dog that got caught out in the rain. “What’s wrong?” I ask out of concern, placing my hand on top of hers.
Her mascara is running down her face, making her look like a drowned raccoon. “I’m so sorry. I should have told you before we left. I know that man. He knows me, and he works for the cartel. We should have made sure he was dead Booger… he recognized me. He saw my fucking face and now he’s going to go tell Rafael! They’re going to take me back.” Her words come out faster than bullets escaping the chamber, going from a terrified tone to a soft hiccup. Never have I seen her this afraid.
“What’s going on over there?” I hear Damon ask through my phone.
“You don’t have to worry about a thing. I’ve got you,” I tell Camila as I bring my phone back up to my face and fill Damon in on what she just told me.
“Jesus. Alright, well, we knew Camila had some shit with the Cartel. I’m gonna have to tell Fist about this shit, as you know. We need to expect the brunt force of the cartel, and the gang comin’ down on top of us. But we’ll be prepared. We have close allies, and we’re not going to be alone. Everything is gonna be alright. Make sure she knows that we’ve got her.”
“You got it, Prez.” Out of anyone that could’ve been chosen to lead our Las Vegas charter, I’m glad it was Damon. He’s a very level headed individual, who worked hard under-cover with the Demons for years. His loyalty is obvious, solely from the fact he protected Kat from harm for years. I just hope that he doesn’t let his new status give him some ego trip. “Call me when you’re close. We’ll try to get some shut eye and will go out to the property to check on the trailers in a few hours.”
“Will do.” With that, the phone call ends with a click.
“I mean it, everything is going to be okay.” I say to her, trying to soothe her from the distraught nature she’s currently in.
“There’s no way for you to know that. You don’t know about the things that happened to me, of what they did. What he did. I can’t go back to that Boog, and I can’t talk about it right now. This is all just too much for me to handle. Distract me. Dios Mio, distract me with something else. Por favor, please.”
I don’t know how I’m going to distract her, or what to say, but words just come flowing out of my mouth. “I know you’re curious about why my family and I don’t speak. It’s complicated, but simple at the same time. My parents took it badly when I joined the club. They see me as nothing but a low-life criminal, when we both know it’s quite the opposite.
The Reapers aren’t like that. We keep crime low and our families safe.”
Her tears start to slow down and she looks at me in a way that she never has before. “They do not understand that you found your faith in the Reaper, where they found theirs in the cross.”
I’ve never thought of it quite like that, but she’s right. I nod, agreeing with her. �
�No, they don’t. They will never understand it, though. I had to make the decision a long time ago to accept the fact that if I’m a Reaper, they will never be a part of my life. It wasn’t an easy decision, but it was one I made. For so long, I tried to find my place amongst so many, and for the first time I fit in somewhere. Somewhere I least expected to.”
We’re both silent for a couple of minutes. Neither one of us makes a peep, so I unbuckle Camila from her seat belt and pull her into my arms. “Get some shut eye. We can talk more about all my problems later. Right now you need some sleep, and don’t worry. I’ll stay up and keep guard. Just relax, Princess.”
Chapter 9
FEAR IS A REACTION. COURAGE IS A DECISION.
-WINSTON S. CHURCHILL
Booger
I made the decision bright and early to put Camila back in the passenger seat, secure her, and lean it back. We needed to get over to the clubhouse location. Honestly, I think I needed to move around a bit. Sitting in one place for too long just isn’t for me. Damon didn’t call or even send a text message on where they are, not even now. The only thing that’s keeping me calm is knowing that they’ll be here shortly, and we won’t be as outnumbered as we are.
I decide to take a drive into town and stop by a drive-thru, ordering Camila and myself both a hefty breakfast, getting orange juices and two cups of coffee while I’m at it. Some-how, the girl still stays asleep. I place the bag in the seat between us and grab out my sausage, egg and cheese bagel, then continue on to where our clubhouse location will be.
Upon arriving, I smile at the pleasant sight that is a few trailers. I count ten right off the bat and then I see a big one in the middle, while the others are scattered out and surround it. “Where are we?” Camila groggily asks as I park the truck. I turn to look at her, watching as she rubs her hands against her eyes and offer her a coffee.
“Welcome to our humble abode, the hybrid club for the Reapers and Brotherhood MC.”
“Oh, well… what are we in here for? Let’s get in the houses.” Before I know it, she’s hopped out of the truck with her coffee in hand and walks straight up to the nearest mobile home. I quickly follow her, seeing that the keys to the trailer are hanging out of the door. She turns the knob and steps inside, “Oh my goodness!”
At her tone, my heart jumps and I barrel in through the door. I don’t know what I was expecting to see, but it wasn’t an empty house. Nothing is here. “Jesus. Why did your voice get high like that?! Scared the living shit outta me.”
“Huh? It’s just so nice. Look at that kitchen, and these floors!” I roll my eyes at her. The house is empty with light gray walls and some sort of multi-toned wood floor. I follow Camila into the kitchen and see white cabinets, a nice sized fridge and a decent range oven. These trailers are nicer than I thought they were going to be. I follow her through the entire place, checking out two decent sized bedrooms on both ends of the house that have an en-suite bathroom attached. There’s another small bathroom in the middle of the home, right off the living room and the kitchen has a decent sized island in here. “What is this space for?” Camila asks me, and I turn to look at an open space right around the living area.
“I’m not really sure, a dining room, I guess.” “Is there not supposed to be any furniture here?”
I shrug, honestly not sure. “I don’t think so. We’ll go get some later when some of them arrive. I should get my bike off the back of my truck, though. Stay put in here while I go handle that.” I say, walking out of the house to the truck. I pull down my tailgate, get the ramp secured and wheel my bike down slowly. No way in hell do I want this baby to get any scratches.
I hear the rumbling of bikes, and just as I’m putting mine next to my truck, I see a group of bikers rolling around the corner. I don’t mistake those colors anywhere. It’s the Reapers, comin’ in full throttle with red and I see Brother-hood with their blue a few feet behind. I’ll admit, it’s nice to not be alone and have to handle shit by myself. Once I get my bike settled, I open the truck doors and grab a couple of my duffels and take them inside the mobile home, setting them in the room that Camila is standing in. “Is this our room?” I ask her, not missing the way her face reddens. “Whoa. Are you blushing?”
“Uh, yes. Are we really going to be sleeping together? I mean, we didn’t talk about sharing the same room.”
I cross my arms and sternly stare at her. “Am I supposed to take that as you don’t want to be sharing a bed with me?”
“No, no! That’s not what I mean. It’s just… we’re moving very fast.”
I approach her and pull her into my arms, “What’s the point in wasting more time when we both know what we want?”
She purses her lips together and nods, trying to hide a small smile and change the subject. “We need furniture, though.”
“Damn, I just told you that we’d go get some soon,” I chuckle, knowing that I’d better get used to this shit. “We need to figure out who’s gonna end up bein’ our housemate.” I say, knowing that there’s no way we’ll be lucky enough to have a house to ourselves. I know that Damon and Kat, and Amara should have their own houses. Maybe Widow too, if he and Amara are still a thing, but that’s some pretty heavy level complicated shit.
A knock comes to the door and I walk over and open it, revealing Damon. “Hey,”
“Hey. How was your trip?”
“Long, exhausting. How you two holding up?” “Hi Damon,” Camila says, peeking in.
“Hey. Looks like all these trailers are empty. We’re gonna need to get some furniture shopping done. Camila, why don’t you go out with Kat, Widow and Cobra to go put in some orders in town? Boog and I need to handle some stuff here.”
“Sure, just give me a minute.” Camila runs back into our bedroom and comes right back, starting to go out the door.
“Hey, where do you think you’re goin’?” I grumble out at her, irritated by what she just did. She walks back to me and gives me a kiss on the cheek, starting to turn around again. “Damn, Camila!” I dig into my wallet and yank out my credit card. “How did you think you’re gonna pay for all of that shit?”
“Oh,” She giggles, eyes sparkling. “Thanks. I would’ve needed this.”
“Mhm, you sure would’ve. Make sure you get us a comfy leather couch. Alright?”
“You got it!”
She goes off to the door and stops as I speak. “Princess, stay safe.”
“I will. I’ll see you in a couple hours, and I’ll make sure we stop at the grocery store too.”
Damon puts his hand up in the air and starts to speak. “Good idea. Say, Camila, can you grab enough food for a BBQ too? I think tomorrow we should throw a party, a cele-bration on our unification with the Brotherhood. It’s been a long time, and we all deserve to have a good time for a few hours.”
“Sure thing. I’ll cook up a storm,” “Great.” Damon says.
I know Damon well enough to understand that if he purposefully gave her a task, it means that he wants to keep her busy. I’m just wondering why, and what it is that he obvi-ously knows. I don’t have a doubt in my mind that sooner or later, I’m going to find out.
Chapter 10
SO, I CLOSE MY EYES TO OLD ENDS AND OPEN MY HEART TO NEW BEGINNINGS.
-ANONYMOUS
Camila
Kat drove Fist’s old truck out into town, and both Widow and Cobra followed us. Our own personal protection detail as it is. It seems they had the same idea we did. Bring the bigger vehicle, and haul a lot more of your stuff.
“I was concerned when I heard you two ran into a bit of trouble,” Kat says to me as we open the door to the small furniture store. I hear the clacking of Widow’s combat boots against the floor a mere few feet behind us. Cobra’s already shot right past us. I assume he’s checking the perimeter, or maybe he just really hates our company that much.
“It wasn’t a pleasant experience,” I softly murmur, walking over to where I see a bunch of different curtains. The house is a gray co
lor, so I think I’ll pick some sort of bright accent pieces to make it a little brighter. Just because I’m living amongst bikers, doesn’t mean that everything has to be gross and manly. I can tone it down a bit. I move my hands through the variety of colors and patterns and see Kat does the same. Her hands land on a deep, bright purple with a chevron type of pattern. Whereas I stop on a yellow, I can’t describe the pattern though. It just looks timeless and beauti-ful. I think it’ll look really good in the living and dining room. I grab a couple sets of them, and opt for an emerald green blackout curtain for me and Boog’s bedroom.
“I’m sorry that we weren’t here to help, but don’t worry about anything. We’re stuck together, through thick and thin.” I nod, “I know. I’m sorry if you guys heard me freaking out over the phone. I was just terrified that…” I lose my train of thought and go silent.
Kat grabs my hand and rubs her finger over the top. “You don’t have to explain yourself. If anyone understands, it’s me.” She’s right. Kat has a very jaded past herself, being held as a prisoner for years by Rage, the now dead Prez of the Demons of Hell. I bet the day she found out he died, she was celebrating in some sort of way.
“I know. Thank you for that.”
“Oh!” Kat mutters, taking off behind me. I turn quickly and follow her, seeing her walk straight through a huge door that leads to an area with every sort of furniture we could need. Dining tables line the walls, while huge sectionals, couches and loveseats are spread amongst the rest of the room. There’s even one wall dedicated to dining room chairs, and carpet hangs from long rods to the right of that. Never did I think I’d be the type of woman who enjoys buying furniture, but I keep reminding myself that this is a new beginning. “Wait. Did either of them give you cash?”
Havoc- Reapers MC Boxset Page 50
