by Lee Winter
“Fuck you! My cousin died from that crap. Why would I push it? That’d be like pissing on his grave.”
She blinked. Oh. She did vaguely remember something about that a few years back. But… “Your couriers are convinced you deal meth.” Hell, she’d interrogated enough of them to work out what the idiots were trying so hard not to confess.
“Those dopeheads believe what I tell them. They get weed for ferrying my parcels around as long as they ain’t opened. But if they did sneak a look or get collared…know what’s really in them? Baking soda. Since they think it’s the real deal, they act shifty as fuck.” He laughed. “Best acting is believing it. Then Dogsbreath goes around and picks up their packages after the drops and we recycle them for the next one.”
“You’re full of shit.”
“Am I?” He waved at the sack of baking soda. “You think I bake cakes?”
He had a point. “Why the charade?”
“It’s all about respect. Some rival gangs were fucking with us, trying to steal our territory, muscle in on our gaming establishment. Soon as word went round we’d stepped up with the big boys into hard-core drugs, they all backed off real fast. Jesus, it was almost funny.”
God, that did sound just like the Dino she’d known at school. All talk.
“Don’t the Hornets care you’re stealing their credit?” It was an educated guess. She’d sighted a Hornets bike parked at Dino’s one morning, two months ago. There was no reason at all for a Tauranga-based rival gang member to be anywhere near Dino’s compound, let alone be allowed to stay the night.
“We did a deal,” Dino said, not noticing her little trap. “All we have to do is keep the local cop out of their hair on the nights they drop their stuff.”
Wait, that was why every second Tuesday was always so busy? “Those car fires? That was you?”
He shrugged. “No comment. But I hear you were miles from the drop.”
Miles from the drop. She did her calculations. Wherever the drop was, was probably in the opposite direction to where she’d been sent. She drew a mental line from the burning cars through Ika Whenu, out the other side, and… There wasn’t a damned thing out there except…
“Train yard,” she muttered. “The disused one.” That’d definitely be deserted any night of the week.
Dino’s eyes grew wide. “How the fuck did you know that?”
“Good deal for the Hornets. All reward, no risk. Target’s on your back, not theirs.”
“Like I give a shit. People don’t mess with us now. All a man has is his rep. You know where I came from, what I had at home. Christ, everyone at school knew. Same reason I knew all about your shitty life.”
Anxiety shot through her. “Don’t you dare go there.” She scowled. “I mean it, Dino.”
“Or what?” Tone mocking, he added, “Hmm, yeah. Remember it well. Your dad shootin’ through. Your mum, cracking up, and walking around town in the nude, talking to people who weren’t real. You rushing around at all hours to try and find her and haul her ass home again. What were you? Eleven?”
Nine. And ten. And eleven. And fuck you, Dino, for that reminder.
“Know what I remember most? How much you hated everyone who saw you like that. Sometimes I think you still resent us for knowing, for seeing you at your weakest. You pretend to be strong, but we all know what you looked like, all helpless and useless.” He heaved out a sigh. “Fucked as it sounds, I relate.” He walked over to the pool table and picked up a cue. His knuckles turned white around it. “My old man was a fuckin’ animal. Used to hit me with one of these.”
That was common knowledge. Dino’s brutish father had spent more time in jail than out of it for what he’d done to his family.
He tapped the scar above his eye. “When I went to school with bruises, everyone knew my ole man was at it again. I hated them for knowing. Soon as I was big enough, I waited till he was asleep and beat the snot out of him. With one of these.” He rapped the cue against the side of the table. The wooden thud sounded loud in the stillness.
His laugh was mirthless. “Told everyone it was a fair fight, but that was a lie. Whatever. He left me alone after that and I made my own family. You gotta do that.” He gave her an intense look. “You gotta. No use waiting for our own fucked-up parents to give a shit about us.”
That was more than Dino had ever said to her in his life. “Why are you telling me any of this?”
“Who else am I gonna tell this to? Dogsbreath?” Pain edged his eyes. “I got a reputation, not just in town but here. Besides, your ass is gonna be fucked up in three minutes. Not like you’ll be spilling anything but your guts.” His voice cracked, his face twisted, and finally she saw it.
Fear.
It dawned on her. “Oh Jesus, Dino…you don’t even want to hurt me, do you? You’re just doing it to not lose face. You’re in here, building up the courage. Or stalling.”
His anger returned. “Goddammit, Sam! Why’d you have to force my hand? I gave you a way out! You were supposed to take the bloody deal!” His eyes were pleading now, even as his words dripped with fury. And he’d said her name the way he used to at school. Half exasperated, half mocking.
This was the boy she remembered. Huh. Maybe people didn’t change so much after all.
“Dino,” she said quietly, “you didn’t give me a way out. You gave me an impossible choice. I can’t accept it. Like you say, reputation’s everything.”
“You’d walk out of here!”
“At what cost? Every day knowing you could demand something from me the way you do my boss?”
“Don’t make me do it,” he begged her. “Take the fucking deal.”
“Give me a better one—better for both of us. One that won’t see the Boars all tossed in jail for years.”
“That’s the one on the table. My boys won’t accept any less.”
“Twenty against one? And some of them are big enough to count as two. What could go wrong? You’re not a murderer!”
“Take my deal and you won’t have to find out if that’s true.”
“I won’t be compromised, so no. But I know who you are. Bad as your old man was, even though you were a bully at school, I also never saw you lay a finger on anyone.”
“Because I got the others to do it,” he said morosely.
“Even so. You didn’t do it.” Was she clutching at straws? It was a weak argument, and at any other time she’d mock it. “It’s not you. You don’t kill people, and you sure as hell don’t put them into comas, either.”
He threw the pool cue back on the table and turned on her. “For the last time, you don’t know me. I was someone else at school.” He stared at her for a measuring moment. “So were you.”
She gave him a wary look and firmed her jaw.
“You had fight in you then,” Dino said. “Now look at you. You’re just a hundred percent stinking cop. No life. Nothing. Hukapapa suits you, eh? All ice, no heart. Know what? When you bailed on this town after school, I thought, hell, good on her. Anyone who gets out of this dump is smart in my book.” He looked envious for a moment, then shook his head. “And then you came crawling back, lookin’ like cat-sick warmed up.”
The reminder felt as brutal as a slap. Sam glared at him.
“It’s such a hole here,” Dino continued. “And everywhere you turn, people remember: Who you were, all your secrets, and they know how you look broken in half.” He drew in a deep breath and said with sincerity, “The fuck’s wrong with you, Sam? Why’d you come back? You shoulda stayed gone. If you had…” Regret filled his eyes. He turned away.
“So why didn’t you leave?”
“Got family now,” Dino’s thumb jerked over his shoulder to the door, indicating the meatheads behind it. “Can’t leave them. We got each other’s backs, loyal to the end.”
And there it was: the truth as Dino saw i
t. The unspoken knowledge sat between them, heavy and dark: He was never going to choose her over them. Didn’t matter how bad he felt about it, this was always going to end the same way.
“Look, you gotta understand, I got no choice here,” he said tightly. “None.”
A silence fell, then Sam said, “I see that you believe it.”
He looked down, hands forming balls. “Look, I’ll call off my boys after a little bit. Let them get their pound of flesh and all, but I wouldn’t just leave them to it, to y’know…” He trailed off, looking faintly sick.
How fucked up. He really didn’t want to do this. Sam sighed. So that was it. Fear surged, warring with adrenaline. She inhaled, mentally planning her escape route, wondering how far she could sprint before they caught up with her. Well, nothing left to lose now. “Look, since our cards are on the table, can you tell me one thing? What was the deal with the movie-set shit? The sabotage? Who were you paying there to do it?”
Dino squinted at her. “The fuck? I wouldn’t go near them Hollywood mincing poodles if my life depended on it.”
“You didn’t do that?”
“Why would I waste time on that crap? Does that frou-frou shit sound like me?”
It really didn’t, now she thought about it.
He ran his hand through his hair. “It’s been five minutes.” Dino now looked nauseous. “Can’t put this off any longer.”
“So.” Sam straightened and gave him a cool stare. “You’re going to beat the living hell out of a girl you went to school with? This’ll haunt you forever. Stick between your ribs every day. I’ve seen it.”
“You think I don’t know that?” He glared. “You already know the answer. I have to.”
“Then you’re weak—letting others dictate the man you are, even when you know it’s wrong.”
His eyes narrowed. “You want a black eye to go with the mauling?”
“Fine. Let’s just get this over with.” Sam turned to the door. “Cos I’m done talking to a coward.”
For a moment, Dino looked about to strike her and she braced herself.
Instead, he swore. “Samantha Keegan. Fuck it, woman, I really don’t understand you.”
“I know,” she said and then added the truest thing she knew as she pulled the door open. “I don’t think anyone really does.”
CHAPTER 14
Rescues and Rumbles
Alex bounced along in the front seat of Sid’s open-backed pick-up truck that he called a “ute.” It turned out he was exactly the right man to call in a crisis. He not only knew where the Wild Boars lived but exactly what to bring. Which is why he diverted to pick up half a dozen bulky members of a Matamata road crew he’d once worked with.
Now hanging on for dear life in the ute’s rear, the men had apparently been dead keen to get out of tarring a road outside a pig farm.
So somehow they were all going to a rescue. Or was it a rumble?
Guilt was threatening to swallow Alex whole. She’d seen the look in Sam’s eyes when she’d left the set. So determined to find their saboteur—for me. And she could be getting her beautiful ass killed over something that didn’t matter much in the scheme of things.
She was well-trained, though, right? Strong. Smart. Cunning. Sam probably could handle a bunch of rough old bikers who probably just sat around all day drinking. Right?
They bounced over a pothole, which prompted a few good-natured shouts from the back, and a rattle from the chains, shovels, pipes, and a Stop-Go sign that one roadworker hadn’t let go of. Weirdly, he looked familiar, but she couldn’t place him.
“I should’ve left you behind,” Sid told Alex, as he hammered it. “How’d you talk me into this again? Sam’ll kill me for getting you mixed up in this.”
She doubted that, but the thought made her heart quicken. “Because I gave you no choice? Oh, and I’m your boss.”
“Oh, right. Well, when we get there, you stay out of sight, in the ute. If it looks like we’re losing, you floor it outta there as fast as you can, then call triple-one.” He sighed. “Though this’ll be over long before any cops turn up. Main thing is, you haul your ass to safety.”
“Okay, small problem…” Alex waved at the gear stick. “I only drive automatic.”
“Oh hell.” Sid began slowing. “Right, I’m gonna drop you off here then.”
“No way!” Alex gritted her teeth. “I’ll stay out of your way.”
Sid grunted.
Eventually the ute lurched to a halt. For a second, they both stared at the sight of Sam’s parked patrol car. Still here.
The heavy crunch of men’s boots hit the dirt road.
“Right,” Sid said to the men jumping off his vehicle, “we’ll just go in, all polite, and ask for Sam. If there’s nothing wrong, they’ll hand her over. If they say nah, here’s what we do…”
Alex let his words fade out as she stared at the imposing, brick-walled compound opposite, its enormous wrought-iron gate shut.
A ferocious cacophony of barking sounded from inside. Then came shouts, howls, and a voice—definitely female, sharp and angry—in the middle of it.
“Or we just barge in right now,” Sid snapped. “Okay, move your bloody asses.” He spun around to Alex. “And you—don’t leave here or Sam’ll have my gizzards for breakfast. Um, boss.” He disappeared to the back of the truck and reappeared holding a concrete-splattered garden fork in one hand and a heavy shovel in the other.
Sid and his burly friends rushed to the gate. When they prized the huge door open with their garden tools, Alex had a good view inside. About two dozen men in black-and-red jackets were crowded around something on the ground…no, someone…as terrifying snarling sounds rose above their shouts.
Sid and his crew thundered in. The bikers turned…and it was on. Fists pounded; legs swept out in brutal kicks.
Where was Sam? Alex had never felt so helpless in her life. All she knew how to do was make movies. How useless was that?
The tangle of scuffling legs and boots parted, and for a brief moment, she saw a flash of navy on the ground.
Sam!
Growling dogs were leaping all over her. How many were there? They were snapping and snarling, flecks of spittle flying from their yapping mouths. Sam, pinned beneath the vicious animals, was struggling to crawl to her feet.
With shaky hands, Alex rang 1-1-1, reached the emergency switchboard, and tried to explain the mess before her.
“Where are you, ma’am? Exactly?”
“I-I have no idea. Wild Boars? The clubhouse? It’s a biker gang.”
“A biker gang?” She sounded puzzled.
“Um, motorcycles, what you call bikies? They’re in the Waikato region somewhere.”
“Ma’am, that’s a very big area and I’m afraid that club’s not listed in our directory.” The voice was sympathetic but impatient.
“Near Ika Whenu?”
A rattle of keys, then… “I’ve sent a request for the nearest police to that town to attend and they will most likely be aware of the location of the gang compound you mention.”
“Great, except the nearest police station is in Ika Whenu, and its only cop is right now being attacked by dogs and bikers! Can’t you tell where I am from my phone’s GPS or something?”
“If you’re using an Android phone, ma’am. Which you’re not—”
“Cell tower then?” Alex demanded. She’d seen that in movies. Surely…
“If you’re on the Spark network.” The voice was faintly apologetic. “You’re not.”
For God’s sake…
There was a clatter of keys. “Attendance from a larger station will take about forty-five minutes to reach…”
“Forty-five minutes!” This was pointless. “That’s too long. I have to go…”
“Ma’am, no, you need to stay on the line so we can
determine—”
“It won’t matter. You’ll be too late.” Damn it. “For what it’s worth, send an ambulance. That’ll probably be more useful in the end.”
“Ma’am—”
“Tell them to hurry.” If they could even work out where she was.
“Of course, but you need to stay at a safe distance—”
Safe? When Sam was getting her ass flattened? Screw that for a joke. No, there needed to be a record of what was happening. Proof. She ended the call just as a huge biker tossed a haymaker that smacked Sid’s head sideways, dropping him to the ground with a pained “ooof”. She frantically flicked through her phone’s apps, glancing up periodically.
Sid was already on his knees, swaying out of the way of a low-sweeping boot.
Alex jumped out of the vehicle. She might only know how to make movies, but to hell anyone was getting away with anything on her watch. She’d use her one skill and work it.
Hitting the record button on her social media live feed, Alex began to speak as she darted across the road toward the compound.
“The bravest person I know is a cop in Ika Whenu, New Zealand—Senior Constable Sam Keegan. Right now, she’s trapped inside a motorcycle gang compound, the Wild Boars, where she went to confront the gang over criminal activity. They’ve set their dogs on her.”
The sounds of howling, snarling, and biting carried on the wind. Alex tapped the button to swap to the rear camera and focused on the swirl of bodies, swinging fists, twisting limbs, and enraged dogs.
“Senior Constable Keegan’s brother and his friends have just gone in to try and rescue her, but they need help. I’m putting out this feed in the hopes anyone in the area can get the word out. If there are any police nearby, come urgently! You can see Senior Constable Keegan on the ground, fighting to get up, despite the dogs pinning her down.”
Alex was too far away.
“I’m going to get closer,” she told her audience of…sixty-three. Damn. Still, any one of those people could help. “Spread this video,” she urged them. “Please. If you know anyone in New Zealand, alert them, tag them, get the word out. We need help now. As for the local police?” She focused the phone’s camera on Sam’s twisting legs as a Rottweiler snarled and stood on her. “There’s only one. You’re looking at her.”
