by Vivian Gray
I let myself drift off to sleep, presuming that Blade will wake me up when he has returned from his scouting session.
I awaken I don’t know how much later in darkness, startled by… something. The TV’s auto-shutoff must have kicked into effect. I hear noise out the back door. I go into the kitchen to see exactly what in the hell is going on. Looking out the back door, I notice a cat darting from backyard to backyard, screeching every time it darts out through the alleyway.
At one point, it runs dead-on into a metal garbage can, knocking it over with a loud clang. Then, it runs into the next yard, letting out a terrified screech. I have no idea what spooked it, and I don’t really care all that much. I mean, I feel bad for the creature, but for God’s sake, there’s clearly something wrong with that cat. And it must be terrified.
I close the back door and turn to head back into the house when I hear something again, this time coming from the front door. I walk forward to investigate what the sound is and where it’s coming from when a hand covers my mouth, and an arm goes around my waist to restrain me. I try to fight it off, thrashing and attempting to bite the hand that covers my mouth, but it’s no use. I struggle a bit more, squirming to get out of the grip of whoever has got me.
I hear a whisper in my ear, “Shh. Shh. That’s it now, easy. Time to go to sleep, Maria. When you wake up, you’ll be at home.”
I feel a prick on my arm – a shot going into my bloodstream – and almost immediately, the world starts to get fuzzy. My head gets heavy and droops, and before I can make another single solitary move, I start to see blackness.
In my last few seconds of consciousness, I try to rouse myself, doing my best to shake off whatever narcotic my assailant has injected me with, but it’s no good. I’m done, and it’s almost a relief when I’m forced to stop fighting and fall into a deep, dreamless sleep.
***
When I wake up again, everything is fuzzy. I feel groggy and slow and stupid, as if even breathing is difficult, and I have to remind myself to pick my head up.
“Well, look who’s finally waking up,” says a gritty voice that sounds vaguely familiar. “Welcome back to reality, sweetheart. How are you feeling?”
I shake my head and try to bring myself as close to full consciousness as possible, but whatever this person injected me with still hasn’t worn completely off. Instead, I mutter, “Wh—who are—who – who…”
The disembodied voice tsk-tsks me and says in a grimy, almost sleazy way, “Damn, I have to say, you were hotter when you were asleep. Now you’re just a gross, drooly mess. But come on now. Don’t try to talk. You’re only going to hurt yourself or make yourself sound really, really stupid. Which you totally do, haha.”
“Who – who are…” I say, drifting in and out of complete consciousness but struggling my best to come to.
The voice, which I now recognize as a man’s, chuckles. “I think what you’re wondering is who I am. Well, we’ve met before, Miss Espinoza. Don’t you recognize me?”
“I – I –” I stammer. I know that voice, but I can’t quite place it. It’s like his name is on the tip of my tongue but just out of reach.
Suddenly, I feel hot breath on my face, and I flutter open my eyelids to see a pair of green eyes staring deeply back into mine.
“Come on, Maria,” he says, his breath stinking of whiskey and rot. “Don’t you recognize me? We’ve had so much fun together so far.”
I know that voice. I know that face. Who are you?
“You’re – you’re…” I think very hard, trying my best to come back into my own.
All of a sudden, it hits me, and my head jerks up, my eyes flashing open, like I’m a superhero whose powers just came back to her.
“You’re… Slime.”
“B - I - N - G - O, bingo, Maria!” He giggles like a sadistic schoolboy. “Ding ding ding, we have a winner! Congratulations, you’ve won the challenge. Would you like to know your prize?”
Still half-awake and confused, I manage to choke out, “My… my prize?”
The next thing I feel is a stinging in my cheek, which pumps enough adrenaline through me that I finally wake up completely. The bastard has hit me right across the face. I try to bring my hand up to tend to my now-sore cheek, but it’s then that I realize I’m tied up. At least I have clothes on this time, but there’s nothing about this that feels right.
“Slime?” I ask, completely confounded by his presence right now. “What is going on? Where am I?”
“Look around, Maria.” He sneers, still with a maniacal lilt in his voice. “Don’t you recognize this room?”
I do look around, and for the first time, I’m assailed with a bunch of familiarities. The smell of corn tortillas and meat. A vague after-smell of extinguished cigarillos and weed-filled blunts wafting in from the backyard. And come to think of it, this room I’m in looks familiar. The walls are a familiar shade of soft, pastel yellowish white – cáscara de huevo, eggshell, I think Mami used to call it. There are photos hung on the walls, and it occurs to me that I’m looking at photos of myself and Carmen as kids.
And it hits me: I’m in my father’s house.
“Slime?” I ask again. “What the hell is happening right now?”
He answers my question with a question. “Isn’t it obvious? Your father wanted you back. Now, he has got you back. And that means the Blood Ravens have lost their negotiating power. So they can go fuck right off now, can’t they?”
“But – but –” I stammer again, struggling to make sense of this all in my head. “But – you’re a Blood Raven. Why – why would you be working for my dad?”
“Oh Maria,” he says cruelly, “I know you’re dumb, but there is no way you’re this stupid. Come on now. Think about it. You called this, didn’t you?”
“I… called this?” I manage to squeak out.
“You knew that there was a plant – a mole, if you will – within the Blood Ravens MC,” he explains. “And you knew that somebody was keeping your father apprised of the situation. How else would he have known where you were staying? And who do you think told the Espinozas where to toss the brick that had the message for you and Blade?”
“But… you’re the vice president of the Blood Ravens!” I practically scream, feeling like my entire world is crumbling down around me. “There’s no way you’ve been working for my father this whole time. That doesn’t make any sense!”
“Oh, of course I haven’t been working for Juan this whole time,” he sneers out. “No, I’ve been a loyal soldier for the Blood Ravens going back years. I worked my way up through the ranks.”
“Then why?” I demand. “Why turn your back on your brothers like this?”
“Same reason you turned your back on your family, I imagine. You wanted to get out from under Daddy’s thumb, right? Well, I wanted to get out from under Crusher’s. I love that man like a brother, but he’s been skimming off the top for far too long without paying the piper. I don’t care if he is our intrepid leader or not – you don’t treat your ‘brothers’ like that.”
“So it’s all about money to you?”
“Oh sweetie,” Blade says, looking me over lecherously, “it’s all about money to everyone. And don’t worry – your daddy is paying me real nice. And I’m getting one hell of a bonus for bringing your sweet ass in.”
“Slime!” a voice from outside the door calls, pounding on the door. “Get your ass out here – we’ve got company!”
Slime gives me a gross smile. “Now, you be a good girl and don’t make a peep, all right?” he says under his breath, but close enough so I can hear. “I’ll be back to chat with you as soon as we dispose of these little shits outside.”
“What little shits?” I ask, though I know the answer almost instinctively.
“The Blood Ravens,” he says with delight in his eyes. “We knew they were coming. But what they don’t know is that we have you.”
Slime closes the door behind him and locks it from the outside. I feel s
ick to my stomach. So I was right all along – there was a traitor in the Blood Ravens’ midst, and neither Crusher nor Blade saw it coming. But I did. And though I didn’t know it was going to be Slime, I always had a crappy feeling about him. Like there was something just a little bit off about his attitude.
Anyway, it means that the Blood Ravens are in trouble. And I’ve got to find a way to warn them that they’re walking into a trap.
Chapter Seventeen
Blade
I cannot believe she took off. I cannot believe I trusted her. I trusted her. I let her stay on her own for just a few goddamn hours, and she’s taken off already. I don’t understand. She could have left at any time before – why now? Was this part of her old man’s plan? Has she just been biding her time?
I rush off, back to HQ to tell Crusher the story. He’s actually a lot more “zen” about it than I am.
“Blade, I know you had some kind of thing with this girl – or you thought you did, anyway,” he says, “but this changes nothing. Your instincts have been right all along. We have to start with a parlay with Juan Espinoza before we can get him to back off. So we don’t have the girl – so what? We’ve still got the drugs. And that should be enough to at least get the conversation started. We offer to return the drugs if he backs off our territory. End of story.”
“And then we take him down?” I ask, trying to keep the anger I’m feeling as far out of my voice as possible.
“And then we take him down,” Crusher confirms, nodding. “Believe me, Blade, I’m as eager to take the son of a bitch down as you are. But we have to pick our spots very, very carefully here. If we just go in guns a-fuckin’-blazing, they’re going to take out the entire MC. I won’t stand for that. So we’re going to have to play it a little cool for the time being.”
“When it comes to it, boss, I want to take the girl out,” I tell him, feeling my blood pressure jumping at just the thought of what Maria has done to me. “I don’t want her… I don’t want her to suffer. I just want to do it and be done with it.”
“Patience, Blade, patience,” Crusher stresses. “It’s going to be just fine. I know you’re angry right now, and that’s good – you should be angry. But I want you directing that anger where it belongs: at Juan Espinoza, not the dumb broad who left. Get me?”
“I got you, boss.” And the truth is, I do, even if I’m going to have some trouble separating my feelings for Maria from my desire to do my job properly.
I can stow my feelings as much as I can and focus on Juan and the Espinoza crew for the time being, but eventually, this shit about Maria is going to come to a head, and there’s going to be a goddamn reckoning. I’m going to make her pay for what she’s done to me. I’m going to make their whole goddamn family pay.
We get ready to roll out, ready to head back to the Espinoza compound and get ready to attempt a parlay. Crusher takes the drugs, and the rest of the guys follow suit, mounting their bikes. We’re not going to let this go down and be caught unawares. Crusher seems perturbed, though, so I ask him what’s wrong.
“It’s Slime,” he says, worry seeping into his voice. “He was supposed to act as an emissary to Espinoza, but I haven’t heard from him in hours.”
“Do you think Juan offed him?” I ask, cautiously worried myself.
Crusher shakes his head. “I doubt it. If he’s that dumb to off an emissary, he’d have to know what that would do to any chance he’d see his shipment again.”
“But he is that stupid, boss,” I remind Crusher. “Remember? He sent his goons after me just a few weeks ago. That’s how this whole turf war started. So don’t tell me he’s not dumb enough to kill one of our top guys for acting as an emissary.”
“That’s a fair point,” Crusher agrees, “and that just makes me more worried than ever. He’s not picking up his phone. He’d better not be six-footed, ‘cause if he is, I’m going to go ballistic. That guy has been a loyal brother to the Blood Ravens for a very long time. I’m not going to deal with that kind of betrayal lightly.”
“So, what do you want to do, boss?”
“We ride, Blade. You’ll have to act as my second-in-command for now. You have my complete trust. So let’s do this. That okay with you?”
“That’s fine with me, man,” I say, putting my hand on his shoulder. “We got this, boss.”
“You’re goddamn right we do,” Crusher agrees, mirroring the same hand to shoulder on me. “Let’s go do this thing with these fucking Espinozas, and reclaim our turf once and for all.”
When we are a few blocks away from the Espinoza compound, I start to notice that there’s been a lot more tagging over the last few hours than I noticed when we first were checking out what the score was. I’m not sure what to make of it, so I keep riding.
Then, it looks like more people are out and about than usual, but they aren’t neighborhood kids – these are dudes who are pretty clearly armed to the teeth. Scouts. Every time one of them lays eyes on us, they stare us down, as if they’re trying to intimidate us, seeing as we’re on the wrong side of the tracks right now and have encroached on Espinoza territory.
Finally, we come to Juan Espinoza’s compound of three houses on a cul-de-sac. We dismount our bikes and approach the guards stationed outside, the sentries who would just as soon blow our heads off as let us through. Crusher stands tall.
“We’re here to see Juan Espinoza,” he says, his voice sounding way more pompous and arrogant than usual. He clearly has disdain for these assholes, and he’s not afraid of showing it.
“Who the fuck are you, gilipollas?” the first guard asks.
“Well,” Crusher says through a shit-eating grin, “I’m Crusher, this here is Blade, and those guys riding up behind us? They’re the Blood Ravens. We have something Mr. Espinoza might be interested in.” Crusher holds up one of the bricks we had intercepted at Espinoza’s storehouse. “Now, there’s a lot more where this comes from, so I suggest you let us in so we can have a civil discussion with Mr. Espinoza. How does that sound?”
“Maybe I don’t let you in,” the guard says. “Maybe I blow your fucking head off right now, take the drugs to Mister Espinoza, and you fucking die. How does that sound, pendejo?”
Crusher looks to me and seems to resist the urge to roll his eyes at this guard who’s clearly too full of himself with a weapon to deserve to live. I can see in Crusher’s eyes what he wants me to do: he wants me to disarm the poor bastard, which I could easily do in a half-second, and shoot him in the head to send a warning signal to the rest of the guys slowly amassing outside Espinoza’s house.
But before I have the opportunity to do so, out onto the front lawn strolls Slime, seemingly good as new, without so much as a scratch on him.
“Gentlemen, gentlemen,” Slime says in his, well, slimy manner, “surely we can all get along, can’t we? Crusher, Blade, good to see you boys. I’m glad to see you found the compound with ease. Rogelio, chill. They’re coming in with me.”
“You sure about that, Limo?” the guard asks.
“You know, I could get used to you boys calling me Limo.” Slime grins. “It means ‘Slime’ in Spanish, you know,” he explains to Crusher and me. “Kind of endearing – the way these boys have taken to me.” He turns to Rogelio and says, “Now it’s time I took them in to meet with Juan. They have something he’s going to be very interested in, don’t you, boys?”
“Damn right,” I mutter.
“Okay, Limo, you got it,” Rogelio answers. He glares at us but then lets us pass, and we file in behind Slime.
When we get into the front hall, Juan is already standing there. I wasn’t prepared for that, but I especially wasn’t prepared for what I see next. Juan has a girl standing with him – or, more accurately, not really standing but being held by the hair, her arms tied up behind her. I can’t really see her face, but I can tell right away who it is.
“Maria,” I breathe out. “What the fuck?”
Slime goes over to Juan and whispers something in
his ear.
Then Juan intones, “Gentlemen, ¿cómo están? I trust that mi amigo Limo has informed you of the situation?”
“I haven’t told them anything yet, boss,” Slime says quietly.
There’s a word in there that he just mentioned that catches both Crusher and me off guard.
Crusher, just as confused as I am, says, “What exactly was there to tell?” almost instinctively, as if Slime was talking to him. But he wasn’t. Slime, it seems, was talking to Juan.
“See?” Slime says, pointing to Crusher. “This is exactly what I was telling you, boss. He always assumes it’s all about him.”
