Saving Glory (Hells Saints Motorcycle Club Book 4)

by Paula Marinaro

  “Finally some good damn news.” Prosper muttered. Then he glared across the table and growled to the girls. “Keep talking.”

  “Okay,” Glory continued. “So we made the decision to search Santino’s room to see if we could find out anything that might help us figure out what he was up to. Claire had the idea to bring along a flash drive—brilliant, by the way.” Glory flashed Claire a quick smile.

  When Claire sat a little taller in her chair and preened with pride, Prosper sent her a warning look and shot out,

  “Make no mistake. There is absolutely nothing smart about this.”

  Claire gave her father a woeful look, took a deep drink of the cool water and continued where her friend had left off. “We know it was a dumb thing to do, but at least we accomplished our mission.”

  When Prosper snorted in derision, Claire ignored him.

  “Because we were lucky enough and Santino was stupid enough and arrogant enough to leave his business on an unsecured laptop, we had time to download all his files. We aren’t really sure if what’s on it will be of any use, but you can go through all that. And we took pictures of everything that was in the file folder too. That’s good, right?”

  Prosper huffed and puffed.

  And scowled and frowned.

  But when he looked at his daughter’s eager to please expression, he capitulated slightly and agreed with reluctance, “Yeah. That was fucking good.”

  “Prosper, sitting here now and looking back at the whole situation, Glory and I really do realize it wasn’t the smartest idea.” Claire said softly, her voice filled with honest contrition. “We understand that it was really, really stupid to tackle this on our own, but we were able to get in and out of that room so fast that we thought it might be just as easy to follow him.”

  “Okay.” Prosper shook his head and sighed in resignation. “Tell me the rest of it.”

  “Once we got what we needed out of Santino’s room, we waited for him to leave the hotel parking garage. Then we followed him down to the bypass. He took the turn-off that’s about a mile off the junction 95 artery, you know, where that factory used to be?”

  “That building is just inside the Aces territory,” Diego said to his boss, and Prosper nodded slightly in acknowledgement.

  Glory picked up the story from there.

  “We knew that we couldn’t follow him down that access road. Nobody ever uses it anymore and he would see us, but I knew that there was an alternate short cut. A dirt road that kind of loops around and sits high off that exit. Hal bikes out that way and I had to pick him up last week when he blew out a tire. So we drove along there hoping to see what Santino was up to. We left the car at the end of the road and hiked a few yards in to the highest point. That pretty much led us right on top of the gate leading into the abandoned factory. There was a van waiting at the corner of the old parking lot when Santino drove up. He got out of his car and the guys in the van got out too. They talked together for a while. Then the men got back in the van and followed Santino up the road.”

  "What did the guys in the van look like?" Prosper asked.

  “Hispanic—they were all dark complexioned and had long black hair.”

  “Sporting any colors that you could make out?” Diego added.

  “No.” Glory shook her head. "They weren’t wearing cuts or any kind of patches. But they were all dressed the same way—wife beaters, jeans and black and white bandanas around their heads.”

  “What about the bandanas? Anything distinguishing there?”

  “No.” Glory chewed her bottom lip in concentration. “Nothing out of the ordinary. It’s the kind of thing you can get at any department store—" Her voice trailed off as she tried to capture a memory. “There was something, though.”

  “Ink?” Diego had left the corner where he had been taking up angry residence and now leaned his calloused palms on the table. “What about the ink? Fuckers sporting any tats?”

  “That’s it!” Glory burst out as Diego’s words jogged her memory. “They all had the same thing on their arms. Did you see that, Claire?”

  “Yeah,” Claire nodded hard. “You’re right. They all had tattoos on their left arms. Running from their wrists to the top of their biceps. A long winding stripe—I don’t know what it was—maybe a road or—I don’t really know.”

  “Could the tats have been snakes or serpents?” Prosper shot out.

  The girls met each other’s eyes seeking confirmation, then Glory said with certainty, “Yeah, I didn’t think of it at the time, but definitely. They definitely had the right slithering sort of shapes to be snakes. And they were all the same.”

  “Culebras?” Diego looked at Prosper with an arched brow.

  “Sounds like it.” Prosper grunted and led out a long measured breath.

  “What the fuck are they doing up here?” Diego asked Prosper.

  “No idea.” Prosper rubbed the back of his neck.

  “Something to do with heroin, I think,” Claire broke in.

  Prosper and Diego’s head snapped in her direction.

  “Heroin.” Prosper’s voice held a tone of deadly menace.

  “How do you know it was heroin?” Diego asked from behind clenched teeth.

  “We —” Glory paled and hesitated.

  “And why the fuck didn’t you lead with that?” Diego snarled before she could answer.

  “Because you and Prosper kept interrupting us!” Claire glared in response.

  “Just fucking tell it now.” A vein in Prosper’s neck popped out.

  “When Santino drove up over the hill the Hispanic guys that we just told you about followed him. But not all the way. They stopped about halfway down the road and pulled off. Then Santino pulled up in his car and met two other men who were there waiting. They looked Latino or Hispanic too. But they had suits on. They walked to the back of a big silver truck, slid out a long crate out of the back and opened it. The crate was filled with these bricks of white powder in plastic wrap,” Claire explained almost matter of fact. Then she tilted her head in thought. “I thought it was probably heroin, but I guess it could have been coke.”

  Prosper and Diego looked at each other.

  “Keep talking,” Prosper prompted the girls.

  “Santino gave one of the guys an envelope and that guy motioned to his friend to unload the truck. I counted four crates. Do you think it was four?” Claire looked at Glory, who nodded.

  “I got four too,” Glory confirmed.

  “Oh, my God,” Pinky moaned and placed her head in her hands.

  “What?” Both girls turned to her, but Prosper spoke first.

  “You saw all this from the top of a damn hill, and nobody saw you? Nobody even once glanced up?” Prosper’s eyes were hard. “You sure?”

  “Yup. We’re sure. Because after we saw them we figured it would only be a matter of time before they saw us standing there pretty much in plain sight. So we moved down and hid in the bushes.” Glory sat up tall with pride at their cunning.

  Another moan from Pinky.

  “Yeah. We’re not stupid,” Claire gave Pinky a questioning look at the expression on her face but then Claire added with aplomb. “Besides, we couldn’t video-tape from up on the hill. We were too far away.”

  “Video-tape?" Prosper seemed to strangle on the word.

  “Yeah, we used the video-tape feature on my phone. It’s all there." Claire pointed to the cell on the table. When she looked around at the shocked faces in the room she turned to Glory.

  “I thought we told them about that. Didn’t we tell them about the video in the beginning?”

  “I lost track of what we told them and what we didn’t.” Glory groaned in exhaustion. Then she said to Prosper, “But every question you have asked us should be answered when you view that video. Although I didn’t have time to check it.”

  “Because that’s when the shooting began,” Claire’s eyes went wide. “Tell them about that, Glory.”

  “The shooting?”
Pinky echoed weakly.

  “Yup. After the guy in the suit took the money and as soon as he had the cash in his hand, the van— you remember the van that we told you about? The one filled with the other Hispanic guys that stopped halfway up the hill?” Glory asked for clarification from the men.

  Prosper and Diego were transfixed and could do no more than nod.

  Glory nodded back then lowered her voice as if the words themselves would incite violence. “Well, those guys started shooting. And then two more guys that we didn’t know were even there came out of the Escalade that Santino was in and started shooting back. And that’s when I started to scream. I just couldn’t help it,” Glory said with a small degree of self-loathing at her unfortunately- timed and cowardly display.

  “We both screamed. Of course we screamed.” Claire patted Glory’s hand in reassurance. “Who in their right mind would not scream?”

  “So they saw you?” Diego asked grimly.

  “Yes. They saw us. It all happened like in fast forward. They all looked toward the bushes then—” Claire stammered and looked at Glory for support.

  “Then they all started shooting at each other and we ran," Glory supplied. "We were so afraid they were gonna come after us, but no one did. Maybe because they all killed each other off. We don’t know. We went straight to your house after that, Prosper. Pinky was home and we told her everything. That’s when she called you and well—you know the rest.” Glory finished the telling in one long rushed breath.

  No one spoke for several long moments.

  Prosper got up and began to pace the floor. When he spoke his voice was low, filled with fury and directed at Diego. “So my best guess is that the fucker Santino brought a cartel drug war to our door. I knew the Colombians were quiet for too damn long. Honest to fuck, I didn’t even know they were anywhere near here, let alone that they had partnered up with that wop asshole. If they’re planning to hit us, it’s gonna be soon.”

  “You think the Culebras reached out to Los Olcas in Florida and now the clubs are working together? It would make sense that those fuckers joined forces. And if they did, could be that they are planning on weakening the club by attacking the compound then breaking the truce down south,” Diego suggested.

  Prosper looked at Diego. “Could be. The deal they worked out with Beast in Miami was not exactly in their best interest. Could be that goddamn pain in the ass, Bautista, is back in town and pulling together the Latino tribes. What I think is that Bautista brought his boys up here to test the waters and stir up shit. And somehow Abiatti got in on the deal. Probably was gonna use anything that Glory could give him on us to bring the club down.”

  “How do you want to handle this, Boss?” Diego asked quietly

  “Put in a call to the Aces compound. Tell Hezekiah to get his ass over here. Let him know that Bautista’s crew is back in town. Gianni’s on his way now with some intel on Santino. We’ll know more when he gets here, but his first thought was that Abiatti was acting on his own on this deal. That is to say he had no mob-backing. Gianni said that it’s been no secret that the mother-ship ain’t been too happy with the way things have been going down in Vegas for a while. Sounds like Santino’s stepping out with a small crew of his own—Cosa Nostra don’t do business with the Cartel. Period.”

  An expectant and uneasy silence filled the room while Diego spoke into his cell in muffled tones. Then he shoved the phone back in his pocket and said, “Boys are being put on standby. Just awaiting your orders, boss.”

  Prosper pinned the girls with a murderous look. His face set in a deep scowl. “So you did all this—fucking detective bullshit—and almost got yourselves killed in what sounds like a goddamn million dollar heroin deal, and are the only eyewitnesses to a cartel shoot out because why again?”

  “Because Santino was going to implicate Hal and even maybe Reno in murder raps," Claire reminded him.

  “Why the hell didn’t you come to us, and let us handle this?” Prosper demanded. “Instead of playing this Keystone Cops bullshit?”

  “That’s what I’d like to fucking know.” A low grumble sounded from the back of the room.

  “Me too.” Another angry voice joined in.

  Oh shit.

  Glory closed her eyes as her heart started pounding in her ears at the sound of Jules’s voice. When she dared glance at Claire, she saw that her friend’s face had turned a ghostly white.

  Jules.

  Reno.

  Hal.

  Covered in road dust and standing in the back of the room.

  Glory knew from the start that the Santino problem might intersect with the end of the boys’ run. But she had hoped that it would have been settled before the men came back.

  No such luck.

  Prosper had been questioning Claire and Glory for hours.

  Her best guess was that when Diego had put in a call to Reno to report what his wife and her best friend had been up to, the men were well on their way back anyway. But looking at them now, it was obvious that they had ridden hell bent the rest of the way home. Glory and Claire were so intent on telling Prosper the whole sordid truth that neither one of the girls heard the three men slip into the back of the room.

  Just great.

  “Is that my piece sitting on the table?” Hal looked incredulously from the gun to his sister.

  “I—uh—well,” Glory tried but her courage failed her. Because when she looked around her that’s all she could see was the absolute fury that filled every man in the room.

  Then.

  “You all right?” Jules took a step to her and gave Glory his full attention.

  “Jules, I am so sorry. It’s just that we thought—" Glory began.

  “Are. You. All. Right?” Jules said again in a harsh clip.

  “Yes, Jules. I’m okay. I’m fine.” Remorse filled Glory when she heard the underlying panic in his voice. She pushed her chair back, stood up and began to walk towards him. But before she had fully completed that first step, Jules reached across the room and tucked Glory into his side.

  When Reno leaned in and snarled something indiscernible out at her, Jules growled back at him and moved Glory into the safety of his arms. After throwing Jules a look that could kill, Reno turned to his wife and pulled Claire out of her seat. Then he held her hand tightly in his own as he headed towards the door. But before he left the room he pointed an accusing finger at Glory and shouted at her. “Next time you get it into that fucked-up head of yours to go out and get yourself killed, leave my woman out of it.” Then Reno swiveled on his heels and snarled at his uncle, “You done here?”

  Prosper looked at his nephew for a long moment, clearly taking exception to his tone. But it was glaringly obvious that Reno was tottering on the edge of a violent response to an already tense situation. And because everyone in the room knew the history behind his fear-driven fury, Prosper decided to give Reno a pass. At least for now.

  “Yeah, you can take her.” Prosper rubbed the back of his neck wearily, then he looked at his nephew with warning, “But hear this. Before you start reaming her ass out for some seriously flawed decision-making, you remember one thing. Your woman is safe, brother. Safe, sound and un-fucking-harmed and that is the most important thing. The most important thing. We clear on that?”

  “’Course we’re clear on that.” Reno raised one shaking hand and wiped the sweat of road dirt off his paled face. His other hand maintained its tight clasp on his wife.

  Prosper lifted a chin to the door and said to Reno, “Just get her home, brother. And good luck talking some sense into my girl because God knows she doesn’t listen to me.”

  Claire met Glory’s eyes from across the room. She looked like she was about to speak, but then thought better of it. Before Reno ushered her out of the room, he turned to Jules one last time and said in a voice filled with menace. “Brother, you better get your bitch under control and do it fast. Because if you don’t, I will.”

  Then without another word, Reno threw
open the door, ushered Claire out and slammed it hard behind them.

  Glory felt a shudder of anger rush through Jules. The arms that held her tensed and flexed. Tension filled the room as the roar of Reno’s bike came thundering through the walls.

  “That was un-fucking called for, boss.” Jules held Glory in a vise grip as he spat out at Prosper. “You know it and I know it. It’s only out of respect for you and my understanding of the past situation that he didn’t go crawling outta here on all fours.”

  “You’re not wrong about him being out of line, and I appreciate you taking into consideration the heat of the moment.” Prosper said grimly. “The shit that Reno has already been through with Claire has got him talking stupid. It’s been a long ass day for everyone, and calling him out is just gonna make things worse. So for the sake of the shit we gotta do going forward, I’m asking you

  to give him a pass this one time. But if he ever talks that shit again, not only do you have my permission to kick his ass, I’ll help you do it.”

  A large silence filled the room as the implication of the day’s actions weighed heavy on everyone’s mind.

  There was a few moments of quiet deliberation before all eyes turned to Glory.

  Chapter 25

  “I should probably get going too,” Glory muttered through a frown as she twisted herself reluctantly out of Jules’s arms.

  Remorse filled her. Because, aside from the million other ramifications her actions of the last few days would probably have, she felt totally responsible for getting Claire in hot water with Reno. Glory knew that Claire was in for a long unpleasant night filled with lectures and shouting from her husband. Reno was not exactly known for his patient understanding, especially when the safety and well-being of his wife was concerned. A deep wave of guilt swept over Glory and she felt sick with the knowledge that she had risked Reno’s wrath by putting Claire in harm’s way.

  And since Prosper had obviously called his damn cavalry back in early from their road trip, she figured that she would let him fill in the blanks for Jules and Hal. Besides, her head was splitting and her nerves were shot. So she thought to make a graceful exit and leave them to it.