BRUF

by Jessie Cooke

“Well, hello yourself, gorgeous.”

  “Who is this?” It was a man’s voice, but not Bruf’s. A chill ran down Sabrina’s spine.

  “Doesn’t matter. I know who you are...and I know what you’re carrying in your belly. You like that dark meat, huh? Does Bruf know? Does he know you let a...” She ended the call. Gasping for breath, she pressed in Wolf’s number. He answered on the second ring.

  “Wolf! Where is Bruf?”

  “Whoa, calm down, Sabrina. What’s wrong?”

  “Where is Bruf?”

  “He had practice tonight – you know, he’s doing that race for his brother.”

  “Someone just called me from his phone. Wolf, please go make sure he’s okay.”

  “What do you mean? What did they say?”

  Sabrina told Wolf what the caller had said and that she’d hung up before he could finish. “Please go make sure he’s okay...Wolf?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Why don’t you act surprised by what he said? You knew that the baby was half black already, didn’t you?”

  “Yeah, I did. Bruf does too.”

  “Why didn’t either of you ever say anything?”

  “Because it doesn’t matter, not to us anyways. You didn’t say anything either.”

  “Because I don’t think of my friends in terms of their race, or this baby.”

  “Neither do we...But you told me you looked up Ediger Cantrell, so I don’t have to tell you that it matters to him, and his friends.”

  Sabrina felt sick to her stomach. “This is why Bruf was so dead set on me not coming back until after the baby was born, wasn’t it?”

  “Yes. He wanted to protect you.”

  “Then why didn’t he just tell me? I’m so sick and tired of people not telling me anything!” Wolf started to say something else and she pushed “end,” screamed, and threw the phone across the front seat. It hit the door and bounced off, and she sat there for several long minutes, trying to get her breathing under control. When she did, she called Wolf again. Before he even had a chance to say hello she said, “I’m so sorry. I’m just...I’m a mess. I miss Bruf like crazy and I don’t know what he’s up to out there because he won’t tell me, but I know it’s not good. I can’t call him. I have to wait for him to call me. I was doing okay with that, or at least I thought I was, until now. I need to know that he’s okay, Wolf. Please, make sure he’s okay and call me back.”

  “Okay, Sabrina. I’ve already sent Smoke and Ash out to find him. It’s going to be alright.”

  “Thank you. You’ll call me as soon as you hear anything?”

  “I will, I promise.” She ended the call again, this time laying the phone on the seat next to her. She stared at it for a long time before finally putting the key in the ignition, starting the car, and driving back to the little apartment that she and her mother rented together. Her mom was at work. She’d gotten a job managing a little Italian restaurant and she’d even started dating the man that delivered wine to the restaurant. For the first time in a long time, her mother seemed to be adjusting to life in Florida and she seemed truly happy. Sabrina did her best not to let her own anxiety, and mess of a life, interfere with that. She was glad her mother wasn’t home to see her in the midst of the panic attack she was having.

  Sabrina let herself into the apartment and tried to talk herself down. Just because some asshole got a hold of Bruf’s phone and called her didn’t mean he wasn’t okay. He probably left it somewhere while he was racing his motorcycle and some fool just picked it up...but then how did he know she was pregnant? How did he know that she was pregnant with a biracial child? She’d begun working herself up again and she was starting to pace when her phone rang. She looked at it and saw that it was Bruf’s phone again. She cringed at the thought of hearing the other man’s ugly voice again, but she had to answer it...just in case.

  “Bruf?”

  “Hi, baby, it’s me.”

  “Oh, thank God!”

  “I’m okay, baby. Some douche got a hold of my phone while I was racing. He won’t do it again, you can be sure of that.”

  “Bruf, did Wolf tell you he knows, about the baby?”

  “Who knows what?”

  “The guy that called me, he knows that Melinda and Scott are black...and so is the baby. He was nasty about it.”

  “Shit. I’m sorry, baby. Like I said, it won’t happen again.”

  “Will this be bad for you, with your brother?”

  “No, baby, everything is fine. I’ll call and check in with you soon, okay?”

  “Okay.” She ended the call with an ache in her chest. She wanted Bruf. She wanted to go home. She picked up her keys and headed out to her car again. She needed her mother. Mom would know what she should do; she always did. She caught herself running her hand across her belly as she had that thought...and once again she had to remind herself that she wasn’t really the baby’s mother, and if Scott had his way, she might not even get a chance to be the aunt.

  22

  Bruf’s heart was pumping about two hundred times a minute thanks to the surge of adrenaline that came along with the anger he was feeling. His hands were shaking as he slipped the phone in the pocket of his jeans and headed out of the shop to look for the son of a bitch he knew had just called Sabrina. As soon as he spotted him, he made a beeline in his direction. The son of a bitch looked up and saw him just before Bruf pulled back his fist and let it land against the asshole’s jaw. He heard a crunch, and the skinny man flew backward about two feet before hitting the dirt and striking his head hard and splitting it open.

  “What the fuck are you doing?” Suddenly everyone was gathered around Bruf, the guy on the ground, and another piece-of-shit little Nazi that Bruf couldn’t stand the sight of. That guy was stupid enough to step up in Bruf’s face as well. He was the one that threw a punch first, one that Bruf dodged before he threw one back that landed underneath the man’s chin. His jaw snapped shut, hard, and Bruf saw the blood spurt from his mouth as he went down. Bruf felt himself being grabbed from behind then and his arms were twisted up behind his back by someone that he couldn’t see. He tried to fight his way free, but whoever had him was as strong as an ox. He was held tightly while another guy moved in and started throwing punches. Bruf was hit in the face, the chest, the stomach, and the head...several times...before he heard the sound of Ediger’s voice.

  “What the hell is going on here?”

  “Fucker attacked Jack,” the guy that was holding him said, but his grip had loosened enough for Bruf to wrench himself free. As soon as he did, he stumbled forward and nearly fell into the dirt. Ediger caught him.

  “Hey, settle down. What the hell happened?”

  Bruf looked at Jack, still lying in the dirt, bleeding from his head where he’d struck it on the hard ground. “He called Sabrina...”

  “Yeah,” said the one who’d been punching Bruf. “He called and told her that we know what she’s carrying in her belly. Do you know, Bruf? How about you, boss? Did little brother tell you that his girlfriend likes big, black dick and she’s baking a burnt one in the oven?” Bruf tried to go after him again, but this time Ediger held him back.

  “Settle down,” Ediger told him. He looked at the big guy that had been holding Bruf while the other one battered him and said, “Hardy, take Jack over to see the doctor and take that other little asshole with you.” Hardy didn’t say another word; he started collecting Jack and the other guy. Ediger still had his hand on Bruf’s arm. He slid it up and put his arm around his brother and said, “Let’s go get you a beer.”

  “I don’t want a beer...”

  “You need one.”

  “Hey, boss!” One of the guys standing inside the shop called after Ediger. “Grover just called from the gates. There’s two Skulls out there, looking for your brother.”

  “Tell them he’s fine and send them away.”

  “They won’t leave until they see or hear from me,” Bruf told him.

  “Then call them an
d tell them to go away,” Ediger said, obviously growing impatient. “You’re not leaving yet. You and I need to talk.”

  Fuck. Bruf took out his phone and called Wolf. “Hey, I hear there are two guys at the front gates looking for me. I’m not sure who it is, but can you let them know I’m okay? I’ll be leaving here soon, and I’ll catch up with them later.”

  “You really alright?”

  “Yeah...I’m good. I’ll talk to you soon.” Bruf ended the call and followed his brother to the golf cart. Ediger didn’t say a word as they drove up to the house. Bruf had kept his relationship with Sabrina a secret from his brother this entire time. He was dying to see her, but he hadn’t visited her, and he hadn’t let her visit him since she left for Florida two months earlier. He’d been spending two days a week on the compound, and sometimes even joining them for dinner on Sunday when everyone got together. Ediger kept trying to set him up with one woman after the other, but Bruf told him he was getting all the pussy he needed at the club. The truth was, he had the worst case of blue balls he’d ever had in his life. There were nights when he had to talk himself out of driving to the airport and getting on a plane headed for Florida. One night he’d even driven all the way out to the airport before turning around and driving back. He’d never been in a monogamous relationship before...and it was damned hard. Not that Sabrina had asked him to be faithful...but he wanted to be. It was just fucking hard. But as long as he knew Sabrina was safe, he told himself he could do this...for just a while longer. Now he wondered if he’d been wrong to send her out there alone. Have they been watching her? They have to be. Thanks to their sweep to find Maggie’s surveillance devices, Bruf knew they hadn’t bugged the club, or his trailer.

  The first day that he had swept the club, he’d found two listening devices in the great room and one attached to the thermostat in the hallway outside of Wolf’s office. Luckily, whoever planted them wasn’t someone with access to the private office, because there was nothing in there. There were three in the shop, however, and one was attached to the underside of one of the chairs on Bruf’s front porch. Maggie adamantly denied having an inside man, other than him, and as hard as Wolf worked to discover who the rat was, so far they hadn’t had any luck. Bruf stayed on her about it but she continued to deny it. They argued more than they did anything. He wanted to know who she had in the club spying on them and she wanted him to wear a wire on the compound. Neither one was giving an inch and in the meantime Ediger wasn’t giving up anything. Wolf was growing impatient and Bruf had a case of blue balls like he’d never had before, waiting for Sabrina.

  Ediger drove the golf cart almost into his front door before shutting it off and sliding out of it. Bruf followed him and they were up on the porch when his brother stopped, grabbed him by the front of his shirt, and pushed him into the wall.

  “What the fuck is your problem?” Bruf yelled.

  “My problem? When were you going to tell me that your girlfriend was knocked up by an ape?”

  Bruf pushed Ediger back and his brother let go of his shirt. It took everything in him to keep from knocking his brother on his ass. He was smart enough to know that was a really bad idea. Instead he said, “Sabrina is not my girlfriend. You don’t see her here, do you? And I had no idea who or what knocked her up. When she came out here for Wolf’s birthday a couple of months ago she told me she was pregnant and breaking up with her fiancé. I fucked her and then I told her to go home. I’m not raising someone else’s kid, but that’s as much as I knew about it.”

  Ediger was glaring at him like he didn’t believe him. Finally, he said, “You haven’t talked to her since she went home?”

  “Yeah, I’ve talked to her a few times. She says she’s not keeping the baby, so I thought maybe we could start things up again after she popped the kid.”

  “You’d touch her now, knowing those filthy black hands have touched her and that filthy black dick impregnated her?”

  “Like I said, I just found out about that right now.”

  “That girl in high school...she’s the only black pussy you ever been inside of, right?”

  “Yeah, that was it,” Bruf said with the ball of rage in the pit of his stomach gaining momentum once more.

  “Good...but bro, now that you’re affiliated with us again, you can’t be taking up with a bitch that don’t care who she lets use her. You have to realize that your behavior reflects on me, right?” Bruf almost laughed but he bit the inside of his cheek and said:

  “Right.”

  “I can’t afford to lose the respect of these people. They depend on me to model the behavior that I expect from them...and that includes my family.”

  “I don’t fuck black pussy,” Bruf said. “And like I told you, I had no idea that baby was half black.”

  “What are you gonna do now that you know?”

  “What do you mean? I told you, we’re not together. She’s not even in the state.”

  “You think Wolf knows?”

  “I have no idea.”

  “You gonna tell him?”

  “Seriously, bro, why is this so important to you?”

  “I’d want one of my guys to tell me if you were fucking black pussy, that’s all I’m saying. I think Wolf deserves to know and since you know, you should tell him. He’ll thank you for it...trust me.”

  Wolf already knew about the baby Sabrina was carrying, and he could care less about its race, but to make Ediger happy, Bruf said, “Yeah, I’ll probably tell him. But speaking of Wolf, I need to take off...got some work to do.”

  “Yeah? What kind of work has he got you doing on a Friday night?” Ediger seemed to be trying to think of reasons to keep him there and it was making Bruf slightly paranoid. It was the first time in a while that he’d gotten his brother to himself, so he decided maybe it was time to take a shot at wrapping the mess up so that he could get on with his life.

  “He thinks he’s got a rat in the club. He’s got us taking turns shaking down some of the guy’s rooms and going through their phones.”

  “Son of a bitch. Ain’t nothing worse than a man that pretends to be your friend while he’s stabbing you in the back.” Bruf nodded and Ediger said, “What’s Wolf gonna do to him if you scare him out of hiding?”

  Bruf shook his head. “I’m not sure. That’ll be up to the executives, I imagine. I’m not part of that group. You ever had a rat up here?”

  Ediger didn’t answer right away and Bruf thought he wasn’t going to...and he was right. When Ediger did speak, it wasn’t about a rat, or an FBI agent. But what he said was something of great interest to Bruf. “I didn’t bring you up here to talk to you about that girl,” Ediger said. “I have news that I think will make you happy...at least I hope it’ll make you as happy as it did me.”

  “What’s that?” Bruf was annoyed. The rat conversation was as close as he’d gotten to getting Ediger to talk about the FBI agent. He was beginning to think this had all been a mistake, and a huge waste of time.

  Ediger took a small manila envelope out of his pocket, unfolded it, and handed it to Bruf. Bruf opened it and reached inside, pulling out a five-by-seven glossy photograph of the man with the bulldog tattoo on his neck. Bruf looked as surprised as Ediger expected him to. Not because Ediger found the guy – Bruf had done that months ago – but because the picture wasn’t taken behind bars. Bruf had tracked the Bulldog gang member to the California State Men’s Prison in Corcoran where he was serving a ten-year sentence for burglary and making terrorist threats. He had asked his brothers inside to watch him, and make sure nothing happened to him...he wanted him in one piece when he got out, so he could kill him.

  “Son of a bitch,” Bruf said.

  “That him?”

  It was him. The thing that distinguished this guy so well that Bruf remembered him even after eighteen years was that tattoo. Bulldog gang members in the valley were almost all Hispanic. To see one that was African-American was not unheard of, but rare. Of course, Bruf had done his homework si
nce then. He not only knew the guy’s name now, but he knew that his mother had been black and his father Hispanic. He was what the gang members referred to as an “O.G.” now, an “Old Gangster.” When he was released from prison after serving his time in two years, he would be 48 years old. At least he was supposed to be according to the last information Bruf had gotten out of Corcoran.

  “Well, it’s been about eighteen years since I laid eyes on him, but the tattoo is right, and I’m guessing his age would be about right too – hard to tell from the picture.”

  “Dude has been arrested for burglary more times than Bill Clinton’s dick has been blown by his interns. He’s the right age, the right affiliation...and if we kill him and it ain’t him, we’ve done the world a favor anyways.”

  “Where is he?”

  “Out on the Southwest side. He’s been staying with his cousin on MLK Jr. Parkway for a week now. He was just let out of prison. I heard it was on some early release program we can thank Obama for. You make sure to tell him to thank his Daddy Obama right before you put a bullet between his eyes, okay?”

  “You’re going to let me have him?”

  “I promised him to you a long time ago. I ain’t never been one to go back on a promise. I got some of the guys watching him to make sure he doesn’t take off or someone else doesn’t kill him before you get a chance.”

  The wheels in Bruf’s head were turning. He wanted this guy...bad. He’d watched him put a gun to his mother’s head and pull the trigger, with a smile on his face as her head exploded. Bruf had never wanted to kill anyone the way he did this guy...but now he had Maggie watching him. She denied that they were following him when he wasn’t on the compound, but he didn’t believe her. He knew when he was being watched...and he was being watched. If he was seen anywhere near this guy or even that neighborhood, Bruf would be the first person they would come looking for when they found the man dead. He didn’t realize how long he’d been lost in thought until Ediger said:

  “What’s wrong? You don’t want him?”

  “Fuck yeah, I want him. I was just trying to work out how I was going to get him out of that neighborhood and kill him without spending the next twenty years in prison. I could take him out long-distance, but that wouldn’t be any fun.”