by Rae B. Lake
“Alex?” Prime shielded his eyes and tried to see us through the glare of the sun.
“Yes, sir,” Prez answered walking a bit further out of the pack so that Prime could get a good look.
“Who is that with you?”
“Brothers,” Prez said, and that was enough. A smile broke out on Prime’s face as he unlatched the small child's grip on his leg.
“It’s ok Madison, it’s family.” She poked her head around and gave us all a smile, but she smiled bigger at me.
I did my best to stay behind everyone, I didn’t want to be the center of attention.
“What a fucking surprise, I’ll bitch up and be the first one to say I’ve missed you bastards.” Prime gathered Prez up in a proper hug. The man was in his sixties, Prez was like a son to him.
“We missed you too, Prime.” Wire spoke this time.
Prime went to reach for him but stopped and his eyes zeroed in on the President patch above Wire’s heart.
“The fuck is this?” Prime pointed at the patch and looked over to Prez.
“I fucked up, Wire is the right man for the job.”
“Shit, I leave and my whole club turns to shit.” Prime laughed and gave Wire his hug.
“Ryder, damn brother, I’m sorry.” Prime clapped me on the shoulder. No one had told him what happened but he knew what the chair meant. It meant I couldn’t ride, it meant part of me was dead. That was enough of a reason to offer condolences.
“So, now that all the happy shit is out of the way, what the fuck are you doing on my property. I know it isn’t to shoot the shit?” Prime signaled to the little girl and she ran into the house.
“I wish it was,” Wire spoke up.
Prime looked to Prez and then shook his head to look back at Wire, “That’s going to take some getting used to.” He looked back to Prez. “What the hell could you have done to lose your seat? I can’t understand this shit. Once you have a seat it’s yours for life unless you leave the club or can’t ride like Ryder.”
“I abandoned my kutte.” Prez barely got the sentence out before Prime was beating his face in. Even in his old age, I wouldn’t want to go one on one with him.
“You piece of shit! Why the fuck are you even still breathing. You should be in a goddamn hole somewhere.”
After a few hits Wire stepped in between them, “I’m the fucking president now and I say he gets to live. You’re beating on my brother and as much as we all respect you here, I would have no problem digging you an early grave.”
“You know the rules, he abandoned his family, he should be dead.”
“There were reasons.”
“Fuck that!” Prime tried to go for Prez again. There wasn’t much I could do but I moved in front of Prez and hoped that would be enough to stall Prime even for a minute.
Prez spoke from his place on the ground. “They killed Laura. Larry. Mick. Clean’s mother. Burned the clubhouse down...twice. I lost my shit Prime. There is no excuse and you’re right I should be dead.” Prez stood up his eye already turning black and blue, “But if you’re looking to punish me, believe me when I tell you, I went through hell and the club was better off without me.”
I could see all the rage just drain from Prime. This was the first he was hearing of all the losses we had. “Laura’s dead? Mick? What the fuck? Shit.” He dropped his head down and exhaled a few times. Mick had been Prime’s best friend, I didn’t even know if anyone invited him to the funeral. “Alex, I can’t say that I condone what you did, but I get it.” He turned to look at Wire, “You will be great where he failed.”
Wire nodded once, it was like Prime was giving his blessing.
“Come on, it sounds like we have a lot to talk about.” Prime walked towards his home and the rest of us followed.
We sat down with Prime and told him everything that was going on with us and the club. He seemed to be genuinely happy about the expansion of our little club, with chapter now in New Orleans and quite a few smaller clubs looking to be patched over.
“Good shit Wire, that’s more than I ever thought possible, especially with all the shit that went down.”
“Yeah, we’re growing but we have a problem and that’s why we are here today. Do you remember the Boys of Djinn?”
The smile that Prime had disappeared, immediately.
“What about them?”
“Well, we can’t prove anything but it seems like they are the ones that are jacking our cash.” Wire said sitting back in his chair never taking an eye off of Prime.
“Shit, that sucks. Watch your shit better next time,” Prime brushed it off.
“Oh, yeah. We will. I have already given Archer the word down in NOLA, if he sees anyone near our drop with those rags on he’s to drop them on sight. I mean there ain’t no reason for us to try and talk to them right?” Wire asked trying to draw whatever information Prime was holding back out.
“Hell yeah, who the fuck names themselves Boys of Djinn anyway? They sound like a bunch of pussies.” Clean said while popping some of whatever he was eating in his mouth.
“The fuck do you know?” Prime snapped at him.
“Brother, you may not be riding with us anymore but I have known you long enough to know when you are hiding something. What do we need to know about the Boys of Djinn?” I asked.
Prime looked at my chair then back up to my face, “It looks like I’m not the only one who’s not riding with the club anymore.”
The jab hurt but I wouldn’t show it.
“Is there something we’re missing here Prime?” Prez asked.
“You press them and you all are going to end up in the clink or dead.”
What the fuck?
“What the shit? How do you figure that? The cops never once questioned us about how we handed our business, why the fuck would they care about some no-name club.” Wire asked.
“Why the fuck do you think that is? What? Did you think it was your pretty face that scared them away? Negative! Djinn is why no one fucks with us.” Prime lowered his voice and calmed himself down.
“When I first created the Wings of Diablo, we were doing pretty much everything to get by. Selling drugs, kidnapping, killing, whatever the fuck I had to do to get us on the map. I took a job for us, one that should have been quick and easy but it wasn’t. I got pulled over only to find out that instead of just the drugs and money that I was supposed to be carrying, I was also carrying a nuclear device. I had one, Ryder you had one, Prez, Mick, and Wire I think you were riding in the truck with three more.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?” Wire stood up.
“This was more than fifteen years ago and I swore to never say anything, we just kept on getting them over the border.”
“Wait, I do remember that, we did something like twenty trips back and forth over the Canadian border,” I said thinking back on what he was talking about.
“Yeah, that was until Homeland Security figured out what we were doing. We were all about to go down and down for a long time but Liam, the president of the Boys of Djinn took the fall for us. The agreement was I keep all my men out of jail and in return, we would owe them a favor. They never asked for anything and we kept on getting bigger and richer. I noticed the cops never bothered us and I never verified the shit but I knew why. I knew why it was so easy for Liam to take the heat for us.”
“Why?” I asked I was not an easy man to scare but If I could I’d be shitting bricks right now. Prime wasn’t talking about killing folks or even going to jail for transporting drugs. We had been moving nuclear fucking weapons across the country. We were all fucking terrorists. If the Boys of Djinn had proof of this we wouldn’t just be going away for a long time, we would be on fucking death row.
“The Boys of Djinn are all FBI, they are all dirty as fuck but if you go after them, you’re going to have the entire fucking government coming after you.” Prime looked back over to Wire, “If they want fucking reparations for whatever they had to do to get us off the hook,
give it to them.”
“Mother fuck!” Wire turned his back on all of us, “So what you’re telling us is these fucks have us by the balls and there ain’t shit we can do about it?”
“You have to be smart, not a quality I see a lot of here today.” Prime said looking around, “But really why would you want to. You boys are flourishing, your families are safe, who gives a shit if big brother wants a bit off the top.”
“I care!” Wire shouted at Prime, “The Wings don’t answer to anybody, my word is the only law.”
“Sorry to break the news to you, son, but the United States government trumps your word any day. You go up against Djinn you’re going to lose. Not just you, but your brothers, your children, your wives, anyone that every associated with the Wings of Diablo will lose.”
Chapter 10
After we left Prime we didn’t know what to do with ourselves. We didn’t sit down for anyone and with Djinn we had no choice but to let them push us around. Our freedom depended on it.
I had taken to coming out to the main room once a day just to be around my brothers but it never lasted too long, they stared and I would always end up just wanting to break someone’s face in.
The loud screeching of a truck pulling in behind the clubhouse stopped me from going back to my room. Storm walked in, his face screwed up and his fist balled at his sides. “Wire!” He yelled out.
“He’s with Lily and Keeley.”
That was all the information Storm needed he rushed straight towards church.
Our president was enjoying his family time and did not like to be disturbed but Storm stormed straight into church without waiting for the go ahead. Something was up and we all followed behind.
“Brother wait a minute, let me get him,” Clean said from behind the pack.
“Fuck that noise,” Storm continued on his path.
Clean hurried to the front of the pack and grabbed Storm hard by the back of his neck. “I said fucking wait.” He held Storm still and glared at him. Wire was not only his president and leader, but Wire was also Clean’s best friend. He would do anything to protect him and right now it looked like Storm had some ill intentions.
Storm grabbed Clean’s hand and tore it off his neck. “Get the fuck off me Clean.”
Clean stared Storm down one more time before he opened the door and called out for Wire.
“Brother, Storm is out here, something’s up.”
There was silence for a moment and then we heard Wire answer, “It can wait.”
“The fuck it can! Get out here right the fuck now.” Storm tried to push past Clean again, his anger flaring up.
Clean stopped him again, “Wire, I think you need to come out now.”
I stayed towards the back, trying to make sure I stayed out of the way but I wanted to know what was going on. Storm went out this morning to do the weekly pickups and he didn’t walk back in with any fucking bags.
Finally, after about thirty seconds, Wire started walking towards the door, he had been in the room behind church, and he was shirtless and trying to put on his jeans on his stroll towards us.
“Oh ain’t that a fucking sight, here we are running around like little pussy bitches and you are in there getting your motherfucking dick wet. I should have fucking known-” Before Storm could finish his sentence, Wire, in the calmest fashion I had ever seen quickly placed the blade of a knife he had in his hand between Storm’s lips. Wire held the back of the man’s head to make sure that there was enough force, if he slashed in any way, Storm would be renamed the Joker.
“Storm let me tell you something, I am the president of this club but don’t for one second think that means I will be political or give a holy fuck about how you are feeling at any given moment. Disrespect me again and I won’t strip you of your patch I will put an icepick right between your eyes and stare at you while you die slowly. You’re pissed and you have something to say, fine, but don’t let this shit happen again. You got it, brother?”
Storm nodded softly once and Wire backed up.
“Now what the fuck was so damn important.”
“Did you set me up?” Storm said loud and plain as day.
Wire blinked a few times, his eyebrows squeezing together in confusion. “What are you talking about? Set you up for what?”
“Did you fucking set me up to be jacked, because that’s what this is fucking looking like right now.”
This time Clean was the one to step up, “Watch your fucking mouth Storm. Wire would never do some shit like that.”
“That’s for fucking sure.” Wire put the knife away and paced over to one of the chairs in the room, “You get robbed again?”
“Not only did I get fucking jacked again for everything that I had but there was a tracking device in the fucking van. They took it out right in front of me. Why am I driving around with thousands of dollars in dirty money in a marked vehicle, my president? Please explain that shit to me because right now I don’t know what the fuck to think.”
“You gotta be shitting me, they took everything?” I asked rolling towards him.
“Did I fucking stutter old man, you need hearing aids?”
I looked him up and down, “You don’t look beat up, you sure you didn’t just give it to them?”
Everyone looked back at Storm, and I was right, he was in perfect condition, not a scratch on his face.
“Did you not hear what Prime said? They are 5-0, you think I’m going to put my freedom on the line for some cash?” He pointed at Wire, “You’re the fucking be all end all in this place but we still don’t know who the fuck these Boys of Djinn are, what the fuck they want from us, who we should be working with, who we should shoot on sight. I got no motherfucking information besides if we go against them, we are all going to jail.”
Wire put his hand up to stop Storm’s tirade, “You’re right. We need to see what and who we are working with.” He pulled a hand through his hair. “Fuck, I don’t even know how to get in contact with these pieces of shit.”
Like a fucking orchestra, phones one by one started to go off. The shock on Wire’s face was incredible.
“You have got to be fucking kidding me.” Clean laughed.
Everyone was so dumbfounded by the craziness of the situation that no one bothered to answer any of the dozen or more phones that were blaring in the room.
I pulled mine out of my pocket and placed it on the table, everyone crowded around waiting to find out who it was.
I hit the small green indicator on the screen and pressed the speaker button right after so everyone could hear.
“Yeah?” I said not wanting to give anything away.
“Ryan? How are you doing brother? Heard you were looking for me?”
I looked around, this had to be some sort of joke. Who the fuck was this and how did he know my civilian name?
“Who the fuck is this?”
“Liam.” He let out a sigh and waited.
“I don’t know anybody named Liam”
“Don’t be such a fucking cunt, yes you know me. And you know my father, Liam Djinn Senior. Dillon said he wanted to talk to me, here the fuck I am. Start talking Wire.”
I backed up and looked at my president. I didn’t know how he was going to get out of this one but I hoped he had something good planned.
“How the fuck did you get everyone’s number.”
“That’s really what you’re asking about right now? I could have that place raided within the next five minutes and all of you would be up shits creek. So either say what you have to say or stop wasting my time.”
“Why is your crew stealing from us, Prime gave us some back story about how your pops got us off the hook, but why now are you coming back to fuck with us?”
“You and your crew have finally made it to the big leagues and you have had a full turnover of seats. According to my father, the agreement was made between himself and the higher-ups in your clubs, at least the old higher-ups. Once Ryder no longer had a seat, well t
hat meant no more protection for you. Now you want to get by in this town you are going to have to pay your dues, all of them, to us first.”
“Fuck that, we’re the ones out there taking all the risks. We’re the ones making the connections, you don’t get to just show up here and demand that you be cut in.”
“Yes the fuck I do, you want to know why I do? To start, no one in that crew has an up to date gun license besides Mr Luke Duos and Mr Ryan Barosy. I have physical and photographic evidence that shows each and every one of you with weapons. Maven will be wanted for murder, Mikayla is here illegally, your clubs do not have the correct licensing’s, and you have a pile of bodies that all have your DNA on them. Four of them were police. That’s just what I am looking at here on my desk. I have boxes and boxes of information on you Dillon, you decide not to pay, not only will I destroy every aspect of your lives and the club but I will make sure that there is no one there to continue the line. Make your choice Wire. I'll be waiting for my money.”
With that, he hung up the phone. A few minutes ago no one dared fuck with the Wings of Diablo, now we were nothing more than mules for the Boys of Djinn. It was disgusting.
Chapter 11
“Fuck!” I screamed in a rush of pain. My eyes were barely opened before I could feel the intense pain in my legs again. It had been weeks of on again off again pain. I sat up in the bed and tried to rub the dead muscles attached to my body but nothing I was doing was working. I reached the side of my bed, looking for the bottle of pills that I depended on for nights like this but I had left them on the other side of the room. I dragged my heavy body from my bed into my wheelchair as quickly as I could. My body shook and the pain radiated from my feet up through my body.
I wheeled as fast as I could to the other side of the room not caring what I hit on the way, I got to the medication but I was in so much pain that even trying to open the bottle was a task.
“Oh fuck, shit!” I squeezed the arms of my chair trying to power through this wave of pain so that I could open the bottle.
