Thief: Devil's Own MC

by West, Heather

  Slowly, I crept back towards the gate in the yard, hugging the fence. I heard whispers and footsteps, and suddenly I knew that whatever was going on, it wasn’t a game. I shuddered when I realized the voices were speaking hushed Spanish. No one in Devil’s Own was fluent.

  “Who’s there?” I called gruffly. “Come out and fight like a man, asshole!”

  There was no answer, but the rustling and whispers behind the fence continued. I rolled my eyes. “Come the fuck on,” I said loudly. “I’m not waiting all fucking day for you. Where’s my fucking club?”

  A figure stepped out of the darkness. At first, it looked like the black shadowy figure from my dream and my heart leapt into my throat. When he got closer, I realized it was one of the Aztecs. He grinned at me; a gold tooth flashed in the darkness.

  “We heard about what happened with our friend,” he said, grinning. From the shadows, I watched as two other Aztecs stepped out and flanked him. My palms started to sweat and I tightened my grip on the gun. “We wanted to pay you a little visit and thank you for putting him in the hospital,” the same guy said. Looking at his friends, he nodded.

  “That’s bullshit,” I spat. “You’re not welcome here. Leave now, or the rest of the Devil’s are going to come kick your ass!”

  The Aztec laughed; it wasn’t the same cruel, high-pitched laughter from my dream but sent chills down my spine nonetheless. He and his two cronies advanced. I cocked the hammer and pointed the gun at him, tightening my finger on the trigger.

  He held up his hands. “Don’t be a coward,” he said with a grin. “We just want a fair fight, like you had in the parking lot.” His cronies reached my sides and pinned my arms down. The gun dropped onto the pavement with a metallic clatter and one of them kicked it away before winding his arm back and taking a big swing at my face. I ducked but the other guy reached for me and grabbed me.

  “Fuck!” I got to my knees and reached for the gun, but not before the leader of the group walked up and kicked me square in the face. Pain blossomed through my body and I cried out, feeling myself jerk backwards and land on the ground. Gravel bit into the side of my face and I was struggling to get up when the thugs surrounded me and began kicking and punching me. Somehow I was able to trip one of them and crawl away. Where’s the gun? I thought in a panicked moment. Where’s my fucking gun?

  The Aztecs watched as I crawled pathetically on the ground, groping and flinging my hand out as I searched for the gun. I heard them laughing as I crawled around in the dark, trying to keep my eyes open. Warm blood was streaming down my forehead and making it difficult to see; no matter how many times I wiped it away, I knew that I was cut pretty badly.

  “Get up and fight,” one of them said in accented English. “Fight like a man, don’t be a pussy!”

  “Yeah, don’t be a pussy,” one of them said.

  I got to my feet and growled, charging at one of them with my head lowered. It caught him off guard and he sailed backwards, crashing against the chain link fence with a deafening clatter. When he was down, I whirled around with my fist out and caught one of the other guys in the stomach. He doubled over, the air knocked out of him, and I kicked his legs out from under him so he dropped onto the ground. The last thug came up behind me and wrapped an arm around my neck, squeezing me. Instantly, I was choking and coughing and watching helplessly as the two fallen Aztecs picked themselves up off the ground. The leader came towards me, grinning, while his friend still had me in a chokehold. He grinned even wider as he made a fist and swung back. I closed my eyes and braced myself for the blow. It landed right on my cheek and I could feel my nose smashing and bending to the side with the force of his hand.

  “Fuck you,” I yelled, spitting blood on the ground. “Get the fuck off my property.”

  The Aztec who was holding me released me and I spun around, swinging and missing for his black, greasy head. “That’s what you think, you fuck,” he said under his breath. I lowered my head to charge him but he saw me coming and raised his leg to knee me in the face. Blood poured out of my nose and mouth and I wiped it away, coughing and spitting. The other two Aztecs came at me and I held them at arm’s length, reaching out with my legs to try to kick them down. It was a pretty pathetic scene, and I could feel the blood pounding in my ears as I tried to hold the three guys off. Even when I got in a good punch, I knew that I couldn’t have possibly taken all three of them.

  One of the Aztecs stooped down and picked up something shiny from the ground. When he waved it around in the air, I knew it was a gun. Suddenly, I growled and ran for him, landing on top of him and knocking him backwards. The gun flew out of his hand and clattered on the pavement, sliding under my bike. Just as the Aztec was winding back to punch me in the face, I twisted out of the way and hit him hard in the face. My hand stung immediately as I felt his cartilage and bone break under my skin. Rage was boiling inside of me; even though I knew there was no way I could win this fight, I wasn’t going down until I could no longer move.

  The Aztec growled and spat blood at me. I hit him again and again, until he could no longer cry out, and I saw his eyelids flutter closed. The other two thugs were busy looking for my gun on the ground. They didn’t notice when I picked myself off their fallen comrade and came towards them with my hands balled up at my sides.

  “Look, pussy boy’s coming back for more,” one of them jeered to the other. I growled and charged, knocking the offender backwards. I was somehow able to catch myself before I tripped over him and fell, and I spun backwards, landing a punch on the last Aztec. He fell to his knees and I started raining blows on his head and neck. Blood and teeth were glistening on the surface of the asphalt and I kept going until he’d passed out. I was so determined to beat him to a pulp that I didn’t notice the Aztec I’d knocked over crawling to the side and fishing for my gun.

  “Stop!” I yelled. He turned around and laughed at me. When he held the gun up in the air, my heart stopped beating. Suddenly, I knew I was dead. As he aimed at me and cocked the gun, I said a mental apology to Sarah. I’m sorry I couldn’t keep you safe. I’m so sorry.

  Just as I thought I was about to die, I heard sirens in the distance. “Oh, fuck!” the Aztec cried. He dropped the gun and I fell to my knees in relief. The Aztec tried grabbing and dragging his two fallen brothers but couldn’t manage with both of their weights. He grabbed the smaller one and dragged him to safety, through a new hole in the chain link fence. Just as the police cars were zooming closer, I felt myself start to grow faint of breath.

  “Fuck,” I muttered. “Stay awake. Stay awake, man. Just try,” I mumbled, my swollen eyelids fluttering closed. As I felt my body hit the ground, pain radiated through me in big shockwaves. I struggled to keep breathing as I heard the police cars roar into the parking lot and grind to a stop.

  “Come out with your hands up,” I heard a gruff voice say over the megaphone. “Everyone, now!”

  The Aztec and his mate had disappeared, but there was still the fallen Aztec on the ground and me. When the police repeated the command, I moaned loudly. As I tried to pull myself off the ground, pain exploded in every joint and every limb of my body. I bit my lip so I wouldn’t cry out and managed to haul myself into a standing position. With every ounce of will left in my body, I raised my hands in the air and turned around so my back was to the police car.

  I heard guns cocking and whispered voices as the cops climbed out of their cars and approached me. Rough hands grabbed my wrists and forced them behind my back. I cried out in pain but the cop didn’t notice, and put metal handcuffs on me. They were uncomfortably tight, and my sore shoulder joints ached at once.

  “You wanna tell me what the fuck you boys were up to?” A cop leaned in my face and I turned away.

  “Ask my lawyer,” I grunted. “I’m not telling you shit.” The cop punched me in the side and I crumpled but didn’t fall over.

  “I’ll do just that,” he sneered at me. “Come on,” he called to the other cops. “Book that wetback, too
.”

  I closed my eyes as the cop hustled me over to his car. He pushed me down in the backseat and I slammed my head against the car. Pain bloomed in my vision and I could feel a new trickle of blood coming down my temple, fresh and wet. The cop slammed the door and I watched for a few minutes, bored, as they dragged the Aztec off the pavement and booked him in their other car.

  When the cop got in behind the driver’s seat, he turned to me. “Blake, I hate this, man,” he said. I winced when I recognized him as one of the cops who had booked me the last time. “You’ve got to learn to keep your ass out of trouble,” he said, shaking his head. “Seriously, you’re not gonna get anywhere in life if we have to keep dragging you downtown.”

  I spat at the partition in the car. “Then you better fuckin’ learn to stay out of my club’s business,” I sneered. “The fuck business you think you have with us, anyway? Those fuckin’ Aztecs attacked me when I rolled up for a club meeting. This was all self-defense!”

  The cop gave a short bark of a laugh. “You’re a storyteller, I’ll give you that,” he said with a wry grin. I turned my head to the side so I wouldn’t have to look at his smug, fat, fucking face. “We know you’re looking for trouble, Blake. Just tell me, come on. It won’t be as big of a deal if you plead guilty.”

  “I’m not pleading shit,” I muttered. “Like I said, talk to my lawyer.”

  The cop shook his head. “You don’t get it, man,” he said. “I’m trying to help you. Don’t you get that?”

  “You’re trying to detain me,” I shot back. “And I’m not telling you anything without a lawyer. End of fucking story.”

  The cop whistled through his teeth. “Blake, you gotta learn to stop trying to settle things yourselves. Leave that to the law enforcement! Surely Abel doesn’t have you thinking that you guys can handle things without our help, right?”

  I glared at him. If I’d had my gun, I would have tried to shoot him for that remark. I hated the cops around here. We’d always had kind of a special relationship with law enforcement, but ever since the next town’s police department absorbed the county, things had just been off the rails. I knew that Jimmy and Abel were busting their asses trying to make us okay again in the eyes of the law, but in the middle of this territory dispute, it was the last thing that we needed.

  “Blake, I’m gonna give you one more chance to talk before we head downtown,” the cop said softly. “If you have anything you want to share with me that you don’t want getting back to the club, you’d better come out with it now. You know I want to help you. We go way back, don’t we?”

  I narrowed my eyes. “We haven’t been in each other’s pockets for a very long time, old man,” I warned. “Don’t even try to act like you’re on our side.” I bit my tongue; it was so tempting to bring up the Aztecs. In the old days, we would have been allowed to defend our turf as we pleased. Everyone in the police department knew that the Aztecs ran crank and other drugs. Drugs were bad for the city, so we were allowed to keep them out. But now, the cops didn’t see it that way. Suddenly it was their job to make sure that the Aztecs were gone. I closed my eyes and thumped my head against the back of the cruiser in frustration.

  This whole night had been fucked. The cop eyed me in the rearview mirror. “Blake, one last chance,” he repeated. “We’re heading downtown soon. Looks like you gave that son of a bitch quite the bruising,” he added in an amused tone. I eyed him dully as he pointed out the windshield of the cruiser. “We had to call an ambulance for him,” he said. “So you can feel good about your strength, now.”

  “Fuck you,” I spat. “Get me my lawyer.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  I sat in the holding cell for almost five hours before Barney showed up. By the time the cop came to let me out of the pen, the bleeding had stopped but I felt stiff and sore and painful everywhere. I didn’t have a watch or my phone on me, but it seemed like it had to be after midnight. Fuck, I thought, remembering that I’d had dinner plans with Sarah. But there was nothing I could do about it now; my one phone call had to be to the club’s lawyer, and if I was lucky, maybe he could post my bail and I’d be out of here in an hour or two.

  The cop who released me from the cell was the same one who had driven me to the station. In the nasty fluorescent lighting of the station, he had dark circles under his eyes and I could see his face was getting doughy with middle age.

  “Had a chance to think about what you did yet?” He smirked and I shook my head, keeping my lips shut. I knew that I shouldn’t have mouthed off in the car; that was what had earned me the hours alone without a phone call. But all I wanted to do was get my revenge on this fucker and everyone like him who stood in my way. When I thought about how quickly I could end his life, even in the battered condition I was in, my blood starting to pump freely again.

  The cop cuffed my hands behind my back and guided me down a dimly lit hallway. It was a place I was very familiar with; every member of the club had been arrested at least once. Most of us twice, or three times. This was my fifth incident in the past couple of years. That number didn’t seem so bad when I thought about everything that had led me to jail, but it didn’t look great, either.

  Barney was sitting down at a table with a cup of coffee. Even though it was late, he looked immaculate as always. Devil’s Own had been affiliated with Barney for years now. He was almost like an old friend. He was someone who we always invited to gatherings and clubhouse parties, not because we were afraid of something going wrong, but because we wanted him to know that we trusted him. In the clubhouse of the Devil’s Own, Barney had probably seen things that shocked him. But who knew; maybe not. He had an excellent poker face.

  “Blake,” he said, reaching out for my hand. We shook like men and then I sat down. Barney was scrutinizing my face and I could tell from his expression that I must have looked pretty badly off.

  “You checkin’ me out?” I laughed. “Trust me, it probably looks worse than it feels.” As I spoke, my throat went dry and I coughed. Specks of blood landed on my hand and I balled up my fist and stuck it in my lap so he wouldn’t see. “I can walk out of here just fine,” I said calmly. “You wanna help me with that?”

  Barney licked his lips and leaned back in the chair. “Blake, I have to be honest with you,” he said. “This doesn’t look good. Not for you, not for the MC. Right now they’re looking to pin you down with two charges of assault and one charge of attempted assault, plus a charge of carrying a concealed weapon without a permit.”

  I narrowed my eyes. “That’s bullshit,” I said. “I didn’t even use my gun, and I do have a permit.”

  Barney shook his head. “You have a permit for a legal gun,” he said. “This was a gun with the serial scratched off. That’s different, Blake. That’s a whole new game.”

  I bit my lip. Most of the guns used by the club had no serial number; it was one of the ways we took precautionary measures. “Fine,” I spat. “So what’s with the assault? Does it count that they attacked me, and I fought back in self-defense?”

  Barney let out a long, slow exhale of breath. “That’s different,” he said quietly. “Even though they were on your property, I’m showing in the police report that you swung first.”

  I shook my head. “That’s not true,” I said. “Those lying bastard cops weren’t even there. They ambushed me, and when I went to check the perimeter of the clubhouse, they all came out in a pack.”

  Barney looked at me with his eyes narrowed. “Blake, you paralyzed one of those guys,” he said. “The guy who was left on the ground with you, the Aztec. They’re saying that he won’t ever walk again. Do you realize what this means for you and the club?”

  Suddenly, I felt like someone was watching me. I turned to the mirrored two-way glass and sneered. “I don’t want those pigs listening, Barney,” I said quietly. “I can’t give them any more ammo against us right now. Can you get me out of here today?”

  “Your bail was posted at five hundred thousand,” Barney said
in a calm voice. I stared at him, feeling like someone had punched me in the stomach. “If you’re able to tell me where I can obtain that money, we’ll go from there. I have a retainer from you that makes up almost half, and you’d need the other half by the end of the day.”

  “Jimmy can help me,” I told him gruffly. “Just call him and tell him how much I still owe.”

  Barney looked at me. He folded his tanned hands on the table and for a moment I was caught staring at his nails. They were trimmed and manicured, just like a woman’s hands would be. “This is more serious, Blake,” he said quietly. “I know you don’t want to hear this, but you’re really going to have to change. The MC is going to have to change, we’re all going to have to work harder here.”

  “What the fuck do you mean, ‘we’?” I asked, leaning back in my chair and fixing my eyes on him. “I already am working hard. If the cops can’t see that I took those Aztecs out in self-defense, I don’t fucking know what you want me to say.”