“And I should give a shit, why?” he interrupted.
“Because they were your friends! Once. The entire club looked up to you!”
“Yeah. That’s why they tried to have me killed. Twice. That’s why they stripped me of my colors and have been hovering about, making sure I don’t forget that I’m a marked man. You know what they say about friends like these.”
“They were wrong, Leo. I think they know it now. Copper, he’s made me his old lady. He’s bitter and unhappy. He tells me things. How the club is going down the wrong path. He and Fitz have talked to Ron, but he won’t listen. He won’t listen to anybody! They were charter members, two of the first fifteen, and they see the town returning to the way it was when Lima 6 first formed. This is Coper’s home now, our home now, and he doesn’t want to go back to the way it was.”
“He should have thought of that before Lima 6 started running drugs.”
“I know!” Kat wailed. “The club should have kicked Ron out back then, when you were pushing so hard against him. Maybe he could have done more, but he backed you every step of the way!”
“Really? I don’t recall him backing me when I took on Ron over shooting the kids.”
“That was different! You pulled a gun on the President of the club. That’s all that was about. He agreed with you, that the kids shouldn’t be killed, but he couldn’t condone you pulling your gun on another member. Leo, Copper is your friend. Always has been. Always will be. He was there for you the night Tuck and Two-Tone were killed.”
“Yeah, I know he was. But that’s too little, too late, now. What do you want from me, Kat? I’m dead to the club. It is only a matter of time before they take a shot at me.”
“I want you to help! I want you to finish what you started! I want you to take the club back and make it what it once was!”
“What are you talking about, Kat?”
“Copper told me what you told him after the club had banished you. How you and the others were planning a coup.”
“Funny. He didn’t seem to care when I told him.”
“I know. But he has been thinking about it. We’ve been talking about it. He was hurt, Leo, that you didn’t come to him. He was the Sergeant at Arms, and you were doing an end-around on him.”
“Because I didn’t know where he stood. I approached him about it, and he seemed to be okay with the club running drugs.”
“But that is when Ron said that they were just allowing the drugs to pass through Lima 6 territory. It is like you pulling the gun on Ron. He couldn’t condone what you were doing. But now he knows you were right. Ron is too far gone to save and that Lima 6 is actually transporting the drugs. He’s sorry Leo. He’s so sorry he didn’t help you when you needed it most, and it’s eating him alive.”
“Why hasn’t he come to tell me himself, then?”
“Because of his pride! And he’s afraid. Afraid of what may happen. The club is just hanging together. One more shock and it may break apart, and he doesn’t want that.”
Leo glanced at Jamie. She had put the shotgun away, but she was still hard as nails. “How, Kat? How do you expect me to help? What do you expect me to do?”
“I don’t fucking know!” Kat shouted then took several deep breaths. “I don’t know. But it is getting bad, Leo. The club is tearing itself apart. The Cuervo Cartel is trying to push the Prieto Cartel out and Lima 6 is being caught in the middle.”
“That’s what happens when you get in bed with the devil. You get burned.”
“You won’t help me? You won’t help Copper, or Fitz? Allen? Do you not care anymore?”
“Kat, if Copper wants to take the club back, I will support him in any way that I can. But I can’t do this for you. I’m not a brother anymore. I can’t just waltz in there and start making demands.”
“How do we know this isn’t just an attempt to get Leo out in the open where the club can take him down?” Jamie wanted to know. They had been very careful since he left the club to not be caught in a bad position.
Kat looked like she was going to cry. “I guess you don’t have any reason to trust me. Leo, I’m sorry for what went down. A lot of the club is. I can understand you being suspicious, but I just want your help. Copper told me what you said about the cleaning crew, how it was all Ron’s doing. But this isn’t that, okay? I’m begging you, please help me save Copper before he is hurt, or killed.”
“I’m sorry, Kat. I can’t. Copper has to be the one to make the first move.”
Kat wrung her hands as she stared at the floor. “If he comes and asks for your help to take the club back, will you give it?”
“Yes. What little help I can provide, I will.”
“Leo, are you sure that’s a good idea? It could all be a setup,” Jamie pointed out.
He looked at Jamie. “It could be. But I promised you that I would take the club back, or destroy it. This may be the first step to doing that.”
He turned his attention back to Kat. “Have Copper come here and talk to me, alone. Just him. We’ll see where this goes after that. But I’m not promising you anything except to talk to him, understand?”
“Yes,” Kat replied before she stepped forward and hugged Leo briefly before letting him go and looking at Jamie self-consciously. “Thank you, Leo. Thank you for anything you might be able to do.” She nodded once at Jamie then hurried out of the door.
“Do you think you can trust her?” Jamie asked.
“Don’t know. She seemed sincere, don’t you think?”
“Yes. But that doesn’t mean you can trust her. She may be everything she seems, but if you start pulling strings in the club again, who knows what may happen.” Jamie looked at the bar and began to polish one spot. “What if the cartel comes after you? I couldn’t stand to lose you too.”
Leo stilled her hand with his own. “I’m not going anywhere. I’ve had someone try to kill me three times now, and I’m still here. I’m hard to kill.”
Jamie looked up with tears in her eyes. “I’m afraid your luck may have run out. I don’t want to take that chance.”
Leo smiled as he released her hand. “I guess you better keep that shotgun handy then, in case you need to shove it up someone’s ass and pull the trigger.”
Jamie snickered and wiped at her unshed tears. “It’s not funny, Leo.”
“I know babe. But going around looking over our shoulders all the time isn’t funny either. And if you won’t leave—”
“I can’t leave my home or He’s Not Here!”
“And I can’t leave without you. This is the first chink in their armor. Let’s see if we can pry them open a little. If Copper is serious about wanting to take the club back, I’m willing to help. Like Kat said, he’s one of the founding fifteen. People will listen to him.”
“Then he should have come forward when you were trying to take the club back before.”
“It’s a hard thing to turn on a brother,” Leo said as he nodded in agreement. “Especially with as much history as Copper has.”
Jamie sighed. “I just hope you know what you are doing.”
He smiled. “Yeah. Me too.”
Leo turned and Jamie instinctively reached for her shotgun as the door opened again, then they relaxed as a man and woman came in, laughing at some joke as they settled into a booth. “We’ll talk more about it later, okay?”
“Okay. But this is our best chance so far to fix this. We may not get another opportunity.”
“I know,” she said as she kept an eye on Bobi, waiting for her to finish taking the couple’s order. “But I’m not ready to trust anybody from Lima 6. Not after what happened the last time.”
Leo pursed his lips as he nodded in agreement. No more deaths. There has been enough killing.
CHAPTER TWO
“You want to invite Ellen and Maggie out for dinner tomorrow?” Leo asked as Jamie unlocked the trunk of her car.
“That would be great. We could have a cook out.”
“That’s what I�
�m thinking.” Leo began hefting the bags of food from the trolley into the trunk while Jamie held the cart to prevent it from rolling into her car. “It seems like a shame not to share these steaks.”
Jamie looked up from watching Leo as a motorcycle roared by on the road, watching it to make sure it passed. She and Leo go everywhere together so they can watch each other’s back. The club had made no move against them, but that didn’t mean they wouldn’t, and the last thing she wanted was to be involved in another shooting.
As the bike roared past, she returned her attention to Leo. The trolley was nearly unloaded and they would be returning to his home. As much as she hated to admit it, she actually enjoyed grocery shopping now. It was one of her few chances to get out of the house and do something. Anything. Between staying inside while Leo was working, and being inside at the bar, she was going stir crazy. How sad is your life when the highlight of your week is getting to go to the market? Leo placed the last two bags in the car and slammed the lid.
“Shit,” Jamie muttered as a white SUV with the DEA seal on the door turned into the parking lot.
Leo looked to where Jamie was watching and grimaced. “I thought they had given up.”
Jamie spun the trolley around and started pushing it to the cart corral. “Not damn likely.”
The SUV pulled in and parked next to Jamie’s Honda. Kary Lundergrund stepped out of the passenger side as another agent stepped out and closed the driver’s door.
“You’re a hard man to find,” Lundergrund said as she swayed around the front of the SUV.
“I am armed, Officer Lundergrund,” Leo said.
“Leo, I keep telling you that I don’t care about that.”
“The law requires that I inform the officer. I just don’t want there to be any misunderstandings.”
“Right. Because we know you are a fine and upstanding citizen.”
“What do you want, Lundergrund?” Leo asked as Jamie returned.
“You heard about the latest shooting?”
“Yes. What has that got to do with me?”
“Nothing. Only that you could help prevent future shootings.”
“Oh? And how is that?”
“The club, Leo. They’re dirty. You know it. I know it. You could help me shut them down. No more drugs, no more violence.”
“Right, because drugs are ICE’s primary concern.”
“Didn’t I tell you? I’ve been attached to DEA temporarily. Thanks to you we’ve been able to put the squeeze on the Prieto Cartel. They’re going down. Between us closing off their supply train into the United States, and their war with the Cuervo Cartel, we have their balls in a vice.”
“So what do you need me for?”
“You see, Leo, their last major pipeline runs right through Lima 6 territory. We shut that down, we choke off the money, and the Cuervo Cartel takes care of the rest. One less cartel to have to deal with.”
“So do it.”
“There’s the rub. Lima 6 is helping them. There are too many dirt roads and goat tracks to cover them all. We think Lima 6 is providing intel to the cartel in addition to running the drugs.”
“Life’s a bitch, isn’t it?” Leo said with a nasty smile. “I’m not a member of the club anymore. You know that. So I don’t see how I can help you.”
“You can tell me what you know about the Prieto Cartel. Who your contact is within the cartel.”
“I don’t know any of that. I was frozen out before Lima 6 turned. You remember the hit, right? The one that killed all my friends? That was the result of my meddling with the club when they started going bad. So I think you can excuse me for not wanting to get involved in that again.”
“So you are willing to let the killings continue? You won’t give up information on a club that threw you out, even if it means letting innocent people die?”
“That’s not fair!” Jamie interjected.
Leo placed his hand on her arm to calm her. “It’s okay.”
“It’s not fucking okay! It’s not your fault the club went bad. If she would do her damn job, maybe the killings would stop!”
Lundergrund smiled at Jamie. “That’s what I’m trying to do here, sweetheart, my job. Maybe you should try to convince your boyfriend here to cooperate. Then maybe I could do something to stop all the violence. But he would rather protect the dirty members of his club than protect the innocent people that live here. Isn’t that what you signed on for, Leo? Isn’t that what Lima 6 was supposed to be all about? Protecting Vallecito de Grande from the drug traffic and the violence that goes with it?”
“Fuck you, Lundergrund, you bitch,” Jamie muttered.
Lundergrund smiled at Jamie. “Oh, I’ve tried to get him to do that too, but he won’t cooperate there either. What about it, Leo? Are you just going to stand around and continue to let people, innocent people, be killed? Nobody has to know it was you that helped me.”
“Nothing I can do,” Leo said through clenched teeth. “You’re just going to have to find another mole in the club. I think it is time for you and your pet gorilla here to leave. There is milk in the car.” Leo saw the male agent bristle. “You want to try me pal? Take your best shot.”
Lundergrund put a restraining hand on the agent. “Leo, if you want to get physical, there are so much more, enjoyable, ways, don’t you think?” Lundergrund produced a card from her back pocket and slid it into the front pocket of Leo’s jeans. “You can reach me at that number, anytime, if you change your mind. About anything,” she added with a wink at Leo and a nasty grin at Jamie as she leaned in close. “Do what’s right, Leo. I can make it worth your while,” she breathed like a lover. She dragged a finger down Leo’s chest then stepped back and nodded at the SUV as she walked around the front and climbed into the passenger seat.
The truck backed out but then stopped behind Jamie’s car as Lundergrund rolled her window down. “Don’t wait too long, Leo. I’m taking down Lima 6. You can either help me, or you can go down with them. Your choice. I would hate to see you in prison. That would be such a waste.”
“Okay. Go sit by the phone and wait for my call.”
Lundergrund smiled and gave him a small nod before the SUV started moving again.
“I fucking hate that bitch!” Jamie snarled as she stomped around the back of her car and slid into the passenger seat.
“Yeah. I can see that,” Leo said quietly as dropped into the driver’s seat. “Don’t let her get to you. I told you before, she is just trying to get under your skin and make you do something that she can then use as leverage with me. You getting all pissed off just tells her what she is doing is working.”
“I know, but I can’t help it. The way she comes on to you makes me want to scratch her eyes out. How do you stand it?”
“I just ignore it. And bathe with strong soap.”
Jamie giggled. “Loan that soap to me tonight, will you?”
***
“You know what she said isn’t true, right? It’s not your fault people are being killed. You are not part of Lima 6 anymore. You tried to turn the club. There is nothing else you can do.” Jamie said as she and Leo put away their groceries. She was worried about him. He had been quiet and subdued on the drive home and that usually meant the darkness was trying to creep in.
“I know,” he said softly. “But there seems like there should be more that I could do. Maybe this thing with Copper will turn into something and he can do what I couldn’t.”
“Maybe. But we’re going to have to be careful. You’re going to have to be careful.”
“I know. But sometimes you have to take risks. Maybe I need to reach out to Copper.”
“No. Let him come to you. If you reach out you may push him away. But if he comes to you, then you two can figure out a way to oust Ron and drag the club back into the light.”
“I just don’t want to see anymore friends killed. No more innocents either.”
Jamie placed the half-gallon of milk into the refrigerator door and clo
sed it. All the refrigerated items are now put away, and the rest could wait a moment. She turned to Leo and pulled him into her embrace. His arms encircled her back and held her comfortably as she rested her head on his shoulder. He tilted his head over and placed his cheek against her head as they stood together, giving and taking strength from each other, for a long time.
***
He’s Not Here was hopping and Jamie had forgotten about the meeting earlier that afternoon with Lundergrund. Over the past month, her business had returned to almost pre-shootout levels. It was about nine o’clock, in the thick of the of her Saturday rush, when Copper walked into the bar. His Lima 6 colors didn’t cause the bar to fall silent, but the din dropped noticeably as the patrons turned to stare.
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