Player: Stone Cold MC

by Carmen Faye

“So, what’s the plan?” Mickey asked.

  I nodded my head toward the casino. “They have her in there doing god knows what. They haven’t left, I’ve been here all night. I think she might be in the offices, but I don’t know.”

  “You know the way in?”

  I nodded. “Security might be a problem. The Crucifix Six has connections of which I only know of two. I don’t know how many of them are crawling around the place, but I know the main man is one of them.”

  Mickey nodded, looking at the casino as if he was sizing it up. “Shouldn’t be a problem. With a pansy name like Crucifix Six we’ll show them what we’re about.”

  We stood in a circle, and I had to admit that to anyone else we had to be damn intimidating. I counted ten heads, excluding my own, and the men all looked like they were waiting for a fight. Their fingers itched at their sides, their eyes shifted over everything in the parking lot. Some of them had bulges under their jackets, and I knew they were carrying heat. This was going to get ugly quickly.

  “The moment the cameras see me they’re going to come for me,” I said.

  “Still keeping up your old ways, Rip?” Mickey said. I shrugged. I guess, in some ways, very little had changed.

  “This is what’s going to happen then,” Mickey said, taking the lead. I was relieved he took the initiative. He was a born leader. “We’re heading in right through that front door. We’re just here for a game or two. I want you,” he pointed to Marcus and Donny, “to listen to what Rip has to say about the layout of the office. When you find where they’re hiding, you give me a ring. We’ll start a fight in there and then you,” he turned to me, “get her out.”

  I wasn’t going to argue. I was the smallest of the lot, and I was going to get picked up in a matter of seconds…as soon as I walked through the door. The boys split up and started going in pairs and trios until just the two guys, Mickey, and me were left.

  Marcus hadn’t changed one bit. He still had long hair that he wore in a ponytail and pig-like eyes that he usually hid behind shades. His size was easily mistaken for fat, but there was a hell of a lot of muscle under there, and you didn’t want to piss him off. He wore enough leather to shout out a warning in case you didn’t get the don’t-come-near-me vibe.

  Donny had changed. He must have been juicing because he looked twice the size I remembered him. He’d shaved off all his hair and sported a tattoo behind his left ear. I wondered if the tattoo had been there before he’d shaved his hair or if it was a new piece.

  I explained the layout of the corridors that led to the office as best I could. I couldn’t remember all of it, but I explained it well enough so that with a little initiative they could find it by themselves. When they headed in, Mickey turned to me.

  “So, a woman, huh?”

  I shrugged. I’d never been serious about a woman before. You just didn’t get involved with any kind of relationship when you were on the edge of being thrown into the legal system all the time. It wasn’t fair to anyone involved.

  “It wasn’t planned,” I said.

  “It never is.”

  I took a deep breath and blew it out slowly, billowing my cheeks. “This is Emmett all over again.”

  It was something I could tell Mickey. He’d known Emmett. He’d known what losing him felt like and what it had done to me.

  “It’s my fault she’s in there. I have to get her out. If I lose her...” I didn’t finish the sentence because I didn’t know what to say. I didn’t know what I would do.

  “We’ll get her out, don’t worry. You have another entrance we can work with?”

  I nodded. There was always that fire escape I’d used before. We walked around back. My phone rang. It was Rat.

  “We still on?” he asked. I looked at Mickey. Were we ever.

  “I’ll let you know when you can hit it,” I said and hung up. Mickey looked at me with raised brows. I shrugged and pulled out a cigarette, the last one. Sitting outside all night, I’d chain-smoked until my head had felt like it was filled with sponge and my chest had constricted by itself.

  “I want to hit this guy where it hurts. I have a group of guys raiding his drugs while he’s busy defending himself here,” I said.

  “The full monte. Nice.” Mickey held out his hand, and I passed the cigarette so he could take a drag.

  “I’ll be in touch,” Mickey said, as he slipped inside through the door. I stood outside finishing off the cigarette. My nerves were fried. The Stone Cold Club was here, but that didn’t mean something couldn’t still go wrong. And what if, after everything, they just put a gun to Alex’s head and pulled the trigger? If they hadn’t done that already…

  I shook my head to get rid of the thoughts. I couldn’t think like that. I was here because I believed she was still alive, and I was going through all of this to make sure she stayed that way. That was all there was to it.

  It felt like forever…almost longer than the whole night I’d spent waiting—although I knew that was ridiculous. Adrenaline rushed through my system, and I bounced on the balls of my feet, opening and closing my fists. What was taking them so long? Why hadn’t they found her yet?

  My phone rang just as I thought it, and I answered it.

  “She’s in a private room three rooms down from the office. You’ll hear the screaming, she hasn’t shut up.” In the background, I could hear the screaming he was talking about, a shrill pitched yell for help that made my blood curdle.

  I ran inside. The casino was practically empty and everywhere there were guys fighting. I recognized some of our own guys and a few of them that must have been the Crucifix Six. There were so many of them, I hadn’t even imagined there would be a whole army in here. I had been under the impression that Antonio was sort of the black sheep of the Crucifix Six, but it turned out he was very much part of them.

  I pulled out my phone in the run and speed dialed Rat.

  “You’re on,” I said and hung up. There was no time to say more. They had to do what they were doing, and whatever went wrong was their problem.

  I cut around the side, avoiding the fights. Someone jumped me. I used his momentum to propel him into someone else and kept going. I didn’t have time to waste fighting. Alex was in there, and she needed me.

  I made it into the corridor and followed the way I remembered. It wasn’t necessary for me to remember where exactly the office was. All I had to do was following the screaming and shouting. Shattered glass covered a part of the corridor and I stepped over it. Banging on the other side of a door led me to the right one, and I kicked it down. Alex was on the other side, sitting on the floor as if I’d kicked her back.

  “Rip, oh my god,” she said. Her cheeks were wet with tears and her voice was hoarse. “You’re here.”

  I knelt down in front of her and put my hands on her cheeks.

  “Where else would I be?”

  “You left.”

  “I came back. We have to get out of here. There’s war out there.”

  I took her hand and pulled her up, but she moved funny. Her body seemed sluggish, as if she weighed a lot more than she really did.

  “Are you okay?” I asked when I pulled her with me and she stumbled, catching herself on a chair.

  “They gave me something. My head hurts.”

  I turned to her for a moment and pulled her eye open wider. Her pupils were very dilated. Not good.

  “Look,” I said, holding up my hand clutching hers. “I’m not going to let go.”

  She nodded, and I turned to the door. We made it out of the room and over the glass safely, but we moved painfully slow. I wanted to scream, but it wasn’t her fault, so I said nothing and kept my ears open.

  John came around the corner and blocked our path. Not this guy again. I expected some kind of smart comment, but there was none. Either he was a man of few words, or he just wasn’t that smart. He came toward us, arms outstretched as if he was going to grab us. In any other situation, I would have run. I was smaller and faster th
an this lug of a man, but with Alex being as slow as she was, I wasn’t going to get away.

  And I wasn’t going to lose her again.

  So I did what any small idiot would have done and punched John in the face. He was stunned for a second, but I was sure it was more because I actually attempted to punch him rather than the fact that it did anything.

  He stared at me, and I stared right back. He bared his teeth like an animal when he came out of his shock and reached out for me. It was going to be a world of pain if I didn’t do something soon.

  Alex came from behind and hit John over the head with a wooden plank. I didn’t know where she found it, or why her reflexes were faster now, but when he crumpled to the ground, I could have kissed her.

  I grabbed her hand and pulled her to the door. In the main casino area, there was chaos. The fighting had died down and police had arrived. Men were running in all directions.

  “This way,” I said and pulled Alex. We made it to the fire escape and slipped through. The alley was empty, thank God, and I pulled her close to me.

  “You came back,” she said again, mumbling against my chest.

  “I did.”

  “I didn’t think you were going to come back.”

  I didn’t tell her that I hadn’t meant to. What mattered was that I was here and she was safe.

  CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR

  I walked her to the end of the alley when Rat appeared.

  “Rat,” I said. In the light of morning he looked different—almost too exposed. Rat fit into shadows and corners and unsavory places, not direct sunlight and wholesome mornings.

  “We got it,” he said and smiled. It was the first time I saw him smile.

  “All of it?”

  “All of it. You were right; there’s so much of it that I’ll be doing this for years and never need money again.”

  I didn’t mention that he was going to be screwed if he was ever caught with that much dope. It was his problem, the same as it had been Jerrill’s. The way it had never really been mine.

  “What is he talking about?” Alex asked.

  “We did more to Jerrill tonight than just break into his casino,” I said and kissed her hair. Rat lit up a smoke. I let go of Alex and did the same. She leaned against a wall. Whatever they’d given her was starting to wear off, but it wasn’t gone completely.

  I dragged on the cigarette, and I felt myself calm down. Cigarettes tasted like shit, but the instant calm that came with them was worth it in a life like mine. I was amazed that Alex didn’t smoke.

  As I thought it, she held out her hand. I hesitated before handing her the cigarette. She took it from me, put it between her lips in the most elegant way I’d ever seen anyone smoke, and pulled. The cherry glowed red, and when she removed the cigarette, she blew the smoke out in a cloud that framed her face. Maybe she used to smoke. She did it like a pro, and she didn’t cough.

  I didn’t blame her for needing a drag.

  I took the cigarette back from her when she held it out and looked down at the ground, pulling on it again. Alex squealed, and Jerrill was suddenly with us, holding her against his body like a shield with a gun against her head. She had her hands scratching at the arm around her neck, and her body squirmed, but it did nothing at all to break his hold.

  “You thought you could get away with this?” he said, looking at me. He glared at Rat for a moment, and I was guessing he understood we had some sort of alliance going now. I glanced at Rat who looked nervous. He might have hit Jerrill’s big stash a couple of minutes ago, but he was obviously still scared of him.

  “I want you to walk away,” Jerrill said. “Turn around and walk away, and I won’t kill her.”

  I held my hands out, palms toward him, to show that I didn’t have any weapons or intentions of harm. Which wasn’t entirely true because I wanted to hurt him in any way possible.

  “You know that’s not going to happen,” I said in a calm voice. I looked Alex in the eye so that the words I spoke were aimed at her, not Jerrill. She needed to know that I wasn’t going to leave her again. That was over. Her eyes were wide with fear so that I saw white all around the irises, and her breathing was quick and shallow. If she wasn’t careful, she was going to hyperventilate.

  “Let’s think about this,” I said. I feverishly tried to think of something, but nothing came to mind. I didn’t have any way I could make this situation work to my advantage. If I reached for my phone, he was going to kill her. If I attacked him, he was going to kill her. And neither of us could leave.

  Letting her go with him wasn’t an option. I didn’t know what he wanted with her, but it wasn’t hard to guess. A man like Jerrill who had everything money could buy? It made sense that he would want the one thing money couldn’t get him.

  “I’m going to back toward that door slowly,” Jerrill said, jabbing his head backward so we understood which door he meant. “And you’re not going to follow me. You’re going to stand right there until the door is closed, and if you come after me at all I’m pulling the trigger.”

  Just to make his point he cocked the gun. It wasn’t necessary, but the drama was effective. I knew he was serious. Alex knew it, too. She whimpered and her face became a shade paler.

  “Don’t do this,” I said, but I didn’t have anything left to say and no way to bargain with him for her. I was utterly useless, and I’d never felt more pathetic as a man.

  Something moved in the musty shadows behind Jerrill. I strained to see. Just before the hand reached out and the gun’s butt hit Jerrill’s head, I recognized the face. Every muscle in my body relaxed, and I looked at Alex, trying to convey my calm. She frowned, and I knew she’d seen my change in attitude.

  Benmore crept up behind Jerrill and hit him at the back of the head with the butt of a gun. Jerrill’s eyes rolled back, and then he fell to the ground. Alex fell forward, and I stepped in and grabbed her before she hit the ground.

  Philip Benmore sniffed nonchalantly and stepped forward, putting the gun in the waistband of his dress pants.

  “Rip,” he said, nodding to me.

  “Philip. I didn’t know you came along.”

  “And miss all the fighting?” We both knew it wasn’t about the fighting. He always wore a brown suit that made him look like a detective rather than a crime boss, and he was impeccably clean.

  “I’m glad you’re here,” I said. “I have the rest in cash for you at the motel, and the extras you can get from him.”

  I pointed at Jerrill out cold on the floor. Benmore nodded.

  “Consider us even,” he said, and it held so much more than just the debt that had been paid. He’d saved Alex for me when he hadn’t been able to save Emmett. This was more than just money. I’d repaid my debt, and he’d repaid his. We were friends again.

  “The boys are at the cars, we should see who we need to bail out again,” he said and walked past us. I turned to Rat.

  “Thanks for everything,” I said and held out my hand. Rat took it, and we shook. I doubted I was going to see him again. Alex looked at me, and I kissed her. A chaste kiss on the lips, just enough to remind her I wasn’t going anywhere. Whatever I did now was going to be with her in mind.

  CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE

  I didn’t know Rip knew that many people. Since I’d met him, I was under the impression that he was a loner, always on the run. When we walked around to the back of the casino, there were three minivans parked and a group of the biggest, roughest-looking men I’d ever seen standing together in a circle.

  When Rip and I walked closer to them, his arm still around my waist because my balance just wouldn’t sort itself out, they cheered. They didn’t look at him as if he was the runt, even though he was the smallest. Instead, they looked at him with respect.

  “Done,” a blond one with messy hair said around a cigarette in his mouth. The guy who’d saved me stood there, too, and he nodded.

  “Thank you,” Rip said to the blond one. “I owe you.”

  “No,
Rip. For the first time, I don’t owe you.”

  I had the feeling that something very big had been cleared up today, but I didn’t want to ask. I wanted to get home. I was tired and sluggish, and I hadn’t seen my bed in what felt like years.

  “Thank you,” I said, and my voice sounded weak.

  “For Rip’s girl we’ll do anything.”

  There was a collective murmur of agreement.

  “We have to get Donny out of jail,” the blond one said again. “He’s the only one who got caught.”

  Rip nodded. “We’re going to head out,” he said. “If you need anything, holler.”