“That was because you were shot twice, you moron.” Judge growled at the top of the steps. “And you didn’t get Pony and Blue killed. We were all caught unaware. None of us expected the ambush that day. That bitch came out of nowhere. Salim knew we wouldn’t shoot at a woman, so he pushed her out to distract us. It worked.”
Bull twisted around to face his team leader, “I hesitated when I should have taken out that bitch.”
Judge marched over to Bull and wrapped his hand around the back of Bull’s neck. Bringing him closer, he looked Bull straight in the eyes. “You didn’t get them killed. You didn’t shoot that woman because that’s the type of man you are. That’s the type of man I am too. I didn’t take that shot either, nor did Hawk or Mustang. Salim knew what he was doing when he sent her out first. But it wasn’t your fault Pony and Blue died. It could have been any of us or all of us that day.”
“But it was my job to keep the team safe and I didn’t do my job,” Bull insisted stubbornly.
“You went above and beyond your job that day,” Judge insisted. “When the smoke cleared we counted the bodies as disgusting as that sounds. We took out Salim and his all five members of his entourage and over forty ISIS warriors. We wiped them all out. We won that battle.”
“But we lost the fucking war!” Bull shouted as he pulled away from Judge.
“Not yet we haven’t.” Judge growled as he watched Bull pace.
“I lost the war,” Bull admitted. “When I came to in that fucking hospital and they confirmed to me Pony and Blue were gone, I slipped into a terrible rage. My whole body felt nothing but hatred and for a long time, I couldn’t breathe. Something inside me was broken and I felt shattered. So when I heard Salim’s pipeline was still in business, I couldn’t come back to the Brava Victor team.” Slowly he shook his head. “I didn’t believe in what we stood for anymore. I left because I had to find my focus again.”
“And did you?” Judge asked. “Did you find your focus again?”
Bull nodded. “Yeah, I think I did. The moment I stepped inside the cage, I found my center again. I don’t know if it was the mindless fighting or what but I found my focus again. It took me three years to recover from my wounds and build up my body to take the punishment in the cage but this last year, I have something besides myself to focus on and now I feel I can bring something to the team that I can say I can contribute.”
“Then you’re ready to come back to Brava Victor?” Judge challenged him.
“If you’ll have me, I’m ready,” Bull stated.
Judge smiled and reached out his hand. Bull grasped it and they shook on it. “I was hoping you would say that. Welcome back brother.”
Charlie watched the exchange and felt a dread deep in her body. They were forgetting one very important thing. Reaching for the paper, she began to write something. When she was done, she held the paper out to Bull.
Bull took the paper and read what she wrote. He lifted his eyes to hers and shook his head. “Conrad Bane doesn’t scare me. He has no claim on me either.”
“What did she say about Conrad Bane?” Judge wanted to know.
Bull passed him the notebook and let him read what she wrote.
Bull sat down on the bed next to her. “He can’t touch me. He has no reason to come after me.”
Judge handed her the notebook back and she began writing again. When she turned the paper to Bull, he read it.
He shook his head again. “I already told him the contract between me and Smokey wouldn’t be good. I had a walk out clause in it. He doesn’t own me.”
Charlie wrote something else on the paper. “Yes he does. He thinks he owns you for the next year and once Conrad Bane thinks he owns you, he does. He won’t let you walk away from him. If you try, he’ll make you crawl back to him. He’ll use whatever he has to, to break you and laugh in your face in the end. He’s done it before and he’ll do it again. If you won’t fight for him, he’ll put a bullet in your head. That’s just the kind of man he is.”
Bull read the words and felt a cold growing inside him. He lifted his eyes from the paper in his hands and stared at her. “You said earlier that Conrad Bane was linked with the Ratz. How do you know that?”
Charlie stared at him for a moment then wrote something in the notebook. Judge came closer to the bed and the other men came into the room. No one said a word but they were all waiting for her. When she finished writing, she handed the notebook back to Bull. She laid down on the bed and turning her back to them, she closed her eyes. She didn’t want to see their reaction to what she wrote. She couldn’t see the disgust in their eyes when they read it.
Bull sat back down on the bed with her. After a moment, he brushed his fingers down her cheek. Charlie wanted to open her eyes but she didn’t know if she could stand to see the disgust in his eyes.
“Turn around and open your eyes and look at me,” Bull asked her softly.
Charlie squeezed her eyes tighter and shook her head. Her throat protested the motion and she moaned as the pain washed over her.
“Please?” Bull whispered.
Charlie slowly turned to face him, opened her eyes then she frowned. She didn’t see disgust in Bull’s eyes but rather concern. He leaned forward and touched his forehead against hers.
“Don’t know your story yet but I will,” he whispered. “You didn’t do anything wrong here. I promised to protect you and I will. We all will. You have to believe that.”
Charlie closed her eyes. She never relied on anyone else before. She’d learned a long time ago that no one watched over her but herself, so what he was asking was hard for her to do but for him she could try. Wrapping her small hand around her throat she whispered, “I can try.”
Bull smiled. Leaning back he said, “I know you’re tired and very weak and that you don’t really want to answer any more questions at the moment but we need some more information. Information only you can give us. Will you help us out?”
Charlie glanced over his shoulder to the five men standing behind him. Each of them looking serious and just a tad on the grumpy side. She turned back to Bull and nodded. Closing her eyes against the pain she knew was coming, she whispered, “I’ll try.”
Bull pressed his lips to her forehead. When he pulled away he whispered, “Please don’t try and speak. Your throat isn’t healed enough for that yet and I don’t want the bleeding to start up again.”
Charlie leaned forward and rested her face in his chest. Turning her head, she laid her ear to his chest and listened for a moment to the beat of his heart. Within moments, the boom, boom she heard seemed to calm her.
A half hour later, sitting at the table again the six men sat around her. She had a notebook in front of her and a pen in her hand. Judge pushed the notebook she used earlier at her and muttered the words, “Explain this to us.”
Charlie didn’t need to look at the words she’d written earlier. When Bull asked her how she knew Conrad Bane was connected to the Ratz gang, she’d written the truth. She’d seen Conrad Bane in the Ratz’s clubhouse. She’d been watching the River Ratz gang for some time now. She knew where they hung out and with who. She’d never been caught except for the one time one of them had beat the hell out of her. She’d written that Conrad Bane had been seen with the Ratz several times in the last year.
She looked over at the other man and shrugged. Then she wrote, “What do you want to know?”
“How do you know Bane?” Judge asked.
“I’d heard the name before but never knew the man. Then a year or so ago, I saw him at the Ratz compound. Since then I’ve seen him several times. He thinks he’s a big shot and doesn’t like anyone not showing him the proper respect.”
“But how do you know who he is?”
“Like I said before, I’d seen him around the Ratz a couple of times. Then about a year ago, I heard Paolo call him by name. I decided to find out more about him, so I followed him around the city and saw where he went and who he met with. He’s a dangerous man
and he has powerful men working for him that won’t hesitate to mess someone up on his orders.”
“Why exactly are you spying on the River Ratz gang?” Mustang asked.
Charlie didn’t say or write anything for a few minutes. She just stared at the men on the other side of the table. Then she picked up her pen and began writing. When she finished, she pushed the notebook toward Bull.
Bull’s eyes went from her to the paper and he read the words she wrote. She’d written, “Five years ago a very good friend of mine had a run in with one of the Ratz. He hurt her bad and she never recovered from the assault. I was hoping to find out who did it.”
“Did you find the bastard?” Bull asked.
Charlie shook her head. “Not yet.” She mouthed the words.
“How long have you been watching the Ratz?” Tank wanted to know.
Charlie held up three fingers. “Three years.” She wrote.
Judge looked at his men then back at her. “How long has Bane been hanging around them?”
“About the same time.” She wrote. “Could have been before that though. I only started watching them three years ago.”
“And you only found out his name a year ago? How is that possible?” Judge wanted to know.
“I was watching from too far away.” She wrote. “I couldn’t take the chance to get any closer back then. It’s only been recently that I could get closer.”
Judge looked over to Mustang and suggested, “Do a background on Conrad Bane. That’s a name I haven’t heard too much of. I like to know who we’re up against.” He looked over at Bull. “Especially now. He’s under the impression he owns you for the next twelve months.”
Bull shrugged. “He can think what he likes. I know it isn’t true.”
“You can’t dismiss Conrad Bane.” Charlie wrote. “He’s vicious and mean and when he goes after something, he always gets what he wants. I wouldn’t put it past him to have bombed Smokey’s to hide the fact that he forced Smokey to give you up.”
Bull thought about what she wrote for a moment then silently agreed with her. “You might be right about that. I’ve never known Smokey to place a bet. He knows better. If he got caught, it would cost him his rights in the cage.” He shrugged. “Maybe that’s why Bane’s insisting he owns my contract, doesn’t worry me. I know what Smokey said when we signed it. He insisted that when and if I needed out, he would honor my request. Smokey knew about my rage and while he may not have known what fueled it, he did know I was working through the worst of it and someday, I wouldn’t fight anymore. He’s been watching me real close the last few months. Even offered to tear the contract up a while back but I told him to hang on to it.”
“He sounded like a good man,” Judge commented.
Bull nodded. “He was one of the best. He pushed me when I needed pushing and held back when the rage got to be too much. When this is all said and done, I’m gonna track down the mother fuckers who killed him and I’m going to kill them all.”
“You won’t do it alone my friend,” Judge vowed.
“Conrad Bane is making a name for himself in this town. He’s tied to the Benali cartel in Mexico and the Ratz in Louisiana. I don’t know what these ties are but I’ve heard he’s tight with both groups.” Charlie wrote and pushed the paper toward Bull.
Bull glanced at her after he read what she wrote. “How do you know this?”
Charlie shrugged. “It’s just a thing you hear on the streets. Everyone knows it but they don’t talk about it, well they do, but only among themselves never to strangers.”
“So because it’s a rumor it must be true?” Tank snorted.
Charlie turned her head and glared at him as she wrote furiously, “I saw the people he associated with. I’ve watched him for two months. I knew the faces of the people he saw.”
“How does a girl like you know the Benali cartel?” Hawk asked quietly.
“They come and go and people on the street talk.” She wrote in the notebook. “They come by boat from the border region of Texas, Mexico to Texarkana via the Red River and while the bosses talk, the Ratz unload the boats.”
Just then, Mustang joined them at the table with a laptop in his hands. “I couldn’t find much on Bane but I did find these pictures.” He swung the laptop around so the others could see what he found.
Charlie shivered but couldn’t make herself look at the pictures.
There were photos taken on the beach. Conrad was with three lovely model thin women. They were all barely dressed and Conrad was holding a cigar in his hand. He was about six foot tall with dark hair and dark eyes. His skin was dark and he didn’t have much chest hair. One shot showed the man’s bare chest. His eyes were hidden by sunglasses and the only clothing he wore was a swim suit.
Bull stared at the man in question for a moment. He could feel the rage growing inside him again and he resented it. Just as he was about to look away from the photos, he saw a shadow on the man’s chest. He frowned and studied the photo more intently.
Looking over at Mustang he asked, “Can you enlarge this photo focusing on Bane?”
Mustang hissed. “I can try.”
“Did you see something?” Judge asked.
“Maybe…” Bull muttered.
Mustang worked his magic and soon, the only thing they could see in the screen was Conrad Bane. The shadows were magnified but one shadow stood out. It seems it wasn’t a shadow at all rather it was a tattoo of some sort.
The longer he studied it the more familiar it became. Suddenly, it clicked where he’d seen the mark tattooed on Conrad Bane’s chest. “Son of a bitch!” Bull swore and pushed back his chair at the same time. He gripped the edge of the table in preparation of flipping it but never quite lifted it.
“What do you see that we don’t?” Judge demanded.
“Look at his fucking chest and tell me that isn’t the same tattoo Salim had on his chest?” Bull demanded. “Then look at his left wrist. Do you see it? They also share the same fucking birthmark. Haling made sure he checked every body personally until he found that fucking birthmark, so he would know which one of the dead was Salim.”
Judge and Hawk frowned as they studied the mark on Bane’s chest. Then they stared at the man’s left wrist. On his wrist was the dark red stain that matched the same one Salim had. They swung around and faced Bull. “If we did, it would be a lie and you know it. What the fuck is going on here? Why does Conrad Bane and Salim Malik share the same tattoo and birthmark?”
“Does this place have a printer?” Mustang asked.
Bull nodded and gave him the wifi password.
A few minutes later, Mustang had printed off a copy of the photograph of Conrad Bane. Then he began a search of the man in question. After twenty minutes or so, his frown deepened and he looked at Judge. “Boss, there’s something funny going on here.”
“What do you mean?” Judge asked.
“I mean the information I’ve found on Conrad Bane only goes back seven years. I can’t find anything about the man before then.”
Bull snapped his head around and glared at Mustang. “What the fuck does that mean?”
Mustang pointed at the picture of the man in question. “The man we know as Conrad Bane didn’t exist in this country before seven years ago. I found his passport entry but I can’t get more info from that. I don’t know who he is or was but I have more digging to do. He should have more records somewhere. He had an entry into the United States but that was in the year 2009. He entered on a visa that only lasted a year and there is no exit anywhere I can find. Whoever he is, the man is here illegally.”
Bull rolled his eyes. “Well, that doesn’t surprise me much. Customs and ICE doesn’t pay attention to their jobs very well.”
“Yeah well, we have to find out exactly who he is and why he’s got the same tattoo as Salim had,” Judge stated. “And we need to do it quickly before he can find us or rather Bull. If Charlie is right, he’ll be looking for Bull.” He turned to Bull and asked, “W
here did he want you to meet him?”
Bull shrugged. “He said he was at a hotel downtown. He has a suite there or something like that. I wasn’t really paying attention because his meeting wasn’t going to happen.”
Bull’s phone rang again and when he pulled it out of his pocket, he frowned. Looking up at Judge again he said, “The bastard is calling again.”
“Answer it,” Judge urged.
“Hello,” Bull answered.
“This is Conrad Bane and I don’t suggest you hang up on me again.” He snarled.
“What the fuck do you want with me?” Bull demanded. “I’ve already told you the contract with Smokey died when he died. As far as I’m concerned, we have nothing to talk about.”
“Oh, but we do.” Conrad growled. “Smokey assured me the contract was good and I extended him a line of credit on the agreement you shared with him.”
“Well, I can’t help it if you didn’t read the document before handing over the green. So not my fault and now, you can’t collect it from Smokey so it looks like you’re out the money,” Bull stated.
“But I won’t be out anything,” Conrad told him with a chuckle. “I’ll get my money back from betting on your next fight, and the fight after that for the next year. I might let you go then but we’ll see about that when the time comes.”
“But I’m not fighting anymore,” Bull insisted.
“Oh yes, I think you are.” Conrad chuckled evilly. “Because if you don’t, I will tear this town apart until you come to me and if you make me wait too long, I’ll be very upset. Innocent people will die and it will be all your fault. Their blood will be on your hands.”
Knox Brotherhood Page 145
