Again, the man’s body responded with reflex and doubled over, but instead of backing up, she went into his gut shoulder first, knees bent. As his weight curled around his gut, she took him up with her arms, rolling him across her back and shoulders, and then shot up as hard as she could with her thighs.
It looked like she threw him onto that table. It really did. Actually, she had just let his own weight roll across her shoulders — a major difference in the amount of strength required — but it looked impressive as hell.
The man hit the table with his back and lay sprawled across it as she walked up to him. “Whore, huh? Well, you’ve just been fucked, so I’ll take my fucking money, dickweed!”
She turned with challenge in her eyes. “Now,” she shouted to a near-silent audience, “who the fuck is next?”
There was quiet and shock, and then a voice behind her said, “Yes, please. Step up and call Bev a liar to her face. I haven’t had a good fight in, tsk, tsk, years, really.”
She turned and there was Preston, the dark, major heartthrob, and the sergeant at arms for the Sinners.
She remembered he was married and turned her attention back to the group she had first approached.
“You!” She pointed at one of the men at the bar. “Alright, mister, just give the word. That’s what you say to a grieving widow? That you’ll be happy to kill the wrong man for her? Step the fuck up!”
He stayed where he was, and even turned away.
“Then you! Mr. We all know who did it, come on.… I couldn’t do it in front of Yvette, but I can do it here. I can do it all fucking night! Step up and call me a liar!”
Again, this one turned away. She knew it was Preston behind her that was doing most of the scaring, but she had a strong suspicion that the blood stains across her body might have something to do with it, too.
“Alright, how about that group that wants to hang outside Leo’s house and jump him when he gets home? I should let you fucking try that. There you are. You five right there.” She pointed to them, walking straight at them.
One of them came at her. “You don’t want to bring that sh—”
She went into a blur of speed as she closed distance, skipping a step and spearing into his gut an organ-bursting side kick that lifted the man off the floor and sent him back a foot to land on his ass. Bev never stopped moving, though, shifting her weight and pouncing, following him all the way down. Then, grabbing him by his scalp, she hammered her fist into his forehead with a furious scream. The man’s eyes rolled and she dropped his head, hearing it thunk on the floor.
Then Preston moved past her. “My turn. Very sweet, Bev, but my turn.”
The remaining four ran.
Bev watched them go, a snarl on her face. Then she turned to the club and said in a clear, calm voice, “I’ll be at Yvette’s house every day until she can bear to be alone again. I swear to you the club and to God above, I won’t wait for you to show up here. I’ll fucking break you off right in front of her.”
Then she turned, nodded to Preston, who gave her a salute, and strode for the doors of the club.
Then Preston’s voice rose up, cultured and thick with sappy sexiness. “Just one thing to add to Bev’s challenge. If you touch her, you deal with me. I don’t care if it is a kick, a poke, or a dirty look. You will answer to me and the rough riders. I will not be understanding. I will not listen to your reasons. I will not care about your grief. She stood up for Yvette when none of you fuckers would. She was who Yvette called when she needed someone she knew would show up. She is the one who has been there for her every day. So, you worthless rumor-humping whores, I say, shut the fuck up.”
Bev walked out into the night and got on her bike. She started the engine and slowly left the parking lot. She road home with a glide, and she soothed herself with the sway of the bike and the vibrations between her legs.
“All I need now is a hot bath,” she said to the night sky, and she gave the bike a little more gas as she thought of a very large tub that had recently acquired oils.
Her first thought as she slipped with a sigh into the hot bath was, “Who are the rough riders?”
Her next thought was to call Danny.
“Danny?”
“Bev? What can I do for you?”
“Danny, tonight after I got home from Yvette’s, three men invaded my home with the intent to rape, torture, and then finally, when they were done laughing, to kill me.”
Danny was silent, she wasn’t even sure he was breathing.
“I learned through these men that they were Vasquez cartel men. I’ve had enough time to process and play connect the dots, and I can’t think of anyone, except for perhaps Leo — if one-fifth of what I think is true — who could possibly understand the risks the way I do. So, with that, I want in. I want to help Leo, you, and the rest of the club. I want to have a chance at finding the killer so Yvette can get some sleep.”
“And what do you want?” he asked.
“I … I just said what I wanted.”
“No, how much are you looking for in payment?”
“Payment? Danny, with all due respect, weren’t you listening? They came into my home, Danny. They came in there and told me that I was just a body to them. That I had no value. I don’t want payment, Danny, I want to sleep better.”
After nearly a minute, Danny said, “Alright, I’ll talk it over and we’ll see if there is a place we can use you. We’re actually near the end, see, and honestly, it’s all on Leo now. But I will talk and discuss. Can you tell me everything? For example, where are the bodies? Apparently you are quite capable with that knife of yours.”
She laughed. “Not that capable. The man that was on me, his skill, it was inhuman, Danny. I mean, people don’t move that way, but he did.”
“So you had help?”
“Yes. Leo recognized the truck the men were using, and he came in just in time. I was holding my own for a bit, but then this other guy comes out of nowhere and I’m a rag doll again. So, Leo shot one of them dead, I killed one as they were coming through the door, and we both mangled up this guy name Ernesto pretty bad. But Leo said he needed him alive.”
“I never meant him to take it that far, no,” Danny whispered.
“Leo isn’t supposed to kill anyone in the inner circle, right?” she prodded.
“Well, that isn’t quite the directive, but close enough. But after this—“
“Don’t worry, he told me Ernesto was only going to live for another hour. But his death needed to serve our purposes.”
“Leo’s diplomatic skills are quite impressive. So, if he has a purpose, it is likely going to work out for him. Did he tell you about his errands for me?”
“No, he hasn’t said anything, Danny! He’s completely secret squirrel.”
“Secret squirrel. Ha, I like that. Yes, well, I’ll talk to him. It may be good for him to have someone he can discuss things with. Pillow talk. That sort of thing. Yes, I’ll talk to him and see what he thinks.”
“That would be nice, Danny. Like you said, it is reaching the end, so I’m guessing that, like any countdown, there is an explosion at the end. I would like to know what Leo knows before that explosion comes.”
Chapter Twenty Two
About the time that Bev was walking out of the club, feeling like she needed a bath, Leo was driving through the gates of the Vasquez hacienda. He pulled the truck past the front door, and then backed it up so that he could display the bodies in the light.
As he finished removing the tarp covering the bodies, Nomar came out of the front door in a loose fitting, white cotton suit with black dress shoes.
“Leo? What is this?”
“These three men attacked my girlfriend tonight, and would have tortured and raped her, then killed her, if I hadn’t happened by and seen this truck,” Leo said. Then he reached out, grabbed ahold of Ernesto, and pulled him off the back of the truck onto the concrete drive.
“Ernesto? You killed him?” Nomar asked.
“No. These two are dead. Dead and long gone. But I figured that you would want to see Ernesto.”
Nomar looked down at Ernesto, and he could see a great deal of pain in his eyes.
“He just invaded her home? Just did it?” Nomar asked with shock.
“Yes. So, he wasn’t under orders from you, then?”
“Me? He was under orders not to come near you again! It looks like he took the command literally and went for your woman instead!”
Nomar sighed. “You, of course, had every right to kill him—”
Leo’s hand glided out from his pocket. He brought the pistol into alignment as he said, “Good,” and shot Ernesto in the head.
Leo kept the gun in his hand, and he listened as the report of his shot vibrated off the walls around them.
Nomar continued to look at Ernesto’s body, seemingly trying to reconstruct the moment when he miscalculated Leo.
“I’ll call a cab,” Leo said after a few minutes passed.
“Leo?”
“Yes, sir?”
“Do you like this truck?”
Leo walked back and looked it over. “Well, the paint job has to go, but other than that, it’s a sweet ride.”
“It is yours. I’ll have the papers transferred and the license with the DMV transferred to you as well. Would you mind removing his companions from the bed, please?”
“Not a problem,” Leo said, and he pulled the two corpses from the bed, piling them down next to Ernesto.
Nomar reached his front door and then came back. “Leo? It is over and what is done is done, but how could you know that I wouldn’t kill you for doing that to Ernesto?”
“You mean, after telling me I had a right to, and then actually doing it? Well, I didn’t. Because I wasn’t seeing you or these bodies. I was seeing Ernesto trying to get between my woman’s legs with a knife at her throat while telling her that she’s just a body to him. She means nothing. And I have to tell you, Nomar, I might have been sorely tempted to do it even without your permission.”
“I see,” he agreed.
“Well, that makes one of us,” Leo said.
“I don’t understand?”
“I have been through all of the checks, all of the low-level crap operations and everything else to prove I am committed to your service. I don’t understand why he was there, or why now. My girl’s going to leave me because I wouldn’t let her call the cops. I really like you, Nomar, and I respect you a great deal as a leader. I’m just hoping that following you will lead to greater things, because I have a lot invested in this. But if you don’t think it is going to work out, then just tell me. I can move on and you can get someone else that suits you.”
“No, no, this had nothing to do with you. I do not know why, but … maybe that trick we did with him … he was very superstitious. Tomorrow you will be here?”
“Yes, tomorrow I will be here.”
“Then tomorrow we will start fresh, with no bad blood between us.”
“Alright, no bad blood,” Leo said, and he went to the cab and got inside his new truck.
As he drove down the hill and into the city of El Cajon, Leo went over what he said and how he said it, and he found his performance acceptable. He ran a hand across the dash of the truck. It really was a sweet ride. How Ernesto could afford this as an enforcer, Leo couldn’t guess. It certainly was way out of Leo’s tax bracket.
Driving home, he kept his eyes on the mirrors and his instincts alive. First thing tomorrow, he had to get this thing into the paint shop and get new tires on it. There was no telling what kind of heat had been attached to this truck by Ernesto and his friends. The truck was going to come in handy, though. Very handy. He was concerned about getting all the gear he needed out to the mesa on his Harley, and he almost decided to risk renting a truck. This thing was a screaming hot rod, but it also had a truck bed.
“Yep, this is going to work,” he said.
Taking out his phone, he called Danny. “Just an update. We had a problem at Bev’s tonight.”
“Yes, Bev called me just a little while ago. She said that now that she understands the full risks involved, she wanted in.”
“In?”
“That’s the way she put it. I think what she really wants is to know what you are doing, and be someone you can talk to, work things out with. She came up to the club, did you know?”
“She said something about doing some things there, yes.”
“She came in here wearing clothing splattered with blood — I’m assuming it was the blood of the men that wanted to rape her — and picked a few fights.”
“Um, really?”
“Yep. Learning about her home invasion made it all make more sense. She looked like a bloody Valkyrie coming through that door. I was going to reprimand her for challenging patch holders like that, but I’ll let it go for now.”
“She didn’t get hurt, did she?”
“Hurt?” Danny laughed. “No, she didn’t get hurt. She put two down, though, put them down hard. Preston spoiled her fun. I’m sure she could have gotten one or two more challengers. Preston came in and announced his sponsorship of her. As soon as he was going to join the fray with her, four of them ran away.”
“I don’t blame them. I would run, too. But, why? What were her challenges?”
“She made that very clear. The rumors have risen back up about you, and they were reaching critical mass. The driving fire was that she was lying for you. She took that very personally. So, she came here to let the riders know exactly how far she intended to go if someone decided she was a liar or a whore.”
“And Preston backed that?”
“Not exactly. He’s given her complete protection of the rough riders. She’s absolutely off limits. But when I asked him why he even bothered, he told me, ‘You had to have been there. It was beautiful, perfect, total control of balance, weight, everything.’ So, take from that what you can.”
“So, how bad are the rumors?”
“Well, from what she challenged them with down there, five of them were going to ambush you at your house tonight. She laid one of them out and Preston chased the other four away.”
“Three of them tried that the other day,” Leo said absently.
“What? Why didn’t you tell me this?”
“Sorry, on the scale of things of importance to me, it was way down underneath things, and I just forgot it was there.” Then he laid out the story.
“Damn, we can’t use Jonny now. I thought he was better than that,” Danny growled.
“Replace him with Austin.”
“Austin? Are you serious?”
“You’ll be pleasantly surprised. He’s going to be one of our pillars soon. I can see it in him.”
Then Leo added, “Oh, Danny, while we are on the subject of things I’ve forgotten to check in with. I’ve proven that Crash was intending to sell us out to the Vasquez cartel that night. He used the same clearing we used together four years ago. Anyway, from the looks of the tracks, someone followed him there, out of sight. While Crash waited, for probably ten or fifteen minutes, the other man got behind him and capped him out. Then he took the box of information Crash intended to selling to the Vasquez cartel and left the area.
“The cartel man, specifically Ernesto Morales, arrived a little while later. He got out of his truck but didn’t approach the body. Seeing nothing nearby, he got back into the truck and left.”
“You are absolutely sure it was Ernesto Morales,” Danny said.
“That’s actually the part I’m most sure about,” he told Danny. He explained about the racing slicks Ernesto used for regular tires. “Fucking turn on a dime, and feels great when you are taking off and giving it some rope.”
“How would you know?”
“Because I’m in it, driving it home right now. Nomar gave it to me as recompense for Ernesto’s actions.”
“Alright. What makes you unsure about these other things? Crash was shot in the back of the head.
By a .38 actually, according to the current copy of the police report I have. What part is wrong?”
“The part where someone sneaks up on a man who is nervous as fuck, and has been tweaking hard for a long time. He had to have reached the paranoia stage by that time. You can’t sneak up on a guy like that,” Leo explained.
“Sure, I get that, and I agree,” Danny responded. “Not out there in the black, alone and jumpy about every noise. So, perhaps our man shot him from the edge of the clearing. Then he went up, checked the body, took the box, and did that broom thing you told me about.”
CRASH: The Rogue Sinners MC Page 14
