by K. J. Dahlen
A dense section of woods stood beside the museum, darkened by the night. I parked up beside them so I’d be of sight. I drew my weapon and held it inside of my jacket pocket while I looked around again for any sign of trouble.
Knowing I could be here for a while, I looked up at the sky to check for any sign of rain. A full moon surrounded by blood red clouds, hung over the empty parking lot.
It was too dark outside for anyone to see me, but I could see faint, yellowish glow from a small security cabin ahead. It cast a pool of light around it, giving me a clear view inside.
Inside, was Viper.
I cursed under my breath. Viper wasn’t alone. Two broad-shouldered goons stood behind her. Her henchman, goons, or whatever you want to call them looked so much alike that I could’ve mistaken them for twins.
I sized up the little building from ten yards away. It was small. The tiny construction was one of those ‘security’ places designed to make a place like a museum look protected. Judging by the fact that Viper had found her way inside and a pathetic looking night guard had found his way onto a chair with duct tape over his mouth suggested otherwise.
The night guard was more of a boy than a man, skinny, with a thick mop of dark hair that covered his forehead and one of his eyes.
As I waited in the shadows, I stared through the window with murder in my eyes. Viper working with the Devil’s was practically betrayal. And I’m not a man who can turn the other cheek.
I thought over different schemes I had in my head for Viper if I got her alone. I told myself that the bitch was lucky she had extra protection with her because given half the chance…I’d make her suffer. She would suffer like I would make Jax suffer tonight.
Meanwhile, the young night guard had started to shake his head frantically as Viper spoke to him. Even from this distance, I could see the desperation in his eyes. That desperation in a victim was a look I lived for. I craved it more than any man has ever craved any drug… the look of pathetic terror; the plea for mercy which always comes right before sudden realization flooded a victim’s eyes. The realization that he was about to die.
The thrill sent adrenaline pumping through me. My gaze jumped excitedly between the goon that held the gun at his head and the man that was about to catch the bullet. The only thing I didn’t like about this was that I wouldn’t have the luxury shooting the man myself. It was why I’d left my MC in the past to join the army. There, I practiced and perfected my craft…murder.
In a sudden movement, Viper turned to stare out of the window.
I crouched low to the ground.
The young night guard followed her gaze.
POP!
The dull echo of a gunshot reverberated through the thin walls of the cabin to the outside.
The goon to his left had shot him in the head before he knew it, and knelt down to where he dropped. The two men lifted the body up, and carried him out of the door. A garbage bag was tied around the victim’s head - perhaps to stop the blood from leaking onto the Viper’s vehicle. What the bag didn’t stop was unmistakable odor of blood wafting through the air in my direction, only making me hungrier for my own killing tonight.
They tossed him quickly into the trunk of Vipers SUV. One of the men drove off with the body, the other stayed with Viper. Not that a bodyguard could save her from her impending fate.
I buried my hand into my pocket to make a phone call, while Viper rested her head on her hands and stared out of the window. She looked as though she’d already had enough for the night; but her night was only just getting started. I snickered.
After a half hour, Viper’s SUV returned. I was very interested in waiting around to watch what she had coming to her even though I had a man to kill. Suddenly, I felt a vibe I didn’t like and my instincts kicked in. I didn’t get to where I was in the military or become president of the Bloods by not learning a thing or two about instincts and being smart.
I sensed that Viper and her two heavily armed men were about to head home. Like a restless animal, Viper had started to pace the room briskly. She looked like she didn’t want to hang around. She looked anxious. And she should be.
Craning her head, Viper searched the parking lot carefully. She knew not to go out blindly. I saw her search the parking lot, not once, not twice but three times, before she disappeared from the window. The SUV started up and her driver came around the back.
A second later, I rolled backward on my bike as I watched a car pull into the parking lot that had been waiting for her to make a move outside. It was the car that I’d called for. Any minute now, I’d get my revenge and she would learn what a spectacular fuck up she had made by working with Devils’ over the Bloods. She’d learn the hard way, never to disrespect me.
I heard the door wrench open as she ran for her vehicle. The driver had the back door opened and she’d almost reached it when a single gunshot rang out.
It wasn’t mine.
Viper stopped. She heard what I could hear… a single pair of footsteps coming toward her.
I moved around the perimeter of the parking lot silently to get a better view.
The blinding white headlights of the car beamed right at her. She jerked her head around as though she was so rattled, she couldn’t tell from which direction the lights or the sounds came from. Each step got louder and louder until they stopped.
I was only about eight feet away but hidden in complete darkness.
She looked down and saw her driver lying on the ground. I’d watched as the unlikely backup I’d called placed a single gunshot wound in the middle of his forehead.
In her terror, she looked as though she didn’t comprehend what had happened. She was frozen like her brain wouldn’t kick in.
Then another shot sounded out and her second goon went down.
Every part of me wanted to laugh aloud but I knew I couldn’t.
Then her ears picked up the sound of a gun bolt being drawn back. It sounded overly loud in the quiet of the back parking lot.
It snapped her out of funk. “What do you want?” she growled.
“Well, personally I’d like to see you lying on the ground with a bullet in your head, like your guys here.” The man chuckled as he stepped even closer. “But a dead drug dealer is no big deal in this town, so I think I’ll just arrest you, take you to trial, and send your sorry ass to prison for the rest of your miserable life.” The cop grabbed her arms and wrenched them behind her back. He clicked a pair of steel handcuffs around her wrists and dragged her back to the shadows where his car was hidden. When he pushed her into the backseat, she was glaring at the man just outside the car.
At first, all I could see was his back, covered in a brown uniform shirt. His wide body obscured my view of Viper. But I knew what she would’ve been thinking…she was alone this time. Everyone else was doing the deal with Dragons and Devils riding shotgun.
“Do you have any idea who I am?” she asked him.
“Oh yeah, bitch.” The man in the brown uniform laughed out loud. “I know exactly who you are. The bad ass otherwise known as the Viper, frontwoman for the DeGrasso Cartel.”
“Then you know my uncle will come after you if you do this,” Viper warned him. “He will come after your wife and your children and he will cut their throats while you watch and then finally when he’s taken everything you love away from you, he’ll send your soul to hell. Then when he’s done, he’ll just turn and walk away like you never mattered to him at all.”
The man chuckled. “Number one, I don’t have a wife or kids, so that’s not really a threat, my parents died a long time ago and my sister could care less whether I live or died, so still no threat. Number two, your uncle wouldn’t dare cross the border, even to deal with me. He’s a wanted man on this side of the line between our countries but hey that’s the way things are in this world. Then we always have number three… we have you. If your uncle is coming after anyone, it will be you. Just to make sure you don’t turn state’s evidence against him or
his organization.” The man smiled but the glee never made it to his eyes, they were coal black and just as dead as the night itself. “I think I’d be more worried about my own future if I were you.”
With that, the man stood up and moved out of the way.
I watched, grinning with satisfaction at the look of defeat on her face.
Viper took a single glimpse into the night before the Sheriff slammed the door shut on her freedom.
Appeased, for now. I made my way back to the edge of the woods, mounted my bike in the shadows to wait, knowing that by the time the night was through, I’d be completely satisfied.
I knew that Jax’s blood would be mine tonight. With what I had planned for him, the Devil’s would be ruined, forever.
Just ten minutes. Ten minutes was all I had to wait as my prey finally arrived. An electric surge streaked up my spine. It burst through every capillary in my body making my heart pound as I watched my prey – Jaxson. As he rode into the park within shooting range of where I hid, a fire in my veins told me I was nearing the kill I’d long craved.
I lay low in a dark corner of the park where I had Jax in clear view. My intuition that the Cartel and the Devils were working together had been accurate. That fact only charged my adrenaline more. It should have been my fucking MC working with the Cartel. Viper got what she deserved earlier tonight, she should’ve never crossed me and she showed herself and all of what she’d done killing the guard was caught on security tape, she wouldn’t see the light of day again. After her uncle gets through… she wouldn’t live long neither. She was old and weak now anyways, and her soul so brittle and jaded, no loss to humanity. Like I gave a good fuck about that shit. I grinned.
Worse still, the Dragons had arrived to work with the Devils’ too and I felt my blood simmer with rage. The president met with Jax. They appeared to be hammering out the details of the job. Why the fuck would the Dragons want the Devils as allies and not us? It was clear that they had a death wish as well.
If the Devils, the Cartel, or the Dragons’ wheels wound up in my territory, Tijuana, it would be reported back to me immediately and I’d have the whole goddamn lot of them killed.
Jax was a crafty son of a bitch if I ever saw one, and he’d gone too far this time. I felt my fury boiling my blood into magma, desperate for release. But I couldn’t shoot Jax yet. Jax had to see me kill him; and there were too many armed people around for that.
Watching the men assemble for this job also told me that there was a bonus prize now – cash. The cash payment the Devils’ would receive for their work tonight. The cherry on top of this bloody fucking sweet sundae. If I could be patient. If I could hold out until the job was over, I could take everything I wanted. But patience was a big ask when what I wanted most was standing so close. Standing so perfectly still; and in line with the sights of my gun. I listened carefully and heard what I needed to know. Jaxson would rendezvous back here with the cash when the first deal was done.
I muttered to myself, “Time to put the game in play. By the time the night is through, I’ll have Coltrane’s blood and the money he and the Cartel are about to be paid.”
Every muscle in my body tightened in anticipation and my finger twitched on the trigger of my gun but I managed to control the all-encompassing desire for Jax to meet his sweet death a while longer. With great reluctance, I dropped my gun to my side. I knew the control I had over my instincts wouldn’t last the night—Jax would be dead before sun rose.
Chapter Seventeen
Jaxson
Dismounting our bikes a block shy of our destination at Balboa Park, the three of us readied ourselves for the long night ahead. Each of us took out our handguns, disassembled and checked them, and reassembled them. It was midnight; our briefing with Viper was in fifteen minutes. Very soon, the Devils and Dragons would help traffic drugs into Coronado and Tijuana for the Cartel. Once fully prepped, we rounded the corner on our bikes to join the horde of bikers and the drivers from the Cartel in the parking lot where we had arranged to meet.
The air was filled with an almost unmistakable buzz of excitement. Truth be told, I felt that same excitement too. Dino gave a low whistle to his left as he too, took in the scene. It was a good thing we’d chosen to meet at the most remote and private parking lot at the park, because the almost feverish charge about the scene had translated into total chaos; sheer pandemonium, in fact.
The resonant sounds of motorcycle engines reverberated through the area, infused with the deep, glassy, smoker’s voices of the bikers who peppered the tarmac. A radio somewhere was booming out a heavy metal beat despite orders for everybody to be as discreet as humanly possible tonight. At least, the men sounded like they were good spirits rather than at odds with each other.
I cast my eye over the crowd of men. Everyone was dressed in all black, as instructed, and the area was lit only by the white light cast by the street lights on the main road to the right of the parking lot and the light from a full moon that rose high in the sky, leaving indistinguishable silhouetted figures and haunting shadows all around. Shadows appeared to dance through the darkness as dark figures moved about.
It looked like most everyone had arrived on time. I didn’t even attempt a head count with everybody moving about like this, but my eyeball estimate told me that we had a very good turnout. An unsettling feeling in my gut hit me out of the blue; a grim part of me wondered how many of the men that stood before me would still be alive when the sun came up.
Frustrated at our lack of command over the situation, Bruno and I hopped onto a wooden park bench a few feet away from his bike, and pulled out our high intensity flashlights to survey the scene from a higher vantage point. The first thing I noticed was that the Cartel’s supposedly fearless leader, Viper, was nowhere to be found, which was just as well. She hadn’t answered her phone when I’d called her as we pulled into the park either.
I still couldn’t even tell whether all of the Devil’s had arrived yet, or not. I was sure I could hear Marco’s voice ahead of me but I couldn’t see him. Every silhouette I saw looked practically the same as the next. Identifying anyone, even with a flashlight was tough when you combined the noise, the darkness, and the dark clothes we wore. Sensing a presence behind me, I turned sharply just as the man tapped me on the arm in greeting.
A deep, distinguishable, baritone voice spoke, “Jax. We’re all set.” It was Nikoli, president of the Dragons.
Squinting my eyes at his face I responded, “Perfect. I’ll make sure the Devils are ready and let’s get the hell out of here before the parks night guards come sniffing around,” I continued, “Viper hasn’t shown for our briefing and I’m not prepared to wait around in case she changes her mind. Our men know what they’re doing tonight. It’s a simple job. The danger is the real problem, and the longer we take, the riskier the job becomes.”
Nikoli’s head fell and rose in a nod of agreement. “I’ll get my men assembled to leave,” he said, tugging on one of his riding gloves. “Marco just told me he’ll have the Devils all set to leave any minute now,” he added. Tightening the strap of his riding glove with his teeth, he gave Bruno a curt nod of respect before he turned and strode toward the Dragons.
Once Nikoli was several yards away, Bruno leaned in close to my ear, “Jax, if you don’t want to go through with this, I’ll understand,” he said.
After the smallest of hesitations, I pulled back from his face and looked into his eyes to respond, “I owe you a hell of a lot more than this. Have no doubt, Bruno; I’ll work until my last day on earth to repay the debts I owe you.”
A faint smile pulled on the lips of his otherwise stern face. “This is going to be a night of greatness,” Bruno stated.
I smiled politely. As much I wanted to agree with him and as exciting as this job was, my mind spun around with all the things that could possibly go wrong. And there were many things that could go tits up tonight. “Let’s fucking hope so. Whatever happens with this deal, so long as I get all my br
others home alive, I’ll be ok because I know I’ll be able to sleep at night. If anything goes wrong, I’m responsible as their president.”
Bruno put a hand on my shoulder and dropped the volume of his voice closer to a whisper, “Anything happens, and I’ll make the Cartel suffer. I’ll make them suffer as they make me suffer. I’ve made sure Viper knows that.”
“You think that’s why she’s not shown herself tonight?” I asked.
“Oh, she’s here. Perhaps that’s why she’s not in this area right now. But if I know Viper, she’ll be waiting where the job concludes to get her money. Yep, I’ll make them pay if they cost me. For that reason, you can rest assured that the Cartel won’t dare to ever double cross me, my family, or the Devils.”
I nodded but stayed silent. Grinning, I lightened the mood. “You’re going to enjoy this, aren’t you?” For a brief second, I saw a smile play on Bruno’s lips again, and I knew I was right. I had to remind myself that tonight was Bruno’s night. His chance to not only recover funds he had lost, but to say goodbye to his role as president of the Devils on his own terms.
The grin on his face widened.
“What are you waiting for?” I asked.
Bruno looked at me with sincerity in his eyes. “You’ve done me a great honor by agreeing to see this job through, Jax. Over the years, you’ve honored me, as any son should. You’re as good as a son to me, Jax.” His smile dropped and he bowed his head for a moment.
I could hardly find words to express what it meant to hear that from Bruno.
When his eyes rose, Bruno’s gaze darted around the parking lot. “More than three hundred reliable men with bikes and guns will be with us out there. The buyers would be fools to try to pull anything. The risk is nothing, the rewards are magnificent. But I’m not taking any chances.”
This told me Bruno didn’t quite believe this statement. I didn’t either. I couldn’t shake the feeling that somebody was watching us.
