Double Dirty Outlaws: A MFM Romance

by Alexa Anna

  Luke doesn’t say anything.

  “How about this?” I say. “It turned out Jim wasn’t the guy, right?”

  “What’s your point?” says Luke, sharply, tightening his belt. Now he’s onto his bootlaces, tightening them to a tactical level of tightness.

  “So what if we were wrong about the guy, but not about the job?”

  “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “Listen, Jim wasn’t the guy. But what if there is a guy? You following? There’s a connection… What I mean is there’s a guy in the neighborhood who brought these gangsters in. They’re just doing the heavy lifting for him. But he’s the mastermind.”

  “Where’s your evidence? And who is this supposed mythical person? Jim’s dead, remember? And it wasn’t him. Who else do you think it was? The guy at the supermarket we interviewed? Or the lady on the sidewalk who was letting her dog shit all over the place, and who told us she didn’t know what or who we were talking about?”

  “Rivers,” I say, the idea suddenly hitting me like a load of bricks to the head.

  “What?”

  “Rivers,” I say again. “It’s Rivers!”

  “You’re out of your mind.”

  “Just think about it, man,” I say. “He gave us the false lead. He gave us Jim, who was nothing. Who always plants the false lead? The guy! The fucking culprit, the guy! That’s who plants the false lead!”

  “This isn’t a detective story,” says Luke, scowling.

  “No,” I say. “But it fits. It fucking fits. You really think that industrial laundry service is doing that well? And what about all that other weird shit about him?”

  “Like what?”

  “Like how he never gave us any real information. We had those meetings, but it was like we were swimming in mud when we talked to him. I mean, this is a weird job, right? It’s always been a weird job, right from the beginning? Rivers hires us, on behalf of the neighborhood organization of owners, etc., etc., OK? And then what happens? We’re not given any specific mission, nothing at all. Rivers doesn’t give us jack shit. He gives us zilch, nada, zero, get it? He would just tell us to keep our heads to the ground, that we were the professionals and knew what to do? But it doesn’t add up, does it?”

  I see Luke’s face starting to change. “It has been weird…” he says slowly. “Normally there’s some sort of objective… something to work with. Something that happened.”

  “And how come Rivers’ place hasn’t been hit yet? He surely has the most money, right?”

  Luke’s silent. There’s a long pause before he says, “you know, you might be on to something.”

  “Damn right I’m onto something,” I say. “And you know what this means?

  “What?”

  “That we can win! We don’t have to die fighting twenty, thirty, or forty guys. We just need to get Rivers. That’s it, and then we’re done. If they’re really just working for him, it’ll be like cutting the head off the beast. They’re just the arms and the legs. The rest of the beast won’t work anymore… and then we can get her back.”

  “I was following you until that last part,” says Luke.

  “We can get her back!” I say. “Don’t you see? We can do it and show her it’s not that dangerous, right? And then we can have her back.”

  Luke shakes his head slowly. “I’m as devastated as you are about it,” he says, which surprises me because we don’t talk about our emotions much with each other. “But face it, she’s gone. I don’t know what we can do to get her back.”

  “I don’t know,” I say. “We’ll just have to see. Maybe… just maybe…”

  “Let’s worry about that later,” says Luke, but I can see it in his eyes that it’s hard for him.

  It’s hard for me to think about business at a time like this, when I feel like she’s been ripped away from me.

  But what helps is that I know I want her, and I know she wants us.

  I know that deep down, while she may have her doubts, reasonable doubts, for sure, she wants us and needs us just as much as we need her.

  “Come on,” says Luke. “I know you’re thinking. I see it all over your face. But I need you here in the present. She needs us in the present. And we need to figure this shit out.”

  “All right,” I say. “You’re right. I’m snapping out of it.”

  I take a deep breath and start a brief meditation, just as I was trained to do. I imagine my entire body being dipped in cool, relaxing water, from my toes up to my ears. That calms me down good, focuses me, just like a cool shower would.

  I grab my stuff, my backpack full of gear.

  “Let’s go,” I say.

  “Hold on,” says Luke. “What’s the plan?”

  “I thought you had one?”

  “Well, we need Rivers.”

  “Let’s get him then,” I say. “We can figure out the rest on the way there.”

  The car’s back at the bar, and who knows what’s become of it.

  On the way out of the hotel, we pass by the concierge, and the doormen, and they look us up and down, since we’re clearly up to something, with all this shit we’re hauling. We’ve got on military combat boots, military style backpacks, and Luke’s walking with a bit of a limp from his injury. We’re clearly not the type of guests that normally stay here.

  “How’s it going, gentlemen?” I say, making my voice cheerful.

  It doesn’t get any response.

  We step out onto the pavement.

  “Hey,” says Luke. “What happened to the car?”

  “It’s at the bar, remember? You thought we could drive or something? Did that bullet go to your brain?”

  “No, wait,” says Luke. “I know it’s at the bar, but it’s reasonable to think they might have taken it, right?”

  “Yup,” I say, a little annoyed. A minute ago he was all revved up to go, and now he wants to stop and worry about the car?

  “Wait,” says Luke. “Listen. That car had all our gear in it, right? It had the tracker that we set up… and remember we had it set to Lexi’s phone, in case something happened to her? In case she was kidnapped again, that way we’d be able to find her and rescue her again.”

  “Shit,” I say, suddenly seeing what he’s saying. “So it’s reasonable to assume that these gangsters took the car and now they have the tracker.”

  “And now they know right where Lexi is,” says Luke.

  “Even though we don’t…”

  “Yup,” says Luke, gravely. His eyes are cast down to the ground in worry.

  “But they may not go after her, right? It sounds terrible, but there are plenty of other people to kidnap.”

  “But she witnessed the murder of Jim,” says Luke. “They could be going after witnesses.”

  “Like us… us and Lexi.”

  “Yeah.”

  “So what do we do? Go find her, or…”

  “We’re not going to be able to do much if we get to her and there’s a dozen guys around her. We’d be walking into a trap.”

  “What if one of us goes to get Rivers, and the other Lexi?”

  “I don’t like it. Too risky. We’re too used to working together. One guy as backup, always.”

  “Yeah, you’ve got a point, but what the fuck do we do?”

  “Well, this is tough… I feel the same way as you do about her, and all my instincts are telling me to rush to her. But… the best thing for her, the best way to ensure her safety is to get to Rivers and get him to the police.”

  “That’s if Rivers is really the culprit.”

  “I’m pretty sure.”

  “How sure?”

  “99%?”

  “Fuck it. Let’s do it, then.”

  It’s the hardest decision we’ve ever had to make on a mission: save the girl or really save the girl. This is a tough one that’s got us sweating already. Normally I’m calm on missions, but this time Lexi’s life could be at stake. And we don’t know where she is.

  But we know
where Rivers is.

  We hail a cab and head over to Rivers’ industrial laundry.

  We walk in as if everything’s normal, hands off our guns, trying to look casual, which is tough considering how much I’m worried about Lexi. But if he spots something is up on the cameras he’s got rigged up around this place, he might go free. But as of right now, he doesn’t know we’re on to him.

  Fortunately, he’s in his office, looking at his computer. He’s wearing his big cheesy hat, an unlit cigar stuck between his fat lips.

  Luke and I move into the room quickly. I nod to Luke and he closes the door and locks it.

  “What’s this about, gentlemen?” says Rivers, laughing heartily. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d think something serious is going on. Do you have any new leads?”

  I draw my gun and point it at Rivers, right at his face.

  “Jig’s up,” I snarl.

  “I don’t have the slightest idea what you’re talking about, Luke,” says Rivers.

  “I’m Jake,” I say.

  Luke draws his gun, pointing it at Rivers. “We know everything,” he says.

  I glance at Luke. It’s a risky move, the classic bluff. Really we don’t know anything. We just have suspicions. But the clock is ticking and Lexi’s in danger.

  To my surprise, Rivers just starts to laugh.

  “So,” he says. “You finally figured it out, did you? It took you two long enough. I thought you were brighter than that, frankly. I thought you would have figured it out long ago.”

  “What the hell are you talking about?” I say.

  Rivers laughs again. “You can put that gun away,” he says to Luke.

  I take out my own gun and point it at a Rivers’ chest. I give Luke a look and a nod. He keeps his gun pointed at Rivers.

  Rivers raises his hands above his desk where we can see them, before I can even tell him to do so.

  He chuckles. “You boys don’t get it, do you?”

  “We don’t,” I say, my voice gruff and harsh. “Maybe you could enlighten us. Because from where we’re standing now, it looks like you’re the one who brought all these gangsters into The Downs, these same gangsters who have terrorized all your neighboring business. To what ends, I’m not yet sure.”

  “But it goes far deeper than that,” says Rivers, a smug look on his face. “I didn’t just bring them in. I’m not just a contact man. I’m the boss. I’m the one giving orders. They only do what I say. It’s my own organization.”

  “You seem proud of all this,” says Luke, practically spitting his words at Rivers.

  “Well,” says Rivers. “I am.”

  “I don’t see what good it does you to confess all this to us,” I say.

  “Normally we have to drag confessions out of people,” says Luke.

  “But you seem proud of this… of these sick crimes you’ve committed,” I say.

  Rivers laughs again. His laugh is getting annoying, like nails scratching a chalk board. I have to fight myself to not just punch him in the face. But I can’t do that. We need information from him. We need to think about Lexi. But it’s sick, the way he’s proud of all this. I think of the woman who disappeared, who’s never been seen again, possibly killed, possibly sold into the sex trafficking market. It’s disgusting and perverse, and this fucker is sitting here laughing and gloating, boasting of his criminal accomplishments. Doesn’t he realize we’re going to turn him in? Doesn’t he understand what he’s saying?

  Rivers seems to anticipate my next question. “I know what you’re thinking,” he says, the smug smile still on his face. “It doesn’t make sense for me to admit to all my crimes, does it? I mean, this isn’t some movie where I’m the villain and I want to tell the audience what I’ve been up to all this time?”

  “Unless you’re planning on killing us,” says Luke. “That’s usually what happens in those movies. If that’s what you’re planning, we’re supposed to be on some kind of torture device that will eventually kill us.”

  This just makes Rivers laugh harder. He moves to put his feet up on his desk, but I raise my gun to his head.

  “Freeze,” I say.

  “As you like it,” says Rivers. “Just trying to get comfortable.”

  I don’t know what to think about this. This isn’t like any other case we’ve seen. And we’ve seen plenty of weird ones.

  For all I know, he has a gun or projectile weapon hidden in his boots, and he’s just playing it calm until we can attack. But as of right now, we’re in a good, secure position, unless he’s got some kind of secret radio signal way of communicating with his gang.

  Rivers sees me scanning the room again with my eyes, and looking him up and down.

  “Don’t worry, boys,” says Rivers. “This isn’t like the movies and I’m not trying to kill you. If I’d wanted to do that, I could have had it done a long time ago. I hired you, remember? And I know where you live and I have all these guys at my disposal to do whatever I want.”

  I nod my head slowly. He’s making sense. But I’m not sure what he’s getting at.

  “But I hired you guys for a reason, a very good reason.”

  “You needed people to think you were investigating the situation, taking care of things,” says Luke, who seems to be catching on quicker than I am.

  Rivers nods. “Very good,” he says, with the air of a professor congratulating one of his students. “You’re catching on. But I don’t think you yet realize the reason that I’m so confident, so safe and secure that you’re not going to hurt me or turn me in.”

  “Well you know we’re not the types of guys to kill you for no reason when we could turn you into the police.”

  “I do know that,” says Rivers.

  “But what’s stopping us from delivering you to the police right now, and hunting down this whole organization that you’ve admitted you’re the complete boss of?”

  Rivers’ voice changes its tone. “You’re not going to do that,” he says. “Because it’s certainly going to mean prison again for the both of you.”

  Luke and I are silent.

  He’s right.

  He’s fucking right.

  If we take Rivers in, and give the cops the audio file from the voice recorder that’s running in my pocket, there’s no way we’re not going back to jail. Even though we’re doing something good, we’ve been violating parole, quite frankly. We’ve been carrying guns, concealed, without licenses. We’ve been fighting. Shots have been fired. We’re not supposed to be working. We don’t have our private eye license. This whole operation has been illegal, and there’s no way to hide that fact if we are going to testify against Rivers.

  But turning Rivers in is the only way to shut down this operation that’s been terrorizing thousands of people. And the terror is only going to get worse, harsher and more destructive.

  And turning Rivers in is the only way to secure Lexi’s safety.

  I look at Luke, and he looks back at me.

  I can see it in his eyes. It’s not even a decision for us. We’re going to do what we’ve got to do.

  “Come on,” I say, standing up and roughly grabbing Rivers, keeping my gun pointed at him.

  Luke stands up too and gets on the other side of him.

  “We’re taking you down to the station,” says Luke.

  “But!” says Rivers, suddenly growing frantic, seeing that we’re serious for the first time, that we’re making the decision that he thought we were completely incapable of making. But he misjudged us. He thought we were just good-hearted lowlifes. He didn’t realize what we’re capable of. He didn’t realize that we’re capable of self-sacrifice. And he might have been right, in a way—but that was the old us. That was the us before we met Lexi, before we really fell for someone. Before she came into our hearts. But now that we’ve started something with her, now that she’s changed us, there’s no other decision we could possibly make. “You can’t do this to me. You can’t do this to yourselves! You’re going to go back to jail�
� you’ll be there for years. It’s going to be awful! How can you possibly do this to yourselves, to me?”

  “You underestimated us,” says Luke.

  “You underestimated love,” I say.

  “Love? What the hell are you talking about?”

  But Luke and I smile at each other.

  We walk Rivers out through the industrial laundry, and this time, all the workers stop and stare. Apparently, they aren’t involved at all in his scheme.

  One of them goes to grab his phone.

  “Not necessary,” I say. “Call if you want, but we’re driving him right down to the precinct. It turns out your boss is behind all the terror here on The Downs.”

  All the workers stare at us and Rivers with open mouths. Rivers is squirming in our grasp and cursing at us, but his voice is no longer confident at all. It’s become high and squealing, full of absolute terror. He never thought he’d go to jail. He never thought he’d pay for his crimes.

  “Better call Lexi to make sure she’s OK,” says Luke, pulling out his cell phone while still holding Rivers. “Make sure this rat bastard doesn’t try anything.”

  I nod my head.

  “I wouldn’t do anything like that!” says Rivers. “I’m innocent. Help me! Help me!” He’s addressing his employees now, but they know what a sleazebag he is, and that he’s never paid them anything for all their work, and never given them so much as a single sick day without firing them.

  They all just look at him in disgust.

  “What do you want them to do, Rivers? Call the police? It’s too late for that. You’re going down and we’re going down with you, just to make sure you sink all the way down.”

  “Lexi?” says Luke, his face showing relief when he hears her voice on the line.

  We’ve got Rivers outside of the laundry building now, and some of his employees have come out to gather around, staring at him. He’s struggling against us, but we’ve got him easily under control. Despite being big, he’s very weak.

  Luke’s nodding, saying, “Yeah, OK, I understand. We’ve got everything under control. I can’t explain the situation now. But we’ve got the guy responsible. The whole thing is getting shut down. But you need to get to a place where you’re safe… uh huh… no, that won’t do. They might know where you are by the cell phone… yeah, they can trace you through the cell phone. But don’t panic. Just leave the phone there, and go to a new hotel. It’ll be fine… you may not see us for a while… I can’t explain it now… But… I know you don’t want to see us anyway, but… we still both care about you…”