BREAKING THE RULES: Forsaken 99 MC

by Evelyn Glass

  “The officer arrived and is chasing them,” Rachel said in relief as the cruiser wailed away into the darkness.

  “Yes… I see that on my display. Additional units have been dispatched. We’ll catch them. Are you okay? Do I need to dispatch another officer or emergency medical?”

  “No. No… I think I’m okay. Thank you.”

  “My pleasure, Rachel. I recommend you go home and a make sure your windows and doors are locked. I will put a note on file to have a unit cruise past your house every now and then tonight, just to make sure you don’t have any further issues.”

  “Yes, thank you,” Rachel said.

  “My pleasure, Rachel,” the woman said, then was gone.

  ***

  Rachel was turning into her drive, the door to her garage rumbling up, when her phone rang. She slammed on the brakes and grabbed at her phone, her relief turning to disappointment when she didn’t recognize the number.

  “Rachel Wallace,” she said as she fought tears of disappointment.

  “Rachel? This is Rich Marshall. I’m a member of Forsaken 99. You need to come down to the Urgent Care as soon as you can. There’s been an accident. Jules is hurt.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  Marsh had assured her Jules was, mostly, okay – just banged up, but that didn’t matter. Her truck was straining under the demands she was placing on it as she raced to the Urgent Care - the nearest thing Vallecito had to a hospital.

  As she shrieked to a stop in the Urgent Care parking lot, she bailed out of the truck, taking only her purse, shoving the gun into the main compartment just to get it out of the way. They can have the fucking truck! She thought as she ran toward the front door, the keys still swinging in the ignition.

  She burst into the brightly lit and cheerfully painted entrance, skidding to a stop in front of the reception desk at the edge of the waiting room.

  “I’m here to see Jules… Julian Rivera.”

  “Are you his wife or relative?” the perky woman asked.

  “No. Friend.”

  “I’m sorry. We can only… Ma’am! Ma’am! Ma’am… you can’t go back there! Ma’am!” perky called as Rachel stepped away from the desk and toward the door leading to the exam rooms in the back.

  As she burst through the doors, a nurse stepped in front of her. “Ma’am! You can’t come back here!”

  “Get out of my way before I knock you on your fat ass!” Rachel snarled as she bulled past the woman.

  She strode down the corridor, stepping into the second room on the right when she saw the Forsaken 99 colors on the back of someone’s jacket. She pushed gently on the man’s shoulder as she squeezed by, the man turning and stepping aside to give her room to enter.

  “I’m glad you’re here, Rachel,” Marsh said. “He asked for you.”

  She stopped just inside the room. Jules was sitting on the exam table as a woman, probably a nurse-practitioner or a doctor, cleaned a nasty looking scrape on his arm. Jules looked like he had been through an industrial limb-chipper, but of more concern were his eyes. He stared at the wall as if he were in another world and unaware of his surroundings.

  “Jules?” she asked quietly, her voice full of dread.

  The woman looked up and smiled at her. “He’s going to be sore, but he’ll be fine. She can stay,” the doctor said as a man appeared behind Marsh and Rachel.

  “What happened?” Rachel asked.

  “He was jumped by the cartel. We think. We haven’t gotten much out of him. Fish and Bell… they were killed,” Marsh explained.

  “Oh no…” Rachel breathed. She looked back to Jules. He was looking at her, but his eyes were empty and his expression hadn’t changed from when she first saw him. “Jules? Are you okay?”

  She didn’t think he was going to answer, but finally he nodded. “Yeah. I’ll be okay. Fish… he was going to ask Kristen to marry him…” His voice was a shadow of itself, weak and distant.

  “I’m so sorry, Jules.”

  “Yeah,” he said as his eyes left her and returned to the wall, staring at nothing.

  “He’s in shock,” the woman said as she carefully wrapped a bandage around the raw place on his arm. “We’ll get him patched up and give him something to help with the pain and help him sleep. He should be better in the morning.”

  “Jules, can you tell me what happened?” Rachel asked, stepping closer and keeping her voice calm, though she wanted to rage at the unfairness of the universe. Just when he was starting to dig himself out of his dark past, fate had shit on him and taken his two best friends.

  He looked at her, his eyes full of pain. “We had just dropped Kristen off at their home. She had ridden to the meeting with Fish because her car wouldn’t start and he had to go get her at work,” he began slowly, his voice quiet. “The three of us were going to meet you… have a couple of beers… make sure you were okay. The truck came up behind us…”

  When Marsh started to speak, Rachel shook her head, indicating he should just wait.

  “After the vote, Todd and I got into a pissing contest. Everybody was so pissed off that I wanted to get away. I just wanted to come see you and make sure you were okay.”

  When he fell silent, Rachel looked to Marsh.

  “Todd was mad that the vote didn’t go his way,” Marsh explained. “All of us, except Todd, Gigolo, and Dwayne, thought it made sense to wait and let the cartel make the next move. Todd got all pissy and started taking it out on Jules – accused him of undermining the club and working to turn the club against him. It was all a bunch of bullshit. I don’t know what Todd’s problem has been lately, but… never mind. This isn’t the time or the place.”

  Rachel looked back to Jules as he grimaced in discomfort as the doctor cleaned a wound on his knee.

  “I was in the middle,” Jules suddenly said, picking up the thread of the conversation. By the time I realized what was happening… that the truck… the truck ran over Bell…”

  “Oh my god,” Rachel whispered.

  “... and Fish and I started running. But the truck kept coming. I had my gun… but I couldn’t shoot and ride. Not behind me. The truck… they started shooting at us. There was nothing we could do except run.” Jules paused and watched the doctor work at the wound with forceps, picking out pieces of gravel. “I got into the loose in a corner. Went down hard. Slid into the weeds. I thought I was dead, but the truck kept going.”

  When he didn’t seem inclined to continue, Rachel looked at Marsh. “How did he get here?” she asked quietly.

  “Sheriff found him. Someone called the cops and reported that a truck and some motorcycles were racing. They found him walking along the side of the road and finally brought him here. The bastards held him for almost two hours before they decided he needed medical help. We’re here enough that one of the nurses recognized him and called Todd, then me, when they couldn’t get in touch with Todd.”

  “They found Bell and Fish?”

  “Yeah – dead at the scene. Bell… obviously, but Fish… looks like maybe he decided to turn and fight. Shot six times.”

  “My god,” Rachel breathed again. “It was the cartel?”

  “Don’t know. We think so. I know more now than I did before. He wouldn’t talk to me. Everything I knew, up to now, the deputy told me when I got here.”

  “Do they know what kind of truck?”

  “Black is all I know.”

  Rachel went cold. “A black Toyota Tundra? Jacked up with big wheels?”

  “Don’t know,” Marsh said.

  “Yes,” Jules said at almost the same time.

  “That truck followed me tonight. I sic’d the cops on them and they took off but…”

  “What?” Jules asked, his voice hard. “Did you say that truck was following you? Tonight?”

  “Yes.”

  “Mother-fuckers!” Jules snarled. “I will fucking kill them all…” He started to get off the table until the doctor put her hand firmly in his chest.

  “You’re
not going anywhere until we get you patched up. Just sit quietly a few more minutes and I will be done.”

  Rachel watched Jules glare at the doctor but then he finally acquiesced. “Marsh, you find Todd and you let him know what has happened. The cartel fuckers have just started a fucking war of the likes they have never known.”

  “Jules… you need to think about this. You were right before. We don’t know it was the cartel.”

  “Who the fuck else would it be!” Jules raged, causing the doctor to start back in surprise.

  “Jules! Calm down, okay? It’s going to be okay. We need to take a couple of days and sort this out. Figure out what we are going to do. You were right before… we don’t want to escalate this any more than we have to.”

  “That was before they killed Fish and Bell. Before they threatened Rachel. What are we going to tell Kristen? Huh? That Fish wasn’t important enough to hit back over?”

  “You know better than that, Jules,” Marsh said in annoyance. “But we need to be ready before we go in halfcocked. You, of all people, should know what happens if you get into a battle you are not prepared for.”

  Rachel’s eyes widened in surprise of the coldness of Marsh’s statement, but his face didn’t match his words.

  “Jules,” Marsh continued more gently, “you didn’t fail your platoon then, and you didn’t fail Fish or Bell tonight. Don’t let what happened in the past cloud your judgment today. We need you thinking clearly. Remember what they drilled into us: angry soldiers become dead soldiers. Take a couple of days. Get your head straight. Then we’ll decide our next move. Okay? If that is to kill every goddamned member of the Andres Cartel, then that is what we will do, but you’re in no shape to be making these decisions tonight. Go home with Rachel. Keep her safe. Let the rest of the club make sure we are hitting the right target.”

  ***

  “Let me help you,” Rachel said as she guided Jules into her truck. Marsh sat on his bike, its distinctive Harley idle loud in the late evening quiet. Jules was in no shape to defend himself, or anyone else for that matter tonight, so Marsh would be watching over them for at least tonight.

  “Marsh’s right. It wasn’t your fault,” Rachel said as she started the truck. “Jules?” she asked when he didn’t answer.

  “I’ll tell that to Kristen,” he said as he watched the house lights glide by outside his window.

  “There was nothing you could do.” She waited, but it didn’t appear that he was going to answer. “Jules… talk to me. Don’t shut me out. Please!”

  “You should drop me off at my house,” he said, still looking out his window.

  “Why? What do you need?”

  “Nothing. Just drop me off and leave.”

  “Can’t do it. The doctor said to watch you tonight.”

  “I mean you should drop me off, leave, and never come back.”

  Rachel gasped, her heart nearly stopping as a coldness surrounded her. “Is that what you want?”

  “Yes.”

  She gritted her teeth, determined not to cry in front of him. “Why?” she asked calmly. “Is it something I did? Something I said?”

  “No.”

  “Then what?”

  “You’re not safe around me.”

  “I don’t understand. What are you talking about?”

  “You’re not safe around me. Nobody is. I should leave before anyone else gets hurt.”

  She sighed in relief. “Jules, I know you are hurting right now, but…”

  “That’s not it. I don’t want you around me. It’s for your own good. You…”

  Rachel slammed on the brakes causing the truck to howl to a stop, Jules slapping the metal dash hard with his hand to prevent himself from tumbling from the seat.

  “Don’t you fucking dare!” she snarled as she stared at him. “If you don’t want me around, then fine. But don’t you fucking dare try to send me away ‘for my own good!’ If you are going to leave me, then you fucking man up and admit you don’t want me! Otherwise you cut this shit out... and right goddamn now!” She paused, breathing hard. “So? Do you want me or not?”

  “What’s going on?” Marsh asked through her open window.

  “Jules and I are having a frank discussion over our sleeping arrangements,” she said, never taking her eyes off Jules.

  “Everything okay?”

  “Is it?” she asked Jules, her eyes boring into him.

  “I don’t know,” he finally answered as he looked into the darkness beyond the windshield.

  She stared at Jules for a long moment before turning back to Marsh. “We’ll sort it out. Sorry if I startled you.”

  Marsh nodded. “Just go easy on him. He’s had it hard in the past.”

  “I know. He told me.”

  Marsh nodded again and motioned her ahead of him with a finger. Rachel put the truck into first and started rolling again. “It’s going to be okay. We’ll get through this… together.”

  ***

  “You want me to come in?” Marsh asked as Jules hobbled into Rachel’s house.

  “No. We’ll be fine. Thanks, Marsh, for calling me and taking care of Jules, but I’ve got him. Go home and get some rest.”

  “Not going to happen. I’ll call the guys. We’ll have someone outside all night if you need us. I think you’re good for him, but we take care of our own.”

  Rachel smiled. “Thank you. You’re a good friend.”

  “We’re brothers,” Marsh said as if that explained it all.

  When Marsh stepped out of her garage she closed the big rolling door and followed Jules inside. He had the Southern Comfort out and was pouring a shot. She picked up the shot and downed it, gritting her teeth against the burn. “Thanks. I needed that,” she said, taking the bottle from his hand and putting the lid back on. “You’re on pain meds, so none of this for you tonight.”

  “I don’t fucking care,” he said as he reached for the bottle.

  “I fucking care,” she said, holding it out of his reach. “I’ll pour it down the drain, Jules,” she warned as he moved to reach for it again.

  “Just give me the goddamn bottle.”

  “No.”

  She watched his face twist up in anger. “Then take me home.”

  “No. The doctor said for someone to watch you tonight. You’re stuck here, so just get over it.”

  “You’re being a complete bitch,” he said softly as his face relaxed.

  “Aren’t I, though?” That brought a ghost of a smile from him. “Take me to bed?”

  He stared into her eyes a moment. “Can you give me some time? I’m… messed up. I don’t know what I’m doing.”

  “I understand. But I will be here, no matter how long it takes, okay? If not tonight, then tomorrow. And if not tomorrow, the next day. Or the next.” She rose up on her toes and kissed him tenderly on the lips. He didn’t respond, but she didn’t expect him to. “I’ll be here when you’re ready.” With a soft caress of his cheek, she walked toward her bedroom, the bottle of Southern Comfort still in her hand.

  Sometime in the dark stillness of the night she awoke and heard Jules moving about in the front of her house as he muttered to himself. His voice, though low, was harsh and guttural. She listened to him a moment, catching enough words and phrases to understand he was promising vile retribution on anyone involved in the death of Fish and Bell, or the attempt to harm her. As she listened, tears slowly leaked from her eyes. So much pain…

  She reached to the floor and touched the bottle she had brought with her into the bedroom to confirm its presence. With a sigh, she wiped her eyes and then listened to his muttered threats until she drifted back into sleep.

  ***

  “How are you this morning,” she asked as she wandered into the kitchen, her voice still slow and thick from sleep.

  “Fine,” Jules murmured as he sat at the kitchen table staring out her kitchen window at the morning light.

  “Did you sleep?”

  “No.”

&
nbsp; She glanced at the clock on the microwave. “You can have another pill for pain. I’ll get if you need it.”

  “No. I’m fine.”

  Rachel stewed. He was talking to her, but his voice was flat and lifeless. “Can I get you anything else? Would you like me to fix you some breakfast?”

  “No. Thank you.”

  “Do you want to talk?”

  “No.”