BREAKING THE RULES: Forsaken 99 MC

by Evelyn Glass

  “I was in the skid-steer when a bullet came through the glass and pinged off of the roll over bar. Scared the shit out of me, and I got a piece of the bullet in my leg that I had to dig out. I don’t know how he missed from that close… I must have moved just wrong when he pulled the trigger, or maybe the glass deflected it. Anyway, I raised the bucket to protect me and I ran him down. Stupid fuck… froze and didn’t even try to run until it was too late. He just kept popping away at the bucket. That’s half-inch steel. You would need an armor piercing round to penetrate that.”

  “And he just stood there and let you run over him?”

  “Well, no, it wasn’t quite that easy. But a skid-steer is quicker than you think… it can go almost as fast a guy can run. Every time he tried to run around me I cut him off. He was hemmed in by a building on one side and a retaining wall on the other. So I just kept pushing him backwards. Finally I had him backed up against the wall. Then I just didn’t stop. Cut him in half with the bucket against the wall. Knocked a hole in the wall… and damn near gave myself whiplash when I hit it… but it turned out okay. I built the wall once, I can build it again.”

  “Shit…”

  “Yeah… he didn’t die well.”

  Rachel smiled nastily. “Good.”

  ***

  When the bar opened, Rachel was thrilled by the traffic. It was barely half her usual Friday night crowd, but it was more business than she had in weeks. Kristen and Pam had helped her spread the word that Jules had left the club and that Forsaken 99 was no longer welcome in her establishment.

  Jules was there, his weapon on prominent display, sitting at the bar stool nearest the door with the tables arranged so that he had a clear line of fire. Rachel made it through the night crying only twice, both times brought on by old friends that stopped by to express their sympathy for her loss.

  The night passed uneventfully. The violence in the town appeared to be over, but the residents were once again concerned for their safety, and it showed as the customers looked to the door every time someone entered.

  Spence and Marsh stopped by but Jules intercepted them at the door and escorted them back outside. They went without protest and he returned alone a few minutes later.

  “What was that about? They know they are not welcome here.”

  “They came for me.”

  “What did they want?”

  “To talk. They apologize for what went down. They wanted to know if the DEA thing was true.”

  “Did you tell them they can take their apology and shove it?” she hissed, trying to keep her voice down. “Where were they when you needed their help? What did you tell them?”

  “I told them the truth… that I had dealt Ellis to the DEA. But I also told them all the rest. I’m not sure they believed it. They didn’t want to believe it because they go way back with Todd… Spence even served with him. But I have planted the seed. Now let’s see if it grows.”

  Chapter Thirty Three

  Jules rose off his stool and met the three agents at the door. “What do you want Schneider?”

  “Just to talk.”

  “I have nothing to say to you.”

  “No? Well, I have a few things to say to you and your girlfriend over there.” She stepped around Jules and moseyed up to the bar. “Place is a little busier than the last time I was here,” she said to Rachel.

  “What do you want?”

  “It seems the men that killed your brother, and the one that took a shot at you, were Andres.”

  “It took you two weeks to figure that out? I knew that the first night,” Jules said.

  “Just because you have a tattoo of a ‘P’ inside your bottom lip doesn’t make you a member of the cartel,” Schneider said as she sat down on a stool. “But their prints came back from the Mexican government as known associates of the cartel.”

  Jules’s lip curled. “Glad we have you around to tell us these things.”

  “So the question is… why did the Andres Cartel put a hit on Forsaken 99? Any idea?”

  “Target practice?”

  “Cute. What I think, Jules, is Forsaken 99 is running drugs. I think that maybe you found out and tried to stop it. Maybe the rest of the guys that were killed were in on it too. I think the Andres Cartel found out and decided to protect their new partners. Maybe even your President tipped them off to it. That’s what I think. What do you think of my idea?”

  “I think you watch too many cop shows.”

  “I know you are not in the club anymore. Why are you protecting them? With you help I could take the club down. Then you could take over… or form a new club.”

  “Schneider, you’re not even DEA. What are you doing involved in all of this? Why aren’t you out hassling people that bring undeclared oranges into the states?” Jules asked.

  “Let’s just say that Ellis has been very helpful. And since I brought him in I’ve… been given a little bit freer hand. I can help you, Jules. I can help you get your club back.”

  “What makes you think I want to go back? As you said, they threw me out after all.”

  “Mmmm… call it a hunch.”

  “Well, thanks for the offer, but I’m afraid I will have to decline.”

  “Don’t make this harder than it has to be, Jules. People could get hurt. People you care about. This bar for example… known to be frequented by Forsaken 99. We may have to start looking into it a little more closely. Make sure its books are in order and it isn’t laundering drug money, for example. Nobody wants that, Jules.” Schneider then looked at Rachel and smiled. “Though I might not mind so much this time.”

  “Keep pushing, Schneider,” Rachel snarled.

  “Or what? Are you going to threaten to kick my ass again?” Schneider reached up and gave Jules a soft pat on the side of his face. “He may not find you as appealing after I was done with you, with your face messed up and all.”

  Jules pulled her hand down from his face. “Knock it off.”

  “What? I thought you would like two women fighting over you. Not that it would be much of a fight… and I would certainly enjoy the rewards.”

  “Don’t do it,” Jules warned as he put an arm between Rachel and Schneider when he saw Rachel go stiff with rage.”

  “Yeah, sweetheart,” Schneider said. “Too many witnesses, remember?”

  “Get the fuck out,” Rachel muttered, her voice low and dangerous.

  Schneider eased off the stool. “Okay. Have it your way.” She turned toward the door but stopped after just two steps. “Oh… I’m sorry about your loss,” she said to Rachel. “Your brother was a good looking guy and what happened to him was too bad. It’s such a waste. I was looking forward to getting real close with him.”

  Jules’s hand flashed out and grabbed Rachel by the arm as she started around the end of the bar. “It’s just what she wants. Don’t give it to her,” he said softly. “Schneider, just get out… and take your goons with you.”

  “Okay, have it your way. Dealing Ellis to me was a smart move. Be smart again… give me the club. I will make sure you and Rachel are protected.”

  “I don’t know what you are talking about.”

  Schneider stared at him a moment then nodded. “Okay. I’m sure we'll be talking about his again. But next time… let’s meet somewhere a little more… secluded. Just the two of us. Someplace where we can negotiate in private. There must be something I have, something I can offer you, that you want.”

  “Just go.”

  Schneider smiled at him before pivoting and walking out, the other three agents in her wake.

  “I hate that fucking bitch,” Rachel muttered. “And if you ever negotiate that bitch to her back, I will fucking kill you.”

  Jules chuckled. “Not going to happen. Don’t let her get to you. She is just trying to get you to give something up, or have you to do something stupid so she can use it as leverage against me. Just ignore her.”

  Rachel stared at the door a moment longer before looking back to J
ules. “Why don’t you give up the club? After everything they have done? You could start a new club if you wanted. You don’t owe them anything.”

  “Because the club is my problem and I don’t want the feds involved. I will either take Forsaken 99 back and make it stand for something again, or I will destroy it. Or I will die trying.”

  She looked into his eyes and saw the promise written there. “We both will,” she said softly as she placed her hand on his. “I will be with you every step of the way.”

  Chapter Thirty Four

  The newspaper popped loudly as Rachel Wallace slapped it hard against the table, the force of the blow cleaving it and leaving a gaping tear in the front page. It was just the local weekly, normally full of who was marrying who, who had won a ribbon for a prize calf at some event, and other local gossip. But not this week, and not last week either. The lead story in the last two issues of the Vallecito de Grande Journal had been the same. Someone had been murdered. Counting Fish, Bell and the cleaning crew, that made nineteen murders in the last two months. Nineteen! That’s nineteen times the amount of the previous five years combined!

  Vallecito was returning to the way it was before the Forsaken 99 Motorcycle Club had pushed the drug trade out of the town and created a bubble of safety around the town and a significant percentage of the surrounding ranchland.

  But that bubble had popped and the violence had returned. Just last week, a ranch hand had been shot while out in the fields. Virgil Santiago, one of Charles Washington’s hands, was shot three times in the chest while he was checking fences. There is no proof, but the Vallecito police suspect it was drug-related.

  “Everything okay?” Jules asked as he stepped into the room and gave her a loving kiss.

  “There was another shooting this week.”

  “Who?”

  “A Virgil Santiago. He worked for Charles Washington.”

  Julian “Jules” Rivera felt a chill pass over him. “I think I met him. Remember when I told you Washington caught some kids running drugs?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Virgil was the name of the hand that caught them. I wonder if it was the same guy?”

  “I don’t know. This reminds me so much of Vallecito from ten years ago. Picking up the paper every Wednesday and reading about who has been shot or killed.” Rachel folded the paper and laid it on the table. “I hate this.”

  “I know babe. I wish I could do something,” Jules said as he slipped into the chair beside her and took her hand.

  “I know. It’s that fucking Todd Webber. This is all his fault. Ever since he started going bad the town is suffering.”

  “Yeah, I know.”

  Rachel smiled sadly at him. Jules had tried to do something about it, when he was still the Vice President of the club, and it had cost him his two best friends, then later her brother -- and ten other members of the club -- their lives.

  “We tried. You, Will, and the cleaning crew, you tried.” She looked at the torn paper, ripped in half just as she had been when her brother was gunned down in her own bar by the Andres Cartel for attempting to shut down the drug pipeline that Forsaken 99 was running. If it hadn’t been for Jules holding her up, she is certain she would have collapsed under the grief from his death. She had felt lost and adrift, but Jules had been a beacon of light, guiding her back from that ocean of pain.

  “I know. But I wish I could do more. I owe it to Kristen and Pam and you. You three have lost so much because of me.”

  “Don’t!” Rachel said sharply. “Don’t even go there.” She knew that ever since Jules became the lone survivor of his platoon, he felt every loss of friend keenly and took the blame for their death upon himself. “Will and Fish were not your fault. They weren’t! You know that! So don’t even go there.”

  He looked at her and smiled, the darkness that nibbled at the edge of his soul disappearing as it had never been there. She had taken the darkness from him and she refused to let it have him back.

  “I know. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t still hurt.”

  “I know. Losing Will still hurts me too. And losing Fish, Bell and the rest of the cleaning crew hurts me because it hurts you. But being hurt doesn’t make it your fault.”

  She reached across the corner of the table and touched his face, smiling again as the pain and uncertainty seemed to flow out of him just from her touch.

  “I know. I just wish I had seen the hit coming. I know we would have taken the club back and put a stop to this mess. But now…”

  “I know. You almost had the bastard. But someday he will make a mistake and then we will have him.”

  “It may already be too late. As the cartel digs in, it is only going to get tougher and tougher to take him out. And it is only a matter of time before Forsaken 99 makes a play for me.”

  “I know. But if they hurt you, I’m going to stick my shotgun up Todd Webber’s ass and pull the trigger.”

  Jules snickered as he rose from the chair to leave for work. “Who needs a Doberman? I’ve got you.”

  “Be careful,” Rachel said as Jules kissed her.

  “I will. Stay in the house.”

  “I will,” she replied. It was their standard morning goodbye exchange.

  He kissed her again, just a quick buss of the lips before he turned and walked out. She watched him go and then got up to begin picking up the remains of their breakfast. She would clean up the kitchen, do her daily workout to pass some time and then grab her shower. Then, she didn’t know. She was getting a little stir crazy having to stay inside all the time, but she also knew that being out and about alone wasn’t a good idea either. Maybe she could talk Pam or Kristen into joining her for lunch. The afternoons, after all her chores were completed and she was just waiting for Jules to return from work, were always the hardest part of the day.

  Chapter Thirty Five

  Rachel was wiping down the top of the bar with her oiled rag to make the wood gleam. She wiped the bar top every time she had a moment, the motion therapeutic and calming. She had just opened the bar and was still waiting for her first customer. This was always the hardest part of the night, the time between when she flipped on the open sign and the first customer arrived. It’s when the memories spoke to her the loudest.

  The bar had been repaired so that no evidence remained to indicate it had been all shot to hell by the Andres Cartel -- the same shooting spree that had taken Will’s life. But what the master woodworkers couldn’t repair was the empty place in her soul. It had been almost six weeks since Will had been killed, and she was healing, but she wasn’t healed yet. If it hadn’t been for Jules she—

  Rachel looked up as her first customer of the night stepped in. It was Olivia Hawkins, Liv to her friends, and one of the biker chicks that ran with Forsaken 99. Rachel reached under the bar and pulled out her trusty shotgun. Other than pumping three shots into Will’s killer, she had never fired the gun in her bar. But she might be willing to do so tonight.

  “What do you want, Liv? You know Forsaken 99 is no longer welcome here,” Rachel demanded, holding the shotgun so that Liv could clearly see it, though she kept it pointed away from the woman.

  Liv stopped just inside the door and held up her hands in surrender. “I know. But I need to speak to Jules. Please, Rachel, it’s important.” Liv was an exceptionally sexy woman, well built with a beautiful face and long hair, and she normally carried herself with pride. But tonight she looked almost shrunken, as if all the life had gone out of her.

  “Get out.”

  “Rachel, please. Just let me talk to Jules. I need to talk to him. I’m… afraid.”

  “Yeah, well, considering who you are hanging out with, you should be.”

  “What do you want, Liv?” Jules demanded as he stepped into the bar proper from the back.

  “Jules. I need to talk to you. It’s about Marsh and Forsaken 99. I just need five minutes of your time. Please!”

  “To be honest, Liv, I don’t give a rat’s ass about F
orsaken 99 anymore.”

  “I know. But they were wrong to strip you of your colors. Since you have been gone, the club has started to come apart. There is no one left to act as a check on Todd. Marsh is off the board. Spence too—”

  “And I should give a shit, why?” he interrupted.

  “Because they were your friends! Once. The entire club looked up to you!”

  “Yeah. That’s why they tried to have me killed. Twice. That’s why they stripped me of my colors and have been hovering about, making sure I don’t forget that I’m a marked man. You know what they say about friends like these.”

  “They were wrong, Jules. I think they know it now. Marsh, he’s made me his old lady. He’s bitter and unhappy. He tells me things. How the club is going down the wrong path. He and Spence have talked to Todd, but he won’t listen. He won’t listen to anybody! They were charter members, two of the first fifteen, and they see the town returning to the way it was when Forsaken 99 first formed. This is Coper’s home now, our home now, and he doesn’t want to go back to the way it was.”