by Rae B. Lake
“What’s this gash talking about?” Shepard asked turning towards Wire.
“You can watch your fucking mouth.” Mikki took a step forward glaring straight at the man so many have cowered away from.
He gave a smirk and put his hands up, he knew better than to fuck with a member’s woman.
“Mikayla what are you talking about?” I turned around and looked at her, her eyes were seeking, I nodded to give her the ok. She was trying to make sure that it was ok before she continued with her story. I didn’t want to dig into what she had endured while she was with that fuck Vilanuvas but if she had information that we could use to end this that’s what I wanted to do. Put a fucking bullet in this whole situation. I wanted it over. I walked over to Mikki and put a hand on her hip.
“What do you know babe?”
“I know everything.” She looked up to me, that slick grin prominent on her full pouty lips.
Chapter 17 Mikki POV
“You have to realize that I was with him from the beginning.” I turned to address the rest of the guys.
“Turn the fucking music off! Now.” Wire yelled out and immediately it was completely silent for me to speak. I never trusted anyone enough to really tell them what was going on with Alejandro, but I knew that if anyone was going to bring them down it was going to be the Wings of Diablo and the rest of their crew.
“Like I said I was with Alejandro from the start, although I didn’t know it was the start. I knew he was into the criminal lifestyle but I didn’t know the extent of his involvement. He promised that he would get my sister modeling gigs, that we would come down to America and she would make it big.” I shook my head at our stupidity at how fucking gullible we both were.
I felt Alex give my hip a little squeeze, prodding me forward and reassuring me all with one touch.
“We followed him down here and in the beginning it was alright. He was always going away or was handling some business. Vida had a few gigs here and there but nothing crazy, then things started to go wrong with his work. He started to take it out on us and finally when I realized that he was letting his goons brutalize my sister I spoke up. He was already too far gone. Even his brothers know it. The man is working off leash.” I shuddered to think.
“Wait, do you mean? That he is rogue? He is not part of the cartel anymore?”
“No, he still has the last name. He is still part of the cartel, however they won’t help him. What he has, he has because of his name and there are still a few fucks willing to put themselves on the line for him. I would say at most he has one hundred people, half of which would drop their weapons before even one bullet flew. They are there because they have been around him from the very beginning, but Alejandro doesn’t have the loyalty that he thinks he has. If you guys can cut the head off this snake, I can guarantee that there will be no backlash. The rest of the Vilanuevas family know that they can’t kill him themselves.”
“It makes sense.” Keeley, the one that I figured out was Wire’s ol’ lady spoke up from where she was standing with her baby Lily. “There have been quite a few times that Da has just let one of his family die; saying he was too strong for his bridges, that they were doing too much and the family didn’t need that type of heat.”
“What, you think Alejandro has been excommunicated or some shit like that? Abandoned?”
“Yes, unless he turns a remarkable profit from what he is trying to do here, he is on his own.” I shrugged and looked over to Keeley who nodded as well. I was going to have to get her story, I knew that she was part of the mob but I didn’t know which one. That was going to be a fucking story to hear.
“How the fuck do we figure this shit out.”
“Attack them.” I said calmly. “I know in the beginning when we first got here, if there was an attack on Alejandro, the amount of reinforcements that he received was ridiculous. His brothers would send more people than I had ever seen. Right before we made it out of the house, there were no more reinforcements. If you can attack him and his brothers don’t retaliate, he is free game.”
“How can we do it without getting anyone killed?” Alex asked me.
“Well, I know a few of his drop houses. It’s just money, drugs and girls. A few guards but most of them are high out of their minds. You could probably just knock them out and take down the house.”
“How much money we talking?” Clean asked from the side.
“I don’t know, I wasn’t part of the count. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was just thousands. Could be hundreds of thousands. But they need rooms for the cash.”
“Yeeee! That is what I am talking about! Let’s get us some duckets!” The man with the cowboy hat yelled out as he turned to walk towards the door.
“Fuck that, how do we know she isn’t leading us all into a trap. She said it herself she was Vilanuevas head bitch. This could all be a fucking trick.” Rooster said as he tried to stare me down. I looked away, slightly, the amount of crazy in that man’s eyes were just not normal.
“It’s not a trick. That man took everything away from me and my sister. He destroyed any chance Angel would ever have at a normal life. Someone like that cannot be helped or healed, he needs to be gone. I will come with you if you need further proof.” I tried to take a step in the direction of Rooster but Alex tightened his grip on my waist.
“The fuck you are.” He growled in my ear.
“My love if this is the way to make sure that this is over with than I have to go. I trust you; I know you won’t let anything happen to me.”
“Wait, we have to get our shit together, we can’t just walk up on a stash house with our dicks in our hands. Mikki would you be able to tell us what the place looks like?”
“I can do you one better, do you have a map? I’ll point each of them out for you.”
“Each! How fucking many are there?” Clean hopped excitedly from one foot to the next, just like a little kid waiting for candy.
“I know of sixteen stash houses, don’t know if there are any others after I left.”
“Fuck me.” Alex said behind me. I know he wasn’t talking to me but I couldn’t let the moment pass me by.
“Right here? Or can we make it to the bedroom?” I turned and said over my shoulder. I reached up on my tippy toes and nipped at his lip. This beautiful man had a way of turning me on with just a look. I couldn’t stand how wet he got me just from staring at me, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.
He growled and tried to pull me closer into him.
“Oh, oh, I vote right here. I won’t even record it!” Tex called out.
Alex wrapped his arms around me and pulled me down. He wasn’t about to give anyone a free show. Especially someone who was known to be a bit perverted like Tex.
“Rile up?” Mack said, his head shaking a bit from side to side. No one was quite sure as to what he was saying. I had learned that Mack had a horrific brain injury and there were times that what he wanted to say was not what came out of his mouth.
“He said,” I turned to see Maven behind us all, “Round up!”
With a slight smile Mack nodded his head.
“Yeah!! Let’s round everyone the fuck up!” Clean reached over the bar and pulled out a bottle of Jack Daniels and drank straight from the bottle. Everyone was ecstatic, but for the life of me I couldn’t see why. They were about to take on the fight of their lives and they were celebrating.
I turned to Alex and could see that he was smiling too.
“What the hell is everyone so happy for. We haven’t even gotten started.”
He kissed me softly, “You did it for them too. You’re their sunshine, the light at the end of the tunnel. It may not end up in the way that we want but this nightmare is about to be over.”
I had never thought about it that way, I had to smile myself. I had waited so long to stop looking over my own shoulder to make sure that no one was behind me to take us back to Alejandro. Alex was right, this was it. Either we would all be slaughtered, or we
would win but at the end it would all finally be over.
The light at the end of the tunnel was blinding now.
Chapter 18 Alex POV
“Holy fuck! Get the fuck out!” Clean screamed out. His naked ass running behind Tex who had small video camera in his hand. Tex laughed and ran down the stairs. Clean gave up his chase and went back into the room where Maven was calling out for him.
“Oye! Pendejo! Ven a ca!” Rooster called out and waited for Tex to come to him.
“Oh man, I was just having a little fun. Clean is getting better, that stroke is long and deep.”
“Give me the fucking camera Tex!” Rooster put his hand out.
“No way, I need this for…”
Before he could even finish his sentence, Rooster walked over to him and hit him a few times in the back of the head.
“Give me the fucking camera, give it now!” He reprimanded Tex like he was a little boy instead of the grown as man that was sitting right in front of him.
“Motherfuck! Stop hitting me!” Tex dropped the camera to shield his head from the onslaught of hits from his president.
Without a second to spare, Rooster picked up his booted foot and crushed the flimsy piece of electronic equipment.
“Aw man!” Tex looked down, shrugged his shoulders and just walked away.
“How the fuck do you control him?” I asked him as I watched him clean up the mess that he had just made with Tex’s technology.
“Control? I have no control over these boys. I have their trust. That is a completely different thing. Entiendes?”
“Of course you have control over them.”
“No, they trust me to lead them, they trust me to make the decisions that need to be made and they will back me up. I have their respect, they will never do anything that will tarnish my name or the name of our club. They trust what we have here. Once you have the respect of the men and their trust, you won’t need to try and control them. They will control themselves.” He took a swig of his brew and looked back out towards the crowd.
I wish someone would have told me that before.
I watched as the door opened and Archer walked in with five other prospects. All from the charter that he started down in New Orleans. While he was down there, he ran into one of his military brothers. It only seemed natural that he lead them while he was down there and just like that the Wings of Diablo not only had their mother chapter but also one in New Orleans, they were patched in allies of the Spawns of Chaos, and were backed by the Croatian Mob. I watched as the still damaged clubhouse filled up with allies and folks from out of town. There were at least fifty people here and that wasn’t including those that we couldn’t get into the club house. We had spent all that time trying to figure out how to beat Vilanuevas and his army when we had our own. We just needed to put the call out and everyone fell in like they were coming home.
Chapter 19
“Ok, Mikki led us to a drop house near the old cattle ranch. There are still a few farm hands that live on the farm but the house that Vilanuevas is using is pretty much secluded from everyone. I saw a few guards but like she said there wasn’t much besides the woman and junkies hanging around.” Wire said from his chair at the head of the table. Church was in session.
I was given a seat next to Clean, I didn’t have an official rank in the club so they gave me the chair out of respect. No matter what I had done in the past, in some of their minds I was still and always would be their Prez. “We can’t bring the amount of people that we have, they will see that shit for sure.”
“Agreed, we gotta go in small.” Rooster, said from his place, he wasn’t seated at the table but he was allowed to speak from where he was standing.
“Uđi tiho.” Marko said from his seat all the way in the back. Marko Juric was the leader, the head, the fucking Don of the Croatian mob and he was sitting in on church because his son in law called in a favor. Wire had family in high places.
“I think you are going to need to translate that for us Marko.” Wire said.
“Go in silently, I have a few snakes I can lend you. They will take them out before anyone even knows what is going on. You have a few too, no?” He gestured in Archer’s direction.
“Snipers you mean, you think we can take them out from a distance. Stealth kills?” I looked over to Wire, it could work. In fact it was a damn good plan. Depending on how many sure shots we had on hand we could take out the majority of them before we even got within two hundred yards of the building.
“Archer, you up for it? What about Jameson and Erin? I don’t want yall to do no shit that is going to fuck with you afterwards.”
“Nah, we got it Wire. We have been itching for some fucking action.” Archer said from his seat at the table.
“Dobro. I have a two who do nothing but shoot shit all day.” Marko said from his place in the back.
“Ok, we need at least two more.”
“Rock, he was special forces before he ended up with me. I’ll send him along.” Rooster said from his spot against the wall.
“Shit, that means we’re still short one.”
I thought back to everyone that I had ever come in contact with, as a Wing and even my time on the streets. One name chimed in my head.
“I know someone, he isn’t patched in with anyone but I know that I can trust him and he is a good shot, especially at a distance. He used to be a cop.”
“Used to be? How long ago was this career change. What we are about to do is not exactly fucking legal Prez.” Clean said from the side of me.
“It’s been years, his brother is still in but I can vouch for him.”
“Fuck all that! We are good with five.” Ryder said from the table.
I didn’t say another word, I knew I could trust Devin but the rest of them didn’t know him and I knew that I couldn’t force them to do things my way. It didn’t turn out so well the last time that I tried to do things that way.
“No I want to have at least seven guys, we are short one and if Prez says that this person is down to handle this shit, then we are going to trust that, anyone got a fucking problem with that?” Wire said out loud, agitation clear in his voice.
“No.”
“Nah.”
“If you fucking say so.”
Everyone knew better than to go against their president. Wire’s word was law.
“Prez, you go get this person and make sure that he is ready for this shit. Make sure that he knows what the fuck he is getting into. I don’t want no backlash from this shit.”
“You got it.”
“Ok what about the money?” Rooster asked, and if I didn’t know any better it looked like he was smiling. We had no idea how much money was in any of the stash houses or drugs for that matter but Vilanuevas and his goons had dwindled our lucrative trading down to barely anything. The coffers were drying up.
“Mikki, said it was all cash.” Wire looked at me for confirmation, I nodded once. “So we are going to need some muscle with us both in case we run into any fucks when we get inside and also to load the truck with the cash. What do you want for your trouble, Marko?” Wire looked over to his father in law.
“This is family, we protect family. We don’t need money, but I will be sending some of my officers over to the states. Help them if they need, yeah?”
“You got it, if we can help they can always come to us.”
With that the older man stood up from his seat and walked out. No one was supposed to leave church until Wire closed the session. I guess Marko Juric had his own set of rules. I wasn’t going to question them.
“Rooster, there is supposed to be a large quantity of drugs in there, we don’t fuck with that on this side of town. In fact, our contacts are solely for transportation. Depending on the amount, I’d be willing to let you…”
“Let me? Don’t think for a second that I am going to start fucking answering to you. I will take what the fuck I want to take.”
Wire sat up straight in his chai
r, his own brand of crazy burning bright in his eyes. “Rooster don’t fucking test me. I know I’d die after I finished with you, but if you disrespect me at my fucking table again, I’ll shove a vat of barbed wire up your asshole and let that shit tear you up from the inside out. I’m not questioning your fucking authority over your fucking men or your territory, I expect the same god damn respect or do we have a motherfucking problem?”
“Fuck you Wire, just know that I run my own shit.”
“No, I got an ol’ lady to fuck me, Rooster. I asked you once already. Do we have a fucking problem? I thought the solution that was presented was more than fair.”
“What if there ain’t nothing we can use there?” Rooster said, the previous tiff already out of his mind.
“Then we split the cash.” Wire said clearly.
“Whatever. Let’s play this shit by ear. Keep it fucking fair.” Rooster said and leaned back against the wall.
“Whatever, we will bring the shit back here and split it. Happy?” Wire asked sarcasm dripping from his voice.
Rooster smiled and nodded once.
“Fucking politics.” Wire mumbled under his breath.
I couldn’t help but to laugh a little, I didn’t miss that part of it one bit. The constant back and forth, trying to please everyone even though no matter what you did they would never be happy.
I sat back in my chair, not a care in the world.
I was happy to just be part of the family again.
When church was over everyone went about their business. I reached out to Devin and asked him if he would be down. He said in no uncertain terms that he would be fucking honored to roll with the Wings of Diablo even if it meant just this one time. Everything was falling into place. Before the night was over we would find out if Alejandro Vilanuevas was indeed alone on an island.
I walked to the bedrooms upstairs. I hadn’t seen the girls or Mikki for a long portion of the day. I missed my ladies.
Instantly, I was assaulted by a blur with a mop of curly blonde hair. Angel.
