The rest of us accepted one as well, tossing the twist-off caps to the side. It was a relief to feel the cold liquid slide down my parched throat. Fuck going to the gym.Thiswas exercise.
“Holy shit!” We heard Pin’s shout from the other side of the property, near where we had parked our bikes.
Happy to have a reason to take a break from digging, I tossed down my shovel along with everyone else and headed in the direction of Pin’s group. All four of them were standing around the edge of the pit they had dug, looking down into it.
Did they find the weapons?
“What’s up?” I asked.
Pin and Yoda parted to let me see what they were staring at. My eyes widened.
“Is that…”
“Yep,” Ryder said, coming up beside me. “That’s a dead body.”
It wasn’t completely uncovered, which I was thankful for, but there was no mistaking the human leg and foot bones that had been uncovered.
“This is where the steel was?” I asked.
Pin picked up a metal detector and held it over the bones. It beeped, and he stared at the readout on the screen.
“Yep.”
“It must be a steel medical pin in one of the bones,” Hawk said.
“That means the weapons have to be back there,” I said, nodding my head in the direction of the hole I’d started with Trainer and the others.
“Agreed,” Ryder said. “Cover this up, it doesn’t involve us.”
Pin and Yoda got to work filling in the hole while the rest of us went back to finally find these damn weapons. I, for one, would be happy to find and get rid of them.
The work went much faster now that there were more of us concentrating in one area. It didn’t take long before Trainer’s shovel hit a solid object with a dull thunk. We scooped the dirt off the top of what turned out to be a wooden crate.
We uncovered the whole thing, making room on the sides so that four men could get into the hole and lift the heavy crate out. The hole that remained was almost six feet deep.
Ryder ran to his truck and grabbed a crowbar out of the back. We were just losing sunlight when he managed to pry the crate open. There was a white cloth on top, but when Hawk pulled it back, there they were. The crate was packed full of guns. My eyes took in automatic weapons, handguns, and even something big that looked like a sniper rifle.
That was just the stuff I could see. It was high-grade weaponry, just as I’d been told.
Suddenly, a prickling awareness made the fine hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I wasn’t sure if it was just a paranoid reaction because I was looking at something so valuable or if someone was really watching us.
“Let’s get this thing in the back of my truck,” Ryder said. “We’ll take it straight to the warehouse.”
The warehouse was the place where we stored things like our own weapons or other valuable property. I went to one side of the crate, helping Trainer, Pin, and Swole carry it. The damn thing weighed a ton, but we were almost there. Then, disaster struck.
A tall man with a shaved head and braided mustache stepped out from the far side of Ryder’s truck, his black leather jacket blending in with the shadows now that night had fallen. The four us with the crate froze in place while Ryder moved forward, standing between us and the man. Chalupa moved to his side, and the stranger smiled coldly.
“What are you doing here, Mad Dog?”
Fuck.
It was the current leader of Las Balas. I didn’t know him because the club had a bad track record with its presidents. They didn’t last long. But I’d heard the Mad Dog was a particularly ruthless leader.
“I’m just curious about what you’re up to, Ryder. You and your little club here have been snooping around here for a while now. Looks to me like you found something interesting.”
“You’ve been spying on us?” Ryder scoffed. “How pathetic. Don’t you have your own business to worry about?”
“You know, I think that’s been the problem with my predecessors. They’ve ignored the Outlaw Souls for too long. You all are a pain in my ass, and it’s time we did something about it.”
