I sucked it down until one-third of it was gone. Didn’t ease the nerves. I peeked through my Venetian blinds to see if anyone was in the parking lot. Not a single person in sight. Only the sound of an owl hooting in the background. I closed the door. I had my laptop in my bedroom. I went in there and scrounged around for it. I rarely looked at it unless I needed to. I bent down under my bed and slid it out. I remembered I left it there in a laptop bag. I fired it up while I sat on the bed. Time to research. I wanted to soak up as much information about these clowns as I could. I needed to find someone in the know to lure them out. Misty’s plan wasn’t half bad.
Jimmy Santos. I clicked on the article from the local Merced News.
A local teenager has been charged with the sexual assault of a minor whose name will remain undisclosed. Bail is set at $15,000. A corresponding picture with the fat fucker sat at the top of the article. He was fat as a teenager too. From the moment I saw him in my parking lot of the warehouse, I knew he was trouble. His side profile in the mugshot screamed of a deviant. I switched out and looked up Blaze Hernandez. There were plenty of photos of him floating across the net. One with his arm around fellow weasel El Diablo. I should have known. Both of them were wearing their chapter patches on their leather jackets. I now understood that it was out of my hands. It was time to call in the Outlaws. To be, well, Outlaws.
I walked with my bare feet out to the kitchen like I always did. I picked up my cell phone as I jumped off the see-saw of indecision.
“Hey, Diego. Midnight caller, huh? This has gotta be good, right?” Ryder’s answered.
“Yeah, it is. You’re gonna love it,” I replied sarcastically.
“Okay, hit me with it,” Ryder said as I heard him moving around the background.
“Las Balas left me a nice little note. I got a ransom on my head for a hundred thousand.”
“Those muthafuckin’ bastards.” The anger in Ryder’s voice was evident. I checked out as I sipped my beer. Misty flashed through my mind. There was no way she could be in on this. The way she fed the information to me on the phone. The panic and the careful nature of her tone. What a way to declare our love for one another.
“So what’s the plan? There’s no way we’re paying the bastards. We have to outsmart them,” I probed Ryder.
“Easy. We’re going to war. I have to set the example now I’m president. Did they see reason? No. So then we ain’t backing down either.” Ryder’s sleepy voice sprang to life.
I looked out my window from the kitchen. Merced, outside of the city limits, reminded me of the desert a little and our sojourn down to Tijuana. Wrong time to be thinking about that, but I needed a happy memory. I switched back to the conversation.
“I found both their profiles online. Jimmy Santos and Blaze Hernandez. You know ‘em?”
“Yeah, I know both those cretins. We can take ‘em down easy.”
“A few other things…” I cringed as I launched all that was hidden. “I’m pretty sure I got a visit from them earlier in the week, with a small fire at the warehouse. They were harassing Misty too.”
“Misty? What the fuck has she got to do with this? I thought I told you the girl was bad news and to stay the hell away from her?” Ryder sounded like an angry father chastising his kid.
I drained the last of my beer and sighed. “Ryder, they harassed her, she ain’t got nothing to do with these two. Keep her out of it. Both of these guys are trying to start a pro’ ring. I met a pro’ who told me they tried to pimp her.”
“You were holding all this?” Ryder’s voice was in full command now. He meant business.
“I did, but I thought I could handle it and it wasn't going anywhere.”
“Diego, this is what the chapter is for. To lean on. I’m gathering the boys and we are riding in tomorrow morning. What’s the next instruction for the ransom?”
“I mean, I don’t even know if it's legitimate, first off.”
“Oh, it's legitimate. Las Balas don’t declare anything unless it is. They wouldn’t have sent that to you if it wasn’t.”
“There's a divide in the chapter though, Ryder. I don’t know that all of Las Balas is in on this.” As the words flew out of my mouth I wondered how it came to be that I was advocating for Las Balas.
“You chickenshit. You’re bigging them up now? Diego, that girl has got you twisted. She’s probably a mole sent to infiltrate the chapter set-up.”
I felt the anger flowing through me the more Ryder brought Misty up. I would stand for her no matter what, I realized. I would have to trust her in this situation. “Leave her out of it, Ryder.”
“We don’t have long to set this up. If I need to set the wheels in motion, I’m going to let them know we’re coming for ‘em.”
“No surprise tactics?”
“We could rush the chapter, yeah, but I gotta see how we’re going to work this. Be ready. I’m calling the boys now. We’ll be near your place at sunrise or thereabouts. I need maps if you have them. I need a location for the pro’ you met too. I need to see if we can get in touch with what they're doing. We are coming in strapped. Be ready, Diego.”
“Okay” was all I could manage to get out before the phone clicked dead. My stomach dropped. I didn’t want a chapter war. I came to Merced to get away from that shit. I couldn’t go back to sleep. My mind was racing and I was too wired.
Las Balas headquarters were situated at the back of Merced toward the airport. From what I heard, the clubhouse was relatively small. I pulled out one of the Merced maps from my kitchen drawer that I picked up at the Information Center in town. I thought back to last time Outlaw Souls raided a chapter. It was a long time ago and I hadn’t been part of it.
