I got dressed quickly. A faint beep I wasn’t familiar with came from the kitchen bench. The cheap burner phone. A text message.
“Don’t forget to come alone tonight. Times ticking bitch.”
My impulses made me want to throw the phone against the wall. To hurl it out the fucking window. Sons of bitches. I strapped up, tucking my Smith and Wesson under my shirt. I grabbed my biker boots and put them on. I’d trimmed my beard up and tied back my hair, ready to get down to business. My phone rang, and Ryder’s number came up.
“Hey, Diego. You ready? We meeting at the warehouse, right?”
“Yep. We are. Rick is in and bringing his guys. We’re going to lay out the game plan.”
“Okay. Done, see you there.” Ryder clicked off. Death hung in the air like an old friend. But it wasn’t about to be me or my crew that would perish. Jimmy Santos and Blaze Hernandez were about to become our bitches. I had everything I needed. I opened the door to my destiny. Determined, I mounted my bike and put my helmet on, ready to ride out. I arrived at the warehouse minutes later. As had been the routine of late, I double-checked all corners before rolling into the parking lot.
I noted a black truck with tinted windows was already parked. I saw a hand wave out the side of it. Rick. Shit, he was lucky. I was about to quick-draw on him.
“It’s me. Chill.”
“Okay.” I was a few paces away from him. He was dressed in black with two other guys, tall, well-built and strong jawlines. Made for the fight. They both reminded me of army soldiers.
I held out my hand to Rick and was greeted with a firm handshake.
“Morning. You ready?” he asked.
“As I’ll ever be. Who you got with you?” The two big boys were flanking both sides of Rick with their hands clasped in front of them.
He pointed to the left. “This here is Roberto, former kickboxer and army pro.” He pointed to his left. “This here is Alexander the Great, ex-army sergeant. We got the baddest in the game right here.” I shook both their hands, but they were both silent. Jimmy and Blaze wouldn’t stand a chance against either of these guys, let alone with Moves and Vlad in the mix.
“Damn straight. Let’s go inside, fellas.” I retrieved my keys from my pocket and punched in the alarm code. The dusty warehouse still held the two bikes I hadn’t had a chance to look at since I was defending my motherfucking life. “Take a seat. Ryder and the boys will be here any minute, so no point repeating yourself.” The familiar sound of the bike engines came in as soon as I mentioned Ryder. A formidable force: Yoda, Moves, Vlad, and Ryder. Four of the baddest dudes in the Outlaw club. My warehouse windows were still boarded up so I peeped out the front. Yep, all four on their two-wheeled machines. Ryder, leading the pack, came in and sat down with the three others. He gave them a hard once-over. He recognized Rick and leaned in to shake his hand. Vlad, Moves and Yoda followed. Everybody sat down.
“Hey, fellas. I’m Rick, for any of you that don’t know me. I want to let you know you’re in good hands. We got this. My two here are Roberto and Alexander the Great. Let’s crush some heads.” Rick flashed a criminal smile to the table. Ryder and Yoda nodded.
Moves and Vlad shook hands and grunted. Must be enforcer code.
“All right, look.” Rick rolled out a map of Fahrens park. “Where are they asking you to drop off the money?”
I pointed to the spot on the map. “Right here.”
“Okay, so if they have you make the drop here, we are going to wait in the shadows right here and here. Ryder, Vlad and Moves, I need you guys to stay rooted in these areas. I got a sniper gun, a silencer and a few other bad boys that will light them up nice, in case they don’t come out ‘til morning light to do the pick-up. We’ll wait there and stake the joint out. They have to come pick it up. It’s a popular park. My thinking is they will attempt to pick up a few hours later. They won’t leave it. I know about these guys. They are dumb. Amateurs at this. But let’s take it seriously. We don’t know what they got going and who is backing them up. They can’t be operating solo like this.”
Ryder lit up and the smoke floated up in the air. “Doesn’t make sense, them riding solo. You know what I mean? They mighty confident for a couple of thugs trying to start a pro’ ring. Which is why I think they do have Las Balas behind them. They got a death wish otherwise.”
“Could be their way of calling our bluff. We could be falling in a trap,” I countered. My ears were thundering with my heartbeat.
Ryder sneered at me. “You gone soft up here in Merced, Diego. My directive is we send a warning flare to Las Balas. They're gonna know we got ‘em by the balls. These fuckheads can’t be solo.”
I ignored his insult. “Could be they been planning and they have a crew together, already separated from Las Balas. Remember Jimmy Santos was in juvie a long time, prolly got a lot of friends in that time.”
Ryder raised a brow at me. “You still seeing her, huh? You trying to protect your girl right now. I can see it in your eyes.” I wanted to slap Ryder, but all eyes were on me.
“What about it? This ain’t got nothing to do with Misty.”
He gave me a wry smile.
“Uh-huh, now I know. Then you better let your girl know now, I’m sending a warning shot to Las Balas. We riding out, Diego. Handle it. Too late to back down now. Every one of you is strapped and locked. We following Rick's instructions. That’s it.” Ryder’s finger hit the table in finality.
“Okay.”
Ryder continued and butted out his cigarette. “This is a brotherhood. We are the Outlaw Souls and we need to defend our brothers and our territory. End of story. Ride or die.”
Every one of us put our hands in the air and said in unison, “Ride or die!”
