“Outlaw Souls are coming. You need to tell them you have nothing to do with Jimmy and Blaze. There’s a letter. Please.” I struggled to get the words out of my mouth.
“Hold up. Wait. Wait. What the hell are you saying? Slow down and tell me what’s going on!” Palo growled.
“Okay. Let me calm down.” I sucked in a deep breath as I sat in the car. Tears were welling in my eyes as I spoke. A bad image of Diego being shot ran through my head. I stuffed it down. “Okay. There’s a ransom on Diego’s head. On the note, they used the name of Las Balas. Now Outlaw Souls think you’re responsible. They are trying to extort money.”
“So Jimmy and Blaze did this?” I could feel his anger through the phone screen.
“Yes. Outlaw Souls are coming to talk to you now. You need to do something. Don’t start a war, Palo. I want you and Diego to live. He told me to tell you. They are coming now! Where the hell are you?” I said hysterically.
“I’m at the clubhouse. Everything’s going to be all right. I got it covered. They’re here already.”
I banged the steering wheel. “Are you serious! Oh my God. Please. Palo, I’m praying for you. Please hold your fire! Please.”
“Shhhh! I got it handled. Didn’t I tell you that? Shut up. I gotta go. It’s happening.” The phone clicked dead and this was the most helpless I had ever felt in my life. I let the tears slide down my face as I put my hands together in prayer. I cranked the engine and let the tears drip. I rode off toward home. I would have to wait to hear. My phone was ringing. I glanced at it through the fog of my tears. Shauna. I couldn’t talk to her right now. I breathed deep and knew somehow, someway, everything would work out as it should. I’d never wanted my family to be involved in Las Balas in the first place. Maybe Palo, if he made it out alive, would understand why. I arrived home a half-hour later. The tears had dried up, but not the hurt. I walked to the kitchen to grab a drink of water when my phone rang again. I wanted to throw the thing at the closest wall.
“Hey, baby.”
“Diego!”
“We're good here.”
“What the fuck do you mean ‘we’re good’?”
“I mean we met. You got the message to him, I see.” I slid down the wall in the kitchen, relief sinking me to the floor. I pulled my knees up to my chest and listened.
“Yes, I got it to him. What’s the next bet?”
“Next bet is we teaming up. I’m coming in with the fake ransom, but we are rolling thirty-deep to take these thugs down. There will be no ransom given.”
“Papi Chulo! You’re not out of the woods yet. I mean, what if they shoot you? You don’t know where Jimmy and Blaze will be. They could be anywhere.”
“Shh. We got it now. Good news, you and I are out in the open now. Your bro’ is cool peoples. I love you. You’re a real one. You’re my little gangsta’. A doctor, but you’re a real one. Thanks for backing me. I love you. When I get out of this…it’s going to be about you and me.”
“I love you,” I cooed. “I don’t want anything happening to you.”
“Hang in there, mamacita. Go to my place. In the potted plant on the left is a key. Right under the leaf. You gotta dig a little. I want you in my bed when I get home. Come stay with me. Start packing your shit. Come live with me. Think about it at least.”
“Baby. I’ll be there, just be careful and make it home to me tonight.”
“Love you. Gotta go kick some ass. Bye.”
TWENTY-FIVE
DIEGO
Yoda stepped carefully to the clubhouse with his hands up. One of the beefy dudes stepped out in front of him. Ryder dismounted from the bike and moved toward him with his hands up as well. My nerves were tingling. Felt like walking into suicide if you asked me. A short bald-headed guy swung open the screen door to the chapter house and left it open. He gave the beefy dudes the head nod and they stepped back. To my surprise, the short guy raised his arm and waved to everyone to come in. He kept waving until we moved. Vlad, Moves and Rick looked at me and I looked at them. We idled our bikes into the space. The whole Outlaw crew was now on Las Balas turf, an unprecedented move in history.
We all dismounted from our bikes in succession and headed to the chapter house. Ryder stepped in first.
“Welcome. Let’s have a friendly chat. It’s all love here,” the bald man said. Inside were the flags and the mottos of the chapter on the wall, like ours. Pictures hung in frames around the place, displaying the history of the club. Four big tables sat in the middle of the hall with chairs around them. “Hi, my name's Palo. I’m the new president here at Las Balas. As we all know, El Diablo is dead. We all know how he died, so let’s cut to the chase, so we can defuse the tension here.” His voice was clear-cut and professional. His face didn’t resemble a killer. One tatt on the inside of his arm. I assumed it was the chapter branding. All the Outlaw boys took up space. Las Balas boys were at the other end of the table we sat at. Nasty-looking bunch, mostly of Spanish descent with dirty looks on their faces. Palo stood right in the middle of us. Vlad touched his back as he heard one of the dudes speaking in Spanish.
“Ayy, what did he say?” He nodded his head to Palo. Palo yelled something in Spanish to him and looked back to us.
“All right. So we got a problem with Jimmy Santos and Blaze Hernandez. Diego, where are you? Which one is dating my sister?”
I stood up and looked him dead in his face. He scanned me slowly.
“She really loves you. Don’t fuck it up. So you’re lucky enough to have a ransom on your head, huh?”
