“Because they never do that. He goes home to change into fresh clothes, while the others go to the office and wait for him to arrive.”
“How far is the office from his house?” Copper asked.
“Not far, maybe 50 yards or so.”
“How many people will be at the office building?” I could see the wheels turning in his head; Copper was already mapping out a plan of attack.
“There shouldn’t be many, if any, at this time. When he has been out for business, he calls the members of his council that weren’t with him and tells them when to meet him at his office. It’s really just the executive council members and a handful of their sons who are old enough to start trying to climb the ranks that you have to worry about. The workers aren’t going to try to stop you and I seriously doubt any of the kids would try anything either.”
Copper rubbed his thumb and forefinger over his chin, “How many of these council members and kids are there?”
Coal started holding up fingers and mouthing numbers, trying to quickly tally up a number to give Copper. “Should be about six council members and four sons, I think. I don’t know them all and I’m not exactly sure who was in the other SUV’s when they drove up to the cabin.”
Copper started nodding his head, still rubbing his chin. “We can handle 10. I’ve got Octavius’s phone,” he held it up and wiggled his hand. “And looky here, an old text to a bunch of men telling them to be in the main office for a council meeting in 15 minutes.”
We all laughed. This guy really was an idiot. He left trails and clues all over the place and did half ass jobs, like only changing the inside code for the panic room, but his biggest mistake, besides crossing us, was being a creature of habit. When someone always did the same thing, followed the same routine, never changed their ways, it made stuff like this too damn easy. Too. Damn. Easy.
I leaned back in my chair and crossed my arms over my chest, “So, we’re going to ride in there, send one SUV to the house and the other two to the office, find Phoenix, then send a text to have them come to us, yeah?”
Badger grinned, “Sounds about right to me.”
Copper slammed his palm down on the table and stood. “Me, too. Let’s roll.”
Suburbans or not, cramming eight big bikers into one did not make for a fun ride. Not a one of us would be considered small, and from the smells surrounding me, some wouldn’t be considered clean either. Copper and Badger were up front while Coal was tucked in between me and Carbon. The kid looked terrified. I don’t know if it was because of what we were about to do or if it had more to do with Carbon. Either way, the kid couldn’t freak out on us. He was the only one who knew where Octavius’s house and the office building were.
Trying to help him maintain his composure, I started talking to him. “You said your parents work at the dairy farm?”
He startled at the sound of my voice, but quickly recovered. “Yes, they do, but they work on the real side, not the other side.” He had said something like that earlier, but we weren’t after those details at the time.
“What’s the real side and the other side?”
He turned to me with eyes so full of hope, “You’re not going to let him come back, right? Octavius?”
“No, we’re not. Why?”
“I’ll tell you if he’s not coming back, but if he is, I can’t say. It could put my family in more danger. I’ve already put them at risk by what I’ve already told you,” he told me, his voice trembling as he spoke.
“He ain’t coming back. That I can assure you.”
“Okay, well, the real side is the actual dairy farm. The other side looks like it’s part of the dairy farm, but it’s where they package drugs and guns to be shipped out.”
“I see. Does everyone there know about the drugs and the guns?”
He shook his head. “No, I don’t think any of the workers at the real farm know about it. He’s managed to keep everything separate.”
“So how do you know about it?”
“I was somewhere I shouldn’t have been and overheard them talking. I was supposed to stay within a certain area of the farm, but there was a pond nearby and I wanted to go swimming. I had to pass by part of the fake farm to get to it and I overheard some of the workers talking. I wanted to know more, so a couple of days later, I went back over there and hid behind some crates. I watched them for a while and left. When I got outside, Octavius was standing there. He told me he wouldn’t beat me bloody and fire my parents, if I agreed to owe him a favor. He didn’t tell me what the favor was or when he would ask for it. That’s the reason I was pretending to be his son. I didn’t know why he wanted me to do it and it seemed easy and harmless, so I agreed.”
“Will the workers who handle the drugs and the guns be a problem for us?” I asked.
“No way. They aren’t there because they want to be. They do that because they have to.” Well color me surprised.
“Why do they have to?”
“Because they owe Octavius money. He loans money to the people, I don’t know why, and when they can’t repay him, he brings them and their whole family, if they have one, to the farm. They have to stay there and work their debt off,” he explained.
“Their whole family?”
