Chapter Six
Six hours later...
The Marauders all had coffee and were yawning as they tried to get awake.The room seemed quiet for a long while then conversations finally started as a low hum of talk rippled all around.
Titus stared across the table at Nita and tried to pick up the conversation where they left off last night, “So if they are traveling to us we don’t know when they left.Did you see them leave?”
Nita shook her head.“I hiked up here early yesterday.I left town the night before.They hadn’t left when I took off.I figure that you might have less time than you think.As soon as they realized Ricco was on his way here, they all gathered and followed him.And it wouldn’t take Joel Prescott long to get his plane here.So you have maybe a few hours?”
Titus nodded then looked around the room.“Ulysses, Ridge and Ironman, get the rockets ready then man the towers.Send the lookouts back here to rest up.If this vulture guy likes to come in the backdoor, one of you face the road and the other two face the back door.”
“You might recognize his plane from the Vulture he’s got painted on the cabin,” Nita offered.Shrugging, she said, “He thinks that damn bird is his calling card but really it just makes him a target if you know what to look for.”
Boomer nodded.“His calling card?What a dumbass.”
Nita nodded.“He doesn’t think anyone would dare to stop him, that people fear him but in reality, he has to cheat to win and that’s never a good thing.”
Hot Rod chuckled.“He’s a coward not a real man.Only cowards need to cheat and by coming in the back way, well that says a lot about the man, doesn’t it?”
All three men for the lookout points then stopped at the armory and grabbed a couple of handheld rockets and some rifles then they disappeared out the back door.
Nita drank the rest of her coffee.No one said a word when she pushed the journals into the middle of the table.
Bouncer and Boomer reached for one and began reading her words about what the Sanchez family was really like.Titus and Ridge grabbed another book and soon they were all reading her view of the situation.
Titus looked up after reading the book for a while.“Is this accurate?”
Nita stared at him and asked, “What?”
“That you think Ricco was phasing his father out of the business?”he asked.
Nita nodded.“Oh yeah and pushing into Gabriel’s territory was his way of gaining more for pushing his father out of the way.Ricco had a bigger army of men he would put in front of him, he had more guns, more money, just more.Gabriel was there at the bar that night to confront his little brother and I think his own people told him his brother was there and rather than face him, he just blew the place up.”
Areille gasped.“You think he knew Gabriel was there?Really?He didn’t believe me when I told him Gabriel was dead.Ricco told us all that even if we killed him, his big brother would come and kill us all.He looked shocked when I told him he blew his own brother up and then he seemed to deflate and chose to die by a bullet instead of facing his father.”
Nita just stared at her.“Yeah, he knew his brother was at that bar, in fact he was counting on it.He knew all too well his father would insist Gabriel be there.But Ricco played the game well enough didn’t he?It was the part about his father knowing he killed Gabriel that scared him.He had you all convinced he didn’t know.Except for the fact that he had Dagger, one of his men standing there watching Gabriel enter the bar and at Dagger’s signal that’s when he loosened the valve and started the gas flow.He knew Gabriel smoked and waited until Gabriel lit another cigarette.Then just in case it took awhile, he walked over to the back door and threw a lit lighter inside.He didn’t want to wait for them to maybe smell the gas before his brother had another cigarette.He was there standing just out of range of the debris when it began falling.I saw him, he was there and he was wearing a half smile on his face when the bar blew all to hell.”
“Damn,” Arielle swore in disgust.“I never saw that but I didn’t have a close spot to watch them from.Good thing his demise is no loss to the world.Just be a fucking lowlife liar till the very end.”
Titus cocked his head at her then looked over at Nita.
Nita slowly nodded her head.“All of them live for themselves.They lie on the daily.”She reached for her phone and scrolled until she got the right video.She hit play and handed Titus her phone.
Titus watched the whole thing from start to finish.When it was finished, he laid it carefully on the table and just sat there.
“Now do you believe me?”Nita asked softly.
Bouncer reached for her phone.He and Boomer saw the video.
