Page 108 of More Tricks

I hit the mute button and glared at Void. “Who the fuck is this idiot? He can’t be one of the four. There is no way he came up with the terms for this whole thing.”

“He’s not. Ruban is the go-between. You don’t talk to the four. They only speak through their people. It's how they make sure who they are isn’t discovered,” Void informed me.

Groaning, I dropped my head to his knees. My men were amazing, and they got shit done their own way, building up the Phantom Saints into what they were now, but damn, did they have a lot to learn about the criminal underbelly.

“Ah, hello?” Ruben called.

Lifting my head, I smacked the mute button and took the phone from Void’s hand. “Listen up, Ruby Slippers, because this is vitally important.”

“Yeah, okay, I’m listening,” he answered.

“Good, now, put this phone into the hands of one of the four, or I’m going to hunt you down and skin you for the information with a dull knife,” I added for encouragement.

The sound of Ruban sputtering filled the air as he tried to come to terms with what I’d just told him. “Wha… how… you don’t understand. You might be fucking scary, but you’re not just behind the next door, ready to fuck up my shit if I even think about doing that.”

“No, I might not be right behind the next door, but you’ll never know when I’m going to strike,” I warned, letting my voice purr with danger. “Ruban, would you like to live to see your next birthday? You know the one that is in two weeks.”

“How do you know that?” He gasped.

“I also know where you live, eat, sleep, take a shit, and stick your dick,” I informed him. “So I would think real hard about my request before telling me no.”

“Can you give me time to think this over?” Ruban asked.

Okay, well, that told me these four weren’t someone to be trifled with. The threat I just laid down for Ruban was one not many wouldn’t buckle under.

“You have a half hour. If I don’t hear back from you, then I’ll assume you’ve chosen to keep your secrets, and I’ll need to carve them out of you,” I said, then hung up the phone before he could utter any reasons.

I looked up and found Eagle, Wes, and Cam standing behind the couch, watching me with a mix of expressions. Some were impressed, while others seemed to be incredibly disapproving.

Giving them a small wave, I smiled. “Hey, guys.”

“How the fuck did you know all that?” Eagle blurted. “I didn’t think we had anything on those guys.”

“Ah, well, it seems that the one thing Wes found other than Ruban’s full name was his birthday because it was listed on his Snapchat. Then when I added him as my friend, I was able to see his location on a whole bunch of places that he goes to all the time. No clue if they are any of the locations that I referred to, but it seemed to freak him out enough,” I shared.

Wes just shook his head, smirking. “Damn kids and their apps.”

“Little demon, doing what you just did could ruin the whole thing,” Void scolded. “If Ruban decides he isn’t going to make the deal and let us talk to one of the four, they’ll just pass on the whole thing all together.”

“Yeah, I know, but it's a risk we have to take. I’m a big player in this world, and if they won’t take my phone call, then I’ve fallen to a point we might as well give up the fight and let Marco take over. This will tell us who is against or for us. While the actual battle might be between Marco and me, whoever wins will change the game entirely,” I explained. “If Marco wins and I’m kicked out, the whole West Coast is going to change. Power will shift, creating a vacuum, and since no one actually knows how much I control, they don’t realize how big that vacuum will be.”

Cognac jogged down the stairs and plopped on the couch, looking confused. “That doesn’t make sense. If he takes you out, then doesn’t he get the Empire?”

“If they’ll let him take it,” I answered with a grin. “See, the thing is, the people who aren’t in California that I oversee personally run their business like a store manager. They report to me, but they drive the ship and send me my dues. While I’m one person and the head of the snake, the body could still survive without me. I don’t keep records of everything all in one spot. It's scattered in many different locations on backup servers and such. Everything is renamed with numbers, so you can’t tell who it is or where they are.”

“So that’s how you did it,” Cam mused. “I always wondered why no matter how hard we dug and who we got to turn on, you didn’t have anything useful to tell us. It helped me from having to cover up stuff all the time. It’s quite brilliant.”

I yelped as the phone in my hands started to vibrate, scaring the piss out of me. Looking down at the number, it wasn’t saved, but it had a New York area code. Glancing up at Void, he nodded, so I answered it.

“Tell me you have good news for me, Ruby,” I said once the call connected.

There was a moment of silence before a voice cleared, then spoke, “This isn’t Ruban. You can call me Mr. Three.”

A smile bloomed on my face as I looked at the others and pointed to the phone as if proving my point. “It’s a pleasure to speak with you, Mr. Three.”

“Ruban said you had something you wished to chat with us about?” Three inquired.

I took half a beat before I answered just because, as far as I was concerned, we were equals in this world of ours. “Yeah, see, the thing is that I wanted to do this whole fight thing as a whole coming-out party. The world knew me as Dax, the enforcer, but what I need now is for people to see me as Two Tricks, the ruler of the Hidden Empire. The terms you laid out just aren’t matching with the respect I’m owed and why I’m even considering doing this.”