Sons of Mayhem 4: Snakes and Angels (4 page)

Jase

Gauge had the kind of glint in his eye that showed he was very pleased with himself. And when Gauge was pleased with himself it
probably meant someone else was most decidedly
dis
pleased.

He grinned at Jase.
“Got him.”

“
Got him?”

“
Yep.”

“
I thought you were just going to stake him out, come up with a plan…” Jase had his eyebrows raised. He wasn’t exactly angry, but he was a bit surprised. He and Bottle had asked Gauge’s advice on how to get to this Carlos character they’d heard about, with the intention of grabbing him together. But it seemed Gauge had taken matters into his own hands.

“
I came up with a plan. But then the greasy little fucker practically threw himself at me. Like a teen girl at a Duran Duran concert.”

“
Who the fuck is Duran Duran?” asked Bottle.

Gauge frowned as he realized his reference was dated. Jase chuckled.

“So where is he?”

“
I put him in storage. At my place.”

In storage?
“Did he, like, see you?” asked Bottle.

“
Ah. Well. A bit.”

Jase and Bottle both raised their eyebrows.
“What the fuck does that mean?”

Gauge grinned.
“I was thinking about the plan. And I think I made it better. Tell me what you think.”

“
Go on…” Jase glanced at Bottle, who looked a little annoyed. It was his plan originally. And now Gauge was messing with it.
Still, if it helps…

“
So, the plan was to make those fuckers think we were a Mexican cartel running their shit, right?”

“
Right…”

“
Well we do that. But, that plan relies entirely on Bottle. No one else speaks Mexican like him.”

Bottle nodded. Jase knew he was pleased to be not just useful, but vital for once.

Gauge continued, “It’s a good plan. But it means Bottle’s gonna have to be there 24/7. Always fuckin’ on. That ain’t fair on him.”

“
It’s okay, I can—”

Gauge didn
’t let Bottle finish. “So here’s what I think we should do. We let those fuckers think Bottle is the king fucking pin, but that he’s
using
the club. He’s hired a bunch of dumb gringoes to be his bitches.”

Jase thought about it. He
had
been worried that Bottle would have too much to do, pretending to be an entire cartel all by himself.
Maybe this could work.

Gauge continued,
“We let those fuckers think that our jefe, Bottle, is so fuckin busy running the entire south-west that he’s letting the club distribute for them. That way we can use some of our boys for security, deliveries, shit like that.”

Jase nodded. It made sense. Constantly kidnapping and blindfolding everyone they wanted t
o speak to would get tiring after a while.

“
So what did you show that Carlos?”

Gauge laughed.
“Nothing except the skin of my arms as I grabbed him. But he heard me speak in English to him.”

“
So we don’t really have much choice now, anyway?” Bottle asked, his voice irritated.

“
Sorry. It slipped out. We could always get rid of him, I’m sure some other shithead will float to the top, if you want to stick with the original plan.”

Jase looked at Bottle who shrugged his shoulders with a sigh.
“Let’s give it a try.”

“
Let’s go see this fucker.”

***

When they got to Gauge’s trailer there was no sign of the Mexican as they entered.

“
Where is he?” asked Jase.

Gauge grinned and looked up. Above the built-in table in the kitchen-area was a wide storage cupboard. Gauge
reached up and pulled it open.

Storage. Indeed.
Taped up inside was a pissed off looking man. Gauge reached up and gave the man a yank with his left hand, pulling him out. He made a sound that was probably a scream as he tumbled down, bouncing off the table and onto the floor. When he hit the table it let out an ominous cracking sound which caused Gauge to wince. Jase sensed he was wincing for the table, not the man.

They dragged the squirming man outside and taped him to one of the oil barrels full of hol
es they’d previously used for target practice. Jase and Gauge pulled on ski-masks to cover their faces, while Bottle stood behind the oil barrel, out of sight.

Gauge unslung the rifle he had over his shoulder, and Jase pulled out the handgun that had been
tucked into his belt. They both pointed their weapons at Carlos as Bottle reached over and yanked off the tape that had been covering his eyes.

The young Mexican blinked his eyes several times trying to adjust to the harsh light outside. When he was finall
y able to focus he let out a moan as he saw the two leather-jacketed and faceless bikers pointing their weapons at him.

No one spoke, except possibly Carlos, but under the tape it was impossible to tell whether he was moaning, squealing, pleading, or givin
g a lecture on Nietzschean philosophy. It probably wasn’t philosophy.

After letting him simmer for a minute, Bottle silently leaned over so his mouth was next to his ear.
“
Buenos dias!”
he yelled and let out a peel of laughter.

Carlos twisted his head arou
nd and smacked it against the hollow oil barrel causing a dull ring. He couldn’t see Bottle.

Jase grinned underneath his mask at the squirming guy in front of him. Bottle began to speak in rapid-fire Spanish. Jase had never known just how fluent Bottle was
until now. While it had certainly been good enough to fool the owners of the house they had invaded, he’d been afraid that it wouldn’t hold up under more lengthy analysis.

He droned on and on.
Hurry up Bottle
. The gun in his hand began to get heavy. He looked over at Gauge. The man was a rock. His rifle was still expertly shouldered, unmoving as it pointed directly at the head of the tied-up man. Jase sighed, giving up the idea of putting his gun away.

The demeanor of their victim began to change as Bottle
spoke. His earlier terror seemed to change to excitement as he realized he wasn’t about to be murdered, and that in fact he was being offered the opportunity to be a
real
gang leader and make some real money too.

Finally Bottle reached over and untaped hi
s mouth. Although Jase couldn’t understand the words he could sense the respectful tone Carlos was using.
Everything is going right for once.

***

“Finally.”

The sun was beginning to set after they dropped Carlos off. It had been a long day. Gauge and Jas
e were in the front of the truck, while Bottle had presumably made his way to the clubhouse where they were to meet. He’d remained out of sight the entire time, a shadowy cartel leader in the eyes of the impressionable Carlos.

“
What do you think took so long?”

“
I don’t fuckin’ know. But you saw the look on Bottle’s face, right? I don’t think it was anything bad.”

Jase nodded.

The rode back to the clubhouse in silence. Neither Jase nor Gauge was much of a talker at the best of times, and today they were both trying to process the conversation they’d witnessed but not understood earlier.

Eag

The meeting should have been underway by now, but for once he wouldn’t be there. This was much more important. He sat in the bushes observing the unlit house. The Doctor had left twenty minutes earlier and there hadn’t been any other sign of movement since.

It
’s now or never
. Eag stood up and headed down the side of the building to the back of the house. He’d only been here once before, when he and the Doctor had stayed up late making their original plans.
Brodie didn’t die in the original plan.

He easily broke in by removing a screen from a downstairs window. The house was silent. It was just how he remembered it
— it looked completely un-lived in, like a model home designed by a robot. Every surface was spotless, every item on display was lined up just so, and there wasn’t a hint of a dust bunny on the hardwood floors.

Eag didn
’t bother with the downstairs rooms, he’d come back to them if he didn’t find what he needed. He headed straight for the doctor’s office on the second floor, directly next to the master bedroom.

Although the house was silent it had an uncomfortable feeling. It was too modern to feel haunted, but it definitely felt like there was someth
ing off. It was too big for one man to live in alone.

The office was the only room in the house that looked somewhat lived in. There was a half-empty bottle of Johnny Walker Black Label on the desk and a rock-glass with the barest trace of whisky still sta
ining the bottom.
That
was about the only sign of life in this otherwise model house.

Even the computer on the desk looked like a prop. But it wasn
’t. It was what Eag had come here to use. He sat down in the surprisingly comfortable office chair and opened up the super-slim laptop.

He swallowed nervously as the desktop appeared. He couldn
’t see how this was going to end well. If he found what he was looking for then everything was over. If he didn’t find it? Well, then there’d be the worry that he’d missed something.
Why did it come to this?

Doc hadn
’t seemed right the other day. In fact he’d been getting more and more unpredictable. Some might even think there was something crazy about him, and Eag was definitely one of those people. They’d been close once, but since they put their money making plan into action things had changed. Doc had begun to act as if he was above Eag, as if he was above everyone in fact. Better than them, smarter than them.
Maybe he is smarter.

“
No…”

Eag looked at the screen, his eyes
blinking.

“
Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.”

He couldn
’t believe it. He’d suspected it, but he hadn’t
really
thought it could be true. But there it was. And it wasn’t even hidden. That arrogant asshole had left it out in plain view. He’d obviously not even considered that someone would get suspicious, that someone might find this stuff.

With his jaw clenched tight Eag clicked to play the file. It was labeled
Eag Confession
. He didn’t want to hear it, but he had to.

Fuck. How did he do this?
As he listened on his disbelief grew.
How in the fuck…?
It wasn’t just Eag who was going to be screwed over.

The audio file was short at just over a minute, but it was a death sentence for Eag. And not just for Eag. He shook his head to himself.
“Mother of God…”

The conversation
he listened to sounded completely natural — as if it had actually occurred instead of being assembled piece by piece and meticulously patched together and digitally manipulated to sound natural. The man was a genius. A conniving, dangerous, backstabbing genius bordering on insanity.

He rose to his feet on shaky legs, before slumping back into the chair. He grabbed the bottle and poured a generous slug into the glass in front of him and downed it.

Standing up again he closed the laptop and re-positioned it exactly where it was. A quarter of an inch of whisky was now missing from the bottle, but the Doctor, cocky asshole that he was, surely wouldn’t notice it.

Thoughts running a mile a minute through his now fear-addled brain Eag headed back outside.
What am I going to do? I’m dead. I’m a walking fucking corpse. Unless…

“
Nicole…” he said to himself as he stumbled through the bushes.

Nicole

I lay down on my bed staring across the room as Lucy tried on her third tiny top.

“How do I look?”

I
’ve got socks bigger than that top.
“You look hot Luce. What happened to…” My voice faded, not really wanting to bring up the events of the last few weeks.

“
To what?”

“
You know. You said you were going to be less wild.”

“
I am.”

I laughed softly.
“How do you figure?”

“
It’s nearly seven and I haven’t even had a drink yet. Are you
sure
you’re not going to come?”

I sighed.
“I’m still shook up. That sheriff…”

Lucy shook her head. I
’d told her about what he’d said to me, and how he’d abandoned me at the diner.

“
He’s just an asshole. A crazy asshole. Come on, it’ll be fun. Don’t you miss Jase?”

I pulled my blanket up to my neck.
Yes I miss him. “
No. Yes. I’ll call him soon. I’m just in a strange place right now.”

“
Because of the sheriff?”

“
Yeah. And, y’know. Everything that’s been going on.”

“
So come out tonight. It’ll help you forget all that.”

I wrinkled my nose.
How will that make me forget everything. It’ll bring it all back.
“Can you…”

Lucy wriggled into the shortest jean shorts I
’d ever seen. She attempted to fasten the top button and then gave up, allowing them to stay unfastened at the top. You could glimpse her red panties underneath, if you peered closely, which presumably a lot of people would. It looked sexy, in a slutty way.

“
Can I what?”

“
Can you ask Jase to call me?”

“
I thought he tried to call you, like, a hundred times.”

“
Yeah, he did. But—”

“
So why don’t you call him then?”

Why don
’t I call him? Good question.
Because I’m afraid?
“Just ask him to, please?”

She sighed.
“Okay. Are you
sure
you won’t come?”

I sh
ook my head. “I’m going to get up early and hit the books.” I had no choice. If I didn’t make the most of Sunday I’d be screwed. Completely, royally, screwed.

“
Maybe I’ll join you.” Lucy giggled.

“
Yeah, right.” I laughed at her. “Library at 9a.m. sharp?”

“
Sure!”

“
Pinky promise?” I held out my hand.

“
Ummm, gotta run! Later!”

I laughed as I watched her leave. She almost seemed back to her old self, her earlier promise to tone down her partying ways completely forgotten.

I shook my head. This week Lucy had spent every evening in the library, putting three, four, even five hours in after classes. She was amazing. I don’t know how she did it. I’d tried, but these last couple of weeks I just hadn’t been able to focus. My brain seemed to be on strike.

I pulled the
covers up over my head. Maybe I could start on Monday’s paper after a nap. Or maybe I’d get up really early instead.

I sighed and let my eyes close. My mind wandered back to motorcycles and back to Jase. Beautiful Jase. I drifted to sleep dreaming of my mo
torcycle-riding, tattooed, lover.
Can we be together? Can I a biker and a good college girl really be a perfect match? Does one of us need to change, or are we destined to fail?

I imagined him coming in to my room now.
I start to get up from the bed, but he pushes me face down, grabbing my hair tight with one hand as he pulls my underwear down with the other. He can’t resist me, can’t wait, can’t stop…

Little did I know when I drifted off to sleep that I
’d be awoken by a tattooed biker. But it wasn’t Jase.