As he finished removing the tarp covering the bodies, Nomar came out of the front door in a loose fitting, white cotton suit with black dress shoes.

 

“Leo? What is this?”

 

“These three men attacked my girlfriend tonight, and would have tortured and raped her, then killed her, if I hadn’t happened by and seen this truck,” Leo said. Then he reached out, grabbed ahold of Ernesto, and pulled him off the back of the truck onto the concrete drive.

 

“Ernesto? You killed him?” Nomar asked.

 

“No. These two are dead. Dead and long gone. But I figured that you would want to see Ernesto.”

 

Nomar looked down at Ernesto, and he could see a great deal of pain in his eyes.

 

“He just invaded her home? Just did it?” Nomar asked with shock.

 

“Yes. So, he wasn’t under orders from you, then?”

 

“Me? He was under orders not to come near you again! It looks like he took the command literally and went for your woman instead!”

 

Nomar sighed. “You, of course, had every right to kill him—”

 

Leo’s hand glided out from his pocket. He brought the pistol into alignment as he said, “Good,” and shot Ernesto in the head.

 

Leo kept the gun in his hand, and he listened as the report of his shot vibrated off the walls around them.

 

Nomar continued to look at Ernesto’s body, seemingly trying to reconstruct the moment when he miscalculated Leo.

 

“I’ll call a cab,” Leo said after a few minutes passed.

 

“Leo?”

 

“Yes, sir?”

 

“Do you like this truck?”

 

Leo walked back and looked it over. “Well, the paint job has to go, but other than that, it’s a sweet ride.”

 

“It is yours. I’ll have the papers transferred and the license with the DMV transferred to you as well. Would you mind removing his companions from the bed, please?”

 

“Not a problem,” Leo said, and he pulled the two corpses from the bed, piling them down next to Ernesto.

 

Nomar reached his front door and then came back. “Leo? It is over and what is done is done, but how could you know that I wouldn’t kill you for doing that to Ernesto?”

 

“You mean, after telling me I had a right to, and then actually doing it? Well, I didn’t. Because I wasn’t seeing you or these bodies. I was seeing Ernesto trying to get between my woman’s legs with a knife at her throat while telling her that she’s just a body to him. She means nothing. And I have to tell you, Nomar, I might have been sorely tempted to do it even without your permission.”

 

“I see,” he agreed.

 

“Well, that makes one of us,” Leo said.

 

“I don’t understand?”

 

“I have been through all of the checks, all of the low-level crap operations and everything else to prove I am committed to your service. I don’t understand why he was there, or why now. My girl’s going to leave me because I wouldn’t let her call the cops. I really like you, Nomar, and I respect you a great deal as a leader. I’m just hoping that following you will lead to greater things, because I have a lot invested in this. But if you don’t think it is going to work out, then just tell me. I can move on and you can get someone else that suits you.”

 

“No, no, this had nothing to do with you. I do not know why, but … maybe that trick we did with him … he was very superstitious. Tomorrow you will be here?”

 

“Yes, tomorrow I will be here.”

 

“Then tomorrow we will start fresh, with no bad blood between us.”

 

“Alright, no bad blood,” Leo said, and he went to the cab and got inside his new truck.

 

As he drove down the hill and into the city of El Cajon, Leo went over what he said and how he said it, and he found his performance acceptable. He ran a hand across the dash of the truck. It really was a sweet ride. How Ernesto could afford this as an enforcer, Leo couldn’t guess. It certainly was way out of Leo’s tax bracket.

 

Driving home, he kept his eyes on the mirrors and his instincts alive. First thing tomorrow, he had to get this thing into the paint shop and get new tires on it. There was no telling what kind of heat had been attached to this truck by Ernesto and his friends. The truck was going to come in handy, though. Very handy. He was concerned about getting all the gear he needed out to the mesa on his Harley, and he almost decided to risk renting a truck. This thing was a screaming hot rod, but it also had a truck bed.

 

“Yep, this is going to work,” he said.

 

Taking out his phone, he called Danny. “Just an update. We had a problem at Bev’s tonight.”

 

“Yes, Bev called me just a little while ago. She said that now that she understands the full risks involved, she wanted in.”

 

“In?”

 

“That’s the way she put it. I think what she really wants is to know what you are doing, and be someone you can talk to, work things out with. She came up to the club, did you know?”

 

“She said something about doing some things there, yes.”

 

“She came in here wearing clothing splattered with blood — I’m assuming it was the blood of the men that wanted to rape her — and picked a few fights.”

 

“Um, really?”

 

“Yep. Learning about her home invasion made it all make more sense. She looked like a bloody Valkyrie coming through that door. I was going to reprimand her for challenging patch holders like that, but I’ll let it go for now.”

 

“She didn’t get hurt, did she?”

 

“Hurt?” Danny laughed. “No, she didn’t get hurt. She put two down, though, put them down hard. Preston spoiled her fun. I’m sure she could have gotten one or two more challengers. Preston came in and announced his sponsorship of her. As soon as he was going to join the fray with her, four of them ran away.”

 

“I don’t blame them. I would run, too. But, why? What were her challenges?”

 

“She made that very clear. The rumors have risen back up about you, and they were reaching critical mass. The driving fire was that she was lying for you. She took that very personally. So, she came here to let the riders know exactly how far she intended to go if someone decided she was a liar or a whore.”

 

“And Preston backed that?”

 

“Not exactly. He’s given her complete protection of the rough riders. She’s absolutely off limits. But when I asked him why he even bothered, he told me, ‘You had to have been there. It was beautiful, perfect, total control of balance, weight, everything.’ So, take from that what you can.”

 

“So, how bad are the rumors?”

 

“Well, from what she challenged them with down there, five of them were going to ambush you at your house tonight. She laid one of them out and Preston chased the other four away.”

 

“Three of them tried that the other day,” Leo said absently.

 

“What? Why didn’t you tell me this?”

 

“Sorry, on the scale of things of importance to me, it was way down underneath things, and I just forgot it was there.” Then he laid out the story.

 

“Damn, we can’t use Jonny now. I thought he was better than that,” Danny growled.

 

“Replace him with Austin.”

 

“Austin? Are you serious?”

 

“You’ll be pleasantly surprised. He’s going to be one of our pillars soon. I can see it in him.”

 

Then Leo added, “Oh, Danny, while we are on the subject of things I’ve forgotten to check in with. I’ve proven that Crash was intending to sell us out to the Vasquez cartel that night. He used the same clearing we used together four years ago. Anyway, from the looks of the tracks, someone followed him there, out of sight. While Crash waited, for probably ten or fifteen minutes, the other man got behind him and capped him out. Then he took the box of information Crash intended to selling to the Vasquez cartel and left the area.

 

“The cartel man, specifically Ernesto Morales, arrived a little while later. He got out of his truck but didn’t approach the body. Seeing nothing nearby, he got back into the truck and left.”

 

“You are absolutely sure it was Ernesto Morales,” Danny said.

 

“That’s actually the part I’m most sure about,” he told Danny. He explained about the racing slicks Ernesto used for regular tires. “Fucking turn on a dime, and feels great when you are taking off and giving it some rope.”

 

“How would you know?”

 

“Because I’m in it, driving it home right now. Nomar gave it to me as recompense for Ernesto’s actions.”

 

“Alright. What makes you unsure about these other things? Crash was shot in the back of the head. By a .38 actually, according to the current copy of the police report I have. What part is wrong?”

 

“The part where someone sneaks up on a man who is nervous as fuck, and has been tweaking hard for a long time. He had to have reached the paranoia stage by that time. You can’t sneak up on a guy like that,” Leo explained.

 

“Sure, I get that, and I agree,” Danny responded. “Not out there in the black, alone and jumpy about every noise. So, perhaps our man shot him from the edge of the clearing. Then he went up, checked the body, took the box, and did that broom thing you told me about.”

 

Leo grunted agreement. “That would work with what I saw, but I’ll bet if you check your police report, you’ll find he had powered burns in his hair and around the wound.”

 

“I’ll check, hold on,” Danny said. Leo heard several pages being turned. “You’re really scary at this. Yes, the coroner suggests that the gun was only six to eight inches away from the victim’s head when fired.”

 

“I know I could catch this guy if I had the time, but I don’t. I just don’t. In fact, I am out of time.” Leo sighed.

 

“Well, back to your girl: she wants to help. She apparently handles dangerous situations with some grace. She likes you, a lot, and I personally do not think she would willingly share information with anyone. How would you feel about being able to open up with her? Tell her what’s going on. Would it help to process things? Keep your edge?”

 

“It could help, and if it doesn’t, then what is the loss?” Leo pointed out.

 

“So, you trust her with your life, then.”

 

“Absolutely. And after what I saw earlier, I might even trust her with yours.”

 

“Interesting.”