Chapter Five
Six weeks had passed since Mia left, and Bronx had been dealing with it by getting more involved with Coyote politics. He drank more, and began taking home any woman who looked at him sideways. But everywhere he went, he thought about Mia. It was driving crazy, but he substituted he conflict over Mia with more of the drinking of women, which only worked in the short term. Conveniently, one particularly frustrating Saturday night, Bronx got a call from the leader of the Coyotes, Drac Mulligan.
“Morgan… get your ass into town. I got word that the Devil City Warriors are planning some sort of half-ass raid on our supply warehouse outside of town tonight. I want all of us to be there to stop them, including you. The DCWs don’t fuck around, so come armed. You hear me?”
Bronx hated this rivalry bullshit, but it came with the territory. And the last time the Coyotes got into a fight with the DCWs, it had been a basic bar fight, and still half of them had ended up in the hospital. Saying “they don’t fuck around,” was an understatement. But there was no getting out of a fight like this, especially if he didn’t want to piss off Drac.
“Obviously, I’ll be there, man. What time?”
Bronx heard some mumbling in the background. “Be at Dread’s in an hour. We’ll make a plan and saddle up from there.”
Bronx hung up and tried to shake off the fog of the whiskey he’d been drinking all night. The last thing he needed to do was show up drunk; Drac would kill him. A few cups of coffee later, Bronx was on his way to Dread’s house. He was prepared for a tussle with the DCWs, but he sure as hell wasn’t prepared for what happened when he rolled up to Dread’s place.
Bronx jumped out of his truck, and within seconds, Dread was on top of him with a gun in his face, screaming and ranting so fast, Bronx couldn’t understand a damn thing he was saying. Dread wasn’t a tall guy, but he was solid, and his weight was enough to prevent Bronx from moving or maneuvering the man off of him.
“Will you slow the fuck down, man? What is going on? What did I do?”
Dread pushed the gun harder against Bronx’s temple. “What did you do? WHAT DID YOU DO? You knocked up my baby sister, THAT’S what you did, you piece of crap!”
Bronx felt like he was going to puke. Mia was pregnant? That couldn’t be true. She would have called him… Wouldn’t she?
“How did… how do… Calm the fuck down, Dread. She told you she’s pregnant? How do you know it’s mine, huh?”
Dread pulled the gun back and snapped it across Bronx’s jaw, sending stars across his eyes. “You calling my sister a whore, you shithead? It’s yours! Now what are you going to do about it, huh? HUH?”
Bronx didn’t have a chance to answer. The other guys came running out of the house, and pulled Dread off of him, finally giving Bronx the chance to crawl to his feet. He rubbed his jaw resentfully, and tried to focus, but he couldn’t think about anything but Mia. Finally, Drac walked out of the house and smacked Dread across the back of the head.
“I don’t know what the hell you idiots are on about, but deal with it later. I don’t care if you kill each other. Right now, we have to stop a rival MC from stealing $3 million worth of guns and drugs out from under our fucking noses. Now get your shit together, and get moving.”
Dread pointed an angry finger at Bronx. “We aren’t done, Morgan. We aren’t even close to done.”
No kidding, Bronx thought as he got back on his bike with a scowl. We’re never going to be fucking done now.
* * *
The area outside the warehouse in the outskirts of Longview was eerily silent. The Coyotes left their bikes a half mile from the warehouse and walked through the brush that surrounded the building. So far, there were no signs of the Warriors anywhere, but that didn’t mean they weren’t nearby, waiting to make their move. Drac had heard that they were waiting for midnight to go after the supply, so all they could do was hope the information was good. If it wasn’t, they could be in a lot more trouble than they were prepared for.
Drac inched up next to Bronx and handed him a second firearm, a Colt .45. “Something ain’t right, kid. If the DCWs were going to take this place tonight, they’d be making a lot more noise. There would be some sort of sign they were here. I just have a bad feeling,” Drac mumbled as he checked his bullets.
Bronx was just about to answer when he saw a flash of light off in the distance. It could have been anything, but his gut told him that it was a signal.
“Drac… they’re out there. I don’t think this is a supply raid, man. I think it’s an ambush…”
But the words were barely out of his mouth when the sound of a gunshot echoed through the empty night. A scream boomed from the back of the Coyote group, and Bronx knew one of their guys had been shot. He spun on his heel to go see if he could help, but Drac grabbed his arm.
“No! Head for the warehouse! Everyone! NOW! Watch your corners!”
Bronx followed Drac toward the building, and after a moment, he caught sight of where the shots were coming from. The DCWs had men with rifles on top of the warehouse, and they were shooting from an advantage that meant the Coyotes would be down before they knew what hit them. Bronx shouted ahead to Drac,
“The roof, man! They have shooter on the roof!”
The Coyotes paused long enough to look up at the roof of the warehouse, where they all caught sight of the Warriors who were planted there. Some began shooting back, others made a dash for the warehouse to try and overtake them from below. But Drac yelled at Bronx to follow him.
“There is a stockpile of long-range weapons in the shack back there. I have the key on me. If we can make it there, we might be able to get those assholes off the roof!”
Bronx nodded that he was in and they turned and started for the shack. But they hadn’t planned for the possibility that the Warriors would have anticipated their next move. Hiding in dry brush were several of the rival MC members on foot, armed with knives and ready to fight. Bronx pulled his gun, but a Warrior almost as big as he was, was ready for that, and kicked the gun from his hand in one swift motion.
The men fought hand-to-hand, with Bronx doing everything in his power to keep the knife from making contact with his flesh. Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Drac holding off the other two men, but just barely. The Warriors weren’t messing around, and they didn’t care who they had to kill to get to the stash in the warehouse.
Bronx felt his energy wearing down, but he made one last swing for the Warrior’s jaw. The feel of bone crushing under his fist was undeniable, and he thought he finally had the upper hand, but at the last moment, the Warrior swung up from below, and in a blinding flash, jammed the knife deep into Bronx’s stomach. He wasn’t sure, but he thought he felt the knife scrape against one of his ribs as the Warrior pulled it back out and made a move on Drac.
Bronx collapsed to his knees, and then to the hard, dusty ground. The pain was, for a moment, completely overwhelming. But then, he felt nothing at all. As he looked up at the night sky, the twinkling lights slowly started to fade from his vision as darkness swept in from all sides. All at once, he was no longer in the dirt outside the warehouse, but his childhood bedroom, standing in the corner, all by himself.
There was a little boy in the bed, but when Bronx crept close, he saw that the little boy wasn’t him. He looked like him, but he had Mia’s big brown eyes, and her curious eyebrows. Suddenly, Mia walked in the bedroom, tears in her eyes as she sat down on the boy’s bed. She was wearing an apron, and she looked exhausted, just like his mother always had when she had come home after a late shift at the diner. She stretched out next to the boy and laid her head on the pillow next to his, and drifted off to sleep.
In that moment, Bronx realized that he had to survive for Mia, and his baby. That he couldn’t let his child grow up without a father, the way he had. He was going to be there for his family, in the way his own father hadn’t, whatever it took.
The last thing Bronx saw before he drifted away, was the face of a child he hadn’t met yet, but he hoped to soon…