Seeing Steve-O and Wild Bill in the pack of forty-one riders pulling into the gas station was surprising, but a welcome surprise. Elias really wasn't sure how the trio honestly felt, or how the pack would react to the idea of possibly going up against Houston PD, until this moment. And it was a good moment.
"How you doing, brother?" Steve-O asked as he came up and clapped Elias on the shoulder.
"Better now," Elias admitted.
Steve-O seemed to sense the feelings shifting through Elias' mind and heart. He nodded. "Until they actually show up, you never really know about friends, do you?" he offered.
Elias sighed. "I should know, but, no, I didn't really know."
"Yeah, that's just the way every one of these men felt two seconds before you arrived at their door and took on their problem like it was your own, including me," Steve-O told him. "John was on his bike, and in the pack. Wild Bill and I talked him out of it. We told him we needed a general at home watching our back. Really laid a heavy guilt trip on him to get him off of his bike, but I want you to know, it wasn't easy."
Elias nodded, and looked around, "Only forty?" he smiled.
"There were over a hundred. We cut it down to just the guard, with Bill and I. There are three of them at your house right now, five more patrolling your neighborhood, and a pack of twenty more up on I-40 by now, coming around to Phoenix from above, just in case we are delayed in getting there, or something unfathomable goes amiss. Another twenty are staking out the other stash houses and watching Tomas' place. John said this ends by the weekend. If Tomas happens to make it back before we do, the bounty on him is fifty grand. So if you want him, you better get him on this trip."
"Kind of fucked up to pay a man's bounty with his own money," Elias said with a grin. "But that's my kind of fucked up."
"Yeah, mine too. Everyone else, of the group that showed up to back you, is out riding the streets, keeping tabs on the people Chelsea has ID'd as partners, and reporting back to John and his crew of home base men and women," Steve-O finished.
"That's a lot of man power," Elias said, feeling so warm inside his leather felt stifling.
"So, what's the deal?" Wild Bill asked as he strolled up. "We gathered most of it from Eric's side of the conversation, and he filled in a few blanks before we got back on the road." Eric walked up to them beside Bill and the rest were now gathering around.
All of them—the whole group of forty-six men—were well-armed and well-trained except for Duffy, but Elias had the gut feeling that if anyone was being watched over by one god or another, it was Duffy. The group was solid, knew each other well, and had ridden down more than one dark road with each other.
He looked at Eric, who, if he had to leave the White Wolves because of Chelsea, he was going to recommend as the new Sergeant at Arms. Eric's instincts were superb, his loyalty unquestionable, and his experience exceeded Elias'.
"Eric, I was thinking that since we are out on this trip to collect Chelsea, that we do just that in El Paso."
Eric's smile went ear to ear, "Love it; how you figuring on playing it out?"
"Anyone have friends, family, girlfriends, ex-wives, someone you hate but can be bribed, in El Paso?" Elias asked, looking around at the faces of friends and brothers he knew well, and loved more.
"I got a sister," Duke offered. "She sort of looks like Chelsea."
"That is perfect." Elias said, "Anyone else?"
"Got an ex-lover, she's near downtown, but we are on good terms," Darell said. "She can be bought cheap."
"That's even better," Elias continued. "I'm going to need two men to run ahead and find us a limo. With or without driver is just fine. Nothing fancy. In fact, one of those working-man's limos would be perfect for what I have in mind. Oh, and you should know—you are probably going to be the first ones shot at."
Twelve hands went up before he finished the sentence and the rest of the group could react. He chose two men, Brian, and Stan, to be the limo guards.
"Ok, here's how I see it playing out if we can get both women to agree," Elias said, and began penciling in the details for the Wolves.
Every man there gave him his full attention, and took in all the details, letting Elias go from start to finish without interruption. Once he was done, he looked at Eric first. "What am I missing?"
Eric made three suggestions that were spot on, and then Elias turned to Steve-O and Wild Bill with the same question. They had their say, which was basically, "Sounds good."
"Anyone else?"
"My sister will go for it," Duke reported.
"So will my ex, and I'll give her a call right now," Darell said, pulling out his phone, and stepping back out of the group. Duke followed suit.
Duke came back to the group after several minutes, "The girls are talking with each other now. They're both in. My sister, Jill, she mentioned that she would really like to move back to Houston and hinted that she could use some friends."
Elias told him, "Baring that I'm still alive afterward, I have a house she can rent cheap, and I believe Duffy needs a counter person at his shop, which would be only three blocks away from the house."
Duffy piped in, "Yep, she's hired. Any gal that will stand up at a time like this, for a plan like this, is my kind of person."
Duke smiled. "I'll let her know in a while. Give them time to get together and settled."
"Tell them both that they are earning five grand apiece as well; risk money," Elias told him.
"Got it," Duke replied with a nod.
"Alright, drivers, take off. The rest of you, get your game faces on and prepare. We're about to ride into an ambush on purpose," Elias told them.
For the next two hours they poured over a map of the city, deciding on routes and timing. Elias hoped that during this time, Tomas would get worried and come to check and see what was going on. He did spot a Chevy Nova come up the off ramp, pause for a bit in view of the gas station, and then go right back down the on-ramp on the other side of the over pass, heading for the city.
"Man, I hope that was him. We can't really sit around with our cocks out much longer. It's time to put this into action," Elias said.