“Okay, Marsh, we’re all here,” Mike said. “How did you swing Rachel into letting us use her bar? I thought she hated us.”

 

“Todd and his merry band of elves are still pretty high on her shit list, but she wants us to take Forsaken 99 back and she is willing to help.”

 

“And Jules? He’s okay with this?”

 

“Yeah, I think so. We’re still waiting on one more member. So while we wait, everyone knows why we’re here, right?”

 

The assembled men rumble in understanding.

 

“If anyone wants out, now is the time. Once this operation gets underway, there is no turning back. What we are going to tell you is going to put your lives at risk. Not only that, but the women of the club should get out of town. We can’t protect them from the cartel. If we fail, anyone close to us is likely to die. Have I made myself clear? This is certainly the most dangerous thing that we, as Forsaken 99 brothers, have ever done, likely the riskiest mission any of us have ever undertaken. So if you want out, there will be no hard feelings.”

 

Marsh waited and no one moved. “Okay. There is one more thing. I want you to hear him out. Jules!”

 

Jules and Rachel stepped out from her office.

 

“Him?” Mike shouted coming to his feet. “This is the other member? The fucker that sold us out to the feds and brought all this shit down on us?”

 

Jules stopped a dozen paces away and waited to see which way the winds were going to blow.

 

“Just hear him out!” Marsh shouted, trying to get control of the situation.

 

“I can’t believe you’re working with this asshole!” Trevor roared. “Fuck this! I’m outta here.”

 

“Shut the fuck up!” Marsh roared over everyone. “And sit your ass down! You think this some kind of fucking game?”

 

“He fucking sold us out to the feds! I should shoot the bastard now!” Trevor said pulling his sidearm.

 

Jules turned, shoving Rachel into a crouch to put his body between Trevor and Rachel as Spence grabbed Trevor’s weapon and twisted it from his grip before putting it to his head. “You don’t want to do that,” Spence hissed. “That goes for the rest of you fucks! I’ll kill the first mother-fucker that pulls another weapon!”

 

Rachel pushed Jules off of her. She was about to kick the entire lot out of her bar, the ungrateful pricks, when Jules grabbed her arm and pulled her back, shaking his head no.

 

“What the fuck is going on here, Marsh?” Ripcord asked reasonably. “Why is he here?”

 

“Because he is the one that is pulling our collective asses out of the fire. Just listen to what he has to say.”

 

The room is quiet for a moment. “Well? What of it Jules? What have you got to say?” Ripcord asked.

 

He pushed Rachel behind him, silently telling her to keep her distance. “First, I’m sorry Marsh didn’t tell you that I would be here. I asked him to keep my name out of it.”

 

“Because I wouldn’t be here with some limp dick fed rat,” Trevor snarled.

 

“Yes. That’s the reason. But you’re wrong. I never sold the club out.”

 

“You didn’t deal Ellis to the feds?” Trevor challenged.

 

“I did. But I didn’t roll over on you, and Ellis didn’t either. If he had, we would be having this conversation in jail. Ellis only passed information along to me. He didn’t know what we did with it, though he must have suspected.”

 

“Why did you do it?” Ripcord asked.

 

“Because it was the right thing to do.”

 

“Bullshit! The club voted. Weren’t you always the one that said the votes were binding?” Trevor sneered.

 

“Yes. But we didn’t uphold our end of the bargain. We agreed to pull Ellis out when he called in exchange for information. That was our deal, and we reneged. But there is more. We didn’t even use him after we screwed him over. He knew nothing of the vote. Todd hadn’t even told him. Why? Because he didn’t need him. Ellis called me wanting to know why we hadn’t contacted him to pull him and his family out. I told him of the vote, that we needed his information. He didn’t know what I was talking about. That is when I became suspicious of Todd. If Ellis wasn’t feed him the intel, who was?”

 

“So you pulled the snitch. Why did you give him to the feds?”

 

“Because he needed protection. Him and his family. I didn’t trust the club to do it. So I dealt him to the feds for his immunity and a path to citizenship. It’s the deal we promised him in the beginning.”

 

“You just decided to do this, on your own, without talking to the club? You’re no better than Todd,” Trevor said. Several heads were nodding in agreement.

 

“Yes, I did. Because I didn’t know who I could trust. The club was going bad. But I put some feelers out and I brought in several members of the club. Do you remember the cartel hit a few months ago? Those were my men, men that had joined me to try to take the club back. Men that saw where Forsaken 99 was going and didn’t want to have any part of it, just as I didn’t.”

 

“What do you mean, ‘your men?’ Mike asked.

 

“We were planning a coup. We were going to take the gavel from Todd and get Forsaken 99 out of the drug business.”

 

“How many of those killed were ‘your men?’”

 

“All of them.”

 

“All of them?” Ripcord asked.

 

“To a man, and not one man more.”

 

“Wait a minute! Todd said it was a cartel hit. None of us did it.”

 

“It was. I saw the mark myself. But doesn’t the surgical precision of the hit raise some interesting questions? How did the cartel know to hit? That suggests intel from within the club, doesn’t it? Did anyone here know we were moving against Todd?”

 

Jules waited, but nobody answered. “Somehow Todd found out and called in the cartel.”

 

The room is quiet for a moment. “Bullshit! I don’t believe it! You have any proof?” Trevor demanded.

 

“No. But that is why you are here. I have a plan to get that proof and get Forsaken 99 out of the drug business.”

 

“How’s that?” Mike asked.

 

“I’m going to kidnap The Investigator and make him a deal.”

 

The room erupted into bedlam as Marsh, Spence and the rest of the cleaning crew tried to calm everyone down.

 

“You’re crazy as a shit-house rat!” Trevor shouted once some order was returned to the room. “You’ll get us all killed.”

 

“Look what he has done with just us six,” Marsh said. “He has practically crippled Forsaken 99’s ability to move drugs.”

 

“By putting the crosshairs on us!” Trevor shouted. “He doesn’t give a shit about anyone but himself.”

 

“That’s where you’re wrong,” Marsh said quietly. “He never gave up on us, even when he had every right to. He tried to tell us. He saw this coming before anyone else did. In the board room we didn’t back him up and look what it cost him, what it has cost us all. But he never gave up on the club. We gave up on him.”

 

“But this is crazy as shit! If we hit the cartel head on, they will wipe us out!” Trevor cried as he jumped to his feet again. “Can’t you see that?”

 

“I’m in,” Spence said quietly.

 

“Same here,” Hugh added a moment later.

 

“I’m ashamed that I didn’t back him in the first cleaning crew, but I’m behind him now. I want to take Forsaken 99 back from the cartel, and Jules is the one that will show us how,” Eric said. He then got up and walked to Jules’s side, Spence, Hugh, TC and Marsh following him.

 

“We’re all in,” Marsh said firmly. “What each of you has to decide is, are you part of the problem or part of the solution.”

 

Rachel stepped out from behind the men. “Before you make up your minds, I want you to think about something. Think about how you want to be remembered. Do you want to be remembered as the group of men that saved the town not once, but twice, or do you want to be remembered as the bunch of thugs that brought the drug problem back to Vallecito de Grande? Some of you have wives and kids. Other just old ladies. Do you want them living and growing up in a dying town infested with drugs and violence. Some of you remember Vallecito when it was that town. But look at it now! We are not only alive, but thriving! You saved the town once. I’m asking you to help save it again. Be our heroes again.”

 

Rachel motioned behind her to new cleaning crew. “These men, these six men, are like our gallant knights. They are brave, strong and loyal. Join them! Be our knights once more. Be respected and admired, not loathed and hated. Do the right thing. That’s all I ask. Just do the right thing.”

 

She took a half-step back and snuggled into Jules’s side. It was all up to them now. If they weren’t swayed, all their lives were likely forfeit. But she had made her plea and hoped it would be enough.

 

They waited and Jules broke out in a nervous sweat. Rachel had made a hell of speech, but it had fallen flat. No one else was going to join. “Don’t hurt Rachel. She has nothing—”

 

“I’m in,” Mike said interrupting Jules, then rose to his feet and joined the six men.

 

“Me too,” Ripcord said a moment later, also rising and walking over to now seven men.

 

Several more rose as they voiced their support and moved to join Jules. There was a brief pause as the remaining men looked at each other and then rose as a group, save one.

 

“What about it, Trevor? Are you with us? We could use you,” Jules said softly.

 

“Please, Trevor. Be our knight again. Please,” Rachel said.

 

Trevor glared at Jules a moment then relaxed into a grin. “Fuck it. Why not? Forsaken 99 is so fucked up now, how can it get any worse?” He rose to his feet. “But if you are fucking us, I’ll kill you.”

 

“I can’t allow you to do that,” Jules said as he broke into a grin. “I promised that to Eric when he joined. You can kill me after he does, though.”

 

Marsh gently pulled Rachel from Jules’s loose embrace. “That was quite a speech you gave there. Thank you. I think you were probably the reason they joined.” He pulled her a bit farther away so Jules couldn’t hear over all the well-wishing that was going on.

 

“I want to tell you I’m sorry for everything. I should have been there for him, and I wasn’t.”

 

She kissed him gently on the cheek. “But you’re here for him now. That’s what matters.” She looked over her shoulder to Jules and he looked as happy and upbeat as she had ever seen him. “Getting his club back is probably the best thing anyone could have done for him. So thank you, Rich. Thank you so very much.”

 

“You’re quite the gal, Rachel. Jules’s a lucky man.”

 

“Be sure you tell him that every chance you get,” she teased, but then sobered. “He’s a good man. I’m lucky to have him.”

 

“Yes he is, and I promise you that I will kick him in the ass if he ever forgets what he has.”

 

“I’m going to hold you to that,” she replied with a grin then stepped back from Marsh. “Hey, you bunch of losers! It’s Sunday, but will anybody call the cops if I give you a beer on the house?”

 

The chorus of no’s nearly shook the ceiling and Rachel grinned in delight. She was breaking the law, and could lose her license because of it, but right now she didn’t care. Forsaken 99 was back in business and that called for a celebration.

 

***

 

“You said you were going to bag the head cartel guy? How do you plan to do that?” Mike asked as the reconstituted Forsaken 99 sat around a group of tables and sipped their beers.

 

“With this many men? Go straight at them. Find out when and where the cartel is going to be and hit them hard. Then we bag the HMFIC—”

 

“What’s an HMFIC?” Rachel whispered to Marsh as Jules spoke.

 

“Head mother-fucker in charge,” he replied quietly.

 

“Oh…”

 

“—and I make him an offer he can’t refuse.”

 

“And what offer is that?” Ripcord asked.

 

Jules grinned and began to lay out his plan.

 

***

 

“That car was following us when we arrived,” Jules said as he and Rachel walked out of He’s Not Here. There was nowhere for the car to hide on a Sunday evening and it stuck out like a sore thumb parked all alone in the furniture store parking lot across the street.

 

“Schneider,” Rachel said.

 

“Count on it.”

 

“How are you going to take out The Investigator with a tail?”

 

“I’ve been thinking about that. How would you feel about stirring up a little trouble, helping me lose the tail, and sticking it to Officer Rian Schneider at the same time?”

 

“I like the idea fine. But I’m not too keen on going to jail, even for the chance to fuck that bitch.”

 

“No, no. Nothing like that. In fact, you are going to be the perfect upstanding citizen, just doing your part to help law enforcement.”

 

Rachel snickered and kissed him quickly on the lips before sliding into the 1950. “And how am I going to be this miss goody-two-shoes?”

 

“I’ll tell you all about it on the way home.”