Slash

 

It’s been a terrible day, and my stomach is sick with worry about Erin. I consider turning myself over to the Tattooed Angels and Marcelo just to get this monkey off my back. Now that I know Erin’s pregnant, I’m doubly worried for her, too. She’s in a fragile, and most likely emotional, state, and that bastard Marcelo is just testing my last nerve.

 

But Jerome insists that I not go at this alone.

 

“No one in this club is on his own, you get that?” he says tersely, almost like he’s angry with me for even contemplating going it alone. “That’s what Marcelo never got – we’re not just a club, we’re a family. And you don’t fuck with family. They fuck with one of our members, they fuck with all of us. That’s the way it is. And we’re gonna take these scummy little bastards down. We’re gonna raise hell and blast every last one of these motherfuckers. You do not mess with my crew. Ever.”

 

Jerome has put a lot of trust in me, not in the least because of my work on the raid. But what I didn’t expect was for him to risk the safety and health of the MC to get back some girl I’d knocked up. But that’s exactly what he says he intends to do.

 

“Okay, men,” Jerome intones in his drill sergeant voice at the start of the impromptu meeting, “we have ourselves a situation. Seems that Slash here has a girlfriend – and one on the way.”

 

A few cheers go up in the crowd. I stand next to Jerome stone-faced though. I can’t believe that he’s got enough guys in here to make a move on Marcelo and get Erin back. It’s all I’ve been able to think about since that bastard called me on Erin’s phone yesterday. Jerome has assured me that we’re going to do this right – we’re going to get her out, safe and sound. We’d better. If anything were to happen to her…

 

“Now, this girl, Erin is her name – right Slash?” he asks me. I nod. “Okay then,” he continues. “Erin has been taken and is being held hostage by the Tattooed Angels and that son of a bitch Marcelo Cruz. So we’re going to go in there, and we’re going to get her back, right boys?”

 

“Right!” says somebody from the back. It’s a heartening sound. It means the crew is with me – they’re supporting me.

 

“All right then, guys,” Jerome continues. “Now, I’m going to turn this over to Slash, who’s the man with the plan. Follow his word the same way as you’d follow mine. Got it? Good. Slash?”

 

I stand up next to Jerome and start talking: “Marcelo has been a thorn in our side for way too long. Now, he’s taken one of our own. I know you guys don’t know Erin, but she’s as good a girl as they come. She’s just got put into a really bad situation. So the plan is, we bust in on the Red Club, where she’s being held. The Angels have a weapons stash there, so we’re gonna treat this as a raid – we go for their weapons first, then take out as many of these sons of bitches as we can. Since this is a risky raid, I’m only taking guys with that volunteer. You’re under no requirement to help me or my old lady. So, if you’re in, come with me over to the table, and we’ll start doling out your roles. Thank you all.”

 

I make my way over to the table and await what I’m sure will be just a handful of the men. But to my utter amazement, every single man in the place joins me at the table – some twenty-five guys in all. I’m floored. I can’t believe they’re willing to stick their necks out like this for me.

 

And for Erin.

 

And for our baby.

 

Our baby.

 

For the first time, I have the chance to really notice that I’m going to be a father. It’s a damned weird feeling. I had never made any kind of plans to settle down – it’s just not in my nature – but I have to do what’s right by Erin. I’m crazy about her anyway. I’ll have to do my best to win her back. But first, I have to get her back.

 

I start dishing out the plans, but I know full well that once we get in there, it’s all going to go to hell anyway.

 

“Once we get there,” I tell the guys, “we go in hard. I’ll lead the way. Tim,” I say, turning to Big Tim, “you’ll be flanking me. Everybody else, follow suit. Okay, so I’ll go in first. We don’t go in with guns blazing though. I cannot stress this enough. We want them to be confused, caught off-guard. They’re expecting me; they’re not expecting the rest of you. We take down one or two guys right off the bat, and then we run like hell to get to the weapons stash. Now, if anyone – anyone – sees Erin, you are to stop what you’re doing and get her to cover, you hear me? I can’t stress this enough. The weapons stash will be nice to have, but rescuing Erin is our first priority. In fact, it’s our only priority, get me?

 

“So that’s it, boys. That’s what we’re going to do. We’re taking the Red Club, we’re destroying the Tattooed Angels, and we’re going to take out Marcelo. That’s the other thing – if any of you sees Marcelo, drop his ass immediately. I’d love for it to be me who takes that son of a bitch out, but honestly, I just want that motherfucker dead as dead can be. So, you see him, you kill him. End of story.”

 

The guys around the table all nod. They don’t question their orders; they don’t have to. They’re like me: ready and willing to die for the cause. I just never thought there would be so many who would be willing to die for me. I guess it’s what happens when you step up to a leadership role in an MC like the Savage Hearts. Like Jerome said, in here, we’re not just a club. We’re family.

 

***

 

At nine o’clock, we roll out. It’s me and fifteen of our best guys, all riding to the Red Club. Jerome stays back at the Warehouse just in case, but the rest of the guys are under my command, and they’re willing to die for the club. That’s loyalty. That’s the kind of thing Marcelo could never get through his thick fucking skull.

 

The streets are quiet for this time of night, probably because everyone can sense that something’s in the air. It’s a cool, crisp night, the kind during which I imagine couples go for walks or kids play outside until all hours. But there’s none of that tonight. Instead, there’s just a black cat running across the road, darting out in front of our bikes as we ride. I swerve to miss the creature, and, frightened, it runs back to wherever it came from, disappearing with a yelp that I can hear over the humming of my bike.

 

We park our bikes a few blocks up from the Red Club so as not to create any kind of a disturbance before we storm the place. Silently, we walk up the empty streets on foot, none of us daring to even utter a word. We don’t need to, anyway; we all know what our mission is.

 

The boys and I then surround the front door to the Red Club. We’re going to have to do this awfully quick. The weapons stash is on the far side of the wide-open room, so we’ll need everything we’ve got to get there before any of the guys from the Angels can. I count down in my head:

 

Five Mississippi, four Mississippi, three Mississippi, two Mississippi—

 

One Mississippi.

 

I give the cue to the boys, my heart racing like a greyhound pup at the track. I lead the way as we barge in, kicking in the door with our guns drawn. In the first confusing seconds of the raid, the bartender appears to want to serve us, but we don’t have time for games with the guy. The poor bastard doesn’t even know what’s coming when a single bullet sails out of one of my guys’ guns and hits him square between the eyes. He falls over instantly, causing the rest of the Tattooed Angels assembled to draw their own weapons and begin firing.

 

By this point, two of my men have reached the weapons stash. I make a beeline towards the weapons stash myself, hoping that I can reach it in time. But before we can go in and actually get the weapons, guns start firing, and we’re forced to take cover. I overturn a table as the sound of gunfire rings in my ears.

 

“Find Erin!” I call out to the other two next to me. “She’s got to be somewhere around here – can we make it to the basement?”

 

I scan the room quickly, looking for Marcelo. But then, I feel a sudden jolt in my leg and look down to see blood spurting from inside my pants. I go down hard, feeling the room starting to spin. But I can’t let this be the end, not now. It’s only a minor wound, and it looks like the bullet went right through me, which is good – it means there’s no shrapnel to fish out.

 

I tear a piece of my shirt off and tie it around my leg, breathing heavily. Then, I grit my teeth and motion to the other two guys that I’m going to be all right. I peer just around the table to see where the staircase leading downstairs is, and I almost get my head taken off for my trouble. A bullet whizzes past my ear and just misses me before I duck back behind the table.

 

“No way,” I tell the guys. “No way in hell we’re getting down there just yet.”

 

I think hard about what else we can do. I have to get to Erin. I have to get her out of this shithole. I fire my gun in the direction of a few other guys, and that’s when I get my first big break of this whole ordeal.

 

Guns are blazing, and it sounds like the Savage Hearts are winning. I hear a couple of guys get hit and go down, but given all the gunfire, I can’t tell if they’re our guys or their guys.

 

Just then, Big Tim swings over the overturned table and sidles in next to me. “Hey, boss!” he says cheerfully. “Fancy meeting you here.”

 

“What are you doing, Tim?” I demand.

 

“Saving your ass, boss.” He turns his gun over the table and shoots. He hits somebody, and the gunfire begins to die down. Then, miraculously, he stands up but isn’t hit. “It’s over, boys, it’s over!”

 

I stand up with him and look around the room. Several bodies lay strewn about on the floor, killed by the gunfire. In the opposite corner, a handful of guys are standing, with Hearts keeping guns aimed at them.

 

“What do you want to do about these assholes, boss?” Big Tim asks with a savage grin that chills me to the bone.

 

I go over to them, walking in slow paces. “Where’s Marcelo?” I demand.

 

“I – I don’t know,” one of them burbles out like a child. “I – I haven’t seen him. He was – he was here, I swear, just a little while ago… I don’t—”

 

“Oh, stop your yammering,” I scold him. “You sound like a fucking baby. Man up, scumbag. Now, tell me, where is Erin?”

 

He points to the basement stairs. “In – in the basement. That’s – that’s where I saw Marcelo heading…”

 

“Oh shit!” I yell as I make a mad dash for the staircase. I throw open the door and scuttle down the stairs, ready to find the worst…

 

... And instead, I find Erin, balled up in a corner, her cheeks stained with tears. She has a little blood trickling from her mouth, and it looks like she’s got a black eye. But she’s alive.

 

She’s alive!