Gage
“He won’t be talking,” Chase assured us as he and Juarez climbed back into the Suburban.
“You can even take that literally if you’d like,” Juarez added.
“Did you two knuckleheads do something stupid?” Angelo asked, irritated by their enthusiasm.
He turned to me. “I told you these two needed to just stay muscle. They didn’t need any official titles or recognition by the MC.”
“Hey, bro, they wanted in,” I said, defending them. “They do a lot of good work. If it hadn’t been for these two knuckleheads, we wouldn’t have found out about this drug deal. It would have gone down in secret on the lake, and no one would have been the wiser.”
“That’s right. Who’s the knucklehead now?” Juarez joked.
“Yeah, I’m convinced, these guys are idiots,” Angelo added.
“Well, guys, we’ve got a lot of celebrating and planning to do,” I told the car.
“Hey, does that mean we get to finish Dimitri off?” Chase asked.
I heard Angelo groan in response.
I thought about it. It would have been incredibly satisfying to go ahead and handle Dimitri. He’d caused me so much trouble since we brought him in.
“No,” I finally answered. “No, we need to keep him as collateral for when we approach Ivan.” I decided it would be more satisfying to murder Ivan’s right hand man right in front of him. It would feel great to break Ivan and watch him crumble before dispatching him.
“Speaking of Ivan, how are we going to do this?” Angelo asked.
“Yeah, we’ve got to find the yacht. We’ll need to identify who all is aboard it. We’ll probably need to board it ourselves,” Ricky chimed in, starting the list of everything we needed to plan for.
“We’ve got to bring enough people to handle whatever they have waiting for us. You know Ivan isn’t going to try to pull something like this off without some sort of firepower,” Chase added.
“You’re all right, but that’s something to discuss when we get back to HQ. For now, I think we should just enjoy the fact that we now know when and where this is taking place. I think we need to have a few drinks. We should take it easy tonight and spend tomorrow getting ready,” I told everyone.
Angelo nodded. “Sounds fair to me, bro.”
“Yeah, sounds like a plan. Hell, that’s what I was going to do anyway,” Juarez added.
I couldn’t wait to get back and share the news with Julia that all of this would be over soon. I couldn’t really get a handle on her, though. I still couldn’t figure out why she made me feel the way she did.
All the way back to HQ, I had butterflies in my stomach. It was like being in grade school again. After I told her the good news, I was planning on asking her if there was any way we could see each other outside of the MC after everything was said and done. I wanted to get her as far away from Ivan and his drug deal as I could. I didn’t want a repeat of what had happened to Lisa.
“Penny for your thoughts,” Angelo said, and I realized how quiet I had been, absorbed in my thoughts of Julia.
“Nothing, bro, just thinking about finally taking Ivan down. You know, thinking about the work ahead,” I lied. I was thinking about those beautiful green eyes. I was imagining pulling her beautiful golden brown hair down and letting it spill over her delicate shoulders. I was thinking about taking her away from all of this and making her mine. I wanted more from her than just sex. She was good at it, but there was so much more to her than just her magnificent body.
“You’re lying,” Angelo said, “but I know what’s on your mind. Just be careful, kid. Remember what happened last time.” Angelo had a few years on me. He was an old-timer, a throwback to a rougher time, when clubs like the Kings of Hell ruled the streets and shut other criminal elements out. He always seemed to know what was best for the MC.
The problem was that I had been reminded of what happened last time, and I wanted to forget it again. I wanted to pretend that I would be able to keep Julia away from Ivan and his men. I wanted to pretend that once all of this was over, I could whisk her off her feet. I wanted to believe that I could keep my feelings for her separate from the work I did for the MC.
The truth wasn’t nearly as neat and pretty. I’d known guys who had made it work, but a lot of times, the old ladies still ended up getting mixed up with club business. Now, for most of them, that didn’t present much of a problem. Most women who hung around bikers were cut from a similar cloth. Julia was not. Julia was as good as they came. She kept herself straight and followed the rules. I was sure she must have broken a few here or there, but nothing that would land her in prison for fifteen to twenty.
She certainly had no business hanging around while we beat and tortured someone for information on a rival operation. This wasn’t the life for someone like her, and I knew that if I wanted to make it work with her, I’d have to make some sort of adjustment in my life to accommodate her.
When we pulled up to the garage, it was already dark. My stomach was in knots from worrying about Julia and our future.
“Be careful with her,” Angelo warned again as we climbed out of the SUV.
“Yeah, I learned my lesson last time, I think. I’m going to do what I can to keep this one away from what’s going down in a couple of days,” I told him as we walked upstairs to the clubhouse.
I started for the stairs to the third floor to get Julia, but Ricky put a hand on my chest.
“Hold on, bro. First, let’s celebrate, just the five of us. Just the kings, bro.”
“You got it.” I smiled at him.
“Man, we’re about to be back on top,” Juarez bragged as we walked over to the bar at the far end of the room.
“Yes, sir, the Kings of Hell will be the Kings of Chicago again,” Chase added.
Ricky went around behind the bar and grabbed beers for everyone, sliding the bottles across the bar. Then he grabbed a bottle of Jack Daniel’s and poured shots for everyone.
“Alright,” I said, standing up from my barstool with my shot glass raised. “Here’s to the Kings, baby.”
The other guys held their shot glasses up to mine and uttered words to agree with me before we all downed our shots. There was something different about the burn of a shot on the verge of something big like what we were about to do.
We sat and drank and talked. We reminisced.
“Hey, Gage, remember how much fun we used to have, bro?” Ricky asked me from behind the bar.
“Oh, man, I remember going down and starting bar fights at Grant’s. I’d hit someone with a bottle and duck when they turned around. By the time the fight really got going, I’d be out the door. I wouldn’t even be involved. The law would get called out every time,” I recalled, laughing.
“Yeah, that’s why they shut the place down, bro,” Chase said bitterly.
“Hell, man, who needs a bar now? We just come up here and get whatever the hell we want, and the club pays for it,” Juarez said, throwing an arm around his friend’s shoulder and taking another swig from his bottle.
“Man, it used to be so much fun before all this business shit,” I mused. “But I can’t really complain, because the business side is what buys us alcohol, pays for this place, pays for my place, and keeps us going, right?”
“I’ll drink to that,” Angelo said, holding his bottle up to mine.
It was nice to see the guys laughing and joking around after all the seriousness lately. We’d been pushing to get back on top of things, especially to get back on top of Ivan and his operation.
Ivan was dealing in guns, drugs, and a lot of things we really didn’t want on our streets. There were rumors that he dabbled in human trafficking, bringing poor Russian girls over and setting them up with wealthy American men. Unfortunately, it wasn’t really a mail-order bride racket. It was slavery and prostitution. We didn’t need that.
We had been working so hard at getting back on top that we hadn’t really taken any time to enjoy ourselves in the meantime. Talking about the days when the four of us didn’t have to worry about any of the real responsibilities of the MC reminded me of why we’d gotten involved in the first place.
“Hey, Ricky, pour us another round of shots, bro,” I said, leaning across the bar.
When he passed them around, I stood up again, and we all held our glasses up.
“Guys, here’s to the good times. They’re coming back around again. You have my word. The good times will roll again soon enough. To the Kings of Hell!”
The guys shouted after me, “The Kings of Hell,” as we all took our shots.
And that’s the last shot, I told myself. I had other things I wanted to do to celebrate our upcoming victory over Ivan. My desire was already stirring for sexy little Julia and her tight little body with all its curves in the right places.
I imagined going upstairs and finding her still waiting for me on the bed. I could see my tattooed hands pulling her clothes off, revealing her fair, unmarked flesh. I took a sip of my beer, imagining that the tip of the bottle was really one of her pink little nipples. I sucked the beer down, draining my bottle as I pulled her hardening flesh into my mouth and cupped the breast around it.
I slammed my bottle on the bar.
“Guys, I’ve got other business to tend to tonight,” I told them as I got up from the bar.
Angelo eyed me, and the others booed me.
“Man, I knew you two were fucking,” Chase teased. “It’s obvious when you look at each other.”
If Angelo’s eyebrow could have arched any harder, it would have folded in half.
“Guys, look, it’s complicated,” I told them, standing in the middle of them with my hands up.
“Oh shit. Gage, you’re not falling for her, are you?” Juarez joined in.
I took a deep breath and leveled my tipsy eyes on him. “Of course not, dumbass. She’s just a piece of ass,” I lied. “No, what I mean by complicated is I’m trying to keep it as under wraps as I can, you know? She’s working for us with Dimitri. She got the intel on the mayor for us. She knows Russian.”
“Okay. The job’s done, Gage. Just cut her loose,” Angelo chimed in. “Or, if you are feeling like this is something more permanent, bring her in, kid. Bring her in with us. Let her come down and have a few drinks.”
That was the best idea I’d heard all day. “You know what, Angelo, I just might do that,” I told him.
They all laughed.
“I’ll get her something special mixed up,” Ricky said, already grabbing a few bottles and a shaker.
I couldn’t fight back the stupid grin that was spreading across my face. “Alright, guys, let me go get her. Now, I don’t know if I’m going to be able to convince her to come down and drink with us, but I’m going to try. If I’m not back in fifteen, don’t come looking for me.” I turned from the group and started towards the stairs to the third floor.