Force: Blacktop Sinners MC (20 page)

Chapter Thirty Five

Derek adjusted his mint green scrubs.

Actually with how often he was putting those on, he really did need to go to med school or nursing school. Hell, he wasn’t being picky. He could be an orderly. It was just his second time in about a week shoving these on in order to go incognito at Boone General. Once he’d explained the kernels of his idea to Spike and Smitty, they’d made a call and made sure that Captain Brock Johnson had deliberately thinned the guard around the emergency department. It was still risky coming here where they were looking for him, but a clean shave as well as a mask on his face was helping do wonders for his ability to blend in.

As he approached the reception corner of the emergency department, he was relieved to find that Lizzy Alacron, Tess’s best friend, was there. He waited for ten minutes, pretending to peruse the information pamphlets and the one doctor who asked after him, he was able to bullshit away by claiming he was going to restock everything and soon. She stood and went over toward the staff locker rooms.

Derek groaned. Last time they’d met there, it had ended in disaster and the police rushing in, but at least she was getting to somewhere private where he could speak with her more freely. He needed to know as much as he could about Lizzy’s connections out in the community. She was a nurse; surely she knew some of the cops around town. Cpt. Johnson was on their take, but he’d adamantly refused to send in cops with them, to give them the boys in blue as help on the sly. He wasn’t wrong. No matter the people they already had paid off, it wasn’t everyone on the Boone P.D. Hell, it wasn’t even fucking close. There was no way to justify it or to keep it from ending up in audits and internal affair investigations. Their arrangements worked best when neither the feds nor the cops across the county or, God forbid, the state troopers got involved either.

It was frustrating that Cpt. Johnson couldn’t give them some brass off the clock for the night, but it wasn’t unexpected. That was why Derek was always looking for other alternatives.

He sighed as he stepped up to Lizzy’s locker. He held up his hands and moved the mask from down off his face. The Latina’s face grew dark and angry and she started to bolt for the door. Derek decided buying time to calm her down was the best thing he could hope for. He rushed out quickly and put a hand over her mouth.

“It’s not what you think. I’m not here to mess anything up. Ron’s not even with me. I just need to talk for five minutes, and I’ll leave quiet.” He pulled his hand back long enough to see if she’d understood, if she could be convinced to agree.

She was still in his arms but glared up at him, and her tone was harsh and loud when she spoke. “I’m not here to compromise with you. Your sick ass deserves to be in jail. This locker room finally got fixed from the last set of damage you caused, you murderer.”

He sighed and put his hands over her mouth again. “I didn’t kill anyone with that knife. It’s beyond complicated, but you have to believe that I just want to take care of Tess as badly as you do. I love her. Because I do, the Sinners are trying to save her.”

Lizzy went rigid in his grip, and her brown eyes were wide, fearful. He took a chance and removed his hand again, but not before warning her to keep it down. She narrowed her eyes at him, her glare obvious, but still kept her voice low as she spoke. “What do you mean that the Sinners have to save her?”

“It’s what it sounds like. Tess and I were on the way to taking the knife to my president. The rival gang was going to set him up, has been using our resources against us.”

“And I care why?”

“Because part of that ploy was kidnapping Tess as leverage. We have to meet them at their damn stronghold in less than two days, midnight Wednesday to be exact. It’s a slaughter if we walk in just as they want, so I had an idea.”

Lizzy pulled away from him, but just paced, didn’t bolt. Derek took it as a promising sign, as proof that she was as invested in taking care of and protecting Tess as much as he was. “I can’t believe any of this. I thought you were a bit wild but a good enough guy. I just wanted Tess to come out of her shell a little. She’s been so upset, so closed off---”

“Since her brother’s accident, believe me I’ve heard.”

“Exactly, and you were cute and liked her, and I just called you because I thought it would be fun. I had no idea that you’d end up getting her in the middle of damn biker warfare. I wish I’d never done this.”

“Then maybe you do know how I feel. I never wanted to drag her into this part of my life. It’s why I didn’t tell her at first who I really was.”

“You meant that you’re damn wet works and a thug.”

He shook his head and ran a hand through his beard. “I mean that I have a life outside of being a Black Top Sinner. I didn’t realize it until I met Tess, even, but I’m more than just beating guys to a pulp or doing what the club wants. I care about her, and she’s going to die if we can’t figure out a good way to save her.”

“Then what can I do? What’s the plan? You want me to sneak you some drugs or something?”

“No, although I have to admit if we could dose them en masse feasibly that wouldn’t be a terrible Plan B.”

“I’m serious. I’m just a nurse, what can I do?”

“You have contacts on the force, though, right?”

Lizzy hesitated but he knew from the way her eyes shifted left, the way she kept avoiding eye contact that he’d hit on the truth. “I might, but don’t you all have everything bought off with meth money or special prostitute deals?”

“We haven’t paid them that well. Look we go in just as us with no second flank, it’s game over. If we can get a few off duty cops to moonlight…”

“So they’re going to help you all win a gang war?”

“If they take out the Death’s Head Crew with us today, then they can focus all their resources after Wednesday on the only functional game in town. You know that whole ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’ bullshit? Well, tell me it wouldn’t appeal to the cops. It’s easier on a strapped budget to fight off or coral one gang than two whose violence is spilling into the streets. Besides, if we don’t do this, I’m not even sure as tough as the Sinners are if we can get Tess back.”

Lizzy paled, her browned skin going ghostly white. “They really are going to kill her, aren’t they?”

“Not while I’m still breathing, they won’t, but I can’t do this alone,” he said, grabbing her shoulders gently and looking Lizzy directly in her eyes. “Lizzy, please, help me. I promise I’ll get Tess back if you do and, then, hell. I’ll
both
kick my own ass and give her the choice to leave me behind after all of this. If being with me drags her into trouble like this, then, you have to understand, it’s the
last
thing that I want to do to Tess. She’s better than that.”

Lizzy nodded and stepped back. Discretely, she rubbed at the corner of her eyes. “Tess is better than both of us. I’ll call Ricardo, my boyfriend. He has S.W.A.T. connections and helps out there. It’s up to you to convince him, but he loves Tess like a sister. I think he will help, but after Wednesday?”

“Yes?” Derek asked, voice tight.

“The armistice is over. We help you once and then, hand to God, Ricardo’s going to work his ass off to get all of you taken down for Tess’s sake. I mean, Jesus. Her family has already been through the ultimate pain, and you have the gall to drag her down into all of this.”

“I wish I hadn’t.”

“Me too, but we can’t change that at all can we?” she bit back as she pulled out her phone.

***

Lt. Ricardo Jimenez wasn’t a tall guy. He was maybe only 5’8”, and Derek had to look down at him when the officer came to sit at his kitchen table. However, he was broad and had a thick neck. Derek noticed the way the other guy scanned the room and his rigid posture. At least he was someone who knew his territory and how to hold himself. That gave Derek some hope, assuming he could convince him to help, but he’d gotten this far through Lizzy, so he had to keep trying.

The other man regarded him and gestured to his hip where his service revolver sat in an already opened holster. “You try anything and, first, Lizzy
and
my partner know I’m here. Second, I’m a crack shot, so I wouldn’t try it, compadre.”

Derek nodded and held up his hands, palms up. Hell, if he’d been thinking better of it, he’d have gotten a white bandana or flag. Maybe a literal white flag would have been seen as a sarcastic answer to everything, but he was seriously entertaining it. He just needed both Jimenez and Lizzy to understand how serious he was. His life wasn’t worth it without Tess there. She was the first person in forever who had seemed to trust him, to really believe in him when it came to it and look where that had gotten her.

“I’m not. It’s not a trick. I didn’t even ask you to come to the clubhouse.”

“Only a fool would go into a roadhouse like that. Your gang knows me by now. I’ve led enough drug busts and other things that they’d shoot me on sight. You had to invite me here.”

Derek nodded. “It’s nothing to do with the gang, although a cop even off duty showing up would put them on edge. You’re not wrong on that end.”

“Didn’t think I was.”

“Anyway, it’s bigger than that. The Death’s Head Crew is really putting the screws into us. They’ve infiltrated our board. It’s the big reason you’re here with me. No one but the president and vice president even know I went so far as to reach out to Tess’s friend. No one but me knows I’m meeting with you period. It’s more about keeping this last ditch, Hail Mary move a secret because I don’t trust most of my own crew.”

Jimenez narrowed his eyes further, to the point that they were almost slits. “Then that doesn’t instill me with confidence either. The last thing I want to hear is that you can’t even trust your own crew not to betray you. That’s about the scariest damn thing I could know----even if I do become nuts enough to trust you, doesn’t mean the rest of the Sinners won’t stab me and mine in the front.”

“Like I said, you’ll be the secret weapon. No one would know whoever you can pull from the force for Wednesday night are coming until you storm in.”

“I know about half a dozen guys who’d love to do real damage to the DHC, even if it means working with scum like you,” he said, his voice a low growl.

“True.”

“And I love Tess. She’s like the third Musketeer for me and Lizzy, but I don’t have any guarantee that if I ask my boys to come with me, your gang won’t turn on us faster than a damn rattle snake in the desert. I can’t be responsible for leading my men---my damn friends---into a war zone with you basically saying you have wolves in the midst.”

“And when do you think that you’ll have a better shot at the DHC than now? All their leadership is going to be there. You could strike a major blow. After that, well, I can’t help you go after the Sinners, but we both know one gang is easier to fight than two at once.”

“If my men die…” he warned.

“I just want Tess out of there,” he said, pulling the letter out of his pocket. “I couldn’t let Lizzy see this. I knew it would scare her.”

Jimenez didn’t blanch when he saw the blood crusted letter. Derek was again impressed by the smaller man. He’d been on the force long enough to hide his emotions in an emergency, even when someone he cared about was in trouble. It was something that would serve him well on the force for years to come and serve the Sinners and their mission well if this alliance came to pass. “Is this Tess’s?”

“We think so. Trent Lachlan had it curried over to our clubhouse this morning. That’s how he wanted us to know he meant business. He couldn’t maneuver the first trap his rat set up in order to get Spike, our president, murdered or even to manipulate it so he could be sent up river for killing Gunner in clear self-defense.”

Jimenez snorted as he handed back the letter. “Yes, exactly. When I deal with death and the Sinners, I always think that it’s from ‘self-defense.’”

Derek shrugged. “Believe what you want, brass, but that’s what happened. Now he’s using Tess to force a confrontation. It’ll get a lot of us killed if we go in like we are now, and if we die, then I’m not sure they’ll let Tess out. Hell, their girls…sometimes they say it’s slave trade. You want her murdered or sold into something a hell of a lot worse?”