One That Came Back (16 page)

Double Dealing

There was pounding at the door that brought Emily, with a shock, to their present reality.

“Luke,” called Pepper. “You better get out here, man!”

Luke scrambled up, and dressed in a few fluid movements. Emily got up and fixed her bra and top. She found her jeans but could not find her panties. With a few quick jerks she pulled up her jeans. Niceties like panties didn’t fit a life and death situation. She found her flats and slipped them on while Luke went to the door.

“What’s going on?”

“You fucking won’t believe this. They have a hostage.”

“What?” Luke flew out of the room and Emily followed close behind. Lights from the adjacent parking lot shot a filtered half glow into the darkened clubhouse. Emily made out Aces, Dagger and Wolf knelt below the windows, peering out. Pepper and another man fell behind Luke and Emily.

“What’s going on?” said Luke.

Aces waved him over to the window, and Luke scrunched down and made it to the place Aces indicated. Emily did the same, determined not to let Luke out of her sight. Pepper and the other man followed and fell silently behind them.

Luke glanced at her darkly, but turned his head toward the scene out the window. Emily gasped.

The Rojos lined up their bikes in a row facing the clubhouse. They stood by their bikes, pointing their weapons toward the clubhouse, the light from the streetlamp back lit them and bathed their bare arms from the left. The right side of each man, the garage blocking the light, was dark. Emily thought she’d never seen anything as fierce or dangerous as those men in their denim cuts, long hair and bandanas, ready to kill at a moment’s notice or even a slip of a finger.

But what was worse, held by the back of his neck, Evan Waters was suspended from the grip of the biggest of them. His face was twisted in terror as the man shook him like a rag doll.

“Evan!” she gasped.

“Who the hell is that guy?” spit Aces.

“A total idiot,” said Luke.

“If you don’t come out here, Kinney, I’m going to snap this man’s neck.”

“Go ahead,” shouted Kinney. “He don’t mean nothing to me.”

“No!” said Emily. Whatever happened, no matter how much of a jerk Evan was, he didn’t deserve to die at the hands of these men.

Luke stared at Emily, who appealed to him with her eyes not to let Evan’s death rest on her head.

He sighed. “Wait!” called Luke.

“What are you doing, Spade,” growled Aces.

“I’m going to talk to that man.”

“Ramses won’t listen to you. There is only one thing he wants, and that is me dead.”

“We have his two guys here, and I saw our men on the side of the building and on the roof. So far all we have are minor casualties. If we shoot it out people are going to die. But he can’t back down because he’s a dick. So I’ll see if I can give him a reason to walk away.”

Aces scrubbed his face with his hand. “Fuck! Whatever, Spade. See what you can do.”

Emily put her hand to her face, afraid of what she would say. She didn’t want Luke to go out there but she didn’t want to see Evan die. She grabbed Luke’s arm.

“Be careful,” she pleaded. “We need you.”

He nodded and stood.

“I’m coming out! Unarmed!” shouted Luke. He nodded toward Dagger, who opened the door. Luke held up his hands and took the three steps to the blacktop.

Emily watched, her insides clenched tight with fear.

“Who’re you?” demanded Ramses.

“The road captain of Hades’ Spawn.”

Ramses spit on the ground. “Fuck you.”

With that, two of the Rojos dropped their weapons and moved, grabbing Luke on either side. He struggled between them but they held tight like he was in a vise.

“What the fuck is this, Aces? Your road captain? You chicken shit bastard!” Ramses shook with anger. “Screw you! Get out here.” He dropped Evan to the ground and kicked him viciously. Evan cried out and rolled on the ground.

“Leave him the fuck alone, Ramses. He has nothing to do with this!” Luke hissed.

“The pendejo came around here insisting a girl by the name of Emily was here. He must have something to do with you.”

“Look you sick fuck, I’m telling you to leave the man alone.”

“Shut up,” spit Ramses. He landed another kick into Evan’s side.

“No! This is my land and my shop, Ramses. You’re trespassing.”

“So what,
ese
? You gonna press charges?” The man laughed bitterly.

“We all have guns trained on each other, but you’ve got no cover but for your bikes. If someone starts shooting, you’ll end up on the bad end of things.”

“Says you,
cabron
.”

“You give me the
pendejo
and I’ll give you back your two men. They’re still alive. Your two men for this piece of shit. Then walk away. Nothing good will come of this.”

Ramses spit again. “No fuckin’ way.” He raised his voice, “Do you hear me Aces? I said: NO FUCKING WAY!”

“Listen, Ramses. Before I came here I was with Pez. You know Pez, don’t you?”

Ramses face twitched.

“The man speaks for your leadership and the way he was talking, the Hombres too. They already made up their minds about you. They ain’t coming to help you. They’re just as happy to see us kill each other. Yeah, they want us gone. But they want you gone too.”

“You’re a fucking liar.” The men holding him grunted and pressed against him harder.

Luke winced but refused to show they were hurting him. “I have nothing to gain by lying, Ramses. You’d only find a way to kill me later if I did. I think your best bet is if you leave now, leave Connecticut altogether and get out of the Rojos’ face. Maybe if you lie low long enough they’ll forget about you.”

“That’ll never happen,
pendejo
.” He grinned wickedly. “We never forgot about you.”

“I’m not scared.” Luke wasn’t and he could see Ramses believed him. “That’s one man remembering me, Ramses, keeping that alive. With the way Rojos and Hombres turn over leadership, who knows, in a few years those that care won’t be around anymore. Make the smart choice, Ramses.”

The one percenter stared at the ground as if thinking things over.  He landed another vicious kick into the prostrate Evan. “Let my men go! THEN we’ll get out here.”

Ramses nodded his head to the two bikers who held Luke. They released him and he bolted for Evan. “Can you move, man?”

“I-I don’t know. Something’s broke.” Evan lay sobbing on the ground like a child. It was almost embarrassing.

Luke draped Evan’s arm around his neck and pulled him up.

Evan groaned. “It friggin’ hurts,” whined Evan.

“Let’s move, or it’s going to do more than hurt.” Luke cast a backward glance to the Rojos leader, who looked on the verge of changing his mind. He pulled Evan the few feet to the clubhouse and up the stairs. The door swung open and Luke let Evan slide down to the floor next to Emily.

“Emily,” gasped Evan, still crying.

“What the hell are you doing here, Evan?” Emily shook her head, clearly disgusted. It made Luke smile. He glanced away so the other men wouldn’t start laughing.

Evan scrunched his face as if another wave of pain ran through him. “I was looking for you. I thought if you were anywhere, it’d be here with him, and from what the police said, that wasn’t safe.”

“The police?” said Luke.

“Detective,” said Evan, wincing, “Anglotti. He came by my house earlier asking about you. He asked about Emily too, what she was to you.”

“Putting two and two together,” muttered Luke.

“What?” said Emily.

“Anglotti’s been surveilling my shop, but not for the reason he said.”

Luke turned and looked over to Aces. “Let the Rojos go, Aces.”

“I don’t like this,” said Aces, crossing his arms over his chest stubbornly.

“Look, you sent me to deal. I made a deal. Let them go.”

Aces grunted and finally waved his hand towards the two men propped against the wall. Wolf and Dagger hauled them to their feet and jerked them toward the door. Aces opened it once more, and the Spawn pitched them forward, letting them fall down the stairs. “There! You got your men! Now get the hell out of here!”

“Tell your guys. Tell them we have a deal,” yelled Ramses.

Aces leaned toward the open door. “Hold your fire!” he hollered. “They’re leaving!”

When the sound of motorcycles rumbling to life, echoed in the hut, everyone inside sighed with relief.

But the crack of a gunfire shot ripped through the clubhouse and Aces, aka Jack Kinney, fell back from the door gasping, holding his chest as blood poured through his fingers.

“Get down!” roared Luke, and he pushed Emily on top of Evan. With a wild swing of his hand he brought one of the clubhouse tables on top of both of them, a vague protection against the bite of flaming bullets.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” he swore, the sound of his voice nearly drowned in the gunfire exploding from the weapons in the hands of the men at the window, and the roof and the sides of the windows. The Rojos returned fire, shattering the windows of the clubhouse.

In the background, police sirens wailed. The Rojos motorcycles rumbled again, and it sounded as if they were leaving. But they stopped. The gunfire stopped too.

“What’s going on?” asked Emily.

“The police,” said Luke, “have barricaded the entrance to the gate. The Rojos can’t get out.”

“Lay down your weapons and come out with your hands up.”

“Now they fucking show up,” said Pepper exasperated. “George, we’re up.”

“Right,” said George. He stood against the wall, pointing his gun towards Wolf and Dagger. “DEA! Put down your weapons and lay down with your hands on your head.”

“Asshole!” snapped Wolf. “You got to help Aces. He’s dying there.”

Luke moved toward Aces, who gasped.

“Fucker,” he wheezed.

“It hit your shoulder, man. You’ll be okay.”

“I can’t breathe.” He gasped some more. “My inhaler. Inner pocket.”

“Seriously?”

“He’s got asthma, man,” said Wolf. “He needs his inhaler.”

Luke reached for Ace’s inside pocket.

“You there!” shouted someone from outside. “Move away from that man! Come out here with your hands up!”

“What’s happening, Luke?” asked Pepper.

“A cop’s got a rifle on me,” said Luke, barely breathing and frozen where he was.

“Do what he says,” said Pepper. “Otherwise he’s trained to shoot.”

Luke stood, holding up his hands while Aces gasped on the floor.

“This man needs medical attention,” Luke shouted.

“Out of there! Now!”

Luke gave one last look at Emily. “I love you,” he said. Then he stepped out of the doorway.

Emily pushed away the table and moved toward the window, peering out of it. She watched through the clubhouse door as Luke walked down the stairs, arms held over his head. “Be careful, Luke,” she whispered.

“On the ground, on the ground!”

Luke sunk to his knees. Ahead of him, Rojos were on the ground.

By the garage he caught a flicker of movement. It happened too fast for Luke to react. A man rose and, in a flash, twisted, pointing a long-range rifle at Luke. The sound of the gunshot echoed off the building, and Luke fell.

“Luke!” screamed Emily as another round of gunfire ripped through the lot.

“Hold your fire!” screamed Pepper through the window “DEA! Hold your fire!”

Finally, the deafening noises stopped. Emily stared in horror at the scene. Men lay in many places on the blacktop, some groaning and moving, others still.

Pepper and George moved out of the building, holding out their badges.

Police rushed the scene, some pointing their weapons, others going to the fallen men, fastening zip ties on the wrists of the men that still moved.

“Luke,” cried Emily again, and, heart pounding, she flew out of the building and dropped by him.

“Miss,” said a policeman moving to her. “Get away from him.”

But Emily ignored the police officer. “No!” she hissed. “He can’t die on me now, not after everything we’ve been through!"

The pain throbbing through his body nearly drove him to pass out. He fought it, trying to be awake to protect Emily. He glanced down in surprise. There was a horrible hole in his gut that was bleeding profusely.

Instinctively, Emily put her hand on the wound, putting pressure on it.

Luke groaned. “Emily?” he said weakly, his eyes fluttering open.

“I absolutely forbid you to die, Luke Wade! We’re getting married. Get that through your thick dumb-ass head! We’re getting married and you’re going to be a father. You can’t fuckin’ die!”

“Sure, Em,” he mumbled. “I’ll marry you tomorrow. Just let me sleep now.”