J Speaks (L & J 2) (6 page)

I shook my head at
him. I wasn’t feeling so confident.

“Trust an old man. I saw how she looked at you when you brought her here.”

I laughed bitterly. “She knew the man, not the monster.”

“You’d be surprised at how these things can work out.
Trust an old man.”

I didn’t have a response. I wanted to believe him, but the broken part of me kept me in my black hole, unable to see the light of hope.

I heard the roar of Dig’s engine. It had been two weeks since I’d called him from the hospital. Bill and I moved to open the door of the shed so he could drive in. The shed held a kitchen table from before I was born, some tools, and space for Dig and I to park our bikes. When I bought the bar for Bill, the shed was already on the property. At the time, we didn’t have much use for it, but now it was proving to come in handy.

I
initially called Dig from the hospital. He wanted to dismantle Burn’s MM, and he’d been waiting for me to get on board. He claimed he had a plan. I didn’t want to hear it five years ago. I had nothing to live for, but I wasn’t ready to die either. His plan offered freedom—or death. Those were the only two outcomes, and the chance of death outweighed the chance of freedom about a hundred times over.

Dig shut off his bike and rolled it into the
shed. I closed the door behind him, putting a two by four through the handles. No one knew we were there, and no one knew what we were planning, but I was taking every precaution. Even though we weren’t on anyone’s radar yet, we both knew we would be soon.

This wasn’t just about getting out of MM or bringing Burns down. I wouldn’t have been
here if that was the only reason. It’s why I wasn’t ready five years ago. I was here for Elle, because my only shot at ever having her light shine on me again was to do this with Dig. To bring down MM, even if it killed me. If we couldn’t bring down Burns, the prospect of continuing to be his pawn was enough to make death sound appealing. Plus, if we failed at dismantling Burns’ empire, there was no way I’d ever get Elle back. It would be a man with Elle, or six feet under. Those were the only two options. I wasn’t going back to being a monster.

“Good to see ya, brother. Been way to long,” Dig said, slapping me on the back in a half hug. “Ya never come visit the shop when you’re in St. Louis.”

“Sorry, Dig. I avoid all Burns’ enterprises when possible. You want some of your brother’s jambalaya?”

“Nah, I’ve been eating that shit since we were kids. Bill was the good one, ya know. Takin’ care of everything
when my ma died, since he was the oldest. I was the bad one,” Dig told me with a devilish smile. I’d heard this story from Bill already. I wasn’t trynna reminisce with Dig. I was about making a plan.

“Well
, have a seat,” I said, motioning to the table. “Tell me what I got myself into.”

Dig sat down at the table, picking up my shredded label and letting the pieces of paper fall through his fingers. “What’s this about? And you’ve got your Gramps in a vice grip. I knew something tipped the scales for you to make that call to me, but I didn’t realize it was this big.” Dig nodded towards the papers fluttering through the air, back down onto the table. I pulled my hand away from my shoulder
, and ran it through my hair with a sigh.

“We can have a heart to heart later. Let’s just figure out this plan of yours for now.”

“If that’s what ya want.” Dig leaned back in his chair, kicked his long legs out, and crossed them at the ankle. He was a few inches shorter than me, with a thick, white goatee. I didn’t know his age. Ratchet would’ve been in his sixties by now. So Dig was maybe forty? He’d aged since I’d last seen him. Five years seemed like a long time all of a sudden. “Burns gets his product from Mexico. MM buys the drugs that keep one of the biggest Mexican drug cartels in operation. MM’s business is a large chunk of their empire. Before Burns stepped in, the Delmarco’s were the main player in Missouri’s dope game. They’ve been waiting for their opportunity to take it back from Burns, but needed an in. That’s where we come in. If the Delmarco’s take Burns’ business from the cartel, they got no use for Burns or MM anymore.”

“Can the Delmarco’s handle that kind of
business? And do we want the Delmarco’s running drugs through Missouri?”

“They already own eastern Texas and most of Oklahoma. Missouri would be a welcome expansion for them, and accessible
through states they already have presence. They just need Burns’ Mexican pipeline to get the product they need for expansion.”

“The drugs?”

“Someone is gonna deal drugs in Missouri. If it ain’t Burns or the Delmarco’s, it’ll be someone else. At least this way you know what you’re dealing with, if you choose to stay in the game.”

“What about the guns I’ve
been moving?” I wasn’t sure what the deal with the weapons was. I knew most of them went into the hands of enforcers and disappearers like me, but I didn’t know what he was doing with bombs and grenade launchers.

“The Delmarco’s will need firepower.”

“Those come from Mexico too?”

“Some come from Mexico. Some move the opposite direction though. The cartel likes to blow shit up now and then.”

I was confused. How were we going to fill the cartel’s demands for the bombs and shit? “Where’s that shit coming from?”

“Well, that’s a funny story,” Dig said, sitting up and leaning on the table. “My intel says it’s coming from the Delmarco’s.”

“Why would Burns buy the heavy explosives off of the Delmarco’s? He knows they want nothing more than to see him dead.”

Dig tapped his pointer finger on the table. “My guess, they’re doin’
it on the down low. Burns don’t know the origin of the shit. He thinks he does, but I bet the Delmarco’s are frontin’. They gotta have someone else as the face of their artillery. We need an in with the Delmarco’s. I’ve collected all the info I can on them.” Dig pulled an envelope out of the inside of his cut. He handed me a roll of papers, each piece with the name and face of a man in the Delmarco’s family.

“This one,” I said, pointing to a guy whose face I recognized. “He part of the crew?”

Dig turned the paper towards him. “José Saldón. He’s family, but not part of the operation. Him.” Dig pointed to another face. “This is his cousin. Ernesto Delmarco. He’s a heavy hitter. If you could get us connected with him, we might have a real chance at making this happen.”

Fuck, why’
d this shit have to collide with Elle’s world? Larry’d come to Checks with that José guy while Elle was still in the hospital. They tried to start some shit with me over Elle. I didn’t blame them. I’d kill anyone who hurt Elle. I hurt Elle, and they wanted a piece of me, so I gave them a piece. José recognized my cut and tried to pull Larry away, but that cracker ass mother fucker was hell bent on ending me. I let him get a few shots in before I put him on the ground. I got it. He needed someone to hurt the way Elle hurt, and I was the guy who deserved it, but there was no way he was takin’ me down. I gave him a fat lip, and laid a punch on his eye that undoubtedly left a mark. I left both him and José out back, behind Checks, secure that José knew enough about MM to stay the fuck away. Larry was lying in the gravel screaming and swearing at me as I walked through the back door, leaving both men outside alone. No one from Elle’s kitchen had been to Check’s since then.

“Fuck. Lemme see what I can do about getting a line on Ernesto.” I stood up from the table. I was done
with this conversation. “I’ll let you know what I can make happen.”

“There something else
you wanna talk about brother? I can’t replace Ratchet, but I know he’d want me to try.” Dig was MM when Ratchet was voted Prez. He missed his uncle just as much as I missed my surrogate grandfather. Dig was doing this for him. I was doing it for Elle, something I wasn’t ready to discuss.

“Thanks, man. I got nothin’ to say right now, but I’ll let you know if I do.” With that, we gave each other a slap on the back
, and said we’d meet up again in a few weeks. This plan wasn’t going to be rushed, no matter how much I wanted Elle back. Once I made contact with José, I’d get to Ernesto. And once I got to Ernesto, there’d be no turning back. As much as I wanted this done today so I could work on my other task, winning Elle back, I knew this plan had to be handled carefully, and with patience.

******

I’d never seen this José cat come into Checks with Elle. Outside of him and Larry coming to “regulate” (Larry’s words) on me, I’d never seen José a day in my life. Now, I needed him. All I had to go on was the kitchen. I parked my bike across the street from the restaurant so I was facing the employee parking lot. I would see anyone who came out. This was my third night in a row watching for José to walk through those back doors.

Three days of quiet time alone with my thoughts. Not what I needed right now. Most of those
thoughts were about Elle and everything that had happened over the past few weeks. She’d been discharged from the hospital, after spending almost two weeks there. The shooting was covered up. Burns made sure of that by having half the cops in Missouri in his pocket. If Elle hadn’t been admitted to the hospital, nothing would’ve happened. Skinny would’ve cleaned the bodies up like always. Elle going to the hospital meant a gunshot wound would be reported. Burns took care of it, but he had to give the police something, so he gave them that kid Elle protected.

Skinny and me had been disappearing people together for three years. It may not seem like
a lot of time, but it was a lot of bodies and that tended to bond two people. Despite the fact that he was crazy as hell, he was part of the original MM and knew what we’d lost. He knew my plight as it was his too. When I took Elle to the hospital, he stayed back and handled the fallout. He knew as well as I did what was about to happen as soon as I walked into the ER with Elle in my arms. I don’t know what he did, but I owed him big time. There was no blowback on me. Nothing. I waited for the cops or Burns to call or show up on my doorstep, with handcuffs or a gun, depending on who came to deal with me. It never happened though. I waited over two weeks before I called Dig to meet up. If Burns was going to do something, he’d have done it already. So it was just the cops I had to worry about, and I wasn’t worried about no cops.

I kept tabs on Elle
while she was in the hospital. I had a nurse call me when Elle woke up. I paid the same nurse to provide me daily updates on her condition. I gave the nurse enough money to cover Elle’s stay at the hospital, and a bit extra for her time and effort. A little money goes a long way when you want something bad enough. I knew Elle couldn’t pay those bills, and I had cash stashed all over. Money I never had a reason to spend. Not until Elle.

Although she was out of the hospital,
I knew she hadn’t gone back to work. I wasn’t sure how long she’d be off. I drove past her apartment often, and the Monte Carlo never left. I saw Chris’ truck there sometimes. An old Bronco was there a few days ago. It was early afternoon, and I’d only intended to drive by and see if Elle’s car had moved. I’d sat down the street for an hour before watching Larry emerge from her apartment, and get in the Bronco. Fucking Larry. I’m pretty sure there was no way in hell Elle would ever get with Larry, but that didn’t mean I liked seeing him come out of her apartment. Fucking douche.

I was still ruing over the douche when the back door
of the restaurant opened. Finally. I pulled myself together, pushing all thoughts but the task at hand aside. A tall Mexican came strolling out, and got into a Yukon. I revved my bike, and rolled into the parking lot as he was pulling away. He recognized me straight away, rolling down his window as I approached the side of his car. I idled the bike for a second, nodding my head toward the empty lot across the street where I’d spent the last three nights. I pulled away before he could respond. The only response I was accepting was compliance. I wore my cut to make sure he knew who I was, and what I was capable of.

I parked my bike behind a vacant building and walked to the passenger side of the Yukon. “Go for a drive,” I told José, getting into the SUV.

“Ain’t interested in a drive. What do you want, homes?”

Well damn if that wasn’t brazen. I thought he
’d fear the cut a little more. Guess I was mistaken, and I’d have to play this a different way. Even though he wasn’t part of the Delmarco crew, he was blood to them, so it made sense he wasn’t no bitch.

“’Alright, I’ll give it to you straight then. I need you to make an introduction for me.”

“Why would I do that?”

“I believe it’
ll be mutually beneficial.” I explained the basics of Dig’s plan. We needed access to Ernesto and a meet set up. I wasn’t going to lay the whole plan out for José, someone I wasn’t fully sure of. I told him Ernesto would want to hear what I had to say. “Tell him this is off the radar. If anyone finds out about the meet, my ass is dead. He’ll know what I mean and what it’s about.” I was pretty sure Ernesto wasn’t stupid, and would get that me coming to him meant I was going rogue on MM. That could only mean I had something to offer, something the Delmarco’s wanted since Burns killed Ratchet and took over MM.

Again,
I didn’t wait for a response. Either he would do it or he wouldn’t. I exited the Yukon and hopped on my bike. I was pretty sure he’d be calling his cousin as soon as I rode away.