Sons of Mayhem 4: Snakes and Angels (2 page)

Nicole

I don’t remember much about the ride home. I remember pulling myself away from Jase, climbing into the dirty interior of the car and leaving him behind. The next thing I knew I was outside my dorm room letting myself in. I had been lost in my own internal thoughts unaware of my surroundings.
Was the sheriff right?

“
Nicole! Where have you been?” Lucy rushed to the door as she spoke, wrapping an arm around me.

“
I was with the sheriff.”

“
What took so long? You didn’t—”

My eyes snapped to her.
“No. He was just talking to me. That’s all.”

“
Where’s Jase? I didn’t hear his bike.”

“
I took a taxi.” I freed myself from her arm and kicked off my shoes. I made my way to my bed, planning on burying myself under the covers until Monday morning. Or maybe Tuesday.

“
He left without you?”

“
What? No. He was there. The sheriff had already called me a taxi though.”

“
Did you see the news?”

“
I told you, I was at the sheriff’s office.”

She was already switching on the television before I
’d even replied. I sighed as the news came on.

“…
the murdered men were all thought to be members of a criminal gang, but fears are that this horrifying scene is the result of Mexican cartel activity. So far cartel atrocities have mostly been confined to Mexico, but authorities think this may be an indication that Mexico’s brutal drug war is spilling over the border…”

I looked at Lucy who
’s eyes were shining. “What’s this?”

Sh
e lowered her voice as if someone might be listening. Who knows, maybe they were. “It was
them
, last night.”

“
What?” I thought my brain wasn’t working right. I was confused. The news report was about Mexican cartels or something.

“
It was
them
. They tricked them into thinking it was a Mexican cartel hit!”

I shook my head, trying to understand. Giving up on the idea of hiding under my covers, I slumped down onto the sofa instead.

I watched as the news report showed an interview with a man who’d been tied up by the “Mexicans”. He claimed to have recognized the accent as being from the region of his home town. It turned out several other pieces of evidence linking the assault to cartels south of the border had turned up, but investigators would not release precise details just yet.

Watching the reports of the brutal slaying had a curious effect on me. At first it just washed over me, like any other crime. But as the cleverness of the attack was revealed to me I began to feel something else.
Pride
. The way they had managed to avenge Brodie and convince the investigators that it was a rival Mexican gang was impressive.
And I was a part of that.

No wonder the sheriff hadn
’t pressed her on the issue of last night. He “knew” it wasn’t the
Sons
.
So what was that all about?

Lucy sat beside me and squeezed my arm.
“Don’t feel bad okay? They deserved it.”

“
I don’t feel bad.”

“
Not even a little bit?”

“
I don’t know. I don’t think so.”

She rubbed my shoulder and I could see the concern in her eyes.
“Is there something else?”

“
The sheriff…” My words trailed off.

“
The sheriff what?”

“
Nothing.” I needed time to think things through. I knew I wouldn’t get much of a chance to do that in our room. “I’m going to the library. I’ve got a quiz tomorrow.”

Lucy let out a sigh.
“Yeah. And finals are soon.”

I nodded. I
’d been neglecting my studies the last couple of weeks. Every time I’d tried to sit down to study I’d found my mind wondering away from accounting or whatever I was studying at the moment to… other things.
Motorcycles. Leather. Men.
Jase.
My notes invariably trailed off into doodles of motorcycles or tattoo designs.

I pulled myself off the sofa and grabbed a couple of books off my desk.
“Later.”

“
Later.”

Jase

Jase sighed as he pressed the button to end the call. She
hadn’t answered.
Again
.

“
Everything okay, brother?” asked Bottle.

“
Fine. You about ready to do this?”

“
Si, jefe.
”

Jase laughed. It always seemed incongruous to hear Bottle speaking in Spanish. For most of the decade he
’d known him Jase had had no idea that Bottle was a native speaker of two languages. A skill that had become remarkably useful of late.

Bottle
’s parents were hippies who’d fled to Mexico so his father could avoid the Vietnam war draft. Later, Bottle was born and he ended up growing up with two native languages - English at home, and Spanish at school and outside.

“
Let’s go.”

The two men headed towards the panel van. Motorcycles would not do for today
’s work. Hanging out of Bottle’s pocket Jase could see the ski mask he’d use to disguise his face. Their biker tats were covered by long sleeve shirts today. Bottle was already wearing gloves to cover the tattoos on his hands and the ski mask would hide the teardrops on his face.

Jase tried to put thoughts of Nicole out of his mind, but they still n
agged at him.
What the fuck did the sheriff do?

Bottle pulled open the rear door of the van and got in the back. Jase would be driving alone up front today. He fastened his seatbelt and pulled his cap low over his eyes. The windows had a slight tint to th
em which would make it hard for anyone to recognize him, especially in the heat of the moment.

Unlike their last plan this one was simpler; at least this stage of it. But if everything went well they
’d be able to drop themselves at the top of the local distribution network their previous rivals had created. That way they’d be able to get rid of all the product the Koreans would be shipping them and turn a good profit. Enough to hire a hotshot lawyer to get Bigfella out.

As they set off Jase pushed in the t
ape that was sticking out of the radio. A familiar riff filled the cabin.
Oh shit.
They had to get ready for the show soon too. Lonnie’s friend who’s band had recently struck it big on both sides of the pond were coming soon and Jase had to sort out the security arrangements for their shows in the southwest.
How the fuck are we going to manage all that while doing this dealing shit and our regular commitments. Fuck.

When they got to town Jase drove around slowly, looking for what they needed.

“Perfect.” Jase turned down the music and banged on the partition. “Yo! When I slam on the brakes, it’s go time!”

Bottle hammered on the partition in acknowledgement.

Ahead a scruffy looking Mexican kid was stumbling down the road. Drunk, high, it didn’t matter. He’d have what they need. Jase lined up the truck and headed for him. He didn’t speed up suddenly or do anything rash; he didn’t want him to have any warning.

The kid didn
’t know what hit him. One minute he was stumbling in his happy daze, the next he was whacked on the back of the head by the truck’s mirror and sent sprawling to the ground.

At the moment of impact Jase slammed on the brakes, a little too hard as it turned out.

“Shit!” The yell was accompanied by a thump as Bottle was thrown to the floor of the back of the van.

Jase grinned to himself.
“Oops.” The back doors opened and then Bottle was there, grabbing the dazed Mexican kid and dragging him to the back of the van.

Bottle wasn
’t a big guy but he moved the kid with ease. He was all skin and bones.

“
Hey!”

As Jase heard Bottle climb into the back of the van he saw a figure running towards them.
“Shit,” he muttered to himself.

A woman in her early-twenties was running towards them screaming something in Spanish. The only words Jase caught were
hermano,
and
madre
, and while the reference to brother seemed to be about the guy being dragged into the back, ‘mother’ seemed to be tied to an insult. Jase could guess what it was.

Hurry up Bottle.
The woman was running fast. She was almost to the van when Jase heard Bottle crash into the partition. He’d obviously yanked the guy hard into the back and flung himself backward in the process.

Jase hit the gas and swung to the left as the woman ran toward them. They quickly passed her and Jase saw her trailing them in t
he side mirror. As she grew smaller in the mirror behind them he heard the back doors finally swing shut with a clunk. In the mirror Jase watched the irate young woman screaming and wailing as they left her behind. He saw her drop to her knees and felt a small pang of guilt at her distress.
It’s a shame when civilians have to get involved.

They headed a little way out of town to park up. It was time for Bottle to do his job now and extract some information from the man in the back.

***

Twenty minutes late
r Jase heard the back doors open and soon Bottle was opening the passenger door.

“
He ain’t going anywhere. I told him if he ran he’d get the bumper instead of the mirror next time.” Bottle’s voice was low so that it wouldn’t carry through the partition. They didn’t want the guy in the back to hear them speaking in English.

“
Learn anything?”

“
Yep. The guy we want is called Carlos. Apparently he was some up-and-coming thug. A mean motherfucker. When we wiped those fuckers out he declared himself in charge and no one’s fucked with him yet. We better get to him before someone else does.”

Jase nodded. It seemed like Bottle
’s audacious plan to steal the entire Mexican drug distribution network actually had a chance of succeeding.

The Doctor

Where the
fuck are you?
He glanced down at his cell phone.
He should have been here… fuck… in two minutes time.

On the floor below him were two body bags. He
’d wrestled the useless junkies into them days before, but there was no way he was going to bury them himself. Digging graves, even shallow ones, is hard work.

From outside he heard a distant rumbling which rapidly increased in volume.
Finally
. He reached down to his pocket and pulled out his small voice recorder, setting it to record. The device stopped recording when there was silence, but when any sound was present it would record everything.

Eag raised his head in greeting when he entered, before frowning at the two bodies on the floor.
“Where we gonna put them?”

“
Out back. I figure we drag ‘em a hundred, two hundred, yards. Off our land.”

Eag nodded.
“What happened to them anyway?”

He shrugged.
“They didn’t make it.”

“
I can see that.”

He reached down and grabbed the end of one of the thick black bags. Eag did the same. He didn
’t look happy.
Good. Keep bitching.

They made their way outside, not speaking as they dragged their awkward loads. The bags bounced over rocks and stones as they dragged them away from the warehouse into the empty land beyond. The Doctor grinned as he sensed the head in his bag thump over
a particularly large rock.
Stupid junkies
.

The men were sweaty when Doc called a halt.
“This’ll do. Go get the picks and shovels.”

Eag wiped the sweat from his brow and stood panting.

“What?”

“
Why don’t you go get them? Why’ve I gotta do everything?”

Beca
use you’re my bitch.
“What do you mean you do everything? That’s bullshit and you know it.”

Eag looked incredulous.
“What the fuck? I hired these asshole junkies.
I
was the one who scalped that corpse. Fuck, it was me who shot those goddamn Mexican assholes. What the fuck did you do, Doc?”

Perfect, asshole, perfect.
“Hey I’m the brains of this operation.”

Eag rolled his eyes.
“Some fuckin’ brains. Brodie got whacked. Didn’t plan on that did you?”

Didn
’t I, dumbfuck?
“Yeah well. Sorry about that. You gotta’ crack a few heads to make an omelet. Think of the money Eag. Soon all our financial problems will be over.”

He shook his head.
“Man, if I’d known it was going to go like this…”

Pussy
. “You sound as bad as Jase. ‘Wah wah, I don’t want to sell drugs, wah wah, my friend died’”

Eag did not look amused by the impression.
“He whacked that entire Mexican gang, Doc.”

“
Yeah well, even pussies scratch if you pull their tail.”

Eag shook his head as if in disbelief.
“What are we gonna’ do about that anyway? Jase and T-Bone aren’t dropping the shit about Bigfella being framed.”

The Doctor grinned at Eag.
“They aren’t gonna find out shit. And anyway, I got these useless fucks,” he nodded towards the body bags, “to say some pretty interesting things. Things which will throw them right off the scent.”

“
Good. We’re not going to lose any more guys, right?”

“
Nope.”
We ain’t ‘losing’ shit. Everything is deliberate you dumb fuck.
“Come on let’s get those shovels.”

“
Okay let’s get this over with.” Eag seemed somewhat happier now the Doctor was going to help with the grunt work.