Page 124 of Griz Rides Tall

“Watch it,” Griz said, placing his hand palm down on Skinny’s chest. He just let it rest there, a quiet threat as to what could happen if Skinny pushed his luck too hard.

Skinny shut up after that, glaring at both him and Becca.

“Did you know the cartel has approached us and offered to wipe you out for us?” Becca said.

“Bullshit,” Skinny said.

“Look at me,” Griz said. “Is it bullshit?”

Skinny looked like he wanted to protest, but finally he said, “Man, I knew this whole thing was a bad idea.”

Becca’s eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, we don’t know nobody out there in your territory. Everybody knows the local PD’s on your side. So we flex out there for what? To sell to a couple of country bumpkins? Get rolled by the po-po every time we turn around?”

“It’s not worth it, is it?” Becca said.

“Well, I’m in this fucking body cast, ain’t I? So no, I guess not.”

“So why has it been happening?” Becca said. “You going out into MC territory? This war?”

“Mal’s been pushing,” Skinny said. “For a while now. When we thought we had juice with that Linda bitch…”

“Wyatt’s lizard queen ex-wife?” Becca said. “The dirty cop?”

“Yeah,” Skinny said. “With her in our corner, Mal started talking big, like why weren’t we pushing out there into your MC’s turf. Trying to get the rest of us on board. Some of us listened.”

“Why does Mal want to get out into our territory so bad?” Griz said.

“Make his name, you know?” Skinny said. “Rise up in the organization. Right now, all of Death’s Head’s territory is spoken for. Every lieutenant has his spot. There’s no place for someone to come up.”

“No upward mobility,” Becca said.

“No what?” Skinny said.

“It’s a corporate phrase. There’s no positions open for anyone to get promoted, so Mal is trying to create one.”

“Yeah,” Skinny said, and might have nodded if he could. “Yeah, like that.”

“But then Wyatt and Kate got Linda sent to prison,” Becca said.

“Right. So we all was like, forget that shit, right? Stick to our own turf. But Mal kept pushing.”

Becca traded a look with Griz. She’d suspected something like this was going on. Ripper had tried to push his MC into a war for his own personal gain, but it takes two to tango, so somebody on the Death’s Head side also had to be doing the same thing.

“Bad news, Skinny,” Griz said. “Turns out, Mal sold you all out to get his war, all just to try to get himself ahead.”

“What do you mean, sold us out?” Skinny said.

“I mean, he got in contact with one of our MC. The two of them made a trade. Mal gave Ripper two of your guys he could kill, and Ripper set me and some of my MC into an ambush that Mal had ready for us in Philly.”

“That way they could jump-start a war between the two of you,” Becca said. “They kill some of yours, you kill some of theirs, and everybody wants payback. Mal engineered all of this, got your guys killed, all so he could get ahead at your expense.”

Skinny took a moment to process all of that. “He set our boys up?”

“That’s right,” Griz said. “More than once.”

“What do you mean?”