Page 52 of Mace
Ramirez grumbled, “Don’t go too far. You’re both coming home with me, right after I get rid of this last loose end and figure out who has my fucking merchandise.”
Alicia’s fingers tightened around her mother’s hand. “It’s all gone. The Slayers destroyed it.”
The fuck? A sense of dread crept into my stomach. Why was she telling him that?
She continued. “America isn’t the wild west anymore. That means your days of coming here to sell poison are numbered. The Dark Slayers MC is just one of many groups now policing their own territory. If you keep coming here, your men are going to continue dying and your drugs and guns are going to continue to turn up missing.”
The older man looked proud. “What an outstanding little liar you are, Alicia, proving that deep down inside you are more similar to the man who raised you than the one who planted his seed in such fertile ground.”
Her mother spoke up, “You might have trafficked us, but you never raised my daughter. How could you, when you were hardly ever home? I raised her with her father’s values, herrealfather, and you can’t stand that, can you?”
He flung back, “Look how brave you are when you’re out of striking distance. When I realized you couldn’t have any more kids, I should have thrown you and your daughter out. Fucking ungratefulputa. You had a life with me, not a half life in America that you would have had with my pathetic brother.”
The gang member grew impatient with their family dynamics. “You three can hash out your personal shit on your own time. Somebody’s gonna pay me the money they owe me, or there ain’t nobody walking outta here alive.”
Storm jerked his chin towards the barn, “That’s our cue to get in there and diffuse the situation before the shootout starts. Mace, you and Coyote get the women to safety, while we deal with the assholes fighting over drugs and money.”
“You got it, Prez,” I told Storm. “If at all possible, don’t start shooting up the place for a few minutes. Once we getthem to safety, we’ll circle back around to provide backup. I can’t believe both Ramirez and that fake fed showed up without backup of their own.”
“Thor, Mack, I want you to scout for their men. Take Benny.”
“On it,” Thor said.
“I didn’t see any signs of Ramirez’s men when I pulled up here, but if that other guy is a gang banger we might be heading for an ambush. You want me to call for reinforcements?” Benny asked.
Storm threw his cell phone to Benny. “Send out an alert, I want all brothers here.”
“Yes, sir!” Benny said and ran off at top speed with Thor and Mack behind him. Suddenly, the eighteen brothers that we brought with us didn’t seem like it was quite enough if we were gonna have a shootout with the cartel and a bunch of gang bangers.
Hacker’s voice sounded a warning as he wheeled his way back to our armored van. “Time to get your asses moving. Things are getting heated up in there.”
Storm made a circle in the air with his index finger beside his right ear. “Get moving. Everyone needs to stick to the original plan. We’re burnin’ daylight here.”
We’d come up with a painstakingly detailed plan where every brother had a vantage point to cover and a battle buddy to protect. Storm and Hacker’s detailed plans were becoming routine for me by this point and had the advantage of working with nearly a hundred percent accuracy.
I pulled out my handgun and checked to make sure it had a fresh clip. Coyote and I approached from the side with the window. My plan was to break through the window a second after Storm and his team busted into the room. When I got close to the window, fear spiked through my chest at what I saw.
The man who’d claimed to be her father all these years was moving forward towards Alicia and her mother with a determined look on his face. Alicia pulled out the small handgun and pointed it at him. Damn it! For a moment I wondered where she’d gotten it from, then I remembered handing her Alejandro’s gun the day I rescued her. Ramirez stopped in his tracks just as I lifted my gun and took aim.
A look of rage jumped onto his face when he saw that Alicia had a weapon. When he lunged, Alicia hesitated. If I hadn’t squeezed off a shot it might have been a fatal mistake on Alicia’s part. Fortunately, I didn’t hesitate and I’m an exceptionally good aim. When I want to kill someone, I always go for a headshot. It’s messy but effective in putting them down permanently.
I knocked out the rest of the glass on one side of the window and jumped into the room as Storm and the others were cornering the gang member. When Alicia and her mother ran over to the window, I apologized as I gestured to the dead man on the floor, “Sorry about the mess.”
Alicia’s mother walked over and spat on his dead body and gave it a good kick before rushing back over to us. Alicia and I shot each other a worried look. Grabbing Alicia, I told her, “We need to get you both out of here. It’s not safe.”
“We’re more than ready to get the hell outta here,” she responded as she moved closer to me. I picked her up and set her safely outside the window and then did the same to her mother.
Then I whistled for Nine. He came running from the back of my truck and was within sight in two seconds flat. I commanded, “Guard,” and pointed to Alicia and her mother.
Turning to Alicia, I told her, “My truck is about twenty yards that way. Do you need me to escort you, or can you go with Nine?” These women had been disempowered for far too long. It was time to give them some personal power back.
Alicia glanced down at the gun in her hand and then lifted her chin slightly. “I can find the way. In case you’re wondering, the black SUV on the far side of the building is full of fake agents.”
Just then the sound of gunfire came from that direction. “Yeah, Storm thought it was weird that these two showed up alone, so my club brothers went to check the perimeter.”
My heart raced as I watched them jog off towards my truck. My job now became to look for stragglers who might pose a danger. I couldn’t help but watch Alicia and her mom run side by side, happy and free together for possibly the first time in their lives. It was gratifying to see them like that.
I decided to shadow them to the truck on the off-chance there was a threat we’d missed—which turned out to be a good idea. My panic spiked when I saw someone come stumbling out of the bushes. It was a man with an unsteady gait. He had a gun in his hand and a furious expression on his face. I recognized that fucker, it was the dude who was threatening to rape her at the riverside.