Page 2 of Chrome Poppies
When Levi was a young child; he watched his mother and younger sister, Janet, endure constant verbal and physical abuse by his old man. Yet, Levi was the prodigal son and could do no wrong in his father’s eyes. No thanks to his old man, President Robert Shields, aka Rattler, Levi was the youngest vice president inall motorcycle clubs throughout California. The members didn’t accept Levi’s position as veep, knowing he didn’t get the position based on merit. Yet, he couldn’t care less their opinions of him and demanded respect, like father, like son.
Levi found out later in life that his father’s hatred for his mother was because she allegedly cheated and got knocked up by a member in the rival club, admitting Janet wasn’t his father’s. It didn’t take a genius to see the girl was ethnic, an ethnic beauty. I’d met her before, and I can attest to the great beauty of his sister. However, he treated her with so much disdain, I wanted to knock his fucking lights out.
His story wasn’t finished, and I regaled that this man was a wealth of information; information I didn’t ask for. However, I was looking for some kind of confession from him that would warrant the death sentence. Petty crimes piled up, but not enough to put a man to death. I knew of a murder here and there, but I was never a witness to them, and no one leaked a word of the assailant. The members of this toxic club were sworn to secrecy, and I wasn’t about to force them to open up to me or I’d be given away in a heartbeat.
“I came home after the best night of my life, when I met my old lady.” Levi paused. “Mom was on the floor, bloodied and bruised after my father beat the holy shit out of her. She was alive, barely.”
“Your sister?” Levi glared in my direction.
“She was in Texas, visiting my grandmother and missed his iron fist. Or she would have gotten it just as bad. What I am about to tell you will go no further than between you and me.” He pointed his finger, and he had difficulty focusing and laughed before he belched. I waved off the foul stench of his beer breath, it was nauseating. “I had enough of the old fucker’s shit and pulled the rifle off the wall. By the way, I loaded it, which was a good thing since loading a rifle with gloves on is a bitch. Anyway, I was waiting for the day when I needed it and had to be prepared. I aimed the rifle and blew his fucking head in half.” He continued laughing, “They had to do a closed casket service. Understandable, since half his face was gone and all over the expensive marble flooring.” The laughter was menacing and only gave me more insight that this man was truly a monster; showing no remorse for the death of his father. “When the cops asked me what happened, I told them some hoodlums broke into the house and ambushed my parents. To this day, they still don’t know I killed that piece of shit who brought me into the world.”
Levi became silent and closed his eyes. It was unclear whether the court would see this murder as self-defense or cold-blooded. I saw it as premeditated, but it happened so long ago, there was no evidence but a confession from a drunk and it would be a wash. He opened his eyes and gave me a slight grin. “I could move past the nightmare I lived through with my father and turned the Chrome Poppies into a group of pussies—we gave to charities. Had a stupid float for the local parades. We were admired and respected around Kern County. Of course, I became a bigger man when I met and fell in love with my sweet, Gwendolyn—my Gwennie Gwen. It was eleven years of pure bliss until news that she had breast cancer crashed down on us. No matter the amount of chemo and surgeries, she couldn’t fight it and lost her battle after five years. This was karma telling me I wasn’t allowed to be a fortunate man and here you have it, Grimy Jensen, death brought out the worst in me and made me the monster I am today.”
As much as I wanted to hate the man, after hearing his story I deleted the confession. I took pity on him: he was pathetic and couldn’t soldier on past the lemons life gave him so he shit on everyone and everything. This man used his past as a crutch and used it as an excuse to treat others so abhorred.
The members respected the monster because he constantly instilled fear into each of them, except me. His men and their old ladies stated they respected the man; yet they were scared shitless of him. He was volatile and could explode unexpectedly.
I wasn’t afraid of Levi Shields, which was a small percentage of my problem with him. I didn’t have an old lady keeping me straight and was chided about that aspect frequently. I went undercover and, begrudgingly, joined this club seven years ago. My occupation was something the club members weren’t privy to, nor would they ever learn what I did. However, I wasn’t doing an outstanding job at enforcing the law and Levi broke every single law, as well as moral standards.
The new mission, should any of us Chrome Poppies members choose to accept it, was to slaughter Ozzy Dillon and his entire family. He allegedly extorted money from Levi via the now slain treasurer, Dio Joseph, who was another one of Levi’s victims for some unknown reason. Dio Joseph was proof that no one was exempt from punishment and no man was innocent until proven guilty. We prove them guilty until their hearts are no longer beating.
We rode in a straight line on Highway 58, heading down the mountain to where the Akicita Antelope club’s headquarters were. Akicita was our rival club and Ozzy was their treasurer for years. He was a good guy, a family man, and would never hurt another being. The accusation of theft, in my opinion, was ludicrous. I tried to tell Levi he was accusing the wrong man. However, he had his mind made up and according to him, this was personal.
We followed him to the home Ozzy Dillon shared with his old lady and three children. According to this foul monster, no child would be spared either, based on the amount of money that was stolen from him. It was hundreds of thousands, but still not worth massacring an entire family.
It was another thing I discouraged Levi from doing. It was completely unnecessary to take the lives of innocents, though, he still didn’t listen to me. I had a mind to call the Kern County Sheriff for back-up but figured that would only make it worse for the Dillon family. The only way I’d be able to stop this massacre from happening was to put a bullet in Levi Shields’s head, even if it meant sacrificing my own life in doing so.
***
When we arrived in the Dillons’ neighborhood, Levi ordered us to park our bikes at an abandoned convenience store blocks away from their home. I could understand that he didn’t want unwanted attention as if a half-dozen men dressed in leather and denim would not do that.
Levi stopped and had the other men walk ahead, waiting until I caught up to say something to me. “I know your threshold for violence is lacking, Grimes, and you’ve tried to dissuade me repeatedly not to go through with this act of retribution. Am I going to have issues with you?”
I chuckled to myself. I wanted to tell him,yeah—you get a bullet in between the eyes, as well as these followers of yours. But it wasn’t in my best interest to show any moral aptitude or any sign that I was a deputy. “No, but isn’t there another alternative? I think killing his old lady and their children is extreme and—”
He interrupted me, “There is no other alternative. How would you react if someone stole $450,000 from you?”
I groaned, “Understandable, Shields. But you have had no proof that Ozzy Dillon was your thief. Have you thought, maybe it could be one of your other dudes? Maybe, they had words with Dillon and when confronted, his name was the first they thought of. How do you know it’s not one of your own who stole the money?”
Levi’s laughter reverberated around the quiet neighborhood, “Is this an admittance of guilt?”
“No, it’s not. It’s only an assumption because you must admit, this club has its fair share of shady characters.” Levi glared in my direction, and he was finished with this discussion as he stormed up to two other men. “None as shady as its president,” I muttered.
When we arrived at the small bungalow-style home, it was as I imagined in this poverty-stricken neighborhood. Paint chipping on the faded blue siding, which I am sure was bright thirty or so years ago. However, between the desert heat and neglect, it direly needed a paint job. Rusted car parts and children’s toys were scattered around the front yard that was riddled with a combination of brown and green grass. Once again, another sign of neglect.
I walked around the house to survey more, only to see no sign of a man who came into money. All I could see were more toys, most broken, and a dismantled motorcycle that someone was rebuilding or about to rebuild. There were no family pets that I could see or hear. Only one child laying on her stomach doing who knew what. Slowly, she turned toward me, became startled, and ran into the house, grabbing a pink stuffed bunny that was nearly as big as she was.
I rushed around to the front porch to stop this, but Levi, flanked by his two best chums, were already pounding on the door. It took some time for someone to answer it and I stood back to notice a paunchy teenage girl, with the same dark hair as the young girl, though with a bitter attitude expected of a teenager. “Yeah?”
“Hi little girl, are your mommy and daddy home?” Levi asked, feigning politeness that was purely non-existent. The girl laughed until she noticed the men were armed. Her expression changed from arrogant to frightened immediately.
“Yeah, wait out here and I’ll get my dad for you.”
She attempted to close the door until Levi stopped it with his hand, rushing through while shoving the girl aside. “I will not play games with a fucking teenage brat. Now, where are your parents? Namely, your father.”
She didn’t respond but jumped up to do as Levi demanded.
My eyes always canvas a room no matter where I go, it’s an occupational hazard of mine. I have to look at everything. The house was the polar opposite of the outside; it was pristine and smelled like a combination of Mexican food and cleaner. It also looked much bigger on the inside. Next to the dining room was a cubby and seeing little fingers pulling it closed gave me the notion the young girl from the backyard was hiding. Was this something I was going to bring to Levi’s attention? Hell no. My goal was to save this family’s life, not destroy it.