warm night air hits me, I can feel it. It’s a sensation that you will never forget. It’s anticipation. It’s an invisible icy finger slowly sliding up and down your spine. You know what it means, but you don’t know who it belongs to and I can feel it like it was standing right next to me. It’s raw and it’s fucking real. Death.
Viking hollers pulling our attention to him. “This isn’t a game. We all know what we’re up against. We have three of the most powerful drug lords in one space. Nothin’ like this has ever been attempted. We fuck this up, we’re dead. We play this just the way we talked about. So Cal Bastards are in town. They’re already set up and movin’ in. We follow Manuel’s lead. Julio has his men set up as well. We don’t take any shit, but we sure as fuck don’t draw any attention either,” he snaps loudly before he continues. “Shank has set everyone up with an ear piece. We’re all on it to listen, but not talk. You can switch between the live feed, but he’s also got the police scanner feedin’ in. You hear one fuckin’ thing about the cops headin’ our way, you call it in. Got it?” He glances around to look at everyone.
We all nod. We’ve done shit like this before, but never to this magnitude. Taking out two of the major players in the game is scary shit.
“We go in as brothers. We go in as one and we come out the same goddamn way. We don’t take shit, but we don’t offer it up to them on a platter either. This isn’t a game. This isn’t our normal takeover. Are we all on the same page here?”
His eyes land on each guy before landing on mine. My body is on high alert. It’s ready and willing to handle anything that comes our way.
“Let’s move!” Viking roars.
We head to the bikes as each of us climb on. I slip my helmet on when I feel hands on my arm. I look over and see Whitley standing there with fear in her eyes.
“Be careful,” she says so softly I almost didn’t hear her.
“Always baby. I’ll see you when I get back. Yeah?”
I need to hear it. I need her to say it, but she doesn’t and that scares the fuck out of me. I lean in and press my lips to hers once more before she takes a step back.
The bikes rev up and Viking pulls out. That’s my cue. I wink at Whit and pull out behind him while checking my mirror. She stands there with her arms wrapped around herself watching me as I go. I have a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach and I don’t know where it’s coming from. Either way, it’s not going to end well.
That eerie feeling washes over me again as we ride. I’ve never been afraid of anything. I always took things as they were and just kept going, but after meeting Whit I know fear. I fear losing her. I fear finding her in another bathtub. I fear never getting to hold her in my arms when I so damn desperately want to.
Shaking the thoughts from my head, I have to focus. If I don’t, I’ll get myself or one of my brothers killed. I focus on the road and we ride until the junkyard comes into view. Manuel set this meet up, but I know asking Alvaro and Armando to show up was taking a huge risk. I can only hope that Manuel’s brother is as good as they say he is. This shit could end badly for all of us.
Killing the engines we climb off our bikes when I see him. Julio Herrera, fucking prick. I can’t stand him and his overly confident ass. That’s probably why I beat his ass more than once. His eyes linger on mine a little longer than needed before he walks over to Viking. Manuel finds his way to me.
“You ready for this gringo?” he asks. I nod my head.
“You got enough men set up? We can’t risk either one of them gettin’ out of here,” I remind him.
“You’d do good not to doubt me Mason.”
“Not doubtin’, just askin’.”
“Armando is already inside. Here comes Alvaro.”
As soon as the words leave his lips the bullets begin to fly. I drop down and pull my gun from the back of my jeans.