Guns & Dusty Roads: The Iron Brotherhood Series (9 page)

Gimli frowned, but a couple other bikers who overheard the comment chortled with laughter.  “The woman’s got ya, mate!” one of them called out.

For a second, it looked like the dwarf was going to argue, but his face instead broke into a rueful grin.  “Way to kick a man when he’s down,” he groaned.  “Fine, fine.  But next time a girl complains to you in the bathroom about how she can’t find a good guy, send her my way!”

After eating, Cross and Kara both pulled on their riding gear and headed out, searching for Under.  Unfortunately, the first couple places that they stopped seemed pretty deserted, and Cross’s expression grew steadily gloomier.  “There’s still more places to look,” he said at each spot, but it was clear from his face that he wasn’t succeeding in cheering himself up, or keeping his hope alive.

So now, pulling off the highway into this last truck stop, Kara silently voiced a fervent hope that Under would be waiting here.  She didn’t know what the man drove, but there weren’t any other motorcycles in the lot.

“Oh, he doesn’t ride a bike,” Cross replied when she asked.  “Like I said, the man’s crazy paranoid.  Instead, he’s always got an old, beat-up car - and it’s been a different one every time I’ve seen him.”  The man shrugged.  “Paranoia, or maybe he just always has car trouble.”

As always, Cross was the first one in through the door.  He didn’t explicitly tell Kara that this was to avoid scaring off Under, but the implication was clear.  And at the last few stops, Cross hadn’t had to do much more than step in through the door, glance around, and then shake his head in disappointment.

This time, however, as he looked around the diner, Kara saw Cross stiffen, almost imperceptibly, just for a fraction of a second.

Most people would have missed it.  But Kara was trained to spot this reaction, and it was as clear to her as a flashing light or ringing bell.

“He’s here,” she said, behind Cross, speaking low enough for the man to just barely hear her.

Cross nodded, ever so slightly.  “But let me do the talking,” he said, as he stepped into the diner and headed over towards the far corner.

There was only one man sitting on that side of the diner, so Cross’s target was clear.  The man glanced up at their approach, and he leaned back in his seat in the booth.  The look could almost be regarded as casual - if Kara hadn’t spotted the little tensing of the muscles in his forearm.  She knew that little motion.

Muscles only twitched like that, she knew, when the man was holding something under the table, his fingers wrapped around a barrel of some sort.

Under was armed, and he likely had a gun drawn on them, right then and there in the diner!

In response to this, Kara did nothing.  She kept the same bland, unconcerned expression on her face, as if she didn’t know what the sitting man was holding her.  She kept on following Cross as he approached, keeping her arms hanging easily down by her sides, in clear view.  She made no sudden movements.

In the small of her back, underneath the leather jacket that sat on her shoulders, Kara could feel her own piece.  She’d tucked it away there, more so that she wouldn’t have to leave it behind at the house than because she was expecting any sort of trouble. 

Thanks to hours of practice at the FBI’s shooting range, as well as extra work on her own time, Kara knew that she could draw faster than almost anyone else.

Even with that speed, however, she knew that she couldn’t beat Under, since he already had his gun drawn.  He’d have a bullet through her chest before her own gun had cleared her waistband.

So instead, Kara just gave the man in the booth a bland and unassuming smile as she and Cross drew closer.  Trying to ignore the gun hovering just beneath the surface of the table, Kara tried to get a sense of the man currently aiming a deadly weapon at her.

Aside from the gun in his hand, Under was not a physically imposing man; that much was clear.  He wasn’t muscled, but was instead a scrawny little man, probably somewhere between his late thirties and middle forties.  He might have been attempting to grow a beard, but the end result was just a patchy mess of hair spread across his cheeks and chin.  His muddy brown eyes didn’t settle on the approaching duo, but darted back and forth, as if searching for more threats.  ‘Paranoid’ did seem like an apt descriptor.

Kara glanced briefly over at Cross, wondering if her companion realized that this man they were approaching was armed.  If he did, at least, he gave no sign that Kara could detect.  Instead, he gave Under an easy smile as he slid into the booth across from the man, as if he was returning to his earlier seat.

“Hi, Under,” Cross said, his voice not sounding concerned.  “Got a few minutes for a couple questions?”

Under glared back across the table at them.  “Cross,” he said, giving the biker a little nod of recognition.  “Who’s your girl, here?”  He glanced over at Kara, and his hand twitched beneath the table as well.

“This is Kara,” Cross replied, still not sounding concerned.  The man had to have noticed the gun under the table, but he showed no sign of it.  “And she’s the reason that you’ll want to listen to us.  If you want to keep on making money and stay out of jail, of course.”

This last line was delivered in an offhand conversational tone, but Under definitely took notice.  Kara saw the weaselly little man’s eyes widen, and he turned his attention on Kara.  “What the hell’s he talking about?” he asked, his tone somewhere between frightened and angry.

Kara didn’t waste any words on niceties.  “The Hellraisers are getting too strong,” she said, leaning slightly forward in her seat.  “You know that they’re taking over the gun running business, but they’re looking to close out any competition - and that includes you.”  She pointed across the table at the little man, who recoiled as if Kara was the one holding the pistol.

Even as she finished speaking, the man was shaking his head.  “No, they wouldn’t do that to me,” he protested.  “We have an agreement!”

“So did the others who worked with the Hellraisers,” Kara countered.  “And one of them just turned up dead, likely after handing off a shipment.”

The man was still shaking his head, but his expression showed that he was shaken.  “And what am I supposed to do?  Why are you telling me?” he asked, glaring at Kara as if it was her fault, looking almost as though he was about to shoot the bearer of this bad news.

Surprisingly, aside from the gun drawn on her, this was actually working out well for Kara.  The little weasel of a man across from her was looking scared, but he wasn’t actually aiming that aggression at her - not yet.

Kara knew that it wouldn’t be long before Under lashed out at her.  She had to take advantage of this moment now, while he was still off balance.

“But we have a chance, Under,” Kara continued, leaning forward to emphasize her point.  “We have a chance - a slim chance - to get out ahead of the Hellraisers, to cut them off before they kill their competition.” 

The man nodded.  “How?  What do you need?”

Kara made sure not to smile, despite the temptation to do so.  She had this.  “We need to know everything that you know about the Hellraisers’ gun running operation - where they go, where their shipments are stored, and their base of operations.”

And the man, still wide-eyed and concerned, not given enough time to really think properly about everything, spilled all the secrets that he knew.  Kara and Cross just had to sit back and listen.

CHAPTER 11

Forty minutes later, Under was finally drawing quiet, his store of secrets largely exhausted.  The sun, still high in the sky when the man had started talking, was now starting to show its descent down towards the horizon.  Kara Sybil and Cross were still sitting across from him in the booth, not saying anything, not daring to interrupt the flow of information.

Finally, however, Under finished speaking, and he blinked with concern at Kara.  “Will that be enough to stop them?” he asked, the tension still clear in his voice.

It took a moment for the female undercover FBI agent to find her voice after she’d been listening for so long.  “Oh, yes,” she agreed, giving Under a nod.  “I think that you’ve been incredibly helpful - and we should be able to make sure that the Hellraisers don’t pay you any sort of trouble.”

Now that he’d given away all of these secrets, Under was beginning to once again start to look concerned.  Perhaps it was only now sinking in how much he’d said, how many secrets he had brought out into the light, told to this near-stranger. 

Fortunately, a few minutes into his long speech, the man had decided to put away the pistol he had been holding under the table, and that gave Kara reason to let out a breath she hadn’t realized she had been holding in.  He’d stuck it back behind him, likely tucking it into his waistband, similar to the pistol that Kara still carried on her person right now.  Under evidently had decided that he could trust Cross and Kara - but now, he was starting to look a bit concerned once again.

“Listen, none of this is going to come back on me, right?” he asked, shaking his head.  “I mean, I’m not the only one who deals with the Hellraisers, but this isn’t exactly public knowledge that I’m sharing around here.  I don’t want them coming after me because you went and somehow threw a wrench into their works, you know?”

“Don’t worry - this won’t come back on you at all,” Cross promised Under.  “The Hellraisers won’t know what hit them, and they won’t be in any sort of position to get revenge once we’re done with them.”

The man nodded, licking his lips.  “So what, we’re talking gang war here?” he asked.  “I mean, I wouldn’t put money on the Iron Brotherhood against the Hellraisers toe to toe - no offense, it’s just business - but it sounds like you’ve got some sort of plan.  Sneak attack?  Ambush?”

Cross shook his head, but kept his mouth clamped shut, refusing to divulge any information.

“Oh, come on, gimme something!” the little weasel of a man pleaded.  “I stay alive by sensing which way the wind’s blowing, you know?  And now I’m helping you totally change the direction.  Just give me a hint as to how.”

For a moment longer, Cross dithered, glancing over at Kara, but eventually he couldn’t keep his mouth shut any longer.  “The Hellraisers have been reaching out too far,” he said, picking his words carefully.  “They’re bringing in attention from more than just the gangs - even the law is starting to sniff around.  We can’t have that.”

Under nodded, waiting.  “So what?  You’re gonna kill ‘em before the police start sniffing around?” he asked.

But here, fortunately, Cross decided not to reveal the entire plan.  “Something like that,” he acknowledged.  “But the point is that they’re going to see a major blow to their organization, very soon.  So the more distance you put in between yourself and them, well, probably the better things will work out for you.”

Kara wasn’t so sure.  On one hand, this man was definitely a worthless little weasel, and taking him off of the streets would probably be a good move for her as an agent of the law.  If he stayed out, he would probably keep on dipping his fingers into various pies, from gun running, to drug smuggling, to dealing, to other acts of violence.  If the speed with which he pulled a gun on the two of them was any indication, he wasn’t averse to even taking on a hired hit, for enough money.

But then again, Kara had promised Cross that, in exchange for his help in finding the gun smugglers, she wouldn’t lead the warpath onto his own people.  While Under didn’t seem to be a member of the Iron Brotherhood (or any other gang, for that matter), Kara didn’t doubt that he was probably occasionally useful, even valuable, to the Iron Brotherhood.

So instead of pulling out cuffs to slap on the man (she could almost certainly bust him right here and now for an unlicensed firearm, if nothing else) and calling in backup, Kara just nodded goodbye to Under, standing up as Cross did the same.  “Once again, thank you,” she said, intending to say more, but the little man cut her off with a shake of his head.

“I didn’t say nothing,” he told her firmly.  “And you remember that, when you walk out of here.  You heard nothing from me.”

The weasel was covering his tracks.  Well, he might snitch like a stool pigeon, but at least he covered his own ass in the process.  Kara just nodded, following Cross outside.

She could feel Under’s eyes tracking her the whole way out, and she resisted the urge to shiver once she stepped back out into the brightness of the afternoon sun.

Outside, Cross glanced sidelong at her as they crossed the parking lot over to where their bikes were parked.  “That worked out well for you, didn’t it?” he asked.

Kara looked back at him, raising her eyebrows.  “What do you mean?”

“I mean, you basically got everything that you need to pull off your FBI raid,” Cross persisted.  “Location, a schedule, all you need.  It looks like you’ll be out of my hands faster than we expected.”

For some reason, the man didn’t sound entirely thrilled about that.  Kara felt a prickle of confusion.  Wouldn’t he want this agent of the law, a potential hazard to his own club’s more illicit activities, gone as soon as possible?

As she looked up at him, searching his face for some reason behind this incongruity, she couldn’t help but notice how the afternoon sun caught at the man’s strong features, casting dark shadows across his neck and highlighting the strong lines of his face and jaw.  Even in his bulky jacket, she could see that the man was standing tall, the strong shape of his well sculpted body.