Outlaw (12 page)

“Couple of shots.”

“In the air?” Angel questioned.

“Or in them. Either way,” Crash suggested, a grin
pulling at the corner of his mouth.

It was about 9:30am, and Cole was standing with
Angel and Crash. The rest of the guys had already headed out to wait at the
underpass.

“Here he comes,” Crash announced, indicating Chuck,
who was walking toward them.

Cole turned, and addressed Chuck. “About time.”

“Just got the call. Said he should be there by
10am.”

“Good,” Cole replied. “Let’s head out now, then.”

Chuck noticed Crash. “I thought it was just
gonna
be you,” he said to Cole.

“The rest of the club already headed out. Crash is
riding back with us,” Cole replied. He stared him down. “That a problem?”

“It’s just that I told him it would only be you and
me. He doesn’t like surprises.

“It’ll be fine. You worry too much, Chucky. Come on.
Let’s go. I’m tired of standing around here.”

“Yeah. Okay,” Chuck agreed, knowing that when a
member of the Evil Dead spoke, if you were a member of the Dead Souls, you
jumped. He headed off to his bike.

Cole, Angel and Crash were ready, and waiting for
him when he pulled up.

“Lead the way,” Cole shouted over the revving
engines. Chucky pulled out, and Cole and Crash fell in behind him.

As they passed over the underpass, Cole and Crash
looked at each other, and nodded. Cole glanced back, and noticed one of his
brothers walk a few feet out from under the overpass. Cole gave
a thumbs
up to Crash. Chucky was in front, and didn’t see
any of this.

A few seconds later they were pulling off on an exit
ramp to the rest area. A sign indicated it was closed. There were a couple of
construction horses with flashing warning lights barricading the way, but they
were easy to go around. Cole saw that even a vehicle would be able to get
around them.

They proceeded down the exit, and followed it around
a curve. Cole glanced around, and saw that they could not see the interstate
any longer. They came to an area that divided the flow of traffic with a sign
pointing cars to the left and trucks to the right. They followed Chuck to the
left. There were diagonal marked parking spots along a sidewalk that fronted along
an abandoned building that housed the restrooms and tourist information desk.
It was all boarded up. The grass was overgrown, and weeds grew up in the cracks
of the sidewalk. They were the only ones there.

Chuck stopped his bike in the lane.

Cole and Crash stopped behind him.

They all dismounted.

Chuck lit a cigarette. “So, patch over, man. Huh?”

Cole nodded. “Yeah. You ready to wear the
angel-of-death on your back?”

“Ready? Hell, lookin’ forward to it.”

“Right.” Cole slid a look to Crash,
who
rolled his eyes. Chuck missed the exchange. Cole
continued with the small talk, wanting to distract Chuck from becoming
suspicious. “So, how many guys you think will stay on?”

“Shit. Half those bastards will walk.”

“Really? That many?”

“Yeah. They think they’re tough. But when it comes
down to it-”

The sound of an approaching vehicle had them all
turning to look back toward the road. A moment later a white cargo van was
heading toward them. It pulled up, and stopped.

Cole could see there was no one in the passenger seat.
Good news. He glanced at Crash, as if to say ‘get ready’.

The driver door opened, and the driver got out. He
came around the front of the van, and walked over to them. Cole sized him up.
He was young.
Probably late twenties.
Asian, most likely Chinese.
Had an attitude. Had his chin in
the air.

“Ling, this is Cole.” Chuck made the introductions.
“Cole, Ling.”

“I understand you provide a ‘special product’,” Cole
stated.

“Depends. What do you need?” Ling asked.

“What can you get us?” Cole countered.

Ling stared him down.

Cole stared right back.

“Caught me at a good time. Had a real good night’s
work last night. Got plenty of inventory.” Ling jerked his head back toward the
van.

Cole glanced back at the van, and then over at
Crash. Fuck! He wasn’t counting on this. He’d assumed Ling would come alone.

Ling walked over to the back of the van.

The guys followed, knowing they were going to have
to play this up.

Ling pulled the doors open. “Take your pick. You
want blonde, brunette,
redhead
. Hell, I got it all.”

Cole and Crash looked inside the van. It was crowded
with young girls, all handcuffed and gagged. There were three on each side,
leaning against the walls of the van.

Cole slid a stunned look back at Crash, and then
said to Ling, “Holy shit! You weren’t kiddin’.”

Crash whistled. “You got some nice stuff.”

“How much?” Cole asked.

“Thousand a piece.”

Cole whistled. “That’s kind of steep.”

“This is primo stuff, man,” Ling insisted. “Young
and fresh.”

Chuck piped in. “Oh, no doubt about that. He already
had a chance to sample your product.” Chuck glanced over at Angel, who was
standing back by the bikes.

Ling looked over at her, and nodded. “Right. I
remember that one.”

Cole gave Chuck a deadly look. “Keep your Goddamn
mouth shut, Chucky.”

Chuck closed his mouth.

Cole looked again at the girls. He bet some of them
couldn’t be more than fifteen or sixteen.

“You interested or not? I got places to be,” Ling
pressured.

Cole looked at Ling, and smiled.
The
little weasel.
He was going to take real pleasure in ending his life.
“Sure. I’m interested. How much for all of ‘em?”

Ling looked surprised, but he only hesitated a
moment. “All of ‘em?”

“Yeah. Quantity discount.”

“Five grand.”

“Can you get more?” Cole asked.

Ling looked from Cole to Crash. “Yeah. Sure. How
many we talkin’ about?”

“Need twelve or fifteen. To start.” Cole crossed his
arms.

Ling smiled.

“This may be a long term relationship, Ling. Do we
have a deal?” Cole held his hand out.

Ling reached to shake his hand.

What happened next, happened so fast that Angel
couldn’t believe it. Cole was shaking Ling’s hand, and then he yanked Ling
toward him, flung him against the open van door, twisting his arm behind his
back, and stuck a gun in his side.

At the same time, Crash pulled a gun, and had it
aimed at Chuck’s forehead. He ordered Chuck to drop his weapons, and watched as
Chuck pulled a gun from under his cut, and it clattered to the pavement. Then
he pulled another that was stuffed in the back waist of his jeans. Then he
pulled a knife from his boot, and dropped it as well. Crash patted him down.

Cole did the same with Ling, keeping him face first
in the van door. Then he aimed the gun at the back of Ling’s head.

Crash fired off two shots in the air.

“What the hell is this?” Ling demanded.

“Your dirty little business is being shut down,”
Cole replied in Ling’s ear.

Chuck had his hands up in the air. “What the fuck,
man? I was trying to help you. What the
fuck are
you
doing?”

“Shut the fuck up, you piece of shit,” Cole yelled
back at him.

“But, we’re patching over. We’re gonna be brothers,
man.”

“You and me
ain’t
never
gonna share a patch, asshole,” Cole replied.

“You’re gonna bring hell down on you, man. You’re
making a big fuckin’ mistake. When Wyatt finds out about this-”

Cole smiled at him. “Wyatt knows, and he’s fine with
it.”

“What?”

“He’s tired of your sick little habit, Chucky.”

The roar of motorcycles filled the air, and five
bikes came around the curve.

“Oh, shit,”
Chuck
whispered.

Cole smiled at him. “Yeah. ‘Oh, shit’ is right.”
Then he stepped closer to Chuck, and whispered in his ear, “Did you really
think I’d let you live after what you did to her?”

The other five brothers got off their bikes, guns
drawn. Soon Ling and Chuck were face down on the pavement.

Cole moved to stand over Ling. “Where are the keys
to the handcuffs?”

Ling didn’t reply.

Cole kicked him in the ribs with his boot. “You’re
only gonna make this worse for yourself, which actually would be fine with me.
That’s how you want it, I’m only too happy to oblige.”

“My right pocket.”

One of the guys dug through it, and pulled out a set
of keys, and tossed them to Cole. Cole passed them to Crash, and nodded toward
the van. “Get them out.”

“You got it.”

Cole looked over at Angel, and motioned her over.

She walked over to him, her arms crossed, hugging
herself.

Cole could tell she was pretty shaken up.

She looked down at Ling.

“This him?” Cole asked, looking down at Ling, and
back to her face.

She nodded.

He looked into her eyes. “Okay.”

She glanced into the back of the van, and froze. “My
God.”

Cole turned, and looked back. “Yeah.”

She put her hand to her mouth.

“They’re the lucky ones. They get to go home today.”

Angel looked back at Cole, and nodded, her eyes
filling with tears.

He pulled her into his arms. “Come here. It’s gonna
be okay.”

She nodded.

He leaned his face close to hers. “I need you to
help me. Take them over by the building. There’s some bottled water in my
saddlebag. Take care of them. Explain to ‘em that we’re not
gonna
hurt ‘em. Okay? Can you do that?”

“Sure.” She pulled out of his arms, and took a deep
breath.

Crash had them all out of the van, and un-cuffed.
After he passed them into Angel’s care, he came over with two sets of the
cuffs, and put them on Chuck and Ling.

Angel moved the girls off to the building.

As soon as they were out of earshot, Crash asked in
a whisper, “Shit, Cole! Now what the fuck do we do?”

“I know. I wasn’t counting on this.” Cole shook his
head, trying to think. “If we call the cops, Ling will give up his connection
with Chuck, and the Souls, and us bein’ here at this meeting, they’ll hang it
on us, too.”

“Cops? No, fuckin’ way. That ain’t gonna happen!”
Crash was emphatic.

Cole stared at him, and shook his head. “I’m not
letting Ling go.”

“What the
fuck are
you
saying? Double murder with six witnesses?” Crash asked, pointing back toward
the building. “You can’t be serious!”

“We get rid of the witnesses,” Red Dog suggested.

Cole gave him a look. “We’re not hurting the girls,
asshole.”

“Just a suggestion.”

Cole stared over at the group of girls huddled by
the building, considering his options. He turned back to his brothers. “Look,
we take the girls back to Wyatt. They don’t see anything. They don’t know
anything. Once they’re gone, Chuck, Ling, the van, they all disappear.”

“What if the girls talk?” Crash asked.

“I don’t know, man. We make sure they know that
would be a real bad idea. Anybody else got a better solution? I’m all ears,”
Cole snapped.

No one said anything.

“Are we together on this, boys?” Cole asked, looking
around at all their faces.

“Yeah.”

“Sure.”

“Whatever.”

“I hope to hell you know what you’re doing,” Crash
added.

Cole nodded, and looked back at the girls.

Angel had her arm around one of the younger girls,
and was trying to calm her down. Most of them were crying, but she had
convinced them that they were safe now, and would soon be back with their
families.

The guys walked back to where she was waiting with
the girls.

Cole looked at them all. He could tell they were
still frightened. “No one here is going to hurt you. We’re going to get you
home.”

“So, how will we get back? Are you going to call the
police?” one of the girls asked.

“No. No police, darlin’.” Cole smiled. “You’ll ride
on the back of the bikes.”

“With them?” she asked, looking at the guys.

“Yeah. With them.”