3. Esteban

3

ESTEBAN

I took a long swig from the cold beer and pulled the cloth from the back of my jeans to wipe my face.

"This shit is out of control. Who came up with this idea?" Leo spit on the concrete, and I swore it sizzled. The heat was definitely doing the devil's work today.

Sliding my thumb over the condensation on the bottle, I sighed. I wasn't at the bottom of the chain anymore. It had taken me a couple years, but now I was solidly in the middle. Due, my best friend, and I both were. He started right before me, and since then, we were inseparable. Except for when I was chasing Rita, taking it upon myself to be her bodyguard.

That was probably why Due and I had been promoted to officers. I'd kept Rita from doing something that would have gotten her killed the year before. Due had backed me up all the way.

Javier appreciated it, but damn, none of it mattered. Not when I had to sit out behind this shithole and supervise the “new” business.

The sound of metal cutting into metal came out of the bays and another wave of heat rolled over me. Fuck, we needed to add air conditioning. We'd already had two guys pass out from the heat in the last two days.

"Javier," I answered in a bland tone. That shut him up for about two seconds.

Leo was a newb. Brand new as of last month and he hadn’t grown up here like most of the other guys. Damen recruited him from his hometown somewhere south of here. So his self-preservation was still a little weak.

Don't get me wrong, I could bullshit with the best of them and make a joke out of anything. People loved me. But I knew when not to question my highers. Javier was the highest there was. This was his club and he was like a father to me.

"Okay, but seriously? We were doing just fine in the drugs business. That's what Damen said."

Now he was throwing his friend under the bus. I shook my head.

"When Dirty Dogs had the girls, the gang lived like Kings." Leo licked his lips. “Now we have to pay for that shit.” He scoffed.

The Dirty Dogs was a gang through and through. We were rough, dirty, and wild. We more than dabbled in crime. Around here, in this melting pot of Latino cultures, being a Dirty Dog was the highest honor.

But that didn't mean we hadn't changed over the years. The last year especially had been the largest overhaul I'd seen. All because of Rita and how she had Javier wrapped around her cute manicured pinky.

Or so the guys gossiped.

I never participated in that shit, and I shut it down when I could. Partly since it wasn't true. Mostly because I'd tie up any man who went after Javier or Rita, then toss them in the ocean with a nice weight around their waist.

Unlike most of the other Dirty Dogs, I hated blood. I didn't want to dirty my hands with it. I preferred to take care of business where they died a slow death and I didn't have to see it. Just knowing it sucked for them at the end was enough for me.

"Things have changed. We're not trafficking anymore. We're also not distributing on the streets." I wiped my forehead and the back of my neck again. I tossed the soaked towel in the corner. There was a stack of clean ones in the front office where Lola worked.

She was the office manager and one of the old ladies to leadership. Like she knew we'd hate dripping sweat, she kept the air on in the office with three huge water dispensers and clean towels. Very mother-hen like for such a tough old bitch.

"All because Rita asked him to. It's not right that she has so much control over him." Leo spit again. Where was he getting all that saliva?

I pulled a face and turned away. "Not because of her. The Institution crumbled. We had to restructure our business to make sure we don't have any problems. Javier has a soft spot for them. That Rita's friends with their new woman is the least important of the reasons we pulled back from those businesses."

Glancing back at Leo, I curled my tongue over my canine, and leveled him with a serious stare.

"Look, I'm just saying, overseeing the streets is a fuck of a lot easier than watching men break apart cars and rebuild them." His top lip started to quiver like he was scared.

"We've been in this business for years. We're just expanding." Building cars and bikes was actually how I came to be a Dirty Dog. It was in my blood. I couldn’t hate it, just the circumstances of the weather.

Did Leo really not know about Rita's Lambo Javier had made just for her? That I’d made?

We couldn't have done that without our shop. It had just never been monetized before. The Dirty Dogs hadn’t needed it in that capacity.

He laughed, the sound shaky. "Man, what's up your ass? You're usually the fun time guy."

"I am the fun time guy, but I'm also the get shit done guy, and the devoted Dirty Dog guy. Take a lesson. It's not all fun and games. This is our life and our responsibility."

Hopping off the warped picnic table, I sauntered toward the bay. Three feet away, the distant sound of engines rumbled. Tipping my head, I listened.

Those weren't ours. I'd recognize them.

Unlike Leo and his buddy Damen, I loved cars. But I specialized in bikes.

These were new school. Probably crotch rockets.

I didn’t hate them. I had one of those too. As a lover of all things bikes, I was an equal opportunist to most of the guys’ disgust.

Yep. A string of bikes came around the corner, fanning out to make an impressive V as they headed right for us. Shiny leather vests that were probably just taken off the hanger today. Cutesy patches and brand new jeans.

Where were these guys from?

"What the hell?" Leo muttered.

Pivoting on my heel, I turned to face the newcomers. I whistled to signal the guys in the bay, then crossed my arms as I waited for them to climb off their bikes.

My piece was in my holster, easy to get to, but I didn't want to come at this from violence. It could be innocent, although unlikely.

The Dirty Dogs walking along the roof of our building and surrounding us wouldn't let these men even twitch the wrong way without going down in a bloody mess.

The man up front took off his helmet and shook out his hair.

That was...unexpected.

It had been impossible to see anything about the guy between the clothes, leathers, and helmet, but I'd assumed he was someone local.

Not this ginger giant with pale skin and mountains of freckles. He set his helmet on his seat and walked over, unstrapping his gloves and pulling them off. He didn't smile, not at first. When he was a few steps away, he grinned and stuck out his hand.

"Matthews, nice to meet you." So he was American.

I stared at his hand, not taking it.

His smile dimmed as his men leaned on their bikes, helmets off.

"You must be new here, but this is Dirty Dogs territory," I warned. It was as friendly as this guy was going to get while I was sweating my ass off.

"I know." The grin came back. "We're new, but I did my research. Just like I know you're Esteban, mid-ranking member, generally liked with just enough power and influence to make you dangerous to a man like myself."

He paused. What was he waiting for? There was nothing in that nice set of pretty words that made me want to respond with anything other than my fists. If I were the fighting type.

I was more of a lover if I could help it .

"Why do you think we'd care?" Leo stepped up next to me, puffing his chest out like a young rooster.

"Leo, lowest ranking member of the Dirty Dogs." Matthews smirked like that was an insult. But all our members were important. It wasn't the sting he thought it would be.

"Watch your fucking mouth," Leo spit.

Fuck, I called that wrong. Extending my arm, I stopped Leo from pushing into this man's space. “Stop before you make me angry,” I snapped at Leo in Spanish. Then I focused on Matthews again.

"Why are you here and what do you want? You have one minute."

"I'm just introducing myself. We're new in town, and we've heard you've recently gotten out of...certain businesses. We'll be taking over. I thought it best to introduce ourselves in the light of day. Less dangerous for everyone involved."

I studied him. "Remember I said you're in Dirty Dogs territory?"

He nodded, now sporting a closed-lipped smile.

"You do any type of business in Dirty Dogs territory, whether we run it or not, you'll find yourself without a home." I glanced behind him. "And without a few of your buddies too."

That got to him. The almost translucent skin under his right eye twitched.

"We're not going to get in your way. Don't get in ours." That sounded like a threat.

I shook my head. "You don't understand. We've lived here our whole lives. There's an entire network of people you don't want to mess with. We know them all. Even if we didn't want to dirty our hands with you, which would not be the case. We're the Dirty Dogs after all." I lifted one side of my mouth into a cutting grin. "There are a hundred people who would not like your presence here. It'd be best for you to move somewhere else. Try Chile. I hear they have good skiing."

He took a step toward me. "You're not as intimidating as you thin–"

Snapping out my hand, I caught his throat, then spun, shoving him against the tin wall of the shop. He winced and sucked in a sharp breath. That had to burn the back of his head.

Shouts went up behind us, but Dirty Dogs started spilling from the bay doors and coming around the side of the building with their weapons drawn.

"I don't have to think. I know." Shifting my hold, I squeezed to cut off his air supply. He started gasping and I nodded. This was the position he didn't want to find himself in. "This place isn't for you. I'm going to let you go, because I'm the nice guy. But if you show your face around here again, I won't stop the Dirty Dogs from going crazy on your bones."

His face turned the bright shade of a pitaya. Once he started to go limp in my hold, I stepped back. He fell to the ground, coughing and cupping his neck.

"You'll fucking regret that," he wheezed.

"Doubt it. There's only one thing I regret, and it will never be setting boundaries with your shiny ass."

Snapping at his buddies, I pointed at Matthews. "You have ten minutes to get him on his bike and out of here. Otherwise, you'll be Swiss."

"Watch them to make sure they actually leave. If they don't, signal the guys." I tapped Leo on the shoulder. He nodded, a fierce look of concentration on his face as I left him there. This was the responsibility he wanted and he wasn't going to fuck it up.

When I stepped through the bay door, Javier was leaning against one of the cars that had been abandoned as the men left to take my back outside.

He grinned and his face became a deep map of criss-crossed wrinkles. The man had never heard of sunscreen and decades of riding bikes in the sun had left his skin rough and leathery. It made his shocking silver hair that much brighter.

"That was impressive." He raised his brows.

I chuckled. "A nuisance. I hate that kind of posturing. I especially hate it when I'm ready for a nap."

Shaking his head, he pushed away from the car. "I just came by to check up on the place. I'm supposed to meet with Andre later about something Rita wants us to do." The fondness for his only child wrapped around his words.

He loved the hell out of her.

I gritted my teeth.

"What's wrong? Rita avoiding your calls again?" He slapped me on the back as he headed deeper into the shop. I walked with him.

"She's a fucking lunatic when she wants something. I just worry about her." I turned my face. Javier was too sharp and he'd see things I didn't want him to see.

But he knew. Everyone fucking knew how much of a hold Rita had on me . If I could just pull her head out of her ass, then maybe she’d see it too.

"Rita has a good head on her shoulders. She's making her own way in life, and I couldn't be prouder of her." His voice turned wistful, and I glanced back.

"You don't want her in the Dirty Dogs? Protected and insulated from the crime world?" Because I sure as shit did. She would always be the Dirty Dogs’ princess and that alone put a target on her back.

What she was doing with the Castillo brothers was also dangerous. Maybe not now, but when they started sending out small firecrackers, they were going to start a fire that burned the hell out of Rita because she was reckless after that fuckwad Matías broke her heart.

Javier's gaze dropped to my jaw and I loosened it.

"The Dirty Dogs isn't any place for her after I'm gone. I had hoped..." he dropped his head.

"Hoped what?"

He didn't raise it back up. Instead, he started to sway and after a few seconds, gripped his chest over his heart.

"What's wrong?" I shouted, jumping forward to grab his shoulders.

His face scrunched in a grimace. "Do–Doctor."

Then he seized up in my arms.