Chapter 19

Vapor

This has been a day jam packed with surprises. I felt kind of shitty encouraging Tracker to come clean about his plans for the future, but the last thing he needed was Jamus dragging him into a futile war to resurrect the Hellfire Hounds MC when he had no intention of staying. Jamus and Tracker are the only ones still loyal to the Hounds, but two men do not a MC make. Though to be fair, after talking to the old man, I get the impression that Jamus just wants an easy life. He loves riding and the open road, and because he had no family, the Hounds probably filled that gap.

Well, now he's got Trix, and I have a feeling if he wanted to, then Siege would be cool if he joined us.

I guess once Tracker got going, he wanted to clear the air about some family history as well. It was probably related to King's life hanging on by a thread that caused Tracker's perspective to shift. Tracker has always been pretty standoffish with me and most of my club brothers, but I noticed lately Rigs has been visiting him a lot, so maybe that's the reason he's rethinking his life choices. Tracker is young and has a past history of making questionable decisions. He needs the kind of proper guidance and mentoring he would have never found in the Hellfire Hounds.

I get Trix settled at the bar with one of the club girls, and head straight down to the basement. There is only one door open. When I step inside the cell, I see an older man I don't recognize tied to a chair. He has gray hair and is wearing a Grave Diggers cut. He's looking pretty rough, so I got here in time.

Siege and Rigs are standing in one corner talking.

Before I can say anything the old man states irritably, "I can hear every damn thing you're saying, assholes."

Siege glances over his shoulder. "Since you're unlikely to make it out of this room alive, it doesn't really matter."

"If you assholes think I'm going to turn on my own club, you're dumber than you look."

Rigs turns to stare at him. "You'll break. They all do."

Siege notices me and jerks his chin in a greeting. "What's the plan, boss?" I ask.

Siege states grimly, "I'm not giving the Grave Diggers a chance to get settled in in our town."

I glare at the Diggers' president who's sitting in the chair looking belligerent and unapologetic. "Too right. This fucker and King tried to traffic my woman. I ain't gonna overlook that shit."

Rigs walks over and squats down to look him in the face. Rigs was good at what he did. I noticed he was wearing a spit guard on his right arm. The second the man spits in his direction, Rigs lifts the shield.

"If you're going to get stupid, we can do things the hard way, do we need to muzzle you?"

"Fuck off."

Rigs backhands him across the face and then speaks calmly. "You should have gone to the doctor when you had the chance instead of letting your medic pack that wound. Gut wounds are serious business. If the internal bleeding doesn't kill you, the infection will. Reckon you've got maybe an hour or two before sepsis kicks in."

"Got something," Zen's voice drifts from the doorway. I glance over to see our tech genius leaning against the door frame with a tablet in his hands scrolling through the information. "Mr. Mark Johnson, better known as Marauder, can't seek proper medical care for his knife wound because they'll report his injury to the police. He currently has a warrant out for his arrest in relation to a meth lab that was blown up. The police reported two men were killed execution style just outside the building."

"I didn't do it, but the cops will try their damn hardest to pin it on me. You know how corrupt the cops here are," Marauder spits out.

"Unfortunately, your reputation precedes you. Therefore, I'm not inclined to give much weight to your protestations of innocence. If you make it out of here alive, we'll see that you make it to a proper medical center."

"What the hell do you want with me?" The man asks in a pained voice.

Rigs looks him in the eye. "The Diggers can't stay in Las Salinas. You know that and I know that. The Hounds' days were numbered and you patching them over makes no difference. Las Salinas is ours."

The older man tries to wiggle out of the ropes tying his arms and legs to the chair, almost turning the chair over. "We got just as much right to be here as you do. The Hounds all voted for the patch over."

Our club president walks over, grabs Marauder by his straggly gray hair and jerks his head back. Looking down at him, Siege states menacingly, "By midnight we'll have almost a hundred and thirty men at our disposal. You can either figure out a way to diffuse this situation, or we'll fucking wipe you all out."

"My men are quite capable of dealing with the likes of the Savage Legion. You straight edge clubs are a joke."

"Yeah, because knocking over liquor stores, running drugs, and trafficking women is such a risk-free way to earn, right?"

Rigs takes a step closer and asks angrily, "You prey on innocent human beings. For money."

"Not just for money," our prisoner flings back. "Also because I enjoy it, something you boy scouts wouldn't know anything about."

Rigs balls up his fist, but before he can strike, Siege's fist collides with Marauder's jaw. He turns and spits a tooth out onto the floor. "Why do you fuckers care what went down between the Hounds and the Diggers. It's still going to be made up of mostly locals, only with my son in charge. No difference from when the Hounds had the territory."

"King was gearing up for war with our club. You expect me to believe that your son is just going to skirt around Savage Legion territory so we can all peacefully coexist?" Siege growls.

"Naw dog, I expect he will be just as much of a thorn in your side as King was. So again, nothing changes in your world. So why are you so fucking eager to interfere?"

"You must think we're stupid. We know all about King's cartel contacts. That's clearly why you wanted to patch over the Hounds. Those contacts were the only thing of real value King and his club had."

"So why do you care so much who our drug supplier is?" Marauder asks.

Siege steps back. "The last thing Las Salinas needs is for the cartel to set up shop. Your sons can pack up and head north, or you can be sonless. Your choice, Marauder."

Rigs adds, "The sooner you cooperate, the sooner we can get you to a doctor."

The man laughs and spits another mouthful of blood onto the floor. "Don't play me for a fool. I know that I ain't walking out of here alive."

Siege's voice takes on a steely edge. "That's where you're wrong. You're judging us according to your own standards. Just because you feel comfortable killing someone in cold blood doesn't mean we do."

Marauder laughs, "It's true what they say about the Legion being totally ball-less."

Siege growls, "I'm running out of fucking patience with you, asshole. You have two choices, prepare to be digging plenty of graves for your men or negotiate."

"Fucking fine. We'll fall back out of the city limits. You should accept my generous offer. I've never ceded a whole fucking city to a rival MC before. That's the best deal you're gonna get from me."

Siege responds firmly, "I think you can do better than that. Instead of falling back to the city limits, I want you to fall back to the county line."

Marauder splutters, "This is a huge county, which means you're claiming a vast amount of territory. What a fucking waste."

Siege warns him, "Fair warning, if we catch your guys in our territory running drugs, trafficking or anything else, this gentleman's agreement we have comes to a screeching halt."

"Yeah, but you can consider this a temporary truce. I'm gonna circle back around for you fuckers one day and you're gonna regret letting me go."

Siege and Rigs exchange a knowing glance, before Rigs holds Marauder's phone up to his face to unlock it. He starts scrolling through the older man's contact list. "Is your boy listed under Decker?"

"Yeah, that's his fucking name, ain't it?"

Right before making the call, Rigs instructs, "Tell them to get off their lazy asses and get the hell out of Las Salinas right fucking now."

"Pops, is that you? You've got your locator turned off and we've been looking everywhere for you," Decker says sounding relieved.

"It doesn't matter where I am. We're pulling out of Las Salinas. I want you on the road yesterday. Got it?"

"I don't understand, Pops. We won the vote, just like you said we would."

Siege speaks up, "Look Decker, I can see you and your old man are cut from the same cloth. But he negotiated a new deal with the Savage Legion. Every Grave Digger pulls back over the county line. That order is effective immediately."

"We're not going any damn place until we have our club president back," Decker retorts.

"Tell everyone to pack up and head home, even the new brothers. Burn that fucking place to the ground. If the Legion can be taken at their word, I'm headed to the hospital as soon as you all get your asses moving out of town," Marauder responds, sounding exasperated.

"Roger that, sir. "I'll get them all out immediately. Where are they taking you? Want me to meet you there?"

"No. I want you and Double out of Salinas County immediately. The cops are gonna be all over us, I need you and your brother to clean up shop as much as possible before they get a warrant for our premises."

"Yes, sir. I'll text you when we hit the county line."

Rigs cuts the call and tosses Marauder's phone down onto the table. "You made a good choice."

"Hospital now?"

Rigs begins untying him. "Yeah, for sure. I have every confidence that your men will follow your explicit directions."

"They better, if they know what's good for them."

"Alright, let's get moving."

Rigs and I help Marauder out of his chair. He jerks away from us. "I can fucking walk. I ain't feeble. You know that, right?"

"Cut it out. You're starting to sound like fucking grumpy old man."

Since there was no putting the injured man on the back of a bike, we took him to the ER in one of our panel vans. Although I want to take this ignorant fuck apart with my bare hands for trying to traffic Trix, in addition to all the other horrible shit he's done, I don't. Dropping him off at the hospital, knowing they'll get the police involved is the right call.

I can always kill him if and when he gets out of jail if I'm still feeling some kind of way about him. I'm a patient man. I also have the advantage of not being particularly bothered by killing truly evil men. I would consider getting rid of the Kings and Marauders of the world a public fucking service.

Rigs pretty much hauls ass to the hospital in town, and just as we're unloading Marauder from the van, we hear a motorcycle pull up. I'm thinking it's one of my club brothers. Nope. It's Decker, who is clearly shit at following orders from his own club president."

"Let him go. He doesn't need a hospital. He needs a medic."

"Son, leave it," Marauder says. The old man is looking pretty damn green around the gills. I'm thinking with the specter of death hanging over him, he's decided that doing jail time is the lesser of two evils.

I look over to see Decker sitting on his bike with his handgun pointed at us. I should have put the fucker down when I walked in and found him bullying Trix in the ER. At the time I had been more worried about caring for her than getting my hands on him for real. And here he is, popping up to make yet more trouble.

"Fuck off," I say. "He's gonna die if you ride off with him on the back of your bike."

It felt weird to advocate for the life of the man I wanted to kill, so I decided to shut up.

Decker continues pointing the gun at us. We're not gonna start anything in the hospital parking lot, so instead we wait and see what the old man will do. We kept up our part of the bargain, if he chooses to run, then that's his funeral. Literally.

Marauder staggers over to Decker and climbs onto the back of his bike. I stand there staring at him, dumbfounded that he would be so reckless with his father's life. This whole situation is getting stupider by the minute.

Truth be told, we're all out of fucks to give for this pair. Siege, Rigs, and I certainly aren't willing to risk our neck to keep our enemies from making one shitty decision after another. To my mind it feels like the trash taking itself out.

As we watch them race out of the parking lot, Rigs says in an astonished voice, "I did not see that coming."