19. Dax
DAX
Once everyone got settled in their rooms, we all jumped in the pool to cool off after the long ride. The guys all wrestled with each other except for Cam, who seemed to linger close to me as I laid out in the sun on the edge of the pool.
“You know if you don’t flip over, your ass is going to burn,” Cam commented.
“Good thing I had you to keep an eye on it then, isn’t it,” I answered with a yawn as I lifted my head from my shirt pillow. “Why aren’t you playing with the others, or did getting your ass handed to you by Void shake your confidence?”
Cam scoffed and looked at me over the rims of his sunglasses. “Beautiful, there’s nothing shameful by having your ass handed to you by a man like that. He won a title belt before they kicked him out of the circuit.”
“I’m going to nod my head and pretend like that means something to me.”
“Don’t play dumb, it’s not a good look for you,” Cam said, flicking water at me. “I might have made a small move into joining the family, but I’m still not trustworthy in their eyes. Nothing to fret about. I’ll wiggle my way into their bromance soon enough.”
Rolling my eyes, I flipped over so my ass was safe from getting roasted. “Keeping yourself on the sidelines isn’t going to help, you know.”
“What if I just want to be with you right now? I’ve watched you from a distance for so many years, I’m still having trouble wrapping my brain around being with you all the time.”
“How’s that going to work with the FBI?” I questioned. “I can’t imagine you running off to spend all your time with me is what they had in mind.”
“You let me deal with that. There are other more important things that need your brainpower,” Cam answered, brushing off my concern. “Tell me about the plan you won’t talk about with the others.”
“What makes you think there’s another plan?”
“Because I know you, and you always have two or three plans at the ready in case something can go wrong. What we’re doing tomorrow, things can definitely go wrong.”
Sitting up, I turned to put my feet in the water and look Cam in the eye. He grabbed my calves as he met my gaze, letting me know he knew what I was going to say was serious.
“I have something I need you to do, but can I trust you? I’m not talking on a personal or romantic level, I mean, can you keep something from the others even if you disagree with me?” I asked as I searched his face for the answer.
He waited a moment before nodding his head.
“My whole purpose through all of this was to become a man you could trust and have in your corner no matter what. I’ve learned from watching you that you’d rather put yourself in danger than let others do it unnecessarily, so I’ll do my part to make sure you’re as safe as you can be in those moments. ”
“That wasn’t an answer,” I countered, scowling.
“It’s the best I can give you.”
Sighing, I rubbed my face, knowing I needed someone to be in the know about my harebrained idea.
“Look, after everything that’s been going on, I had Dani implant a tracker.
No one knows about it yet because I wanted to leave it for a time we really needed it, and knowing the other guys, they would use it for other purposes like keeping tabs on me when I need space.
If things don’t go as we planned at the train yard, I plan to let myself get kidnapped so I can get taken right to the source.
Mastiff wants something from me, and I feel like he might go against the plan if he has me in his hands.
Apparently, my brother and cunt of a sister-in-law offered me up as collateral for getting the Mad Dogs to seek revenge on the Blackjax back in the day. ”
“I don’t get it,” Cam stated, frowning. “Are you trying to turn the Mad Dogs against Marco and the Tesoro Cartel?”
“No, but I’m counting on Mastiff’s desire to finally have me after he’d been promised all those years ago.
They were going to do the job, but then Devin got killed before they could do it, and then I wiped out the Blackjax instead.
If I can kill Mastiff in front of the whole crew, then I control it, or at least I can stop them from killing me before you guys get there, and we take out the whole lot of them,” I explained.
Cam just stood there blinking at me for a moment before his hands dropped away from my legs. “So you want me to know there’s a tracker so I can tell Wes to find you that way, then we lead our band of merry men into the lion’s den?”
“Or… you could call in the FBI and raid the joint. Anything that happens between them getting there regarding the people I kill will be self-defense and easily written off. You make nice with the feds, show that working with me is a benefit to them, and we get the Mad Dogs taken down publicly so Marco gets to hear all about it before we move onto the De León Cartel. That’s the ones we’ll need to be more subtle about,” I reasoned.
“I can’t tell if you’re crazy or brilliant?” Cam drawled right before he yanked me into the pool.
As I spluttered back up to the surface, I smacked him on the chest. “What the fuck, man?”
His arms wrapped around me and pulled me to him, hands firmly on my ass as I wrapped my legs around his waist. “I’ll have the FBI on standby and tell them to wait for my signal because I have a feeling your plan is the one you really strategized to make happen.”
I couldn’t help but grin at him. “It’s nice to have another brain that works as fast as mine does in situations like this. We still get to figure out who the mole is in the Empire, and if they come in a bigger force, then I planned we’d still be able to take them down.”
“What about the tracker? Will Wes know how to find the signal?” Cam questioned.
“Once he learns about the tracker, that man will have me located in five seconds. It’s the part of this plan I’m absolutely not worried about,” I answered with a grin. “Wes is the best bloodhound out there when it comes to me.”
“He’s a good and faithful dog, isn’t he?”
“Keep that shit up, and you’ll never get more than what you’re getting now,” I growled.
This seemed to catch Cam off guard. “The others call him ridiculous names, but I make one comment, and I’m relegated to the faithful errand boy who never gets his chance?”
“They mean it to get a rise out of him, not because they believe it or mean him ill will. You, Cameron, have always had a chip on your shoulder about Wes and how close we’ve always been.
Either learn to deal with your issues or get comfortable in the bunkhouse, and before you get offended, I gave the same rules to the others as well,” I informed him.
“She’s not lying,” Sprocket interjected as he swam up behind me, pulling me from Cam’s hold. “We either accepted Wes as part of the deal, or it would never happen. He’s really not that bad once you get used to him, plus he has a lot of handy tricks with his hacker skills.”
Happy to see that Sprocket was being honest, I kissed him on the cheek before nuzzling into his neck. “We should get out and start working out the final details for tomorrow.”
“That’s what I was thinking too when I came to get you,” Sprocket shared as he walked us over to the stairs.
He didn’t let me go as we got out of the pool. Instead, he carried me over to the lounge chair that had all the towels on it before setting me on my feet. Before I could argue, he grabbed a towel and started to dry me off, starting from my feet and working his way up.
“What’s with the special treatment?” I inquired, although it was a welcome occurrence.
“Does there need to be a reason? Can’t a man take care of his woman?” Sprocket rebutted with a wink.
When he wrapped me up in the towel and pressed a kiss on my lips, I smiled. “You heard about the contest, didn’t you?”
“I might have heard someone complaining about it. The way I look at it, that bed can hold three of us, so why can’t there be two winners each night?”
This had me laughing. “Oh, Sprocket, you’re a devious man. Don’t ever change.”
The rest of the guys got out of the pool, and we all dried off and changed, meeting up in the living room.
Wes had set things up so we could see everything from his laptop to the television.
He had detailed maps of the train line we were going to be monitoring and what the terrain looked like.
It was a barren desert with shrubs, cactus, and sand.
Nothing would give us cover before or after the break in the line where we needed to cut off the train’s last car.
From the research we’d done and feelers we sent out to the train yard, we understood a few conductors and other people along the way would make sure the missing train car went unnoticed until it was emptied of the goods and discovered somewhere else along the track.
What had to be replaced was the person who would cut the train car loose at the break-off point which was right at an old, abandoned quarry across the way from a solar farm.
The quarry had buildings still standing from when it was in use and far enough outside the city but not too far out into the desert to make it a long trek to wherever their stash house was.
If things went according to plan, the car would be cut off, and then the Mad Dogs would go out to get it to unload their stash and disappear.
Everything after that, we’re guessing was dealt with people they’d paid off at the train company.
Now that I knew Marco was funding this, it made sense they could pull this off.
A smaller operation wouldn’t be able to afford the bribe money.
We needed to get out there early in the morning and set up our spot outside the quarry high enough we could see what was going on and then attack when the time was right.
Brian was sending a group of our best soldiers to meet us at a separate location, then we’d all go to the quarry.
It made it less noticeable if we sent smaller groups out at different times and days instead of in one mass group.
If I didn’t have to worry about spooking anyone, then I wouldn’t have been so subtle, but as long as the end result is still the same, I’ll be happy.
Then I get to deal with Diego De León and burn his whole kingdom to the ground next.
I might even send him a calling card just for the hell of it so he knows without a doubt I’m coming for him.
That fucker tried to blame me for the hit he put out on his own goddam kid.
“I know this is a silly question, but we didn’t bring any weapons other than what we always keep on us,” Void pointed out.
“You’re right, that's nothing you need to worry about. The group that’s meeting up with us is bringing firepower along with what we have stocked up in the garage of this place.
When we bought the various safe houses near the Mad Dogs, we did so knowing it might lead to war or having to take them down a peg,” Wes answered for me.
Void leaned forward, a smirk tugging at his lips. “What kind of weapons are we talking about?”
“Come on, I’ll show you guys so you can pick out what you need,” Wes said, getting to his feet and heading for the back door.
Popping up from my spot, I followed him, knowing I’d need to arm up.
The guys haven’t been letting me carry anything so I wouldn’t use my bad arm, but after a few days of not bashing it about, it’s feeling so much better.
I hope Dani wouldn’t be too mad at me when she learned I was going to be neck-deep in this plan that would most definitely lead me into a place I could get roughed up.
If she thought I was going to sit this fight out, she was the crazy one, not me.
Good thing she’d be there to pick up the pieces afterward.
The massive garage had the bunk house in the back with a separate entrance, and the garage part itself was broken up into two sections.
One area looked like a mechanic worked out of it with tool chests, work counters, and cabinets.
Pegboard was put up on the top half of the wall with hooks holding various supplies.
Two ATVs were parked to the side, leaving the rest of the space open for whatever you needed to work on.
Wes walked over to one of the sections of pegboard, only this part was floor to ceiling with electrical cords hanging on it.
Pulling on a hook, he revealed a handprint pad that beeped when his hand was acknowledged, followed by the click of a latch.
He pulled back on two of the hooks, and a whole shelf came out of the wall filled with various guns and ammo along with some knives and other useful tools.
“God, I love being one of your men.” Cognac sighed as he walked up to the guns running his hand over them. “You have the coolest tricks and toys.”
“Well, I didn’t get the name Two Tricks for nothing,” I pointed out. “Who doesn’t love a good party trick?”
Cognac grinned at me as he picked up an AR-15 and looked it over. “These are hella modified and beyond illegal, just the way I like ‘em.”
“Don’t be shy, guys, take what you need,” I said, gesturing to the gun rack.
That was the only encouragement they needed to start drooling over what was set out before them. Men—so easy to please, just keep them fed, fucked, and armed.