Chapter 43 The Horsemen
The Horsemen
PREACHER
MOOSE JAW, SASKATCHEWAN
“This is a waste of fucking time,” Raphael snarls.
The Horsemen's clubhouse is tucked into an industrial area in the middle of nowhere. It looks more like a military compound, actually, with a bar and a few other surrounding buildings stamped with their logo. The look hasn’t filled my brother with confidence.
The parking lot is littered with Harley Davidsons, and a couple of the bikes are still warm.
“Duly noted,” Gus replies as we head for the front door. “But it’s the best shot you’ve got right now.”
“Duly— asshole, do you know who the fuck you’re talking to?” Raphael snarls.
He was on-edge the entire drive, biting his nails while huffing and puffing about how we just need to find the jail and bomb the shit out of it.
“I’m pretty sure I’m talking to the guy who’s the reason why I’m in this fuckin’ mess in the first place.”
“Me?!” Raphael snaps.
“Yes, you.” Gus turns on a dime and shoves him back, anger etched into his features. “You can’t stay away from her, can you? Can’t let her live her goddamn life. You just had to call her up and drag us into all this chaos, and now my friends are fucking worm food.”
“What, are you fuckin’ in love with her or something?”
“Fellas!” I shout, stepping in between them before they bite each other’s heads off. “You two lovebirds can fight about this later, once we get Ripley and Wren back. I’ll referee the goddamn boxing match if you want, but until then…”
Gus raises his arms in exasperation, heading for the door while Raphael mopes beside me.
“I could have—”
I grab him by the arm and give it a twist, forcing him to look me in the eyes.
“I know, and I would have preferred not to owe some gang leader a favor, but at this point we gotta do what we gotta do. We don’t have the goddamn firepower to go after Adonis by ourselves, and you know that.
So you’re going to play nice with the one and only man who can get us past those goddamn doors. ”
Raphael takes a deep breath and gives me a quick nod, but I can still see the gears in his head turning, trying to find a different way out of this. Unfortunately, I don’t think there’s another path that doesn’t end with at least a few of us in a body bag.
And I don’t plan on dying this week.
“Let’s just get them back,” he grumbles.
I clap him on the shoulder, forcing a smile as we follow Gus inside.
“Pretty wild that I’m the reasonable one this time.”
“Fuckin’ terrifying, more like.”
There’s a thousand different scenarios running through my head right now, but there’s only one that keeps making its way back, haunting me as it worms its way to the top of my mind: that the future I’m trying to build won’t exist after tonight.
The bar is bustling with people, drinks flowing freely while painfully loud music bursts through the ancient speakers.
Some of the patrons look like club members based on their outfits alone, but others just look like regular blue collar folks, drinking, smoking, and playing pool.
It’s a smart strategy if the cops ever show up, but I have a feeling the Horsemen already do a good job keeping them out of here.
Gus leads us across the floor, past the bar, and toward a back room where a scrawny kid with acne scars on his face stands guard. I look him up and down, quickly spotting the gun on his hip and the PROSPECT patch on his vest, along with his massive inferiority complex.
“You Preacher?” He asks, his voice booming over the music as we approach.
“In the flesh.”
“Titus is ready for you.”
We’re led into a small room with a comedically long table, occupied by men with ratty hair, leather vests, and a hell of a lot of tattoos. I take my hat off, nodding respectfully as Raphael’s eyes dart nervously around the room.
“Phones,” the Prospect demands, sticking out his hand.
“No fucking way,” Raphael growls.
“You play by the rules or you get the fuck out.”
The deep and rumbling voice echoes from the back of the room, and I look over to see a brick-wall of a man at the head of the table. He’s got slicked back dark hair, bushy brows, and eyes as sharp as daggers. My gaze falls to the patch on his vest.
FOUNDER.
“Heard you boys have got yourselves in a bit of trouble.”
“Yessir.” Gus clears his throat. “It’s like I told your men, Wren’s been kidnapped, along with Preacher’s old lady.”
Titus sparks up a cigar, taking a long drag as the three of us hand our phones over, the silence hanging heavy in the room.
“There’s a price for my help, you know.”
“Really? ‘Cause we thought you’d be doin’ it out of the kindness of your heart.” Raphael is practically spitting his words, barely holding on to his frustration, which was already one step away from the boiling point. “How about we can talk payment after you prove you can actually get shit done.”
“You think you get to call the shots in my club?” Titus asks, two of his men getting to their feet, their hands already on their guns. “Because I don’t think that’s something you three can afford right now.”
I let out a groan and step forward, setting my hat down on the table. Raphael’s clearly too much of a loose canon to be negotiating any of this right now, so I guess that means it falls to me.
“He didn’t mean anything by that. I’m sure Gus told you, there’s a lot of shit goin’ down. Our girls were taken by someone named Adonis Murphy. He’s a big—”
“Yeah,” Titus interrupts, a knowing grin on his lips. “We know Mr. Murphy.”
“Great, then I’m sure you know how simple it would be to take him down after half his men got left dead in the dirt.
I ain’t interested in gaining territory or buttin’ heads with anyone, all we want is the girls back.
After that, we’ll disappear from your life just as fast as we walked through that door. ”
Titus gives a quick nod, flicking his head toward Raphael.
“First, you call off your dog. If he looks at me sideways one more time, I’m gonna have my men take him out back and put him down.”
Raph looks like he’s going to retort, but I shoot him the deadliest look I can muster and luckily he gets the message, staring down at his shoes in silence.
“Atta boy.” Titus takes a long drag from his cigar before motioning for us to sit. “Now, to business. One of our men broke ranks recently. Fucked off to The Disciples.”
“Why’d he leave?”
“Who knows?” He sighs. “Maybe he thought he couldn’t hack it here, maybe they had somethin’ on him, I’m not really interested in motivation.
When I woke up today, all I wanted was his head, but if you’re telling me I get the opportunity to take The Disciples out in the process? Well that’s a whole new barrel of fun.”
I know what we’re dealing with when it comes to a man like this: he’s an arrogant, egotistical prick who doesn’t give a shit about anyone outside of his club.
Problem is, he’s been doing this for a long time, and making it that far without getting a bullet in your head means you know more than a little about survival.
“Sounds like we have common ground.”
Titus stares me down for a moment, like he’s deeply considering a different course of action, before nodding to one of his men who takes out a pack of cigarettes and slides it down the table to me.
I pluck one out, offering the pack to my brother who quickly grabs one and stuffs it behind his ear.
It’s a peace offering of sorts, and Titus gives a curt nod, seemingly satisfied with our reaction.
“My brother’s found the jail they’re holding the girls in, so—”
“Well, I actually found three of them. Had to go through the process of elimination in order to pinpoint the right one.”
Raph reaches under the table, and in an instant, Titus’s men are on their feet again, guns at the ready.
“Easy, gentlemen,” Raphael chuckles, raising his hands. “It’s just my bag, the one they had to search for us to even come in here. So, I’m going to reach in there, get my laptop, and show you what I’ve found.”
Titus just keeps smoking, his hand resting on the pistol on the table next to him.
“What happened to all that talk about calling off guard dogs?” Raphael mutters, grinding the words out through clenched teeth.
Titus stares at the two of us, mulling things over as he puffs on his cigar, and I can feel the panic in me start to rise up again.
“Well now, it looks like we may have reached an impasse. It’s too bad, I was really starting to like you two. Oh well.”
His men level their guns, and I brace myself, ready for the worst.
But then Titus bursts out laughing.
“Down, boys! I’m only fucking with them.”
Out of the corner of my eye I can see Gus’s whole body relax, slumping back in his chair while Raph is practically chewing on his tongue to stop himself from saying something stupid. Instead, he just lets out a long, haggard breath before opening up his laptop, his fingers flying across the keys.
“Now, the prick we captured said the girls are being held at an abandoned jail in Swift Current. But he wasn’t the sharpest tack, and there are a few places that have been shut down around there; at least three of them could be classified as ‘jails.’ One of them is gonna be re-opening as a prison, and another is scheduled to be torn down, which leaves this one. ”
He hits a key, pulling up a picture of an abandoned, crumbling building.
“This is Blackrock Correctional Facility. Abandoned five years ago when all the prisoners were transferred out after a fire, but the expected renovations never came. Government hasn’t done a damn thing with it, and I can’t find any records of future plans.
My guess? It was just cheaper to let it rot.
We find this jail, and we find the girls. ”
Titus sighs.
“Adonis has these big parties when he wants to get rid of them, usually ones he’s done with or are too difficult.
He bounces around to different places so frequently we can never really pinpoint him.
We were still working on where he’d gone after he slipped through our fingers when we ran him out of Moose Jaw.
Keeps trying to expand his territory, always touching things that don’t belong to him. ”
“Tell me more about these parties.”
He shrugs.
“Not much to tell. Lots of drugs, lots of booze… money exchanges hands and girls disappear. Now…” He leans forward, resting his palms flat on the table.
“Let me ask you something. What makes you think you’re even capable of going toe to toe with Adonis?
Because the stories I’ve heard and the bruises on your face tell me you got your ass handed to you the last time you two tangled, pretty boy. ”
I don’t take the bait, staying calm as I lean forward, only staring at him from across the table.
“Imagine something you’re good at, something you do better than anyone else.
Imagine something you can do without even thinking at this point.
I don’t know what the fuck that is for you, but for me, it’s killing men like him.
When I get my hands on him, I’m gonna pluck out his eyes and chew on ‘em like grapes.”
Titus blinks, silent only for a moment before he lets out a booming laugh.
“Well ho-lee-shit, Gus was right, you are crazy.” He smirks, leaning back in his chair. “Okay, I’m sold. But now we get to work out what it’s gonna cost you. How many of Wren’s men are dead?”
“Everyone who went but me,” Gus murmurs. “There’s maybe half-a-dozen left, but they won’t mobilize without her go-ahead.”
“Well, would you look at that? Sounds like she’ll finally owe me one.”
Raph looks like he could explode at any moment, so I do my best to jump in and get this finished as fast as I possibly can.
“You’ll let us stay here tonight, and tomorrow we go to that prison with everything we have. You’ll get your man, you’ll get your favor from Wren, and after that, you won’t have to ever hear from us again.”
“Mm, what else you got?” Titus asks, raising his brows.
“Jesus Christ, man,” Raphael sighs.
“Jesus Christ nothin’. I told you I don’t work for free, and last time I checked favors aren’t worth a whole lot from folks who’s rescuin’ is part of the deal.”
“Fine. You bring the men, and all the firepower you can muster, and I’ll give you fifty grand, in cash.”
Raphael looks like he wants to shoot me. Titus, on the other hand, looks absolutely ecstatic as he slams his hand down on the table.
“Make it 100K, and we’ve got ourselves a deal.”
I can’t stand this guy, but somehow I can’t help but grin as I reach my hand out.
“Deal.”
“See that? Now that’s the kind of respect I deserve, and respect always gets repaid! Cheyenne! Molly! These fuckers drink free tonight!”