Chapter 25 Ronan
RONAN
This motherfucker was testing my patience and I couldn’t tell if he was egging me on to pump me up for the job we were about to do, or if he got his kicks from watching me squirm.
Cézar rode his bike to avoid any chance of me having any sort of discussion with him and I wanted to punch his stupid face in for it.
Though the car ride with Calaveras was quiet and long, I was plenty satisfied knowing Kane’s ass was going to be numb and completely destroyed by the time we got to their compound.
We followed behind the bikes as the two of them rode together like old friends in the front.
Eventually, Cézar threw his arm out to the side to signal us to pull off onto the side of the road.
We turned our headlights off, Cézar swung his leg off his bike gracefully and I could make out the “LOBO” patch that curved around his club’s name on the back of his leather cut.
“Lobo?” I asked Calaveras and he answered in his ghostlike voice.
“Road name,” he vaguely explained, and I was glad I didn’t bother with small talk during the ride.
Clearly, this guy couldn’t manage full sentences. Maybe he didn’t need to.
“Because of his last name?” I asked him, looking up at the only guy who’d ever towered over me.
“Because he’s always got the pack’s best interest in mind.” Damn if that wasn’t enough for me.
I didn’t want to respect the bastard. I knew he would always look at me like some kid who would never be good enough for Cecilia. His people certainly respected him though, and I was having a hard time pretending like I couldn’t see why.
He walked over to the van and opened the trunk revealing a beautiful stash of weapons that made any good soldier’s mouth water.
I reached for a Glock 23 and loaded it up before putting it in the back of my pants as a backup.
I grabbed a few knives and tucked them away into my boots.
I grabbed another Glock and kept that one in my hand and I looked at Mateo to see he was making the same selections.
I smirked at him turning up the corner of my lip because this was the shit we lived for, this chaos was where the roots of our bond sank into.
“We’re going to go through the thicket of trees, it’s about a ten-minute walk and we’ll be able to sneak into the compound unseen this way,” Cézar said, pulling out a single flashlight from his pocket and turning it on as we marched through the tall grass into the dark clearing.
The caw of a crow in a nearby tree made Mateo jump back with fright and Calaveras cracked up laughing so hard that he was slapping his knees and wiping tears from the corners of his eyes.
“You almost shit yourself!” He cackled.
Mateo and Cézar simultaneously shushed him like a badly behaving child. Watching such a giant, fearsome guy laughing so freely and wildly actually put me in a better mood. I ended up letting out a few chuckles myself as I slapped Calaveras in the back in a friendly manner.
“There are ten members left here, everyone else who didn’t want to stick around while their Prez did disgusting things to little kids, packed their bags and found a new Diablos chapter somewhere to call home.
” He pulled out a piece of paper from his pocket and it was a blueprint of the clubhouse just a few hundred feet away from us.
“They’ll probably be off their asses drinking and on whatever drugs. Shoot first, ask questions later, but if there are any cut bunnies around leave them out of it,” he warned.
“Cut bunnies?” Kane asked him, raising an eyebrow.
“Anything with tits and a hatchet wound.” He explained before continuing, “Do you see this door here?” He pointed to the drawing on the paper. “This is the basement door, I need one of you to make sure there are no victims here, can you do that?” He looked at both of us, but Mateo answered first.
“I’m on it, I’ll sneak in through this side window.” Kane pointed to the piece of paper.
“This pendejo here though,” he started and pulled out another folded-up paper from his vest’s inside pocket this time. “You don’t shoot to kill, not yet I need to take his patch while he’s alive.” He explained, unfolding the photo of a long-haired man.
We all nodded in agreement after Cézar asked if we were ready and we moved silently as a unit. Mateo signaled us with a finger to let us know he was heading towards the back of the house to find a way into the basement.
“I’ll go in through the other side, count to ten, and then burst in,” Cézar said to us and we began our countdown as he took off to the opposite side of the clubhouse that Mateo went in.
“Eight, nine…” I said and the mass of muscles next to me shouted, “TEN!” as he ran back for momentum and threw his weight into his shoulder as he slammed into the clubhouse front door.
There was no time to think, as soon as the door broke open it was pure chaos. Tits, beers, and bullets were flying everywhere. The scum that was leftover in this MC clearly didn’t even give a shit if they accidentally killed one of the women they were about to fuck.
I kept a mental screenshot of the guy we weren’t supposed to kill, and aimed both of my guns, shooting them off at the same time.
Calaveras was stabbing some dude in the throat while I took out four of them with clean headshots.
A few more guys poured in from a back hallway, thankfully too wasted to be shooting straight.
I took a knife from inside my boot and threw it with as much force as I could.
Right into somebody's eye.
There were four guys left by my count, and from what I could see they were all hiding from their fates. “Come out, come out,” I sang, loving the way the adrenaline rushed with a righteous kill.
I’d be sleeping like a baby tonight knowing we rid the world of these fuckers.
A bullet whizzed by so close, I could feel the heat against my skin. I pulled the last knife out of my boot and threw it in that direction without paying too much attention. The scream let me know I hit a target.
I walked toward their bar and found my knife wedged in some bald guy’s thigh.
“Please, please, don’t do this!” he begged, but unfortunately for him, today I was judge, jury, and executioner.
I pulled my knife out of his thigh and cleaned it off on his shirt before putting a bullet between his eyes. The girls who didn’t get shot by these fuckers were running out the door, Mateo was already out there waiting for them, with a few kids in tow.
I contained my rage, reminding myself that no one who was guilty was going to be surviving the night.
I didn’t even bother to ask the other guy if he had any last words before I took him out too.
A crashing sound drew my attention to find Cézar throwing the very guy from the photo down the clubhouse stairs.
He stepped down behind him, kicking him down the rest of the stairs before dragging the man along the floor by his greasy hair.
It looked like the guy was practically dead already, but Cézar had a point to make and I sure as hell could appreciate that too.
The crime was too big, and death was too good for this grimy piece of shit.
Villalobos took out his phone and passed it to me.
“Record this shit,” he said, pulling a cigarette out of his shirt pocket and lighting it with a deep drag.
First, he took the guy’s leather vest off and threw it into the ground. “I’d take your President patch, but to be honest, I think we’ll just burn your whole clubhouse down.” He said reaching for an open bottle of tequila that sat on the bar.
Cézar took a big swig then pulled his knife out and in a single motion, he grabbed the skin on the guy’s chest where the DIABLOS LOCOS MC emblem was tattooed and sliced down like he was taking a filet.
Cézar tossed the patch of flesh on the ground in front of him, a wild and erratic sob leaving his victim's mouth.
The guy was shaking violently from shock, his oily, dark hair was dripping with sweat.
To most, that would have been sufficient punishment, but the overwhelming smell of fear and piss in the air seemed to fuel Cézar to go further.
The biker fought to remain conscious, but he was probably better off letting go.
I wouldn’t want to be on the other end of Cézar’s wrath tonight.
I knew, because that same demon I saw hiding behind that crooked smile, lived within me as well.
Kane burst through the front door not paying any attention to the wild mess and the dead bodies, his eyes were frantic, scanning the room until he found me. He heaved big gulps of air in and out of his lungs to catch his breath before he spoke, “We gotta get the fuck out of here brother.”
I pulled my eyebrows together in question, he waved his phone at me. I felt the pockets of my pants and realized I left my phone in the van.
“What’s happening?” I yelled at him, overwhelmed at the incoming flood of things to deal with.
I turned my head just in time to catch Cézar pulling the guy’s tongue out of his mouth and slicing it off with one clean motion. He dumped the rest of the tequila over his body and tossed a lit match over him before exiting the clubhouse.
“The high-rise was compromised. Too many fatalities. I think they came in from the rooftop,” Mateo said, still struggling to breathe.
My brain was slow to process his words and too many thoughts were racing in my head, trying to make sense of what was happening at the moment.
“She’s gone Ronan, they took her.” he shouted, slapping at my face to knock the haze out of me.
It worked, but instead my rage was misdirected, my fist flying directly into his face mechanically, out of sheer reflex.
“What do you mean she’s gone? Who took her?” I yelled at him, but he seemed to be fully out of answers for me.
It was probably the first time I had seen Mateo Kane look freaked out and unsure in my entire life.
The fire was spreading through the clubhouse, Calaveras pushed us out through the door since we were both frozen in place.
“Lobo,” I yelled out for him as he piled the three remaining women into the van with the rest of the kids. “We need your bikes, we don’t have time to go back to Grimm’s Reach. I have to get to my men, now.”
He threw the keys in my direction, nodding in understanding, “I appreciate the help, Zerkos. It’s good to have trained guns on jobs like this. Sorry, it didn’t pan out so lucrative for you. You need a favor, just call it in. The Diablos owe you."
That wouldn't be good enough. He owed me a lot more than a favor.
“I need more than that. I need answers,” I said through clenched teeth, pulling him toward me by the shirt.
“I’m grateful for the help, amigo, but the life I come from doesn’t allow me to spill secrets. I hope you can appreciate and understand that,” he said with a look that let me know he never planned to tell me a damn thing tonight.
“Cézar, I have to know!” I shouted.
“Listen, the things I’ve done to that girl. I wanna keep that shit buried with the rest of my skeletons you understand?” But I didn’t understand, and Kane was charging at him before I could register what he had said.
“What the fuck do you mean the things you’ve done to her?” My brother in arms asked, taking the words straight out of my mouth and earning himself a look from Villalobos that said 'now he’d seen it all'.
“I didn’t peg you for someone who shared Zerkos,” he glanced between me and Kane.
My upper lip curled up at the insinuation.
“Settle down, both of you. I didn’t mean it like that. She was my family, and I hurt her in more than one way. The best thing I can do for her sake, is keep my mouth shut and keep her secrets,” he said.
I pushed him away with a frustrated growl. I pulled the glock from my pants but the familiar feeling of a chamber pressing up against the back of my head let me know Calaveras had a quicker draw than I did. But I didn’t care, “I came here for answers, I’m not leaving without them.”
Cézar let out an obnoxious laugh that had me clenching my fists together, my nostrils flared wide in anger. “I don’t know if it’s hilarious or completely sad that you still know nothing, gringo.” He said matter-of-factly.
I shoved him again and it earned me a look from Calaveras that said he wouldn’t tolerate me laying my hands on his President again.
“I need to know Cézar,” I pressed again.
“I’d say, she doesn’t trust you, or she loves you too much to give you the truth. Either way, I would consider it a blessing amigo,” he said.
I didn't move. Didn't change my expression. He raised his hands up in defense, letting out a sigh of defeat, “Suit yourself, kid. But don’t say I didn’t warn you when you start meddling in shit that’s too big for you.
No one makes it out of the Flores family alive.
No one. That’s all you’ll get from me,” he said.
I threw the Glock on the ground, unsatisfied but well aware that was the most I'd get out of Cézar Villalobos when it came to Cecilia.
My heart was pumping so wildly I could hear it pulsing in my ears as Mateo and I both threw our legs over their bikes, the sound only masked by the throttle of the motorcycles.
I didn’t have time to process Cézar’s words but I made a mental note to remember the name Flores when this clusterfuck was dealt with.
It only took a few seconds to steady myself as I adjusted to the purring of the engine beneath me and we pulled out of the compound, the heat of the fire blazed behind us as we rode back to Cove City.
It was going to be a long ride, and the weight of the world was coming down on me.
I left her there, by herself, vulnerable.
If anything happened to her, it was on me.
Whoever took her didn’t know the monster they just unleashed.
I’d go to the ends of the Earth to find my girl.
Now that I had her back, I didn’t plan to let her go ever again. Like a rabid hellhound, I would do whatever it took to exact my vengeance and make sure she was safe. She was all there was, all there could ever be. And no one would take her from me.