17. Protection
PROTECTION
BISHOP
I head downstairs with my guns cocked and loaded. The brothers are moving most of the women to the safe room I told Blue to go to. I see Big Country moving towards the front of the clubhouse with his gun.
The music is still loudly playing, and from the outside you would think the party is still going. But we have protocols for this type of shit. If gunshots are fired at the gate, then the clubhouse automatically goes on lockdown.
This building has been renovated and updated with the newest technology. Hell, some of the shit we have for security ain’t even on the market. But with money like ours, and brothers like Wire on our team, anything is possible.
I should’ve been on higher alert when Brick didn’t return any of my messages. It may have been for good reason, but I feel like him being missing and us being shot at tonight isn’t a coincidence.
“What’s the word?” I ask Green, who is standing in for Stone since he’s on the road with Rock.
“Spider reported suspicious cars being picked up by the cameras about five miles out. I told him to lock the gate and get in position. Two minutes later, there were shots fired.”
“Did we get a view of who it was?” I asked, walking to the front.
“The night vision cameras might’ve picked up something. The spikes at the gate took out one of their cars; it’s still there. They bailed out, though. Spider hit a few before his ass did as he was told, and took cover.”
I nod. We will go check out the car and then watch the video. The way they tried to hit us during a party makes me suspicious that it was someone who knows a little something about us. Too bad for them that we updated all our security measures after being betrayed so many times.
Knowing the women are secure in the safe room, I send a few prospects to the basement control room to watch the cameras and guard them. If the fuckers who tried to ram the gate are still there, I don’t want to take a chance of them getting inside and hurting our women.
I bark orders to the brothers so we can secure the clubhouse and find out what the fuck is going on.
I send Black, Country, and Mix to check the perimeter while Green, Crush, and I go to the front gate.
As soon as the gate was hit, an alert was sent to Rock.
I will call him when we finish checking everything.
I know Rock, Stone, and Tree were already headed back from New Mexico, so they should be here in no time. It just pisses me off that all this shit is going down while I was laid up with my woman. I couldn’t even finish enjoying our night because it’s always fucking something.
“Spider!” I holler when we get to the gate.
Spider comes out of the gate house with two prospects behind him. They’re all sweating with wide eyes full of adrenaline. These are young guys who haven’t been a part of the Hounds for long, so I understand. We haven’t had an incident of this magnitude in years.
“Hey, V.P., we held the gate. Those motherfuckers didn’t stand a chance!” Spider rushes out excitedly.
“Proud of you, brother. Y’all alright? Nobody is hit, are they?” I question, taking a closer look at the guys.
“Nah. We’re good. I did get one of those bastards right in the chest, though. He ain’t makin’ it, I can guarantee you that,” one of the prospects says.
I nod. “Good, one less motherfucker to worry about. Did they say anything?”
“Yeah, they were screaming VFC or some shit. They was also speaking in Spanish, so I don’t know what the fuck they was talkin’ about.”
“Why would the Vasquez Family Cartel be trying to hit us?” Green questions.
I run my hands through my hair, tugging at the strands before letting out a deep exhale. If it was the Vasquez cartel trying to take us out, Parson was right about them being the new players in town. Maybe they are trying to take out the competition.
“We need to get prepared for war. No matter who just started this shit, we need to finish it,” I respond.
I have a very bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. The type of gut feeling that you don’t ignore. That I’ve never ignored. If the cartel just came to shoot up our clubhouse, why the hell did Brick not get word to me?
“Country!” I holler. “Get the brothers. Church is in session in an hour. We’re on lockdown; make sure all the family is here and knows. Women and children too.”
Once all of the brothers are at the clubhouse, we go over everything we’ve found out. Wire has been working furiously to clean up the footage and track down where the cars may have originally come from.
Of course, all of the VIN numbers had been removed from the car that was abandoned at the gate. But we’re hoping that something was left behind. Country has been searching through the car with a fine-tooth comb since I called church two hours ago.
Hopefully, he’ll report back soon with something helpful.
I don’t want to hit Brick up just yet because that could put him in a precarious position, but I’m worried.
He’s a professional, and he’s been doing this for a long time, but in the past he’s always been two steps ahead of whatever organization he was working for.
Brick has always given me a heads-up when something this big was about to go down. I trust him with my life, and he would have told me if we were in danger of getting hit tonight. It’s a lot of shit not adding up.
“Alright Wire, what cha got?” I ask, and everybody quiets down.
Wire enlarges grainy pictures of men wearing all black with masks on. They are covered from head to toe, without an inch of skin showing; they could be anybody. We watch in silence as the cars make their way down the long dirt road and stop, lighting up our gate and what used to be our weak spots.
“You noticed something, V.P.?” Black asks, watching me closely.
“Yeah, I noticed that the motherfuckers hit what used to be the weakest spots in our security.”
“Fuck don’t tell me somebody betrayed our asses again. It’s some disloyal motherfuckers walking around,” Big Country grouses.
“No, I think the same disloyal motherfucker betrayed us again,” Rock says, coming into the room.
“I’m damn glad to see you, brother.” I slap Rock on the back as he fully enters the conference room.
“Glad to see you too, brother. I can’t be gone more than a few days, and people are shootin’ up our shit?” Rock raises a mocking brow.
I shrug. “I told your ass not to leave me in charge.”
Rock chuckles, shaking his long blond hair. I am glad to see my brother is back in one piece. Hopefully, they found something out in New Mexico that will help us.
“Did y’all find out anything in New Mexico?” I ask, hoping they have some information that will shed some light on what’s going on here.
“It was a dead end. Frazier or Myers didn’t have anything to do with our supply being fucked with. But we’ll keep an eye on things.”
I sigh, but nod. It’s always gonna be something going on when you deal in the life that we live in. It just comes with the territory.
“So, I noticed that you said a disloyal motherfucker betrayed us again. Care to clarify for the new kids in class?” Wire questions.
“Yeah, those motherfuckers didn’t have shit to do with the pills, but that beady-eyed asshole was sniffing around, trying to get his hands on some assault rifles.”
“Kevin fucking Frazier!” Black exclaims angrily.
“Yep. His ass would be familiar enough with how we did things to hit us where it hurts. Fortunately for us, we switched up our security, so his little plan didn’t work.”
“So, was it this Frazier dude or the cartel? Cause I’m confused as fuck.” Mix shakes his head, looking around.
“Anything is possible at this point. But I haven’t heard from my guy on the inside, so I don’t know for sure. It’s not how the VFC has ever operated, so it doesn’t make sense.”
Before we can go into any more detail, the prospect that I sent to watch the women comes into the conference room. He stands tall with dark brown skin and eyes. He looks to be in his twenties, but all these kids look young to my old ass.
“Smoke, is there a reason you’re up here and not in the basement?” I question.
“Yeah, V.P., your woman is losing her shit. I didn’t want to let her out without checkin’ on things first. When I turned the sound up on the cameras that are in the safe room, I heard her screaming about her mama.”
I don’t ask him any more questions. Blue would never act a fool under these circumstances. Something is clearly wrong, and I need to get to her. I’m moving to the basement before Smoke can even finish his sentence.
My phone beeps in my pocket as I walk down the stairs. I feel a sense of relief when I recognize the unsaved number. But the number code on that’s on the screen has me frowning. I hit the call button as I keep walking to Blue.
“Talk,” I say when the line is connected.
“Carol Anne… red.” The line disconnects, and my heart sinks to my stomach.
Something has happened to Blue’s mama, and it ain’t nothin’ good. I’ll do my best to talk her into staying here where it’s safe. But I know that when it comes to my woman and protecting her mama, nothing will stand in her way.
I just hope whoever came for my woman knows that nothing will stand in my way when it comes to protecting her.