23. Picasso
PICASSO
The movie we were watching was absolute shit. Who the fuck would write some weird-ass movie about a tire that had telekinetic powers and blew people’s heads up in revenge? I glanced at the clock for the millionth time, and it was only midnight.
It wasn’t like this was the first time she’d gone off with one of us for some reason or another.
Nothing was going to happen where they were going.
Cam assured us it wasn’t a place you could find unless you knew where to look or were a member.
They vetted their members almost as well as the FBI did if the way Cam explained it was right.
While I was never one to yuck someone’s yum, I didn’t see the fun in all that BDSM stuff.
Having a rough fuck every so often was one thing, but tying someone up, spanking them, or making you lick their boots just didn’t seem like love to me.
Cam tried to explain it, and I could see where he was coming from, but I’m not sure it would be something I was comfortable with.
I’d never tell her because she clearly was a fan, but I didn’t like the guys choking her.
That one night I thought Wes went way too far, but she told him it was what she wanted, so she didn’t stop him.
Hell, maybe it was my past and having gotten the shit beat out of me by someone who was supposed to love me.
My uncle treated women like cattle, and I vowed when I found my person, I’d never make her feel that way.
I could tell when Dax and I finally fucked that she wasn’t used to someone being that gentle.
She’d figured it out and enjoyed it, but it clearly wasn’t her usual choice.
I knew Cognac was more of a lovemaker like me, but he also has that wild streak in him that liked the excitement of exhibitionism.
“Seriously, Picasso, if you don’t fucking stop sighing, I’m going to dunk you in the hot tub,” Void said with a growl. “We get it… none of us like that she’s out there with only one of us when people have been trying to kill us left and right.”
“Fuck off,” I muttered. I didn’t even realize I was sighing.” They all turned to look at me with disbelief. “What?”
Sprocket just shook his head and got up, heading for the kitchen. “Who wants another beer?”
“Me,” Eagle called as did Cognac.
Wes got up from his spot on the floor and turned the television off. “Look, none of us are paying attention to that shit as it is. Why don’t we do something useful instead?”
“Oh, and what did you have in mind that we haven’t already been doing?” I snarked.
I knew I was being an asshole and taking out my worry on him, but it was kind of what Wes and I did.
I came up with ridiculous nicknames for him that the others now used, and he called me every random painter he could think of that wasn’t Picasso.
It was a strange love-hate relationship, but honestly, I think that’s the only way I know how to act with people who aren’t Eagle.
“I’m so glad you asked Frida,” Wes shot back with a shit-eating grin. “We know his base of operations is in Mexico, most likely near the Port of Lázaro Cárdenas. Did you have a plan of how we were going to get there undetected?”
I opened my mouth to give some retort, but I shut it when actually processing what he was saying. Getting into Mexico wasn’t like traveling to another state, where we could hop on the FBI jet and not get documented. We were crossing borders and not just a few of us but an army, if I had my way.
“Fine, you make a good point,” I admitted.
“Didn’t Dax also mention something about a tank that the triplets brought back for her?” Void interjected. “We can’t leave that behind.”
Rolling my eyes, I turned to our enforcer. “I swear your love for weapons rivals your love for our woman.”
“Isn’t it a wonderful thing they go hand in hand most of the time? Dax loves making a statement almost, if not more, than I do. Then there’s Ghost who I’m pretty sure shouldn’t ever be trusted if Harper isn’t with them,” Void reasoned.
That had us all laughing as Wes set things up on the dining room table. We’d taken the maps and stuff the triplets had brought to the Ruby Room since they had more copies.
“How is this going to work with Cam now switching to the CIA?” Eagle asked. “Couldn’t he get us in?”
“Possibly, but not everyone else we need,” Wes countered. “The thirteen of us aren’t going to be enough to do this. We need a fucking army, which is another matter we need to figure out as well.”
“The Phantom Saints will fight,” Cognac said. “They’ve seen what can happen if Marco is left in power. Plus, we know that Dax’s people are loyal to her. If she asks, they’ll fight to protect the Empire.”
“I forgot, did we decide we weren’t going to ask Tommaso for help or not?” I asked. “Each time we interact with him, I’m getting mixed signals if we still like him or not.”
That brought us all to a halt as we mulled over the answer to that question.
Sprocket was the first to speak up. “Dax has commented that she doesn’t feel like he’s ready to jump in the deep end of this battle. He needs to learn how to control his own people and empire, if you will, before taking on one of the biggest threats I think we’ve ever come across.”
“I agree,” Eagle added. “Tommaso has too much going on here, and dividing his attention won’t help us on either front.”
Cognac grabbed a pad of paper and started taking notes.
It wasn’t often we saw the carefree man putting on his serious side, but this was important to all of us.
Cognac wasn’t voted to be our treasurer just because he was like a brother to us, he had a mind for details and figures that hardly anyone but us got to witness.
“So if I understand this right, we have the eight of us, the triplets and Harper, plus Dante Black as the leaders of this war. The places we have to pull soldiers from are the Hidden Empire and the Phantom Saints,” Cognac recapped as he jotted down the information.
“The triplets have international connections, and most of their targets aren’t located in the States from what Jaxson tells me.
Dante has his hands in all the pies in all the places which will be helpful. ”
“What about the people who sided with us?” Void asked. “Would it be unreasonable to send out a rally call?”
Sprocket narrowed his eyes at the map as he pulled his hair up into a man bun, telling me he had a plan brewing. We all knew better than to ask him about it, so we kept forging on as if we hadn’t noticed.
“That’s something we might be able to do, but I’d want to dive deep into who those people are,” Wes said.
“I’ve got the list so I can start going over them and cross-check if I have any of my own information on them.
I tried to keep track of all the bigger players who might have been a problem, but not the smaller gangs. ”
“Wes,” Eagle started then paused as if reconsidering but then pushed forward. “How big is the Hidden Empire? We know it’s more than just California. I guess I’m just trying to figure out how big of an army we can pull just from her alone?”
Weston sat back in his chair, giving Eagle his full attention.
“The whole West Coast, some parts of Nevada and Arizona. We’d also been starting talks with some groups up in Alaska around Cordova and Anchorage that run the shipping yards there.
We felt it was smart to spread out some of our smuggling imports there since it’s kind of a land of its own.
The government doesn’t have a whole lot of presence there.
Plus, the state is massive with so many small native tribe villages who need the money we’d be happy to give them for the use of their ports and docks. ”
My jaw fell and about hit the table. “Holy fuck.”
“Damn, I knew my little demon was amazing, but that’s just fucking impressive,” Void said with a chuckle. “No wonder she acts like such a badass all the time… it’s because she truly is, and no one knows the extent of it.”
“Yeah, that’s how she likes it,” Wes shared.
“Not even those in other states know just how far her reach goes. We keep it closed circuit with them having a manager of sorts who leads the business, but they report to Dax. Most of them were at the announcement when she got shot, but I touched base with them all while she was recovering.”
“Right, well…” Cognac said, then cleared his throat as if still absorbing all this information. “An army will be no problem if we can pull from all her people.”
“Wait,” Sprocket cut in.
Everyone stopped talking and turned their attention to him. This was the first time Wes was going to witness how Sprocket’s brain worked, but honestly, it was just as impressive as Dax when she finally connected dots from all over the place that no one else would.
“Okay, hear me out on this. Let me say it all before you ask questions or start to pull it apart,” Sprocket warned.
“Void, you said something about pulling people from those who bet for us. We also have a list of those who sided with Marco. To me, that tells me they’re either already in his pocket, too scared to go against him or want to get in his good graces.
Instead of vetting who was with us, we need to look at those against us.
Bear with me as I try to explain this while I fit all the ideas together. ”
Cognac got up and came back with a fresh beer for everyone as we took a seat at the table, ready to listen to whatever Sprocket had brewing.