Hot Rod (The Marauders MC #4)

Chapter Jep

Bits of book three Jep...

Titus walked over to Ricco and shook his head as he carefully removed the gun in his relaxed hand from the sleeping man.

Ricco twitched slightly but he didn’t wake up, not yet.

Titus raised his head and looked around the makeshift camp.

Several of the men were paint splattered and some of them looked injured but they just looked sad to his eyes.

His men had already disarmed them all. These men were part of Ricco’s army?

Shaking his head, he had to wonder why they thought they were so scary.

He looked down at Ricco’s sleeping face again and not so gently he grabbed him by the throat.

“Wakey, wakey Ricco. The sun is up and your ass is in a world of trouble.”

Ricco opened his eyes and asked, “Who the fuck are you? Do you know who the hell I am?” Ricco clenched his hand and his frown deepened when he realized his gun wasn’t there.

He looked around at his men and found they were surrounded by men they didn’t know.

“Qué diablos está pasando aquí?” What the hell is going on here?

he shouted. Then he tried to sit up but Titus still had his hand pressed to his throat and now he began to squeeze.

Ricco’s hands flew up to try and pry his fingers away but found Titus wasn’t moving. The man was large and strong. Ricco began to panic. “What is this?” Ricco asked, trying to breathe.

“This is us taking you and your men hostage.” Titus leaned closer. He stared into Ricco’s eyes and smiled at the panic he found there. “You started this by bringing Todd here to claim something he had no right to claim. You and Todd’s sons left laughing, but you aren’t laughing now, are you?”

With a cough, Ricco asked, “Why would you care about the likes of a man— like Todd Lawler?”

Titus snorted. “I don’t give a rip about fucking Todd Lawler.

But you attacking us, doesn’t sit right with me.

In fact, it doesn’t sit right with any of us.

You made the mistake of coming back here and starting a war you couldn’t finish.

” Titus smiled at him now. “A war you just lost spectacularly, by the way. You may think you’re someone big but you ain’t shit here and now you’re our prisoners.

Now get your worthless ass up. And get moving! ” Titus stood and glared down at him.

Ricco snarled and got slowly to his feet. “You can’t take us prisoner. No one takes Ricco Sanchas prisoner. I will kill you all. The rest of my army is on its way and we will wipe your sorry asses off this mountain,” he shouted at the group of men surrounding his camp.

Titus just crossed his massive arms over his chest and smiled. “Your army?” He reached for his phone and showed him the pictures of the men they’d stopped yesterday on the mountain road leading to the clubhouse. “You mean these sorry excuses for an army?”

Ricco stared at the mess on the mountain road. He raised his head and paled. “You stopped my men?”

Titus just raised his eyebrow. “Yeah, we stopped them.” Shrugging his shoulders he added, “Some of them didn’t make the turn right and went over the side but that’s their own fault. It's not my fault that they don't know how to drive.”

Ricco growled deep in his throat. “You killed my men!” he shouted while moving closer to Titus. “No one but me kills my men.” Spittal flew from his mouth.

Titus snarled at him, “Back off, buddy.”

“To hell with you!” Ricco shouted then went to his belt to grab a small blade.

Titus went on alert and he took a defensive stand.

“I said back off. This won’t go the way you think it will, asshole,” Titus growled as he watched him carefully. He knew he could defend himself against a blade but he didn’t want to kill the man, only disarm him. “Back off.”

Ricco sneered and pounced on Titus.

Titus moved out of the way and struck the other man, smashing his grip on the blade.

Ricco switched hands and glared at Titus. “How dare you?”

“I’m not just going to stand here and let you fucking stab me.” Titus glared at him. “Now drop the fucking knife and accept you just got yourself caught.”

“I will never admit you defeated me.” Ricco screamed at him. “I will kill you myself!” He again tried to rush him.

Titus just stepped aside.

Ricco fell flat on his face then he suddenly turned and threw a handful of dirt into Titus’ face.

Titus stepped back but he made no move to wipe the dirt from his face. Instead, he stomped down on Ricco’s hand.

Ricco screamed while clutching his hand. The knife lay on the ground between them.

“Throw the blade away and get up,” Titus ordered harshly.

Ricco grabbed the blade and hesitated a second too long.

Titus stomped down on his foot now.

Ricco screamed as he threw the blade away.

“Now get your sorry ass up and lace your fingers behind your head or you’re gonna piss me right the hell off.”

Ricco did so.

His men were also surrounded as they slowly got to their feet and quietly laced their fingers behind their heads.

Next, they took them inside the clubhouse.

Ricco saw Arielle standing there with a look of contempt for him on her face. “What the hell are you looking at, puta?’ he scoffed. “Ain’t you ever seen a real man before?”

Arielle snorted, “Yeah I’ve seen a real man before and he ain’t you, loser. You are a small man in my eyes.”

Ricco snarled. “I’ll show you a real man before I get done with these stupid bikers. They aren’t getting me near a jail cell, sweetheart. They ain’t got no evidence against me.”

“Oh, tiny man they got more than enough evidence,” she air quoted the word, “To sink your fucking battleship.”

Ricco scoffed at her. “I ain’t got no battleship honey and even if they do take me down they will never stop my organization.

If I go down, it won’t be for long and my brother Gabriel will step in and handle things for me.

So even if I fail, my family always steps up to hold the fort down until I get free again. ”

Arielle nodded. “That might actually be true if you hadn’t killed your own brother a few days ago.”

“What the fuck are you talking about, puta?” Ricco all but shouted at her. “I didn’t kill Gabriel and he’ll come in here and kill you all.”

“Says who?” Bouncer bellowed. “We took you and your men down without any problems at all, I think we can handle your brother.”

Ricco shook his head. “You think I’m bad? You ain’t seen nothing yet. Gabriel taught me most of what he knew but he’ll have something special waiting for you guys. Something you ain’t never seen before.”

“That might have been true but like I said you took care of him for us, you asswipe,” Arielle called out.

“What the hell are you talking about, chica?” Ricco asked her in a disgusted voice. “Gabriel is waiting to hear how we did here, he’s not dead.”

Arielle smiled at him. “Let me ask you something Ricco, do you remember the bar you walked into last week?”

Ricco looked confused. “The bar? What bar?”

“The Blue Bar in Bangor.”

Ricco cocked his head in remembrance. “Si, I remember that bar.” He shrugged. “They told me to go away.”

Arielle nodded. “And you didn’t like that much, did you?” she asked ever so softly. “You felt like the owner simply dismissed you and you needed to make an example of him and place, right?”

“How do you even know about that bar?” He narrowed his eyes at her.

“I’ve been watching you for some time,” Arielle told him. “But you see, there was something about that particular bar that you didn’t know.”

“And what was that?” Ricco asked with a scoff.

“Your brother was already two steps ahead of you and that bar was already paying him protection.”

Ricco’s face paled. “That’s a lie, he wouldn’t come into my territory like that.”

“Well damn, I’m afraid that he did just that.

Did you know he was slowly making his way to taking over all of your territory?

” She nodded. “Yeah, your brother was slowly taking over and you were so stupid you didn’t even know what he was doing.

When the bar owner called him and told him someone had been there hassling him, Gabriel was in the bar waiting for you to come back.

And what did you do after you felt insulted?

You decided to make an example of that place.

Am I right?” She chuckled as she seemed to enjoy this story.

“You decided to show everyone how you handle rejection. So you came back after dark and you just had to tamper with the gas lines, didn’t you?

You didn’t even check if there was anyone inside.

” She shook her head. “You thought the bartender and the owner were the only ones there. You broke the gas line going inside and waited a few minutes then you opened the back door and tossed a lit lighter in. Then you ran away like the little pussy you have always been. You watched from a safe distance as the bar blew up. You just stood there as all that debris fell everywhere then you smirked and walked away like the coward you have always been.”

“How do you know what happened there?” Ricco finally asked.

“I was there waiting for you to show up,” she informed him.

“But before you showed up, your brother and four of his men arrived. He was waiting in that bar and the medical examiner had to do a DNA test on what was left of his body. They found pieces of him and his men all over the ruins of that place. And you would have known that if you’d stayed around a bit longer.

But you never stayed.” She tisked in a fake sadness.

“You seem to think you can do whatever you want and nothing will ever touch you. Well, that’s not how the world works motherfucker and now it's time for your reckoning to begin.”

“Gabriel couldn’t have been there,” Ricco whispered softly as he looked perplexed. “He wouldn’t cross boundaries like that.”

Arielle leaned a little closer and spoke almost in a whisper, “But he wasn’t crossing boundaries, was he? You were the one doing that very thing, you were stepping into his territory, weren’t you?”