Chapter Four
At about midnight, Arielle quietly left the clubhouse.
She needed to grab her cycle. It was the only thing she owned in the whole world.
It used to be her dad’s as he was a casual rider but he had loved the bike before mom had been killed.
So now it was the only thing she really had left of him.
She grabbed the handle bars and pushed it forward.
She made her way around the side of the building where a lot of the bikes were parked. Kicking the stand down, she parked it.
Rushing around to the front, she sneaked back in. Making her way back over to the table, she sat down.
A few minutes quietly went by as she stared at the screens.
Everyone else in the room had laid their heads down and seemed to be asleep, their gentle snores rumbling a bit in the quiet room.
There were patrols and men on the roof still, as they all took shifts, guarding the clubhouse.
Suddenly, Sanchas seemed to find one of the cameras there in the trees and he raised his cell phone as a flashlight and snarled at it.
Arielle swallowed hard as she recognized his face on the screen. She tapped Jep awake.
Raising his head, he opened his eyes and saw the same thing she had. Jep came awake instantly and he began taping the section.
Sanchas was now screaming at the small red blinking light.
“Damn,” Jeb said quietly, searching Sanchas’ face for injuries.
He saw the blur of red and blue paint on his clothing.
There was paint on his face and hands. Jep could certainly read the foul words coming out of his mouth.
Like fuck, assholes and douchebags for a few of them.
He didn’t have to hear his rage, he could see it on his face.
Jep slowly turned to Arielle and shook his head.
“Yeah, that man is pissed, I mean really pissed. Heads are gonna roll pissed.”
She nodded. “Yup, that would be a good description.” She shrugged. “I almost feel sorry for his men.” She pondered for a moment then asked, “I wonder if he knows what happened to his other men down at the bottom of the hill?”
“That might be part of what’s pissing him off now,” Jep told her.
Arielle paused, then turned her head to the small screen and studied Sanchas’s rantings.
He paced back and forth in front of the camera and then looked at his men.
He raised his weapon and fired a warning shot into the air.
He rousted his men awake and they began searching for something.
In the distance, another paint bomb went off or maybe it was a stink bomb because the men came back while coughing and gasping.
Jep just shook his head as he chuckled. Looking over at Arielle, he said, “Now, I really don’t want to be out there.”
“You and I both,” she agreed.
They both snickered.
Soon the faint smell of skunk hit the clubhouse and everyone woke up because of the stink.
“Sweet Jesus, Boomer,” Ironman exclaimed as he shook his head. “What is that awful stink?”
Boomer snorted. “Now what the hell do you think it is, boy? Cuz it ain’t me, so look elsewhere.” He waved his hand in front of his face and said, “Can you imagine what it smells like out there? Or the man that tripped the bomb? Whoowee, he must smell like shit warmed over.”
“I’m hoping it was Sanchas himself.” Arielle smiled.
Bouncer nodded. “We can only hope.”
Jep leaned back in his chair and studied their old president.
“Well, he knows about the cameras now anyway and he’s pissed.
We’re talking royally pissed here. Oh and he caught at least part of one of the paint bombs.
His clothes, his face and hands were marked.
” Shrugging, he said, “We didn’t see much but I taped it if you want to see it. ”
“Bring it up,” Titus ordered.
Now, they all watched the moment Ricco Sanchas found the cameras. Everyone watched as he went apeshit crazy.
When Sanchas spoke, Arielle interpreted. She spoke good Spanish and the men knew exactly what was said by the man outside when she skipped from Spanish to English.
“Well, ain’t he a pip?” Boomer stated.
Tracker and Sniper looked at each other then at their dad. They recognized his expression and it meant nothing but trouble.
“Pops, what are you thinking?” Sniper asked him.
Boomer snapped his gaze over to them and replied, “Just what I said boy, he’s a pip and a pip never lasts long, does it?
Just a spoiled boy in a grown up body and he’s got to learn a long lost lesson about what it takes to be a man.
He’s out there threatening everyone behind these walls and I’ll be damned if I let this little pipsqueak win.
” He surged to his feet and looked around.
“We’re gonna teach that asshole some goddamn manners. ” His hand slammed down on the table.
At the sudden noise, everyone in the room jumped.
Then he stomped down the hall to his room.
Everyone sat there stunned.
Bouncer shook his head and muttered, “He hasn’t changed, not one little bit. Still lets his temper rule the roost.”
Tracker turned his head and looked over at his uncle. “He’s been this way all his life. But the last couple of years for the most part, he’s turned that rage into winning.”
Spider nodded. “We won some battles that we maybe couldn’t have, if he hadn’t changed gears. I think this might be the same thing.”
“His time in the swamps helped,” Tracker added. “He has a daughter there that he never knew about.”
Bouncer froze and looked over at Tracker. “What did you just say?”
“He has a full grown daughter, Uncle Bounce,” Tracker repeated the news. “At first, he of course, messed it up by trying to tell her what to do.”
Bouncer nodded. “Ok, that sounds normal for him.”
“But what we noticed was that he seems to think before he spouts off now,” Spider added. “That’s why he stalked off, I think.”
Bouncer sighed. “I hope so. All of his life he’s been temperamental.” Then he turned to Arielle to ask, “By the way, where did you learn to speak Spanish so well? Hell girl, you shouldn’t know half of those nasty words.”
She shrugged. “We lived in a Mexican speaking neighborhood. Then I lived on the streets for a while after I aged out of the system. I moved there on purpose and you really learn what life is all about.”
“Why would you do that?” Reno wanted to know. “Living on the streets is dangerous.”
Arielle nodded. “Yeah, it was but I needed a way to watch Todd and Sanchas. I wanted to see their operation firsthand. I had to know how bad it really was and what I found made me sick. So I could understand what my dad was thinking and why he chose to end his life with a bullet. I had to know why.”
“And did you find anything that would justify what your dad did?” Crank asked softly.
She nodded. “After my mom died, I think a big part of who my dad really was, died with her. But he stayed around because of me. He always held a certain part of himself up to the right and wrong of the times. He had his own pride to deal with but when he finally saw what Todd was really doing, he couldn’t take the fact that his own hands were dirty.
I mean elbow deep in Todd’s slime. When those cops were coming up the walkway, my dad felt like he had nothing to live for.
He went out with his name untarnished in an act that tarnished it anyway.
I had nothing left when it was said and done but he didn’t think about that.
” She paused, took a deep breath and said, “That’s when I went through his papers and put two and two together.
I found out that Todd was acting on Sanchas’ behalf.
Not his own. Todd might have gotten my dad into trouble but Sanchas was the mastermind behind it all.
” She turned and glared at screens. “And I figure I owed him a painful death because of what he did to my mom. I couldn’t get Todd but maybe I can get Ricco Sanchas.
Maybe his death will end the chaos he had planned. ”
Jep shook his head. “Killing a man leaves a stain on your soul that most people can’t endure. Most people can’t just kill a man and walk away clean, Arielle.”