Chapter Ten
“It was a righteous kill,” his father, Bouncer, told him.
Titus nodded. “Yeah, I know.”
Ricco’s men all stared down at El Jeffee Sanchas.
One of them asked in shock, “I-is he dead?”
Titus knelt down and felt at his neck for a pulse. There wasn’t one so he replied, “Yeah, he’s gone.”
Ricco’s men all looked up from the body of their boss then glanced at each other.
The room fell silent.
Titus’ men and some of the Crimson Tide men all held onto their weapons in case Ricco’s men wanted to make trouble over this.
Suddenly, the captured men all smiled and some laughed as others slumped against each other in relief.
“Thank fuck!” one cheered as he actually dropped to his knees onto the floor.
“Finally, we are free!” another one said.
“Oh, thank you Lord!” another called out
Boomer stared at them as he smirked. “You are all really broken up about this, eh?”
They were all so happy that most of them didn’t even hear him.
One of them turned to look at Boomer. “He has held us hostage for years. Threatening our families if we do not do as he says.”
Another of them nodded and said, “He has threatened my mother’s life for five years now.”
Titus watched the men who all seemed to be ecstatic even as their boss lay dead on the floor. “So none of you came here willingly?”
“Hell no, we didn’t,” another one replied.
“And we may have to go to jail,” the guy next to him stated as he had tears in his eyes. “But at least my wife and kids are safe now.”
Titus looked at them then over Bouncer.
Bouncer gave him a nod.
Boomer saw this exchange and he had one more question for these men. “So, the army down the hill that we blocked on the road, are they also forced to work for him?”
“As far as we know,” one of the happy men said. “All of his soldiers are recruited by force. That’s so he doesn’t have to pay us much. He has a few lieutenants that are loyal to him, but when they hear he is dead, they will run away too.”
“From what I learned over the last couple of years,” Arielle spoke up now. “He doesn’t pay them well and he beats on a few of them.”
Titus shook his head and asked another question of the men, “Do any of you have a number to call someone in that army down the hill?”
One of the men raised his hand. “We don’t have phones as he didn’t trust us. But he has a cell phone on him with the numbers.”
“Yeah,” Arielle agreed. “Look for the name of Dagger, his head lieutenant and send him an image of this cretin.” She pointed down at Ricco. “Then tell him, they can leave now.”
Titus knelt down next to the body and turned him over.
With eyes blank as he stared into forever, they could all see that Sanchas was really, really dead.
Titus dug the phone out from the dead man’s jacket that was covered in blood and blue paint. He tapped the screen then got the camera up and snapped a picture of Ricco. Lowering it, he called for Ironman.
The large biker came over and asked, “Yeah, boss?”
Titus gave him a nod of his head and said, “Can you take him out back? I don’t like dead men on my floor. It’s bad mojo.”
Iron man nodded.
Hot Rod came over with an old blanket. “Let's put him on this, then you can drag him out. Cause we don’t want blood on the floor either.”
“Yeah, we gotta mop up this area as it is,” Ironman replied.
They both got busy with this job as if they truly were just taking out the trash.
No one wondered at the callous way they spoke about the dead man. They all heard his list of crimes and the evil he had committed when he was alive. In fact, the men that worked for Ricco all smiled the entire time as if this was a celebration of life instead of a death.
Titus saw this and he had to shiver a bit. He’d never seen a whole crowd of men happy about death like these guys were. He tapped a number on the dead man’s phone and hit the speaker button. “Hey, is this Dagger?”
“Yeah...who are you?”
“My name is Titus and I am the president of The Marauders MC. You know the place your boss just attacked?”
Silence on the other end.
“I am sending you an image that will tell you all that you should leave now. Ya hear me?’
“Um, yeah?” the man sounded confused.
Tapping the send button, Titus sent the man the photo.
After a minute, a glee-filled shouted reply came from the cell, “Hallefuckingluyah!”
Titus shook his head.
“That’s right Dagger,” one of the other men in the room, called out to the cell phone. “He is gone!”
Laughter came over the phone speaker now. “We will be pulling out in a minute. Thank you, thank you!” He ended the call.
Titus looked over at Ricco’s men, who were beaming and ordered, “Get the hell out.”
They all went quiet and their smiles dropped from their faces.
“What?” one of them asked.
“You heard him, son,” Bouncer stated loudly. “Looks like there’s a few of the cars out there that might still run. Get in them and go home.”
The men all had various degrees of shocked expressions on their painted faces.
“Go on, get!” Boomer yelled at them.
They all jumped at his baritone voice and hurried over to the door.
One of them stopped and stared at Titus.
“You still need to watch out. Ricco has a sister and a brother.They are both entirely loyal to him more than they are to their father and they are...” He paused to shiver.
“...maybe even worse than him. So please keep a lookout for them.” He then turned and rushed after the other men.
Jep escorted Arielle back to the table and sat her down.
Her hands were still shaking.
“Get her a drink, please?” Jep asked Reno, who stood close by.
She went across the room to the small bar.
“I-I’m okay,” Arielle claimed.
“Yeah, you think so, but I think you need a drink,” Jep told her.
Reno brought a small glass over with some whiskey in it. Handing it to Jep, she placed a hand onto Arielle’s shoulder. “You did good, Arielle. You are braver than I am.”
All Arielle could do was to keep shaking her head. As her body trembled badly. “I-I can’t b-believe he is f-finally dead.”
“Well, believe it,” Titus said.
“Here...” Jeb tipped the glass to her lips.
She took a sip then gasped and coughed as she pushed the glass away. “That shit is awful!”
Jep laughed. “Yeah, it’s not about the flavor.”
“I agree,” she scoffed. “By the taste of it, it’s about puking!”
A few of the men laughed as they had done that a time or two with whiskey.
“But I’m all better now,” Arielle said. “That fou;l tasting crap shocked me right the hell out of my shock.” She laughed.
Jep patted her on the back and turned back to his laptop. He paused and stared at the screen.
“What is it?” Titus asked when he noticed his expression.
“A message from Trudy. She said chatter on the net says ...” Jep paused. “This part is in Spanish.” He motioned to Arielle.
She scooted over and looked at the screen then her face went pale as she whispered, “Lirio De Vello.”
Jep looked over at her paling face. “What does that mean?”
“I-it’s Ricco’s sister. Lily Of The Veil.
” She read the rest of it aloud, “She is now at war with...The Marauders MC and has announced their immediate demise.” Looking up at him, she explained, “This woman is like a poison, with no heart and no soul. Her mother mistreated her as a child and her father raised her to actually be a killer. Her boyfriend owns a jet fighter plane and a few copters. He has been known to use those against enemy hideouts. Totally destroying people where they live. His name is El Buitre. The Vulture.” Shuddering, she stood and turned to look at Titus.
“I think we should all get the hell off this mountain.”