Chapter 15 #2
“I didn’t know the fucking Heat were running a car service. Times must be tough for you boys.” Mad Dog’s gaining his breath back, but I’ll bet I busted a few ribs. I can tell from the strain in his voice he’s hurting deep.
“Shut your mouth unless you plan to explain.” Shadow’s about to lose his cool. His eyes are bugged wide open, and his nostrils are flaring. “What the fuck do you have to do with this deal?”
“There ain’t no deal,” Mad Dog says. I look in the rearview mirror and see Phantom and Shadow exchange looks.
“That’s bullshit,” Shadow snaps. “I’ve been working this for months. The salons are legit. Marybeth is the owner. She’s eyeballs deep in debt.”
“When I’m not balls deep fucking her,” Mad Dog drawls. “You think it’s that hard to sell a woman-in-distress story to you assholes?” He laughs. “Fuck all y’all.”
Then it hits me, and I think it hits Shadow too at the same time.
Mad Dog set us up. A long play for a little bit of cash.
The problem is not just that he almost scammed us out of ten grand—now he knows we’re trying to go legit.
That we’ve got our eyes on other ways to make clean money and wash the dirty shit.
Maybe this wasn’t about Claire at all. Maybe this was about nothing more than spying on the competition, Hellfires-style. Whatever it is, he didn’t get our money, but he’s wasted months of Shadow’s time and made us look like fools.
“What’re we gonna do with him?” Phantom asks.
And I know what he’s asking. Last year, Phantom had to make a tough call.
Whether to snuff out a prospect who betrayed us.
Lied to us. Played Phantom and all the rest of us for fools.
It would have been so easy to put a bullet in the kid’s head and push his bike into the ocean.
But Phantom was the one to make the call.
We get our hands dirty, but there’s some blood that can never be washed off. Murder’s a business we’ve been able to stay clear of. At least so far.
Phantom looks to me. “Savage?”
I feel bad making the call, but I know if we leave Mad Dog alive, that’s a loose end for Claire. If we take him out now, Marybeth would only have to make one phone call to the cops and Shadow’s face would be on every wanted poster in the Sunshine State.
“Get his phone,” I say. Phantom and Shadow work their way through his pockets, and Shadow holds the knife to Mad Dog’s throat until he reluctantly unlocks the phone.
“Send Marybeth a text,” I say, heading the truck toward Port Tampa Bay.
Mad Dog grunts and looks fearful for the first time since he kicked out my knee.
Only now is the adrenaline starting to wear off and I can feel the deep ache.
I’ll be lucky if I can walk tomorrow. “Tell your bitch that you’re safe and you got the money.
That you’re going underground for a while and you’ll be in touch. ”
He tries to yank his phone away from Phantom, but Phantom tut-tuts at him, while Shadow traces the tip of the knife along the asshole’s Adam’s apple. “Go on,” Shadow seethes. “You think I’m afraid of cleaning what’ll be left of you off these seats? Try me.”
Mad Dog grunts, and Phantom watches as he texts exactly what I told him to say. Then he clicks send. “Now what, motherfuckers?” Mad Dog’s got balls, I’ll give him that.
“You willing to spend some of that cash to buy us a short-term solution?” I meet Phantom’s eyes in the rearview mirror.
He’s my brother, so I expect him to have my back. He doesn’t surprise me.
“Count out five Gs,” I tell Shadow. “This asshat’s going on a boat ride.”
Three hours later, we’re out five grand, but one of our contacts at the port was happy to take the envelope of cash as payment for transporting a passenger on a cargo ship.
We ran over his phone with the truck and tossed the pieces, along with his knife, into the Gulf, then wished Mad Dog a happy trip and left him to his two-week journey overseas.
Assuming he can figure out a way back—and afford the trip—we won’t have to worry about Mad Dog for, by my estimate, a solid month or two.
If this little stunt isn’t enough to teach him not to mess with the Heat, I’ll be ready when he’s back in town.
“We’re gonna need to find another arms dealer,” Phantom says when we get back to the diner. “Can’t say that bothers me much.”
I shake my head. “Who knows. Those assholes ain’t like us. Without Anthony and Mad Dog beating sense into the crew, they might fall apart in the time it takes Mad Dog to find his way back to the States. Some of them might even try to prospect for us.”
Phantom shakes his head, then claps a hand on Shadow’s shoulder. “Shit happens,” he says. “Let it go.”
Shadow’s face is dark, and I know he’s questioning every minute of every conversation he had with Marybeth. What he missed. How he missed it. We’ll have to debrief later and figure out what our next moves are, but fuck. We lost five grand and got rid of a little problem we didn’t even know we had.
“I’m sorry that shit came back to bite us,” I tell Phantom. “You specifically warned me not to let that happen.”
Phantom shrugs. “She’s one of us now, I’m thinking. Ain’t she?” He stares at me through intensely dark eyes. “We protect our own.”
I nod, finally admitting it out loud. To my brothers. To myself. “She’s mine,” I tell them, even though I’m not sure I’ve said the words to her. “She’s one of us.”
Phantom nods, then claps me on the shoulder. He gets in his truck and heads back toward the compound, leaving Shadow and me alone. I can tell my brother is shaken, pissed.
“Let it go,” I tell him. “You got scammed. It happens to the best of us.”
Shadow shakes his head and scrubs his hands over his head. “This is fucking with me, man,” he says. “I thought I knew her. I did the research, the site visits, observation. How’d I get it so, so wrong?”
“I don’t know,” I tell him. “But does it matter? You got preyed on. Mad Dog set out to scam us out of money because he thought the Heat was an easy mark due to something I did. If anyone should feel like shit, I should.”
Shadow’s lost in thought. I can understand how he feels.
He did something he thought was right, was good for the club.
And it had disastrous consequences. There’s a chance the Hellfires club won’t make it through losing both Anthony and Mad Dog.
But if they do, Mad Dog’s gonna come back and be out for blood.
“I’m gonna go home and fuck my wife,” he finally says, unbuttoning the sleeves of his pink shirt.
“Change those fucking shoes,” I holler at him. “But save them. I might want to borrow them for my next knitting circle.”
Shadow gives me the finger and grins, then peels out of the lot.
I’ve been thinking a lot the last week that I’ve been alone with Claire. About what she means to me. What Aurora means to me.
I may have told Phantom she’s mine, but I don’t think I’ll be able to give myself to someone until I close a few more doors to my past.
“Table for one, sir?” The teenage hostess looks me up and down and then points to the counter. “Or do you want a seat at the counter?”
“Put me in Val’s section.” I check the time on my phone.
“She’s gonna go off shift in about ten minutes,” the teenager says, looking confused. “Do you still want to be seated in her section?”
I nod. “Yep.”
She grabs a menu. “Right this way.”
I follow her, keeping my eyes on the floor. The busy carpet gives me something to focus on while I steady my nerves.
As soon as the girl seats me, I open the menu and start scanning the pages, even though I know there’s no way I could eat right now.
“Hi there, hon, what can I get started for you?” A glass of water and a napkin-wrapped roll of silverware are placed on the table in front of me. It’s obvious she’s using her work voice, and she hasn’t noticed me behind the menu.
I’m suddenly overcome with nerves. My hands start to shake, and I suck my lower lip into my mouth and bite down hard. When I don’t say anything, she leans closer.
She sees me then. Really sees me.
“Ethan? Oh, honey. I never expected to see you again.”
There is a catch in Mom’s voice, and I put down the menu, unable to say a word.
“Can you sit?” I motion toward the opposite side of the booth.
She nods. “Let me clock out. I’ll be back in two minutes. Please, honey. Wait here for me.”
I’m not going anywhere, but I nod to let her know I heard her. Once she’s gone, I’m so frantic and frazzled, I don’t know what to do. I pick up my phone and send Claire a text.
Me: I’m at the diner. Came to talk to my mother. It’s been twelve years.
I get a response immediately.
Claire: Do you need me? Should I get there? Are you okay?
I read the words and realize that’s all I need from her. To know that she’d drop everything and come here. To know that she’d be here just to support me. I don’t know if I’m okay with seeing my mom, but I’m very okay with everything else right now.
I got rid of Mad Dog—at least for now. And I’ve got Claire and Aurora waiting for me at home. Home used to be a dirty word. A word that reminded me of my father. My mother. That house. The fists.
I only ever call the compound the compound, but now, I might have a chance. A real chance to make a life. I just need a few answers so I can trust that I won’t screw it up.
My hands are still sweating when Val slides into the booth across from me. She’s brought us both coffee.
“I hope you still drink coffee,” she says, and immediately, tears spring to her eyes.
“You look great, Ethan. I want to know everything. Absolutely everything you’re willing to share.
” She lowers her head and looks at her hands.
“And of course, if you’re not here for that, I’m willing to listen to anything you have to say to me. ”
She wipes her cheeks and sniffles back the sadness.
Then she raises her chin and swallows. “I’ve changed a little.
Maybe not enough. Over the years you’ve been gone, I told myself that if I ever got the chance to see you again, I would accept whatever punishment you wanted to impose.
The harsh words, more years of silence.” She swallows hard again and clears her throat.
“Go on, son. I’ll listen. No matter what you need to say, I can take it. ”
Can take it?
I cock my head in confusion, and I lean forward across the table. “Mom, I have some questions, for sure. But the only harsh words I have to say to you are I’m sorry for not being better. For not being enough. I wanted to save you, but I chose to save myself. I’m so, so sorry.”
Her mouth opens, and it’s the same mouth I remember forming an O when I left. Frowning when I cried. Smiling when she took care of me.
“You’re apologizing to me? Ethan, when you had to leave the military, I thought I was going to die from the pain. That happened to you because of me. Because I chose your father over you. Because I wouldn’t leave. I owe you the apology.”
I shake my head.
All these years, I’ve blamed myself for leaving my mother with him.
Yes, it cost me everything, but I had peace.
I had freedom. No one hit me unless I punched first. No one insulted me, shut me into a corner.
I found a family of misfits and losers where I fit in just right.
But all that time, I never forgot that I had a mother whom I loved more than anything just a few miles away. A mother I left to a living hell.
We talk for the next four hours. We order dinner and dessert. I text Claire to let her know where I am and when I’ll be home. I text her so she’ll know that I’m thinking of her. So she’ll know I’m all right. And for the first time in twelve years, I think I truly am.