Chapter 16
Hellfire
Shifting, I adjusted my balls so they weren't being smashed against my seat.
I felt Lock's stare, more than I saw it as I moved.
We were parked under some trees in the barren parking lot, waiting for Amato's men to show up at the laundromat.
It was a dark night and being under the shadows of the trees the city had planted for shade only helped us blend in.
We'd been sitting here for over an hour, barely moving, patiently waiting on our prey.
"You okay?" Lock asked me in a low voice.
I nodded. "Just don't want this to be a waste of time."
Butcher snorted out a laugh. "We're going to have to do something about your balls if you keep shifting around like that."
"Fuck off," I muttered. Like I'd let that crazy asshole anywhere near my junk.
"Here we go," Hush called out in a low voice as three SUVs pulled up and parked in front of the storefront.
"Not exactly low profile," Ricochet muttered.
"They don't need to be," Lock pointed out. "Look at this place."
The surrounding stores were all locked down for the night and other than a few cars sprinkled throughout the parking lot, it was dead. Who was going to see them? That worked for us. It meant we wouldn't have to worry about any innocents getting caught up in this.
We watched as Amato's men got out of the vehicles and went inside the laundromat.
We'd been staking out the place for a week now, so we knew what was going on inside.
There was a trap door under one of the washing machines that led to a basement where they stored the money they were having laundered at this site.
They'd have someone go down and bring up duffel bags full of cash, then they'd take them to another location. They were constantly moving around cash in order to keep a steady flow trickling into their boss’s pockets.
"Let's go," Lock ordered. We all climbed off our bikes and started to make our way across the parking lot.
I pulled my gun from my holster, holding it low at my side. My brothers did the same. The Italians wouldn't know what hit them.
We had a simple plan. Go in, take out Amato's men, and leave him a message he couldn't ignore.
Eagerness filled me, but my training overrode the feeling.
Everything inside me stilled and calmed as I shut down my emotions, waiting for the moment when shit would hit the fan.
We'd been working for weeks to get here, but now that we were about to do it, I was impatient to get it over with. That didn’t mean I allowed the feeling to make me act irrationally.
Lock held up his hand when we reached the door and we all stopped. "Ricochet."
He stepped forward and picked the lock on the door.
It swung open silently under his hand and we all filed inside.
Amato's men were down below, the wash machine had been moved to the side and the stairs down into the depths of the building were exposed.
This place was perfect for the mafia. There were very few places, even commercial buildings, in Tucson that had basements.
It allowed Amato to hold his cash in a neutral place.
If his home was raided by law enforcement nothing would be found, and connecting these laundromats to his family was damn near impossible.
The fact that Rat was a genius was the only reason we had.
"Hush," Lock said, nodding at him.
Hush pulled out a flash bang grenade and pulled the pin. We all covered our ears and turned our heads away as he tossed it down into the basement. The sound of it going off was muffled by our hands. We didn't wait for them to recover.
Lock led us down the stairs, guns raised as we went. I took in the scene as I followed my brothers down. Amato's men were sprawled on the floor, groaning and holding their heads. They were dazed, but not incapacitated. Not yet, anyway.
We spread out around them, pistols pointed at their heads. "You've been fucking with the wrong club," Lock told them.
"Fuck you," one man spat. “We’re only just beginning.”
"No, fuck you." Lock shot him point blank in the head. Blood splattered over his friends who were all staring at him with wide eyes. "Anyone else want to mouth off?"
"What do you want?" another man asked, his dark eyes watching us with fury.
"I want you to tell your boss that we're done playing games. We're coming for him and he'd better be ready."
"He's going to kill you," a third man said, his voice shaking.
Lock grinned. "I'm looking forward to that." He nodded toward us. We'd discussed what we wanted to do tonight before we came here. "You won't live to see it, though," he informed them.
The men started cursing and trying to scramble away from us, but there was no escape. Our gunfire was muffled down in the bowels of the building.
When it was over we stood there, breathing heavily as we stared at the dead bodies around us. Rip took a cell phone off one of the bodies and handed it over to Lockout.
Our president scrolled through until he found Amato’s name and number and shot him a text. We wanted to make sure they knew exactly who had done this. We were ready to face them and put all of this to rest.
"Let's go." Lock said, tossing the phone back onto the body. He turned and headed up the stairs.
We followed him, not saying a word. We'd ambushed them and now had five more deaths on our hands.
It was just part of being in this MC. You had to be willing to do whatever it took for your club.
For your brothers. There wasn't anything we did that I regretted.
Certainly not this. This organization had tried to kill our women.
Had taken Dani. They needed to know that wasn't going to be forgotten.
Static pulled up to the curb in one of the club's cage rides and we tossed the bags of money into the back. He let out a whistle when he saw how many there were. "What's the plan, Lock?"
"Follow us," Lock told Static, then motioned for the rest of us and we headed to where our bikes were parked.
We weren't worried about cameras, or being seen.
We already let Amato know who was responsible.
There wasn't any fucking way he'd bring this to the cops.
Our bikes roared to life and as one group, we pulled out of the parking lot and rode across town.
We waited while Lockout knocked on the door to a well-known children's organization. It was late, but the woman who ran the joint answered. She pulled her robe tight around herself as she eyed us through the security door. "Yes?"
"We have a donation to make," Lockout told her.
Her brows shot up. "At one o'clock in the morning?"
"That's right."
"What kind of donation?"
"Cash."
Mistrust was written all over her face, but she couldn't afford to turn away help, so she opened the door. Her jaw dropped as we started piling the bags of money just inside the door. Smiling at her, I nodded to her before stepping back. The bags were stacked in two piles almost to her hips.
"This...is cash?" she asked. Her gasp filled the still night air as she dragged open a zipper and saw for herself. Her wide eyes flashed to our faces, looking around. "You're giving all of this to me?"
"For the kids," Lockout explained.
"Everything we get as donations goes to the children living here, or to needy families in the area." A slow smile spread over her face. "Are...are you sure?"
"It's all yours," Riptide told her with a smile.
"Um...it's going to take me a while to count it. But I can get you a receipt for your tax write off."
"Don't need it," Lock told her. "Just put it to good use."
"Is this blood?" she asked, worry creeping into her voice as she plucked at one of the bags.
"Ketchup," Toxic said, speaking up. "Dropped my fucking hot dog right on the bag. It was a good hotdog, too. I’ll miss it."
She gave him a puzzled smile and shook her head as though to say she didn’t have the ability to figure him out. She wasn’t the only one. "Thank you so much. Who can I say the credit goes to?"
"No one," Lock told her. "Don't tell anyone about getting the money this way."
Her eyes widened again at the demand, but she nodded. "You're like an answer to my prayers," she whispered.
We backed off the front steps and went back to our bikes.
I shrugged on the cut I'd left on my seat, my brothers doing the same.
We didn't need this lady connecting that money back to us.
Not because we were worried about the repercussions for us.
She was the one who would be in danger if Amato figured out where his cash had gone.
We rode back to the clubhouse in silence, all of us lost in thought. It was hard not to feel good about helping those kids, even if it did come with a price. Tonight had gone exactly as we planned. We wanted it to be a bloodbath for their side and that’s what happened.
Lockout wanted to draw Amato out and what better way to do that than to pick off his men in small groups until he’s left with nothing?
We were hoping to force the mafia don into making a stupid move.
Losing his men was going to sting, but something told me that the loss of his money was going to enrage him.
The fucker had sent his men after one of our women over the loss of far less money than we stole tonight.
Grinning in the dark at the thought of his anger, I let myself into my apartment and stripped as I moved toward my bedroom. I was in nothing but my boxers by the time I crawled into bed.
Kit shifted as I wrapped my arms around her. “Everything okay?” she asked, voice groggy.
“It’s fine. Go to sleep.” A sliver of a moon had risen in the sky as we rode back to the clubhouse. Its light was spilling into the room, allowing me to see her. I brushed my hand over her hair, trying to soothe her back to sleep.