68
2473 Words
Judge
I TOOK A cab to my cabin, which was on Sand Lake. When I arrived, I started a load of laundry, took a shower, and went for a motorcycle ride, relieved to be back in Anchorage.
As I started my Harley and took off, I began to let go of the last few hours, enjoying the wind in my face and the freedom of the open road. Fortunately, it was close to dinnertime and the traffic was light, making it that much more enjoyable.
I cruised for about an hour and then decided to head back, stopping at a gas station to fill my tank. As I was putting my credit card back into my wallet, my cell phone rang. It wasn’t a number I recognized.
“Hello?”
“Judge?” It was Slammer.
“Yeah, what’s up?”
“I hate to bother you, brother, but we’ve got some problems back here in Jensen. I think we’re going to need your help.”
“What kind of problems?”
He sighed. “I know you weren’t close to your mother, but… Jesus Christ, I’ll just say it – she’s been murdered. I’m sorry, son.”
“You sure it was murder?” I asked, feeling more numb than anything. “Not a heart attack, stroke, or drug overdose?”
“It was murder. She was shot.”
“Did she owe her drug dealer money?”
“Nah. Raptor said she’d been clean for the last couple of years and I’ve run into her a few times. She was doing pretty well, as far as I could tell.”
“Maybe she had a relapse?”
“It’s always possible, I guess. There will be an autopsy, so we’ll know for sure if there were any drugs involved.”
“Who found her?”
“Her roommate did, early this morning.”
“I suppose Raptor wants to know who did it and that’s where I come in.”
“You got it.”
I sighed. “He should hire a private detective.”
“Don’t you want to find out who did it, too? She was your mother.”
“To be honest, I don’t really care.”
“Raptor seems to think she was killed because of Mud and Breaker.”
“That thing with the Devil’s Rangers, three years ago?” I’d been commissioned by Slammer to kill two members of a rival club – Breaker, for raping Slammer’s stepdaughter, and their club president, Mud, for kidnapping Raptor’s wife. “Why would they go after Mavis, though?”
“Revenge. They now know she’s your mother.”
“Guess they won’t get the reaction they anticipated from me,” I replied as an attractive woman pulled up to the pump next to mine. She got out of her car and stared at me. I smiled at her and turned away.
“Raptor is pretty shaken up, though,” said Slammer. “They’d gotten close, the past few months.”
My younger stepbrother, Trevor, A.K.A. Raptor, had been much more forgiving toward Mavis. Of course, he’d had her in his life for thirteen years. She hadn’t even given me six months before taking off and leaving me with Acid.
“If it has to do with the Devil’s Rangers, you should be able to handle this on your own,” I said.
“You’d think, but the Feds are watching us,” mumbled Slammer. “I can’t get us involved.”
Same old song and dance. “Why this time?”
He lowered his voice. “They got wind of some bogus arms deal that went down last summer. Can’t pin anything on us, but that doesn’t stop them from trying.”
“Obviously, you weren’t involved in an arms deal,” I said dryly.
“Of course not,” he replied, a smile in his voice. “I run a biker club and a strip joint. I know nothing about running guns.”
“Why don’t you just let the cops handle this thing with Mavis?”
“They’re already looking into it but you and I both know that it’s not going to go anywhere.” He sighed. “Truth is… I’m worried about Raptor. He’s talking about taking matters into his own hands. Now that he has a kid, he can’t be doing that s**t. He’ll get himself killed.”
“He should be fine if he has club help,” I answered, although I was a little skeptical about Raptor getting involved myself. Sammy didn’t need his old man going to jail, especially over Mavis.
“As I said earlier, we’re under surveillance. I told him that we should wait, but he’s all fired up and wants to do something now.”
“Order him not to. You’re the Prez.”
“If it comes down to it, I will. I don’t want to see him going to prison. But, he’s so pissed off. I don’t know if he’ll back down.”
“Do you have any leads on which chapter might have ordered the hit?”
“I think it came directly from the Mother. Just found out tonight that they’ve got themselves a new president. Someone who was tight with Mud.”
“You know anything about this guy?”
“A little. Jon Hughes is his birth name. He goes by Reaper, now. He just got out of prison a few months ago and took his old man’s place in the club after he had a heart attack.”
“Reaper,” I repeated. “Yeah, I recognize the name. He’s a hothead. Acts before he thinks. I’m surprised they elected him president.”
“If you saw the size of this guy, you’d understand why he gets his way. From what I hear, he makes Tank look like a toddler.”
I frowned. Something told me if Trevor went into this by himself, he wouldn’t be coming back out on his feet. “Is this line safe?”
“Yeah. I borrowed the phone from a waitress, at the restaurant I’m at.”
“Good,” I said, turning around to see the woman who’d been pumping her gas walking toward me. “Hold on a second.”
“Sure,” said Slammer.
“I apologize for interrupting your call, but I’m in a hurry and I wanted you to have this.” The blonde removed her sunglasses and handed me a business card. From the laugh lines around her eyes, I guessed her to be in the neighborhood of forty.
I looked down and read her name. Caitlyn Ferraro, Attorney At Law.
“Am I in trouble?” I asked, smiling at her.
She tilted her head and smiled back. “No, but something tells me that you are trouble, handsome. I could use a little of that in my life,” she said in a low voice. “Especially living up here.”
“Is that right?” I asked, amused that I’d been hit on twice in one day.
“Yes. I just moved to Anchorage and the nights have been so dull, lately. Call me,” she replied. “If you’d like to ride more than just your Harley.”
“Nothing like getting to the point,” I said, surprised at her bluntness. Even the woman on the plane had bought me a drink before propositioning me.
“I work over sixty hours a week and don’t have time for socializing. When I know what I want, I go for it. Right now,” she undressed me with her eyes. “I’m looking at it.”
I felt my jeans tighten at the bold way she was staring at my zipper. The woman meant business.
What in the hell was going on with the women in Alaska?
“Aren’t you even going to ask if I’m married?”
She laughed. “I’m a divorce attorney. I already know that it probably wouldn’t matter, anyway. Look, sweetheart, I just want to hook up with you. That’s it.”
“I can respect that.”
“I thought you might. I’d better let you get back to your call. Don’t lose my card.”
“I won’t,” I said, slipping it into my pocket.
She walked back over to her car and got in.
“Did I just hear that correctly?” asked Slammer, still on the phone. “Some chick offering to bang you?”
“Sounds that way,” I replied, watching Caitlyn drive away.
“You want me to let you go? We can talk later.”
“No. She’s gone.”
He sighed. “So, what do you think about this situation with Mavis?”
“I’ll call Raptor and hopefully, we can come up with something that won’t land him behind bars.”
“Good. It would be a damn shame if he did.”
“I agree. You know, if this is Reaper, he might be going after more than just Mavis.”
“I was thinking about that myself. I’ve let everyone else in the club know. To keep an extra eye on their families. Fortunately, most of the Old Ladies know how to use a gun.”
Knowing how to use a gun meant nothing when you were caught off guard. If there was more retaliation… more death… it wouldn’t show up with any kind of warning.
“You tell Bastard about this yet?”
Bastard was the President of the Gold Vipers’ mother charter. Smart and levelheaded, he usually never acted upon impulse. That was, until he’d met April, his new Old Lady. She’d also been a victim of the Devil’s Rangers. They’d killed her brother and she’d finagled her way into Bastard’s life soon afterward, obviously wanting his help. And help he had. Not only did he send his boys in to take care of the remaining Devil’s Rangers living in Minnesota, but surprisingly, he’d reached some kind of peaceful agreement with their mother chapter. Apparently, Reaper was now pissing all over that treaty.
“He knows.”
“He getting involved?”
“He’s waiting to find out what we’re going to do about it, if anything.”
You mean what I’m going to do about it, I thought. “Okay. I’ll call Raptor. Hopefully, we can figure something out.”
“And avenge your mother’s death?”
“If that’s what Raptor wants. Why not?” I said dryly.
“It’s what we all want. You of all people know that Mavis made mistakes, but she didn’t deserve to die. Not for club business. Not for any of this shit.”
I didn’t want to hear any more about Mavis and I could tell he was in his preaching mode. “I gotta go. I’ll contact you when I arrive in Jensen.”
“Sounds good.”
I hung up and called Raptor.
“I heard about Mavis,” I said, when he answered. “Sorry for your loss.”
“It was your loss, too,” he said huskily.
“Yeah, I suppose,” I answered, not wanting to argue about it anymore. “So, you think it was club related?”
“My gut is telling me. Swear to God, she’d cleaned up her act. No drinking. No drugs. No enemies. f**k, nothing else makes sense. We have to assume it’s club related, brother.”
“Yeah, I would have to agree,” I admitted.
He let out an exasperated sigh. “Jesus, is this s**t with the Rangers ever going to stop?”
“You already know the answer to that. Even if Reaper disappears, a new president will fill his place. Your two clubs have it out for each other and the way it looks, it’s never going to end.”
“I know. There’s never been bloodshed like this, though. f*****g cowards are attacking innocent women. They have no code of honor. No ethics.”
“Apparently not. You at the bar?” I asked as he took a drink of something. There was music in the background, and laughter.
“I’m at the clubhouse. I needed something to calm my nerves.”
“Where’s Adriana and my nephew?” I asked, picturing Sammy. He was a cute kid, with his big blue eyes and chubby, dimpled cheeks. Raptor had recently sent me some pictures of him and I’d saved them on my phone. I’d never seen the kid in person, but there was no denying that his smile tugged a little at my heart.
“At her mother’s house. Don’t worry, if you met Vanda, you’d know they’re both in good hands.”
As far as I was concerned, Adriana and Samuel were far from being safe. “Right now, I’m more worried about you. Sober up and get your s**t together. I’m flying out as soon as I can charter a plane.”
“I was hoping you’d say that. Call me when you get here.”
“I will,” I said. “Make sure you keep an eye on your family. If what you’re thinking is right, and Reaper is involved, something tells me that this is just the beginning.”
“I will. We have a club meeting in two hours. Once that’s over, I’ll find a safer place safe for Adriana and Sammy.”
“Good.”
After we hung up, I got on my bike, headed back to the cabin, and re-packed. Then I called a friend of mine named Barney, who owned a small plane, and talked him into flying me down to Iowa.
“I didn’t even know you were back,” he said.
“I just got back.”
“Hope the government is paying you well,” replied Barney, who thought I was an I.R.S. auditor.
“Well enough to own a cabin home that I never get the chance to enjoy,” I said dryly.
“Once you retire you can put it all behind you and enjoy the peace and tranquility of the wilderness.”
“Believe me, I’m looking forward to it,” I replied, imagining myself fishing in a canoe, with a dog on one side and a case of beer on the other.
“You ever think about retiring early?” he asked.
“Every day.”
Mercenary work paid well and had its rewards, especially knowing that I was removing some of the worst scum of the earth. But, as time went by, I found that murder, even what I’d deemed as justifiable, didn’t disturb me anymore. Taking another life wasn’t supposed to be that easy on a man’s soul and that lack of… emotion wasn’t lost on me.
- Writer
