Chapter 4 - J

“Well that worked like s**t,” I said, raising an icepack to my forehead.

             “You don’t say,” His voice was dry ice; cold until you felt the burn.

             I glanced up to see narrowed eyes that were seething with anger and shot him a warning glare. He shoved his chair back and stood to begin pacing the kitchen.

             “AJ,” I ordered, not looking over, “go meditate.”

             I could tell he wanted to snap on me, I saw his fist clench a few times out of the corner of my eye, but he thought better of it. I caught him disappear from the edge of my vision and listened as he walked down the hall towards the front door before heading down the stairs. I dropped the ice pack on the table and rested my head in my hands.

We shouldn’t have been so reckless. Breaking into a rep house on the south side very well could have got us killed. Considering that the only real damage done was that my shades had been broken, I counted us pretty lucky. Obviously that was overlooking the door we busted, the bullets that had flown, and the bodies we’d left on the floor; but why bother with the details?

I softly prodded my eyebrow where my shades had sliced open the skin and grimaced. The cut was superficial, but the headache that I’d just aggravated was not. It had been building from my temples across the crown of my head and had now firmly embedded itself behind my eyes as well. I bent my head to cover my eyes in a futile attempt to combat the coming migraine. I didn’t usually go anywhere without a backup pair of my dark tinted welders’ glasses, considering that almost any amount of light damn near incapacitated my mind. But as luck would have it, the day I needed them, there hadn’t even been regular sunglasses in my car. 

As a bonus, my shades completely hid the metallic colour of my eyes, which ranged from a light ice blue to the colour of polished silver. Combined with my bronze skin, and hair that was so dark it looked black, there was a lot of commentary and staring on the rare occasion I didn’t wear my shades. I hated being a spectacle. I preferred to be a shadow rather than the light. And with hearing that could rival my dogs and a way of silence that would make a ninja proud, I generally managed to slip under the radar. For the times I couldn’t, either bullets flew or my mouth did.

“Oh, vy tak trakhal, Julio.” I whispered to myself, half smiling. I was gonna get myself into trouble one day. Trouble that I couldn’t shoot or talk my way out of. I frowned as my initially amusing thought turned to an ominous promise of death.

            I sighed and focused to hear AJ’s breathing. It had levelled out from ragged anger to a consistent calm. I sighed again, inwardly this time, and pushed myself up out of the chair to join him downstairs. I watched him for a minute from the doorway, he was sitting cross-legged on the floor with his back against the couch.

“How long have you been watching me?” He asked as he turned to face me.

            “Not too long,” I replied, pushing myself off the doorframe, “but long enough.”

            He sighed and pulled himself up to actually sit on the couch, as I took a seat on the one adjacent.

            “I know you’re fucked up man, but you can’t lose it right now,” I said seriously.

            “I know. I just never really expected this to happen. I knew it could, and the getting jumped I could deal with, but I just…” He sighed, running a hand through his hair before half grinning, “I guess with Ty’s luck I should have expected it."

            I laughed a little and let my head fall forward, thinking about some of the situations Ty had found himself in over the years. “Yeah, he does seem to have some pretty horrible luck.” I shook my head then raised my gaze to level with AJ’s, “He has some f****n’ Guardian Angel that’s always kept his a*s alive, too. Don’t forget that.”

            “Yeah,” he nodded, with almost a laugh. Then more to himself he muttered, “Terrible Luck Ty, with the Guardian Angel…”

            “What?” I laughed, not understanding the reference.

            He shook his head, the corner of his mouth twitching up in a smile, “Just a battle of wits this morning that Ty lost.” At his last two words the smile disintegrated and left a haunted expression on his face.

             “AJ,” I called in a stern voice.

             No response.

             “Axel.”

             He glanced at me and the expression started to fade.

             “We’re going to get him back. Alright? Don’t f****n’ lose faith now.”

             He was silent for a minute before nodding back, “Alright.”

If anyone was going to save Ty’s life, it would be AJ and I; his two greatest protectors. There were times we could have perhaps done a better job, but we’d always tried to make up for it. When AJ had found out Ty got into the Saints, he’d taken James aside and told him what he knew Ty had been through with Simon. Me being the nosey f****r that I was, had listened in on the conversation, and when it all came out I’d been pissed. James had promised to watch out for Ty, but I’d been more than happy to help AJ kick the guys’ door down and give him a little taste of his own medicine.

Damn, I do a lot of door kicking. Eh, ¿por qué no? It works for me. … Well...

            “So,” AJ managed to say somewhat casually, “‘take ‘em by storm’ didn’t turn out that well. Other suggestions?”

            I shrugged, a small smile tugging at the corners of my mouth, “How about ‘when in doubt, shoot ‘em out’?”

            He snorted, “Great plan Sherlock. Are you going to go back and revive them all to put that one into action?”

            I shook my head. “No,” I said matter-of-factly, my face sobering. “We need a new plan. And we need some help.”

 

 

            Since we were planning more aggressive tactics, I called in some back up. I’d called Dean to fill him in with what was going on and asked him to grab another pair of my shades. Before I hung up I told him to call Kyle and recruit him too.

I hadn’t been surprised when Kyle had texted me a few minutes later: On my way. Next time call me yourself maldito cobarde.

I sighed. I should have been mad; but I wasn’t. Well, I was a little that he was right.

Half an hour later both Kyle and Dean were sitting across from us at AJ’s kitchen table. 

            “You are sure this is RD?” Dean asked, his cobalt eyes flicking between AJ and I with hesitation.

            “Hundred and ten percent. You remember that skinny, copper haired kid that pulled a knife on us in South Musko a few weeks back?”

            He nodded, “What’s that have to do with this?”

            “His name is Eldon Copeland. He works at Shade All.” I crossed my arms over my chest, tilting my head slightly, “Coincidence?”

            “You know this how?” Dean leaned back, crossing his own arms over his chest.

            “Employee files. Some good stuff in there. Don’t ask.” I responded coolly.

            “Okay. So the two of you busted his door down and went Rwanda on the place? Was that seriously your plan?” Dean pulled himself forward to rest his elbows on the table, looking between me and AJ, this time with an incredulous expression.

            “Well… Not exactly. It just sort of ended up that way,” AJ responded tediously, slipping down onto his chair.

            “Irregardless of what the plan was,” Kyle interrupted, “we need to come up with a new one. Now. What else did you learn?”

            “Second guy, also Red Dragons, name’s Scott Pearson. Listed address was county.” I countered.

            “Okay, now let’s think about this for a second. You busted into a lowlife gang house, what, two hours ago?” He said pointedly, talking with his hands as much as his mouth. “Even if Ty was in that county house, he won’t be by now. And breaking in to shoot the place up is not going to get us anywhere except jail. Now look, if it was any one of us, we wouldn’t say s**t about our business, so you can’t expect any of them to either. What we need is to get an ear to the ground and find out where their holding spots are.”

            I looked between Dean and AJ with my eyebrows raised before settling back on Kyle, “You wanna run this show?”

            “No.” Kyle met my eyes with a hard look, “But I am not Left Tenant for nothing.”

            I nodded. I was being a cabrón and I knew it. I sighed and slid down to rest on a chair of my own. “You have an idea?”

            “You might not like it.”

            “I’m open to suggestions.”

            Kyle nodded, leaning back in his chair. “Valerie.”

            “Mmm… You’re right, I don’t particularly like it. What are you thinking?”

            “I know it would be easy for her to reconnect, she wasn’t the one to leave on bad terms.”

            “She was barely even part of the gang, that’s the only reason Brayden would have let her go that easy. Which also means she’s useless, because she doesn’t know anything.” Dean interjected, sounding somewhat annoyed.

            “Daniel would though.” AJ said quietly, eyes focused on the table.

            “He’s still barely walking from what they did, how do figure he’ll be any help on this?”

            AJ raised his gaze to meet Dean’s, “He doesn’t have to walk to tell us where they hold people captive.”

            Everyone went silent.

            “¡Mierda!” I exclaimed softly. “He’ll definitely know, after all the years of running with them. Dios mío, how did I miss that?”

            “Wait a minute,” Kyle held up a hand and zeroed in on me, “are you SURE that this is a good idea? We’ve only known him for a couple of months. And yes, I get that he was beaten within an inch of his life; as is common procedure for a jump out, but still. We don’t know him; we hardly know Val. How do we know that he won’t string us along into some kind of trap? We’d be completely blindsided to what was coming if he’s still connected to them.”

            “He’s not. You don’t need to trust it from him; trust it from me. He has no lingering loyalties to Red Dragons. Any trust we place in him will not be intentionally betrayed.”  My voice was flat and low. I may not have trusted the guy, but I knew him well enough.

Daniel had been laid up at Jim’s for the first couple weeks after we’d saved his life. I’d made a point to spend the majority of my free time there. He’d been unconscious for the most part but when he’d been awake he talked. Usually to his girlfriend, Valerie, who had barely left his side. Every word he spoke, I heard; and some of the s**t even made me cringe.

             Kyle gave a curt nod, “Very well. Where is he?”

             “My place,” Dean answered. “Was when I left anyway, probably be there for a while.”

             “Okay, let’s go,” I said, standing up. “Dean, you’re with me. Kyle, stick with AJ and go scout that county address �" AJ has it.”

             “Hey! This was my idea. And you’re telling me to go sit in a car and patiently wait for you to get some real pertinent information? I don’t think so Jules.”

             I jerked my head towards the hall, and AJ followed me out of the kitchen.

             “Julius, I’m serious. You can’t expect me to-”

             I held up a hand, “AJ, listen. Daniel doesn’t know you. He barely knows Dean and I. We’re better off to go talk to him. Go with Kyle and scout that other address. It’ll buy us some time to get him talking. Then you can come straight to Dean’s, alright?”

             He half turned, almost winding up to punch the wall. But managed to take a deep breath and refrain. He glared at me sidelong, but the menace of it faded as he continued his meditative breathing.

             Finally he nodded, “Alright. We’ll give you a head start.”

 

 

“Danny boy, wake up,” I said, nudging his good arm for emphasis. Well, good arm might have been a stretch. Better arm would have been more accurate. Though the deep cuts had mostly faded to fresh scars and the bruised bones probably didn’t hurt, his other arm probably still did from the multiple breaks and fractures.

“Hmm?” He stirred, withdrawing his arm and opening his eyes. Ocean eyes met ice ones and he froze. “Julius,” he said, clear as day trying not to show the hint of fear in his voice.

I rolled my eyes, I wasn’t the invincible psycho-killer ninja that my reputation made me out to be. Well, alright, maybe the ninja part, but for the rest; not more than I had to be. Which wasn’t that much. “Get up.”

“What? What’s going on?”

“Get. Up.” I repeated.

He didn’t push it. He slid out of bed and rested his feet on the floor, but stopped before standing to look at me with a patient expression. 

“What?”

“Crutch,” he said nodding past me towards the wall beside the bed.

I glanced over, I actually hadn’t noticed them leaning against the wall. I grabbed the crutches and handed them to him, waiting for him to stand and settle his weight before speaking again.

“Walk,” I nodded toward the door.

He did, and I followed him out of the room down the hall. I spotted Dean in the living room about three seconds before Daniel did and I wasn’t surprised when he flattened against the wall. I was kind of impressed how well he managed it on crutches.

“What’s going on?”

“Have a seat,” Dean said, moving forward to flick on the light.

“Dean?” Daniel asked, just before the lights came on.

“Two for two,” I said, ducking my head to slip on my replacement pair of shades.

Daniel looked about ready to lose his mind, it was kind of amusing, “Seriously, what-“

“Sit down and just relax,” Dean said, gesturing to the couch and taking a seat on the one opposite.

He eyed me for a few seconds before moving over to the couch across from Dean and slipping down onto it. I walked over to stand beside Dean’s couch and looked Daniel over. ‘F**k’ was written across his face in more ways than one.

“Relax. You’re not in s**t. We just want your, ah, assistance.”

“My assistance?” He asked incredulously, “With what?” There was a bitterness in his voice as he half laughed. Which was understandable, being half a cripple would do that.

“Ah… Rephrased; we want your knowledge.”

“Okay,” he replied calmly, slowly rubbing his palms together, “on what?”

He already knew what we wanted, I could see it on his face. But if he needed the confirmation to feel like he was in the loop who was I to deny it to him?

“R.D. holding locations.”

He nodded, but looked a bit taken off. I guess he hadn’t expected the honesty. “How do know it was Dragons?”

“Name Ty Jacks mean anything to you?”

He was silent for a minute before shaking his head, “No.”

“Tyler Jackson?”

He looked like he was about to shake his head again but stopped suddenly, “Shaggy black hair, pale green eyes, thick scar along his right jawline; built like a tank?”

“Yea.”

He nodded, “I’m not surprised.”

“Why.”

“Brayden can’t just pick you or James off the street; you guys are too random and he doesn’t know enough about you. There’s no way for him to get to you. So... he takes whoever he can get at that’s the highest up the ladder. Cox does deep reconnaissance. If he knows where your members work, he has members planted there.” He was silent a second, “Ty fits the bill.”

I grit my teeth and Dean looked over with a disapproving scowl.

“Come on Jules, you knew that.”

I ignored him, snapping back to Daniel. “Scott Pearson and Eldon Copeland. Who are they?”

“Eldon isn’t much, big brother is higher in the gang so he gets looked out for. Scott is some serious s**t though. Why?”

“Both of them work at Ty’s shop.”

“So you’re thinking they’re the ones that took Ty?”

Dean nodded, glancing over at me and spoke so that I didn’t have to, “He went missing from the shop. They probably had help but they’re the only lead we’ve got. His bike was gone too, who rides?”

“Only a few people that I know of, and well enough to ride in winter…” He glanced at me before focusing back on Dean, “Probably Scott.”

Dean nodded again. “Daniel, where would they hold him?”

He sucked in a breath, still rubbing his hands together, “I don’t know. It really depends on who’s heading the op and what they want from him.”

I spun around and headed through the kitchen straight to the fridge. I pulled out a beer and cracked it, taking a long swig. As an afterthought I pulled out two more, popping the caps off of both. I set one down on the counter beside my own and brought the other over to the kitchen table and set it beside Dean’s laptop. It was still open so I just hit the power button. The lock screen was Cat holding a cotton candy cone at a music festival. I chuckled, and remembered that she had the password control. I typed in a few different tries before it finally unlocked with ‘PURPLE4life’. I shook my head and navigated the home screen until I found google earth.

I pulled the chair out and turned around, grabbing the beers off the counter as I walked back to the living room. I handed Dean the untouched beer as I took another drink of mine before turning to Daniel. “Kitchen. Let’s go.”

I led the two of them back to the kitchen and leaned against the counter.

“You got a plan here?” Dean murmured.

“Yep,” I replied, nodding to the kitchen table as Danny came in.

He eyed me with some suspicion, “What the hell is this?”

I brought my beer down and half grinned, “You being a good traitor and showing us where to find the missing member of our family.”

“Please, as if there was any loyalty to betray,” he muttered, leaning his crutches against the table as he settled into the chair to face the computer.

“Poor Brayden would be so disappointed to hear you say that,” I shot back with a mocking hurt tone.

He looked over his shoulder, his eyes bright with a dark edge. “Brayden would be disappointed to hear me say anything, considering he probably thinks that I’m dead.”

I exchanged a look of ‘harsh’ crossed with ‘holy f**k’ with Dean as Daniel turned back and started navigating across Grande Prairie on the map.

“Okay, where are we here?” Danny mumbled, drawing my attention. I leaned over and watched him scroll between locations, relaying them to Dean to write down as he went. He’d given us five places, and was idly scrolling back and forth across the screen.

“That it?”

He shook his head, “I’m just trying to remember… Oh,” he scrolled down to the river valley along dirt roads to a warehouse and shed that were secluded by a forest of thick trees.

“Here, he uses this one quite a bit. Easy to get to, built in heating, pretty secluded. A fair share of blood gets spilled there.”

“Hmm,” I leaned farther over his shoulder, noting that it made every muscle in his body tense, to look closer at the screen. There were two good sized warehouses angled across a lot from one another, one slightly larger than the other, “Which one?”

“Both. Larger one usually gets the blood, smaller one is generally used as a garage.”

“Well isn’t that nice. God forbid your car gets cold while you spill someone’s blood just next door,” I said sarcastically, my eyes still fixed on the screen. “What’s the mortality rate there?”

“Not overly high. It’s used more for coaxing out information than dragging out murder. It’s often used as the ‘break-in’; insulated and heavily guarded.” He glanced at me from the corner of his eye, “Brayden turns everything into a fortress. He has the resources and he’s not an idiot about using them.”

“Thought you didn’t like the guy? You’re talkin’ the hell out of him.”

“I don’t,” he responded matter-of-factly, “Doesn’t make him an idiot.”

I couldn’t argue that.

“Alright,” I said, leaning back to stand straight again. “This is a s**t deal all the way around.” I paused, setting my right hand on Danny’s shoulder, pretending not to notice him flinch. “I need your help man, how do we find him before we’re too late?”

He let out a long sigh, “Probably your best bet is to take someone. I gave you all their lock down spots, but beyond that I’m not much good to you. I’m not on the inside anymore so I don’t know where Ty is, what they want from him, or how long they intend to keep him.” He shifted minutely and I removed my hand to give him some space. After a second he looked up sharply, “You’ve gotta be smart about it though. Brayden’s gonna be on high alert, and if you go around kicking in doors, Ty will pay for it.”

            I grimaced and looked over to Dean who shifted uneasily.

            Daniel half turned, looking between us, “S**t, you guys already did. Whose place?”

            “Eldon’s.” 

            “S**t. That’s his brothers’ place. Breaking in there is not gonna go unnoticed,” he raked a hand through his hair unsteadily. “Why?”

            “It was all we had to go on.” I turned, hearing the front door close softly, and took a few steps back to the fridge to pull out two more beer. I cracked them before turning back to lean on the counter again.

Daniel looked up at me, his face solemn, “Yeah, well you do it again and it very well could be Ty’s funeral.”

            “That is not happening,” AJ’s voice was steel with a fierce edge, and his face was a dead match when he swept into the kitchen a second later. He was followed fairly close by Kyle, who wore an expression of exhausted annoyance over his determination.

            I picked up the fresh beers and handed one to each of them, then grabbed my own to take another drink.

            “You’re right, it’s not,” I reassured AJ as I set the bottle back on the counter. “We still need info though,” I slid my eyes towards Kyle, forgetting he couldn’t see them behind my shades. “What did you guys learn?”

            “Nothing.” Kyle took a longer than usual swig of his beer and sat down across from Daniel. “Total bust, couldn’t even get near the place. There’s a forest around it and the driveway was blocked by two red and black cars. Definitely the right place, but we’d have been shot if we tried to get in.”

I nodded, silently contemplating our situation. We didn’t have any leads, options, or luck. I growled inwardly with frustration, before snapping my attention to the only person who could give us a chance. “So, Daniel. You said our best chances were to take someone. You have anyone particular in mind?”

“Danny,” he answered flatly with half a glare.

I nodded in acknowledgement and waited for him to carry on.

He eyed me for a moment before continuing with an amused air to his voice, “And matter of fact… Yeah,” a sly grin, small but sure spread through his features; giving a glimpse to a side I hadn’t yet seen of him. He rolled his eyes up to meet mine, whether he knew it or not, and I could see the glint of gleeful satisfaction in them as he spoke the one name that not even I would have guessed; “Brayden.”

Author's Note

Okay, and third time's the charm? Maybe? Let me know what you think.

Reviews

[Cyndy Robinson]

I am enjoying the story, never read the first draft so I can't say yay or nay, except to say I am enjoying the story and as such, have not very much to say. A good thing. A couple of typos I noticed for when you get out the red pen:

He has some f****n Guardian Angel should be f****n'
At his last two words the smile disintegrated from his face and left I haunted, I needs to be me.

[747]

Ah yes. The 'I' there is actually supposed to be 'a'. Yet another casualty of flipping the perspective from AJ to Julius and dragging things around. Thanks for pointing it out.
Glad to see you still enjoying, and I hope to give you more of it to read soon! Thank you.

[justdandy]

That was pretty good. Cant wait for the other chapters