Page 20

CHAPTER 20

Kilo

T he next two weeks were a blur of activity. Between work, hanging out with Camila, working on the new apartments, and planning our move against Kruzman, things were hectic as hell. I wouldn’t have it any other way. I was fucking alive again. Not that I hadn’t needed the couple years of downtime we’d had, but I was starting to get bored. I had a feeling the others were too.

“Kilo.”

I looked up and focused on Ruck. “Yeah?”

The other guys gathered around. We’d already told Merc, Code, and Hype about what was going on. The fact our members were fully on board as well just reaffirmed what I already knew. These men were family. I’d kill, and die, to protect them and they were willing to do the same for me.

“As you already know, Lockout and Cypher are on board,” Ruck said as soon as everyone gathered around. “Lock said to give him the word and they’d head this way. Cypher already has Glitch looking into Kruzman. He’s also got a contact inside the FBI who’s going to see if they can find the mole.”

“How do we know it’s on the FBI’s side?” Bolo asked.

“Could be the Marshals,” Overdrive added.

“The first time Kruzman found her was before the Marshals got involved,” I told them. “Could be a fluke, but I don’t think it is. Someone inside the FBI is on his payroll.” Which pissed me the fuck off. The fact that some asshole was willing to get Camila killed for money made me want to hold his gaze as I strangled him. Watch as the life left his eyes. There wasn’t anything I wouldn’t do to keep Camila safe. To keep her alive.

Kruzman’s motivation was money and revenge. No fucking way he was winning this war. He didn’t have any idea what was about to come for him, but he’d find out soon enough.

“We need somewhere safe to stash the women when this goes down,” Ruck told me.

“I have a place,” I replied. “Someone I trust to watch over them until the Tucson guys get here.”

“Good. That’s one less thing for us to worry about. Glitch should be able to give us a head’s up if Kruzman mobilizes before we’re ready.”

“What about the rest of the plan?” Relay asked. “Where’s this going down?”

“No place better than the desert,” Ruck said with a grin.

“Lot of dangerous areas between here and Yuma,” Overdrive commented.

“Plenty of places for people to accidentally go missing,” Merc added.

“OD, why don’t you and Bolo find us a good spot,” Ruck ordered. “Something remote.”

“Will do, Prez,” Overdrive said. “We’ll head out tomorrow morning. Find the perfect place.”

“How are we going to lure them out there?” Flir asked.

“We could put OD in a dress and a wig,” Code suggested.

Everyone chuckled at that. Overdrive arched a brow. “If anyone’s wearing a dress, it’s you, Kid.”

“All they have to think is that we have Camila with us,” Ruck said. “Cypher and Glitch can help with that.”

“We could utilize the Marshals watching over the girls, too.” I hated fucking saying it, but that was just more firepower on our side.

Strike cocked his head. “Can they be trusted?”

“Yeah, as much as I dislike the fucker, the Marshal I met that night seemed to actually care about them. If they weren’t trustworthy, there wouldn’t be anywhere that the women could go without Kruzman finding them immediately. I suspect that the Marshals are slow on their reports, just to keep the FBI behind the curve.”

Everyone nodded at that. “How do we get them involved without it looking too damn suspicious when Kruzman goes missing?” Drifter asked.

“Damn, that’s a good point,” I replied. “Might just have to leave them out of this after all.”

“We’ll save the Marshals as a last resort,” Ruck decided. “Hopefully we won’t need them.”

“If everything goes smooth we won’t,” Flir said. Everyone glared at him. “What?”

“You know the fucking rule, asshole,” Bolo muttered. “Don’t say shit like that.”

Flir rolled his eyes. “Not talking about the mission going well, or badly, doesn’t actually affect the outcome. That’s all superstition. You know that right?”

“I know if anything happens now, it’s your damn fault,” Bolo shot back.

Flir shook his head. “Fucking ridiculous to believe that shit.”

“Just stop talking about it.”

I couldn’t help but chuckle, but once their arguing died down, I looked around at my brothers. “Can’t tell you how much I appreciate this.”

“Maybe he should say it again,” Overdrive said with an evil grin.

“Fuck off,” I replied with a laugh.

“Kilo. Get the safehouse for the girls set up. OD, Bolo find us the perfect place to kill some hit men. Strike, any chance you have any old contacts from your intel days that could help?”

“Yeah, I’ll reach out.”

“Can’t have too much information on this piece of shit,” Ruck added.

“I’ll get us some more weapons,” Relay offered.

“Shouldn’t that be my and Kilo’s job?” Overdrive asked. “We own the weapons store, remember?”

“Your shit have the serial numbers scraped off?” Relay countered.

“No, but that’s not hard to do,” Overdrive shot back.

“You need to sell that shit to make rent,” Relay said with a shake of his head. “This shit is untraceable and just sitting around, waiting to be used.”

“Appreciate it, Relay,” Ruck told him.

“When we doing this?” I asked.

“Shouldn’t take more than a day or two to get everything set,” Ruck replied. “Don’t want to wait too long or we risk Kruzman finding Camila before we’re ready. I don’t want to be on the defensive. I want him to walk right into the trap we’re setting, thinking he has the upper hand, but in reality he’s three steps behind.”

“You and me both, Brother,” I muttered.

“One week. Saturday night, we take the fight to this bastard.”

“Anything anyone can think of that we’re not seeing?” Strike asked.

Everyone thought about that for a minute, then shook their heads.

“Alright,” Overdrive said, rubbing his hands together with a smile of glee on his face. “I know I’m ready to kill some fuckers.”

“We’re not actually expecting Kruzman to show, are we?” Flir asked. “He wouldn’t be that stupid. Right?”

“Depends on what he wants from Camila,” I replied.

“Which means he might,” Ruck answered, “if we bait the trap well enough.”

“How’re we going to do that exactly?” Merc asked.

“If Cypher can figure out who the mole is, it’ll make it a whole lot easier. Kruzman isn’t going to smell a trap if the tip comes from his usual informant.”

“How do we leak information to the informant without him getting suspicious?” Hype asked, scratching his chin.

“Don’t know yet,” Ruck replied. “That’s why we’re doing this on Saturday and not tomorrow.”

A few of the guys let out laughs.

“We’ll figure it out once we find the mole. If we don’t, we’re going to need a new damn plan anyway. I’d rather have Kruzman show and not just his fucking lackeys. Cut the head off the damn snake and take out the threat to Camila and her family in one move. Otherwise we’re going to have to kill whoever he sends and take the fight to him. Once he knows we’re involved it's going to ramp up this mission to shit level proportions if we don’t handle it all quickly.” Ruck looked around at us and nodded when we all agreed with him.

“Let’s get ourselves straight first, give Cypher, Glitch, and Drifter a couple days to see what they can find, and we’ll finish planning.”

“Meanwhile,” Bolo said, “we still have a building to work on.” Code groaned when Bolo grabbed him by the shoulder. “You’re with me, Kid.”

I watched everyone but Ruck and Overdrive disperse to continue working on the assignments they’d been given earlier. “This isn’t going to go sideways, right?” I asked.

Both men gave me grim looks.

“Won’t happen,” Overdrive said. He always had a positive outlook.

I glanced over at Ruck.

Our president just shrugged. “If it does, we’ll handle it. What’s the other option? Not get involved? Let three women depend on some useless feds to keep them safe?” He shook his head. “Not when one of those women belongs to you, Brother.”

“I could take care of it myself,” I pointed out.

“Fuck that. We do this as a family. Just like we do everything else.”

I nodded. “Figured I’d offer.”

Ruck scoffed. “Like we’d let you walk into a fight alone. Get your head out of your ass.” With that, he walked off, shrugging off his cut and laying it on a workbench inside the garage before pitching in with the others.

“This isn’t a hardship for us, Kilo,” Overdrive said after a few moments of silence. “Most of us are looking forward to it.”

“Ruck’s been happy with the peace,” I pointed out.

Overdrive snorted. “He was getting just as fucking bored as the rest of us. If this hadn’t come up, trust me, someone would have started some shit just for something to do. This is better.”

“Thanks, OD.”

“Anytime. How’s Camila handling everything?”

“She almost bolted on me.” She hadn’t admitted to it, but I knew she’d come close.

He nodded. “Not surprised. Running has kept her safe.”

“It’s the end of the line,” I told him. “No more running. She’s on board. She wanted me to tell you all how grateful she is.”

“Don’t need to hear it from you, especially don’t need to hear it from her. She’ll learn soon enough that this is what family does.”

“Yeah,” I replied. “Gonna need you to find yourself an old lady so mine doesn’t get bored.”

Overdrive barked out a laugh. “Don’t you fucking curse me, you bastard.” He walked off with that, leaving me to get back to work.

There was a part of me that was looking forward to this. I just wished my girl wasn’t caught up in the middle of it. I hadn’t missed the spark of excitement in my brothers’ eyes. In a way, we all needed this. Overdrive was right. It was only a matter of time before we went looking for trouble on our own. Just so happened the trouble found us first.