DOWN IN THE lobby, I stepped out of the elevator with Drago, stopped, and visually checked all the patrons, the people coming and going, looked for someone out of place, a predator, one who resembled an outlaw motorcycle gang member dressed down in sheep’s clothing.
I didn’t like Marie being left alone with no one covering her. I wouldn’t be able to focus with her at risk.
With Drago at my side, though, I started to get a glimmer of hope that this thing might work out. Drago knew how to influence people.
We could do what we did the last time with Jonas Mabry; we could get a chunk of money from somewhere and offer it up to The Sons as a form of reparations. The Sons worshiped only one thing: their false idol, money. They had a price, like everyone had a price, and I’d gladly pay it as long as the number didn’t come in too large. The big drawback, even if we got the money and gave it to them, was that they couldn’t be trusted. I didn’t want to use Drago’s gold, but that might be the only way out. If we did use it, I’d swap the menace to my family for an oversize dose of guilt over the debt I’d owe him.
We moved slowly through the hotel lobby to the centerpiece fountain. With Drago dressed in aqua sweatpants and a football jersey, everyone took a second look at us. Not good. We stood out too much. Drago didn’t seem to notice. He took out a cell phone and hit a speed-dial number. “Yeah, it’s me,” he said. “I got a job for you and Dill. You handle this for me and we’ll call it square. You screw it up, and I’m gonna introduce you to my blowtorch, you understand?”
He listened for a moment and then said, “Yeah, that’s right, a clean slate, you won’t owe me a damn thing after this. I want you at a hotel in the next twenty minutes, you understand? One of you will be in the next room to the woman and the other down in the lobby. Nothing is to happen to the woman in 1410. I’ll give you the entire lowdown when you get here. I’ll text you the name of the hotel and the address. She’s not to know you’re on the job.
“The threat?” Drago raised his voice. “Yeah, there’s a threat or I wouldn’t be talkin’ ta your dumb ass. It’s The Sons. They want ta hurt her and her family and that’s not gonna happen.”
He listened some more.
“Yeah,” he said, “that’s why I’m not watchin’ after her myself. I’m gonna have a sit-down with The Sons. Be a day, maybe two at the most ’til I get all this sorted out and then you’re done.”
He rang off and used his big thumbs to text the hotel name and the address.
“Thanks,” I said, “that makes me feel a lot better.”
“No problem.”
“Can you trust these guys?”
“Yeah, one of ’em’s my brother, and they’re both cops.”
“You got a brother who’s a cop?”
He waved a beefy paw. “It’s a long, sad story without a happy ending. But you don’t have to worry, these guys are solid. So whattaya got in mind? You want to systematically hit every one of The Sons’ stash pads, safe houses, satellite clubhouses, torch ’em to the ground, keep it up until they yell ‘uncle’? That’s what I’m thinkin’ we do. We start up our own little program of crimes against The Sons.”
We moved together to the side of the lobby by the couches and watched the doors and the valets out front taking care of the cars. Watched the kind of cars, the kind of clientele.
“We do it that way,” I said, “uninvolved people could get hurt.”
“Well, yeah, maybe. Maybe no,” he said. “But that’s the basic idea—you make an omelet, you’re gonna break a few eggs. A body count is the only thing The Sons will stand up and take notice of. You gotta get ’em rubbin’ their ass sayin’ ouch, that hurt, or you’re not gonna get anywhere with ’em.”
“I don’t want any innocents to get hurt.”
He looked at me a little stunned. “What happened to the guy with the huge balls? The guy who walked into The Sons international clubhouse with me and pretended to be a cop? What happened to that guy?”
“We got caught, remember?”
“You’re gonna have to get wet on this one if you wanna take care of the problem. That’s the only thing they know. You answer violence with violence; it’s the only rule in the jungle. I don’t know how many different ways I gotta say it.”
“What if we tried to buy them off?”
“They’d take the money and come right back at you. They wouldn’t even wait a week. And then you’d be right back where you started. Minus the money and a huge chunk of your credibility gone, flushed right down the toilet.”
“Who’s callin’ the shots for The Sons?” I asked. “Did they nominate a new president?”
“No, Clay’s still callin’ the shots, only now it’s from Pelican Bay.”
“You’ve got to be kiddin’ me. After all the evidence he kept stashed? The same evidence that put all of his brother bikers in the can for life? He betrayed them with his huge ego and ignorance.”
“Clay told everyone that the feds planted that shit, that he had nothin’ to do with it.”
“All that evidence? Are you kiddin’ me?”
My voice rose. Drago grabbed my arm and tugged us over to a huge ficus in a pot next to a marble pillar. “No one said these guys would win any spelling bees.”
“That’s amazing, simply amazing. You know, maybe if we can prove he did keep all those trophies and photos, the membership would turn on him. That might be our way out.”
Drago got a faraway look in his eyes. “You know, if we could cut off the head of the snake, the snake might die.”
“Take out Clay Warfield? I thought you said he was in Pelican Bay. That’s not just a regular prison, it’s a supermax, and he’s on the inside, and we’re on the outside.”
“No, no, we get someone on the inside to do the dirty for us.”
I didn’t like the idea of hiring a thug to take care of my problem. It went against the grain. It was also against the law, murder for hire, one of the most heinous crimes you could commit. No matter how bad Clay turned out to be, if I hired someone, I’d be stooping to his level. I’d been a cop too many years for that.
Drago’s theory on life came from a much simpler point of view: you fuck with the bull you get the horn. And in this case, Drago thought Clay more than deserved the horn.
“Let’s think about it,” I said.
Drago shook his head. “I’m sorry, pal, there just aren’t any other options. I think you’re gonna have to sack up, my Negro friend, if you wanna get this thing done the right way.”
“I’m gonna think on it. Right now I have to make a phone call and meet with a friend.”
“Oh no, you don’t. You’re not gettin’ rid a me that easy, pal.”
“It has nothing to do with this thing with The Sons. It’s something else altogether.”
“Really? You tellin’ a brother true?”
“Yes.”
He waved his hand in the air. “Say, old hoss, listen. I think you already got enough on your plate. Let’s get this first thing sorted out first before you go ’round socializin’.”
“I won’t be long.”
He looked confused at my resolve and didn’t know which way to jump. “I’m goin’ with you,” he said, though not as firmly this time.
“That’s fine, no problem, but who’s gonna wait here and cover Marie until your two friends show up?”
After a time, he nodded. “Then you can just wait ’til they get here, and we can both go.”
“By the time they get here, I could’ve gone and come back. And we’re going to need some guns, probably sooner than later.”
“I can deal with that.”
“Here, gimme your cell phone, let me make a call.”
He handed it over.
I dialed Sonja.