Dani was back in the bedroom pouting, and I was stuck here out on the couch, unable to get what she said out of my head-the little comments she had made about my reading. She sounded genuinely surprised I was able to read. She was just as stuck up as I’d thought she would be. So much for being Mr. Nice Guy. I had cooked dinner, bought wine - what the fuck was I thinking, trying to impress her? Screw that. I didn’t need to impress her.
I had lost my temper with her. The shit she'd said about me going legit, being smarter than what I was doing - I guess it hit a sore spot with me. What I'd said about her father trafficking people? Even if I had my suspicions, I didn't know for sure it was true. I had just said it to hurt her, and it obviously did. Now I regretted it. It was a low blow.
But what she’d said about the deal with Guillermo, the hit he’d ordered - that’s why I was out here now, waiting until she was asleep to deal with it. That had the potential for our club to be in some serious shit if we went through with it. Or if we didn’t go through with it. I knew there was something off about Guillermo. Something about him didn’t feel right. This shit left a real bad taste in my mouth.
If we carried out the hit, we’d be targets for the Randolphs, who had limitless money and power. If we didn’t do it, I’m sure Guillermo would take us out, kill our families. That was how guys like him operated.
He had said the Furia MC had basically betrayed him by setting up some kind of deal with the Armenians. So he had to be planning on enforcing consequences for their disloyalty. My mind raced with the other possibility. Or, he was still aligned with the Furia and we were just the patsies for his dirty work. Either way, I wasn’t liking the outcome here.
I peered down the hallway at the closed door. There was no light under the frame and Dani had drank almost an entire bottle of wine. She was probably passed out by now. I needed to get in touch with Mad Dog.
I rode down the road ten miles to the spot where I knew cell coverage began again, and made the call on a burner cell phone to Mad Dog’s burner number. Mad Dog needed to be aware of this. He'd have to bring this to the table. I wasn’t there in person, but the members needed to vote on this. They needed to know the potential for serious shit happening if we did this hit.
“Yeah.” Mad Dog’s voice was hoarse. It was late, but I doubted he was sleeping. It was more likely he was getting his dick sucked by his some girl at the club or by his Old Lady. It was a tossup which one.
“It’s me.”
“You at the safe house?”
“Yeah, Boss, I’m at a safe house.” This was a safe house of sorts. What he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him. It was just my safe house instead of the club’s safe house.
Mad Dog chuckled. “You entertaining yourself? She’s a hot piece, that one. I’d get me some of that.”
“Jesus, Mad Dog, it’s Guillermo’s daughter. He’d cut your throat.”
“I’d die a happy man.”
“Put your dick back in your pants,” I said. “I got some serious shit going on here. Did you guys take care of the business with the college kid?”
“We’re going to be on it soon. I’ll send Axe up with a couple of the guys. He’s good at that kind of thing.”
“Do you know who the kid is?”
“Some kid. Randolph or something.”
“Yeah, man. Look him up on the internet. His family is not just some random college kid’s family. It’s like doing a hit on one of the Kennedys.”
Silence. Then, “Fuck, man.”
“Yeah. You need to make sure the club knows this shit. I think we might be screwed. The shit with the Furia and the Armenians? Are we sure they really have an alliance?”
“What do you mean?” Mad Dog was alert now, no question about it.
“Look, I don’t know if we’re getting fucked over here. Guillermo could be planning to use us to do some shit, then cut us loose when there’s fallout.”
“You mean use us to do the hit, and then let the shit blowback on the club?” Mad Dog asked. “Makes no sense. Why would he approach us about protection and only mention the hit later?”
It was true. He couldn’t have been planning on killing Billy until after Dani got home and he realized what the guy had done. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t planning on screwing us with the other jobs from the very beginning. “Look, maybe there’s something off with the protection jobs.”
“You sound just as paranoid as that Mexican motherfucker,” Mad Dog said.
“He’s Panamanian. And you need check on this, make sure this is kosher. Maybe the Furia don’t really have an alliance with the Armenians. Has Guillermo made a move to retaliate against them?”
“No, but he’s smart. He doesn’t want to some high profile shit going on.”
“Exactly. That’s my point. Think about it, Prez. Why would he have us do a hit like this? It’s the ultimate in high profile. Something’s off with this guy. It’s not right.”
Silence. “Yeah, I feel you. Thanks man. I’ll take it to the club. We’ll do some research.”
"Hold off on it," I said. "Sit on it. He's a college kid. He's probably going home for the summer. Shit, he's a Randolph, so he's probably leaving the fucking country for the summer. We wait, the problem goes away. Takes care of itself."