Page 70 of Frisco

Me: Yeah. Good old Claudia. Start stretching to evade and dodge the pitchfork. Harper is fast.

Harper: You both suck! THIS IS A GROUP CHAT, DID YOU BOTH FORGET?

Harper: Stay safe, K. Share your location with us plz. Aly, start stretching. Start. Stretching.

Me: Dad. I owe you a phone call. Here’s my initial apology before the real groveling happens. Give me a few days. I’m on Claudia duty right now.

Dad: I have news too! We have five hundred subscribers on the Old Gents’ YouTube channel.

Dad: Also, I will be waiting.

Me: Oh, boy.

Dad: Was that intended to be a text message to me?

Me: No! Sorry. Again. Or ahead of time. Sorry, sorry, sorry. Love you, Dad!

Dad: I sure do love you back. Tick tock on that phone call, Daughter. Tick tock.

23

SHANE

Normally when we’d roll into Frisco for a roast like tonight’s, the gate at The Bonfire would be drawn back, and we could drive our bikes right inside. This time, we drove forward and then reversed, walking our bikes back so all of us were facing the street. We were ready for a fast retreat or a fast chase, and no one was sure which would happen.

I knew one thing, though. I wasn’t going to die tonight, and I wasn’t going to retreat. Whatever went down, I’d be ending it.

If it came to me snapping Estrada’s neck, I’d do it. I knew how cartels worked. They thrived on hitting your family, and no fucking way was anyone touching Kali.

I didn’t like Marco Estrada. Never had. I didn’t know who did, but Maxwell had put us in business with him, and our club grew because of it. No more. The cartel was too dangerous, too deadly for us, and it was time to cut ties.

Tonight we’d see how it all ended.

I wasn’t a great actor, but I knew my role. I’d keep it together until the right time.

Once I’d parked, I called Heckler before getting off my bike. The rest of the guys went inside, and the prospects came back out a moment later to watch over the bikes.

“I called around, like you asked,” Heckler said when he answered. “No one up there has heard about the cartel moving on us. And down here, we’re still not getting anything. I’m sorry I can’t be more helpful.”

I sat back, thinking. “So we’re going in blind.”

“I’m sorry.”

A different thought came to me. “Could he be listening in on this?”

“Our calls?”

“Yeah.”

Heckler was quiet a moment. “If he’s into that, we’re fucked.”

We had tech guys, computer guys, who could maybe do what I’d suggested. We’d just never considered putting those measures in place.

“We messed up,” I told him.

“Yeah. We did. I was focused on Max.”

“I was focused on other things.” No way was I mentioning Kali now.

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