Page 10 of Joker's Ghost
“Reading.” Boa smirks, then points to the screen of his laptop. “You oughta try it sometime.”
“Maybe there’s something to it,” Mamba ventures.
Great. Just when I was forgetting that bullshit, my own brothers are making it sound logical.
“It says here,” Boa continues, “their biggest claim is to be able to predict the future with astounding accuracy. I didn’t realize they were still practicing.”
“Shit.” Cobra shoulder-butts me. “Doesn’t sound too good for you, brother.” When all eyes turn toward me, Cobra adds, “Warrior told him he was gonna have a violent death.”
All the brothers break up laughing. “What other kinda death could he have?” Mamba pounds the table with his fist. “He’s a fuckin’ outlaw.”
“Now that everyone agrees I’m gonna go out in a blaze of gunshots, could we please get back to business?” I fumble for the pack of smokes in my cut, pissed off my hand is shaking slightly. Nothing like hearing the end might be near more than once in a day and it was gonna be gruesome.
“All right, let’s get a solid plan to take these renegade Nomads down.” Cobra leans back in his chair. “Our next shipment from the Royal Bastards is Friday, and since they fucked with the last one, I’d say it’s a good bet they’ll try again.”
“Only this time we’ll be ready for them,” Python said.
“That means getting out to the safe house early in the morning, way before the delivery, then stashing our bikes out of sight, and waiting.”
“The last time we made it way too easy for them.”
“Agreed. We’ve been so used to it all going smooth, we let our guard down, but this time, they’ll face all of us instead of prospects and a driver who’s scared of his shadow.”
“Then we’re set for Friday. The expected delivery time is eight in the morning, but we’ll get out there by seven, which means we leave at six a.m.”
“Awful fuckin’ early,” Rattler gripes. “I haven’t been up before the sun since I was a kid.”
Mamba grins. “Maybe you oughta go to the party as a vampire.”
Cobra narrows his eyes. “Just make sure your ass is here, ‘cause we pull out at six.”
“And don’t forget we got the Halloween party on the weekend. I’m going as Clyde Barrow, and Serafina’s going as Bonnie Parker. You know, like Bonnie and Clyde. She’s getting the two of us some real authentic costumes from the wardrobe department at one of the studios where she works.”
I sling my arm over his shoulder. “You really are a frustrated actor.”
Rattler shrugs me off, and we do some air boxing until Cobra slams down the gavel again. “I also set up another meet with Blade and Arrow for after the job is done. I wanna make sure we get our money and we have their word they’ll keep better control of their members.”
Nods and grunts of agreement circle the table as we put together the rest of the plan, which basically amounts to ambushing the Nomads and making sure they keep the fuck outta our business and are no longer a problem.
“We can’t have people they can’t control coming into our territory and fuckin’ things up,” I add. “We finally got it where we’ve weeded out all the bad blood in Vegas. We sure don’t need any bullshit from way up north.”
“That’s why we have to send a message loud and clear, and we have to make sure all the surrounding smaller clubs don’t get any ideas either.”
Mamba shifts in his seat. “I’m assuming, when we get this done, Blade and Arrow will head back up north.”
“That’s the plan,” Cobra agrees. “Then we make sure they stick to it when we meet with them for the payoff.”
“Sounds good on paper,” Boa said. “Now, we just have to hope this whole thing goes off as planned, and it’s not some twisted way for the Nomads to get a hold in Vegas.”
“Nah, I don’t think they want anything down here. They sounded like they couldn’t wait to get back to their own territory.”
I hope Cobra is right ‘cause over the years, I’d seen some fucked-up shit when it came to money and people who wanted power. I didn’t put anything past anybody.
CHAPTER 4
JOKER
“Can’t believe I’m down in this fuckin’ basement again,” I grumble later, as Python hoists a box off one of the shelves against the wall.
