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2112 Words
The following morning, they headed back to Oceanside. Only this trip Morris insisted Maxine ride back with him and Owen would ride with Lucas. Personally, Lucas didn’t like the idea, but Maxine didn’t fight it. So, he spent the morning in silence with Owen in his passenger seat glaring quietly. He was a big man with not a stitch of hair on his head but a full goatee. He was bulky like Morris who made the car feel cramped.
“You sleep well?” Owen asked.
“Like a baby.” He lied. He had barely slept at all his dreams were filled with lusty thoughts leaving him feeling frustrated. “Why don’t you get some Z’s it’s a long drive you must be tired following us around all night.” He smirked.
“I’m fine.”
“Suit yourself.” They drove the rest of the way in silence. Lucas kept looking through the rear-view mirror to see if the other car was still behind them. He drove the limit all the way to Oceanside and was more than happy to get rid of his passenger as he rolled through the gates and up to the villa.
Lucas parked and got out of the car. He walked around to the steps while he watched Maxine get out of the other car. They followed Morris and Owen inside to find Carlos seated at a table by the pool enjoying his lunch. He smiled and wiped his mouth with a napkin as they came over. “There is my girl.” He said reaching out and taking Maxine’s hand. He pulled her close and into his lap possessively. “How was your night out?”
“Eventful.” She said with a smile. She played the part well had he not been there himself he wouldn’t have believed anything had happened between them last night. Actually, that bugged him a little. He didn’t like that she could switch on and off so easily. It made him feel forgettable.
Carlos gestured for Lucas to take a seat at the table. Lucas didn’t take the offer, but Morris pulled out the chair and Owen placed his hand on Lucas’ shoulder and forced him to sit. Lucas didn’t care for his strong-arming either. He glared up at Owen whose hand was still on his shoulder. “Do you know what it feels like to have your hand broken?” He warned through clenched teeth. “Touch me again, and you’ll find out.” Owen pulled his hand back and searched Lucas’ eyes trying to decide if the threat was genuine. Then he took a step back.
Carlos smiled really friendly like, but Lucas wasn’t buying it he could see the annoyance in his cold eyes. “My men had a rough night last night. It seems all their tires wound up punctured leaving them stranded. You wouldn’t know anything about that would you?”
“s**t happens when you lurk in alleys,” Lucas said simply.
“Did you sleep well?” Carlos asked with a little more annoyance.
“Except for the part where your boy was banging on my door at three AM. Some people have no courtesy.”
The table fell quiet for a long moment. “Tell me how your night went? I’m positively on the edge of my seat.”
“We went to the gallery and talked to a few people had a fight, and then we left. We went to a bar talked to some more people and went to the hotel to get some sleep. How was your night?” Lucas mocked.
“How much product did you move?”
“All of it.”
“And more.” Maxine jumped in. “He sold everything and then made three deals with other dealers. We have three orders to fill. He just made you over a hundred thousand dollars in one night. Not many of the others can say the same.”
Carlos looked pleased by the figures. He smiled at Lucas. “I knew you would be good. I knew there would be big money in your world.” He smiled up at Maxine. “I trust you took care of the arraignments?”
“Of course.” She smiled back at him. “You’ll have your money by Wednesday.”
The look that passed between them aggravated Lucas. She was good at faking it, and it made him wonder if she had been faking it with him. He couldn’t sit here and watch them. The sooner he was done with these people, the better. It was time to kick things into high gear. “Look if you’re going to want me to keep doing this, I need more product. I can’t keep running out.”
“How much do you want?” Carlos asked.
“How much you got?”
“A lot.”
“I’ll take it all. Have dumb and dumber her load it in my car.” He looked over his shoulder at Morris and Owen then clapped his hands. “Chop-chop.” They just glared at him, and Carlos laughed.
“You have lofty goals.” He said sitting relaxed in his seat.
“I know a lot of people.” He retorted. “Wasn’t that why you brought me in? Do you want me to move it or not?”
“I most certainly do.” He tapped Maxine on the bottom to have her stand and then he stood up and straightened his shirt and headed past the pool and out to the dock. “Are you coming?”
Lucas stood up and followed Carlos down to the boathouse. Carlos took out a key and removed the padlock then opened the doors. Inside was a hundred-thousand-dollar-speed boat. Lucas looked at Carlos not sure why they were there.
“Get in the boat.”
“Why?”
“We’re going for a ride. Don’t you like boats?” Carlos asked watching him closely.
“I just don’t see the point.”
“You will. Get in the boat.” He repeated.
Lucas walked along the boardwalk and climbed into the boat. Carlos climbed in behind him and took out another set of keys to start the boat. He pulled the boat out of the boathouse and headed out into open water. Lucas remembered all the bad movies he had seen and wondered if Carlos was planning on killing him and dumping his body in the water. Then again if he were, he probably would have brought his goons to help him dump the body.
“Do you like to sail?” Carlos asked. “I love to sail.”
“I like to ski,” Lucas said as they went farther out.
“That’s fun too, but you know where the best place to sail is? International waters. Anything is legal out in the international water. There are no laws at all.” Lucas could no longer see the shore, but just ahead of them he saw what looked like a very small island. It couldn’t be Hawaii they hadn’t gone far enough. It was just some rock in the middle of the water and Carlos was headed straight for it. “Do you know how many little islands like this are out there?”
Lucas shrugged. He didn’t know or care; he just wanted to know why they were making this little trip. “I’m still not seeing your point.”
Carlos snickered as they pulled into the dock on the island. He thought it strange that this deserted island had a personal dock a rather large one. Carlos got off the boat and waited for Lucas to follow which he did. They walked up the dock, and Lucas looked around, armed men were patrolling the beach. Why did they need armed men on an uncharted island? His answer came quickly because farther up in the trees were three shipping crates.
Reaching the first crate, Carlos snapped his fingers, and one of the armed men lifted the latch and pulled the door open wide to reveal the contents. Inside were tightly packed bricks of cocaine stacked from wall to wall, ceiling to floor, more bricks then he could count. Carlos stepped aside so Lucas could better view the insides. “The other two crates are just as full. I have it shipped in from Mexico, and since it’s international waters, I can avoid customs.” He smirked at the look on Lucas’ face. “You still want it all?”
Lucas was speechless. He couldn’t move all this even if he recruited every drug dealer on the west coast. How did Maxine expect him to contact Carlos’ suppliers if he couldn’t make a dent in his supply? Ok, he had to take a minute and think. There had to be a way to move this. If Carlos could move it so could he.
“Well?”
“I’m thinking. Give me a minute.” He was racking his brain thinking of all the people he knew and who they knew. Gangs could move drugs in high quantities. Only he didn’t know anyone in a gang. He knew of them. There were the Soldiers in LA. They ran everything from drugs to guns, but he didn’t know a Soldier nor did he know anyone that did. There were the Hellhounds in Vegas and the River Dogs in Chicago, but he had the same problem he didn’t know any of them nor did he know anyone that did. He would have never suspected that one day he was going to need gang affiliations. He had spent his life trying to steer clear so such acquaintances.
The only other gang he knew of was the Fiends. They were a big motorcycle gang and fans too. He’d often seen members at his shows. They were national bigger than all the others, and they had their hands in everything from drugs and guns to human trafficking. Only they were known to be brutal, and they didn’t trust anyone, not to mention they probably wouldn’t deal with Carlos because they were racist jerks too.
Though his family name was Sanchez, there was enough white married into the family between his grandmother, sister, and mother to dilute his Spaniard features. Had his name not been a giveaway he could have passed for white himself which would make dealing with the racist lot easier. Oh god was he thinking about approaching the Fiends to make a drug deal? He had no choice it was the only way he could think to move this much and quickly.
The real question was how did he get through the door without getting shot in the process? He could only think of one person. William Tucker, A.K.A Zeke, his auntie’s husband. Before he married his Aunt Kat, William (or Zeke as he preferred to be called) had been a Narcotics FBI agent that specialized in the Fiends. He had been deep cover acting as a drug runner for three years. If anyone knew how to approach the notorious gang, it would be him. If he could strike up a deal with the Fiends, he could move all this and more. He needed to go to New York.
“I have an idea.” He announced. “But it will take some planning. If things go the way, I plan I can move all of this.”
Carlos looked pleased but skeptical. “How long do you need?”
“Give me a week. I got to go to New York and talk to someone.”
“New York?”
“I know people all over the world.” He said trying to ease Carlos’ mind. “One week maybe two and I can move all three of these.”
“That would be quite the feat. Maxine will go with you.” He could live with that it might even make talking with Zeke easier.
“I’ll gas up the family jet.”
“You have a jet?”
“Don’t you?”
- Writer
