Page 50 of Volt
Volt
I stare at the boxes sitting on the table in front of us, unable to take my eyes off the red smears on the plastic that’s lining the inside. The clubhouse is dead silent. Not a soul is speaking, each of us lost in our own thoughts, unable to take our eyes off the fucking boxes. The air in here is stifling hot. And Leadership is in their meeting room. It’s not hard to hear them screaming at one another in there as they figure out what our next steps are going to be.
“I need some air,” I say, finally able to snap myself out of my stupor.
The chair legs scrape the floor, filling the room with a sharp squeal. All the guys turn to stare at me as I walk out of the clubhouse. I walk to the railing and lean against it as I shake a smoke out of my pack and light it. Taking a deep drag, I try to focus on something other than the two heads in the fucking boxes inside that were dropped off at the gate sometime last night.
“You all right?”
“Yeah. Fine. Just needed some air,” I reply.
I blow out a thick plume of smoke as Spyder leans against the railing beside me and lights up a smoke of his own.
“Thought you quit,” I say.
“Seemed like a good time to pick it back up considering what’s sitting inside those boxes at the clubhouse.”
“Yeah, no shit,” I mutter. “Bellamy know you’re smokin’ again?”
Spyder cuts me a glance. “No. And she better not find out either. She finds out, I’ll cut your nuts off,” he says with a wicked grin.
The smile quickly slips from his face though as the gravity of what we’re dealing with reasserts itself. I take a drag and exhale, shaking my head.
“I’ve seen all kinds of horrible shit, man,” I say. “But I’ve never had two heads fucking FedEx-ed to me before.”
“Yeah,” he said, his tone somber. “Dex and Halo were good guys, man. This is fucked.”
“They were,” I say. “Do we know what happened?”
He shook his head. “Nope. They were just out ridin’ as near as we can tell,” he said. “Got snatched and... well... they ended up with their fucking heads in a box.”
“Fuck.”
Dex and Halo were a couple of old-timers. Good guys. The kind of guys who’d give you the shirt off their backs. They served with Prophet and Doc too, so I know this is hitting him especially hard. It was bad enough when it was Prophet, I imagine this is taking Doc’s rage up to eleven. It’s no wonder there was a screaming match in the Leadership room. I’m sure Doc is pressing for war now, and some of the others are trying to slow him down to take a more measured approach. It’s never a good idea to go in half-cocked in any situation but especially when you’re dealing with somebody like Zavala.
“This guy—Emiliano—he’s a fuckin’ savage. A goddamn animal,” Spyder says.
I nod. “He’s worse than the first Zavala,” I say. “This guy is smarter. More methodical. This guy is going to have contingency plans for every situation. He’s not going to be like his brother and come at us head-on.”
“Bad choice of words,” Spyder quips, still trying to lighten the mood.
“Asshole,” I say and chuckle despite myself. “I’m just sayin’, this guy is going to come at us sideways. What he did with Dex and Halo? It’s to knock us off-balance. He’s trying to intimidate us and force us to fuck up.”
Spyder nods. “Yeah, that sounds right. But I have a bad feelin’ Doc’s going to want blood,” he says. “I’m worried he’s going to lead us right into something.”
“You questioning his leadership?”
He shakes his head. “Nah, man. I mean, he’s different from Prophet when it comes to being a leader. Doc is smart,” he says. “But to have three of his closest friends taken out over a matter of what, a couple of weeks? That’s bound to make anybody want blood, like immediately.”
I blow out a thick stream of smoke and watch it drift upward. He’s not wrong. Doc is going to want to kill Zavala sooner rather than later. And I can’t say I blame him. I mean, this is well beyond fucked up. But now isn’t the time to be rash or run into something headlong. Now’s the time for caution. We’re teetering on the edge of a knife, and one wrong move is going to be the end of us all.
“You know if Doc is insisting on a straight-up fight right now, you need to speak up,” Spyder says. “You know that, don’t you?”
“Like he’s going to listen to me.”
“Do you have a plan?” he asks. “You got one of your reasoned approaches that everybody else can get behind?”
“Dude, I’m not in Leadership but yeah, I’ve got a few ideas,” I tell him. “It doesn’t matter though. I’m a foot soldier and I know my role. I’m good with staying in my lane, man.”
