Page 21 of Ripper
“Yeah. You ain’t gotta worry about that. You all about ready to go now?”
Wrench’s eyes darted around the alleyway like he was just waiting for trouble to arrive. I put my hand on his shoulder to calm his ass down.
“We’ll get this done. Aight?”
“Someone’s got their panties in a bunch,” Archer teased.
“Oh shut the fuck up. Come on. We got a score to take,” said Wrench, and it was the first damn time in a while that I saw a smile on his face.
The ride to the small, lonely house was refreshing. It was nestled in a pretty barren part of Mascid where many people boarded up their windows and abandoned their properties because the crime was getting real bad. It only made the hard criminals and druggies roll in faster when they realized they could hide out with virtually no repercussions.The cops rarely ever come crawling through here anyway. The only time they do is when some rich motherfucker gets wrapped up in trouble down in these parts, I thought. Wrench led us behind the old abandoned deli shop a few blocks down, and we parked our bikes back there hoping that no one was gonna touch ’em. I rested my dome down on the seat, turning to Wrench who was already canvassing the area.
“How are you so sure that there’s gonna be a stash here just waiting for us to take?” I asked him.
“I’m sure because when Tank and I rolled on through here while we were doing another job, we saw some bikers pull into that house we just passed. They were loading real heavy duffels in, and if you ask me, it looked like the good stuff. They had pretty nice pieces hanging out of their holsters too,” he said.
“All right. Let’s just hope no one’s home.”
Wrench, Archer, Claymore, and I started making our way around through back alleys until we were at the side fence of that old house. The place smelled like manure and grass which was strange because I couldn’t imagine anyone growing a damn thing in this heat. Wrench fumbled with the wooden boards on the fence until one of them came loose. He handed it to me, and we each slipped through it with ease. I grabbed ahold of my gun, making sure it was close by in case I needed it.From the looks of this place, these fuckers gotta be druggies. Wasting away in there with the good shit they’re gonna use to buy their next fix of birdie powder no doubt.
The back windows were boarded up, and I looked around to see that there was a small garden space with its rusting green metal furniture. There were flowers back there that looked like they died ages ago and a single gardening glove with roses on it that probably belonged to some little old lady at some point. I turned around to see Archer fumbling with the back door, and he turned the knob a few times, making me realize that it wasn’t locked, it was just jammed. He slammed his entire body into it a few times until it gave way, and just like that, we were in.
“Ripper, you and Claymore check upstairs. Archer and I will handle the ground floor,” Wrench instructed.
“Yeah. You got it.”
Claymore and I started making our way over to the wooden staircase that was practically rotting and before we could walk up to the first landing, we heard some noise coming from the top floor.
“Looks like we’ve got company after all,” said Claymore.
I grabbed ahold of my gun, and we kept pushing forward. I had no idea what I was about to walk into, but I didn’t care. We needed this sale to go through and we couldn’t do that if we didn’t have the damn merchandise. The stirring was coming from the bedroom down the hall on the right. I pushed in through the slightly to see a woman curled up in the corner in her flowy white blouse and shorts, scratching at her pale skin, with bloodshot eyes. I glanced over at the floor next to her to see the needle, and I knew right then that I had been right.
“Who the fuck are you? What the fuck are you doing in my house? Get out! Get the fuck out!” she started screaming.
“Now, ma’am, something tells me that you don’t live here. This place was abandoned years ago. If you’re squatting here, that’s fine. I’m just looking for something, and when I find it, I’ll be on my way, okay?”
“You motherfucker! You better don’t touch my goddamn powder. I ain’t sharing.”
I glanced over my shoulder to look at Claymore who had his hands firmly around his gun, pointing it directly at the woman. Her graying blonde hair curled up in her eyes, and she didn’t seem the slightest bit fazed by any of it.
“You think that piece of junk’s gonna scare me, sonny? You have no idea what I’ve fucking been through. If you ain’t here for my damn drugs, the fuck are you here for?” she asked.
“Just some leather duffel bags. Any idea where they are?”
“Yeah, ole Johnny stuck ’em in the crawl space downstairs. He send you?”
“Yeah, he sent me.”
I knew she was practically strung out, and she probably wasn’t going to remember any of this, but if I could have one damn mission where I didn’t have to endlessly fire off my gun or beat some motherfucker to a pulp, I was gonna take it.
“Tell that motherfucker we’re done! Okay? I don’t want him back here. If you see him, kick his ass for me,” she said with a grin of yellowing teeth.
“Will do, lady. Will do.”
Claymore and I headed back down the stairs to find Archer searching through the whole damn place. Wrench was keeping watch outside, and I could hear him tapping his foot on the washed-out deck back there.
“Shit’s in the crawl space, Archer. Come on.”
We managed to retrieve the three duffel bags, unzipping them to make sure we had enough inventory to cover the sale because I heard that our customer of the day was gonna buy whatever we fucking had.
