Cole looked again at the girls. He bet some of them couldn’t be more than fifteen or sixteen.
“You interested or not? I got places to be,” Ling pressured.
Cole looked at Ling and smiled. The little weasel; he was going to take real pleasure in ending his life. “Sure. I’m interested. How much for all of ‘em?”
Ling looked surprised, but he only hesitated a moment. “All of ‘em?”
“Yeah. Quantity discount.”
“Five grand.”
“Can you get more?” Cole asked.
Ling looked from Cole to Crash. “Yeah. Sure. How many we talkin’ about?”
“Need twelve or fifteen. To start.” Cole crossed his arms.
Ling smiled.
“This may be a long term relationship, Ling. Do we have a deal?” Cole held his hand out.
Ling reached to shake his hand.
What happened next, happened so fast that both Ling and Chucky were completely taken by surprise. Cole was shaking Ling’s hand, and then he yanked Ling toward him, flung him against the open van door, twisting his arm behind his back and stuck a gun in his side.
At the same time, Crash pulled a gun and had it aimed at Chuck’s forehead. He ordered Chuck to drop his weapons and watched as Chuck pulled a gun from under his cut. It clattered to the pavement. Then he pulled another that was stuffed in the back waist of his jeans. Then he pulled a knife from his boot and dropped it as well. Crash patted him down.
Cole did the same with Ling, keeping him face first in the van door. Then he aimed the gun at the back of Ling’s head.
Crash fired off two shots in the air.
“What the hell is this?” Ling demanded.
“Your dirty little business is being shut down,” Cole replied in Ling’s ear.
Chuck had his hands up in the air. “What the fuck, man? I was trying to help you. What the fuck are you doing?”
“Shut the fuck up, you piece of shit,” Cole yelled back at him.
“But we’re patching over. We’re gonna be brothers, man.”
“You and me ain’t never gonna share a patch, asshole,” Cole replied.
“You’re gonna bring hell down on you, man. You’re making a big fuckin’ mistake. When Wyatt finds out about this—”
Cole smiled at him. “Wyatt knows, and he’s fine with it.”
“What?”
“He’s tired of your sick little habit, Chucky.”
The roar of motorcycles filled the air, and five bikes came around the curve.
“Oh, shit,” Chuck whispered.
Cole smiled at him. “Yeah. ‘Oh, shit’ is right.” Then he stepped closer to Chuck and whispered in his ear, “Did you really think I’d let you live after what you did to her?”
The other five brothers got off their bikes, guns drawn. Soon Ling and Chuck were face down on the pavement.
Cole moved to stand over Ling. “Where are the keys to the handcuffs?”
Ling didn’t reply.
Cole kicked him in the ribs with his boot. “You’re only gonna make this worse for yourself, which actually would be fine with me. That’s how you want it, I’m only too happy to oblige.”
“My right pocket.”
One of the guys dug through it and pulled out a set of keys, tossing them to Cole. Cole passed them to Crash and nodded toward the van. “Get them out.”
“You got it.”
Cole looked over at Angel and motioned her over.
She walked over to him, her arms crossed, hugging herself.
Cole could tell she was pretty shaken up.
She looked down at Ling.
“This him?” Cole asked, looking down at Ling, and then back to her face.
She nodded.
He looked into her eyes. “Okay.”
She glanced into the back of the van and froze. “My God.”
Cole turned and looked back. “Yeah.”
She put her hand to her mouth.
“They’re the lucky ones. They get to go home today.”
Angel looked back at Cole and nodded, her eyes filling with tears.
He pulled her into his arms. “Come here. It’s gonna be okay.” He leaned his face close to hers. “I need you to help me. Take them over by the building. There’s some bottled water in my saddlebag. Take care of them. Explain to ‘em that we’re not gonna hurt ‘em. Okay? Can you do that?”
“Sure.” She pulled out of his arms and took a deep breath.
Crash had them all out of the van and un-cuffed. After he passed them into Angel’s care, he came over with two sets of the cuffs and put them on Chuck and Ling.
Angel moved the girls off to the building.
As soon as they were out of earshot, Crash asked in a whisper, “Shit, Cole! Now what the fuck do we do?”
“I know. I wasn’t counting on this.” Cole shook his head, trying to think. “If we call the cops, Ling will give up his connection with Chuck and the Souls. And us bein’ here at this meeting, they’ll hang it on us, too.”
“Cops? No fuckin’ way. That ain’t gonna happen!” Crash was emphatic.
Cole stared at him and shook his head. “I’m not letting Ling go.”
“What the fuck are you saying? Double murder with six witnesses?” Crash asked, pointing back toward the building. “You can’t be serious!”
“We get rid of the witnesses,” Red Dog suggested.
Cole gave him a look. “We’re not hurting the girls, asshole.”
“Just a suggestion.”