Bones let a car pass between them and yelled out at the guy, “Hey! Get the hell off our turf. Who sent you?”
The guy, who looked to be all of 25, dropped the cigarette from his mouth and made dust with his feet as soon as he saw us.
Bones jogged to try and catch him.
Hawk picked up speed on foot.
I lagged behind. I wasn’t in running shape. I heard the low throttle of a motorcycle as the guy sped off.
“Hey!” Bones screamed as the bike zoomed off. Bones turned around with both his hands behind his head, puffing from the encounter.
Hawk and Chalk looked on.
“You get a plate?” Chalk asked in general to us all.
I nodded. “Yeah, I think I caught it. Let me plug it in my phone before I forget.”
Bones looked at me desperately. “You got it, Numbers?” His panting stopped as we walked back slow to the corner to see if the guy left any remnants behind.
“I got it. We can send it in to the cops. I wish we had Mia on deck, damn,” I said in a frustrated tone.
“You and me both. Had to be those punks ? the Devil Riders. They’re really starting to get on my goddamn nerves,” Bones spat out as we made our way back to the club.
“Got to be,” I reiterated. “Messing with our heads.”
“Can you believe they have the audacity to deal on our street corners?” Bones rubbed his hand back and forth over his skull in anger.
“Yes, I do,” Chalk said. “This has Snake juice all over it.”
Bones dropped to the asphalt and ran his finger over to where the guy was standing. The half-lit stub of a cigarette was still burning, and he crushed it under foot as we re-entered the fold of Wheelz.
The now friendly game of pool we were about to have just turned deadly serious.
Ink was rinsing one of the glasses with a worried look, and he shifted his gaze up at us.
Larry swivelled on his stool towards us eager for the news.
Bones went up to Larry and shook his hand. “Thanks Larry, appreciate what you did back there. We missed him, but we at least got the plate.”
Ink was listening hard as he shook his head. “Gotta be you-know-who, doesn’t it?”
“Yes it does. Reeks of him,” Bones said in agreement. He exhaled heavily. “I don’t have time for this shit. We really need a lawyer.”
I winced. I couldn’t get Mia across the line, but maybe we could call her from time to time. It was a situation I would have to feel out a little more. The stress in her eyes had told me she was telling the truth about having a heavy client load.
If she only let me inside…
We all naturally gravitated to the pool table, looking at one another.
“We are going to eradicate these dealers,” Bones instructed. “I want everyone to be diligent until we get this sorted out, okay?”
We all nodded in unison.
“Numbers, we have to get together and go over possible investment opportunities,” Bone stated to me. “Let’s go to breakfast in the morning and talk it over.”
Hawk cricked his neck and rolled it. “I’m going to start doing night runs around our turf. Let me see if I can catch these suckers in the act.”
“Good idea, Hawk. Let’s not worry about it for right now. Devil Riders aren’t going to come through here. They’re trying to get under our skin and make it hard for us. That’s why we gotta get things moving ? Numbers.”