“Then it looks like neither of you will be walking out of here,” I say, raising my gun and aiming it at his head.
Aaron ducks behind Dog as though that might save him. I shake my head in annoyance. What a pair of fucking clowns. I could take them both out before they take their next breath.
“I can give you his number. He texted us,” Dog says.
I narrow my eyes at him.
“It’s in my phone,” he nods to the leather jacket near the bonfire.
Alejandro steps forward and picks it up.
“Left pocket,” Dog says and Alejandro reaches gingerly inside before pulling out an old Nokia phone. He hands it to me.
“What’s your password?”
“One eight four six,” he says, wiping some blood from his cheek. “Check my last messages. They’re from your guy.”
I open the phone and scroll to the messages and sure enough there are a number of texts discussing my father’s attack, including the instructions to make sure that he survived and that he was told I was the man responsible.
“How did he pay you?”
“Cash. Left it in a plastic bag in on our porch,” Aaron replies.
“But you didn’t see him?”
“Nope,” Dog says with a shake of his head. “If you text him, though, tell him you have something you need to talk to him about, he’ll meet you. I’m sure of it. Guy was getting twitchy as hell these past few days. He even called to make sure we’d told the old guy about his son beating him up.”
“You spoke to him?” I frown as I continue flicking through the messages.
“Yeah. Couple of times.”
“What did he sound like?”
“I dunno. A guy?”
“Did he have an accent?”
“No he spoke English, just like we do,” Dog says with a shrug. Fuck me, he is thick as pig shit.
“I’ll be keeping this,” I say, pocketing his phone.
“Take it, man,” he insists.
“Now it’s just the matter of you two deciding which one of you gets to see the light of another day,” I remind him.
“What the fuck, man? We gave you what you wanted,” Aaron wails.
“Yeah, but you also nearly killed my father, and you caused me and my family a whole lot of pain and trouble. And I am not the kind of man who takes these things lightly.”
Dog and Aaron frown at each other.
“You beat the shit out of each other until one of you is left standing, or me and him beat the living fuck out of both you.” Alejandro snarls, cracking his knuckles for effect and I suppress a smile.
“And believe me, neither of you will be breathing by the time we’re done. We’ll make it hurt too.”
“A lot, because I am fucking itching to some break some bones,” Alejandro adds. Damn, I love this guy.
Aaron and Dog give each other the side eye, assessing each other and deciding whether the other is capable of making the first move, but they both know the answer and so do we. They just beat their other buddy to death.