“Wake up,” he whispered.
“I was never asleep,” replied Danny.
“That’s right. You weren’t snoring. The janitorial service is packing up next door. We’ll give them a few minutes’ head start, then skedaddle before the owner arrives and sees his busted padlock and comes snooping.”
“The sooner the better.” Danny saw Jack check his BlackBerry and added, “Now what?”
“It’s from our friend. Wants to meet us. Says it’s urgent.”
“Gee, I wonder what he has to tell us,” said Danny sarcastically.
“We better meet him. Could be interesting to hear what Damien had to say.”
“You still want me to follow you out to the farm and give you a ride back after you drop the van off?”
“You bet. It won’t take long. Ben took his loader out yesterday and dug a pit. He already had some brush to burn so it won’t take long to layer it in. Speaking of which, I wonder what I owe him for a barrel of gas?”
“You could just give him a kilo or two as payment.”
Jack ignored the comment and added, “I don’t want to arrive until after Marcie has gone to school. Ben doesn’t want Liz to know either. We may as well meet our friend while we’re waiting.”
“I suppose the notion of having any sleep just never occurs to you.”
“You’re the one complaining about nightmares. Don’t sleep and you won’t have them.”
“I have them when I’m awake too,” replied Danny somewhat sullenly.
Minutes later, Jack had only driven a few blocks away from the storage locker when his BlackBerry alerted him to another message. Jack continued driving but handed his BlackBerry to Danny and said, “That’ll be our friend. Bet he wants to change the meet.”
Danny read the message and smirked.
“What is it?” asked Jack.
“If it’s from our friend, he has pretty strong feelings for you ... but he sure has you pegged right!”
Jack grabbed his BlackBerry back and read the message: Love you, Turkey!
Lance took one look at Jack and Danny and said, “Holy fuck! I can’t believe you did that!”
“Did what?” asked Jack.
“Don’t hand me the bull! I was close enough to Damien to recognize Danny’s voice. I couldn’t believe it!
I was afraid you’d reneged on our deal and were gonna come bustin’ in and arrest us when Damien picked up that key.”
“I don’t renege. Hadn’t expected you to be there. Otherwise we would have had Damien.”
“Fuck, if I’d known what was goin’ on, maybe I wouldn’t have. I was at Damien’s tellin’ him that the deal was done and went without a hitch. All of a sudden we hear Silent Sam screamin’ into the intercom.”
“Any heat in your direction?” asked Danny.
Lance gave Jack a glance and said, “No, you took care of that with Silent Sam. Rellik put one through his head-bone.”
“Yeah, we saw,” said Jack.
“You had it videoed?”
“Of course.”
“Fuckin’ Damien and a murder on film and you let ’im off all because of me! I never would have believed it!”
Danny gave Jack a sideways glance as Jack looked at Lance and said, “A deal is a deal. I was just fulfilling what I promised.”
“Man! If I ever had a doubt about trustin’ ya, it’s gone now.” Lance paused for a moment, then added, “Just remind me to never get on your bad side. I don’t want to end up like Silent Sam.”
“We just have to catch Damien again. Next time without you being so close to the action.”
“I’d tell ya that it’s impossible to nail him, but I said that before and was wrong.”
“What did Damien have to say about it later?” asked Danny.
“He’s hot. I’ve never seen his face that red. The pulse in his temple was just a-jumpin’. I only got about three blocks away from the locker when he told me to pull over so we could go for a walk and talk. He was really pissed at me for havin’ a striker that screwed us.”
“How pissed?” asked Jack.
“Well ... not bad, cuz it wasn’t me who sponsored him into the club. It was Petro. As far as the stash being ripped, Damien is more pissed off at himself. It was his idea to have things go the way they did.” Lance looked at Jack and added, “Well, not the way they did, but the way they were supposed to. You know, with puttin’ the stash in a locker and then splittin’ it an’ sendin’ it out the next day.”
“So now what?” asked Jack. “What about the next ship?”
“That’s already left Colombia and should arrive in about ten days. I expect things will be done a little different then.”
“Damien won’t be stashing it all in the same spot,” suggested Danny.
“I’m not so sure Damien will even be involved. He’s worried. He knows he fucked up bad.”
“How so?” asked Jack.
“This was the biggest single deal the club has ever done. Usually we try and keep stuff like this separated, you know, so not everyone can be connected. But this was so fuckin’ big that every chapter in Canada had to chip in. There are gonna be a lot of pissed off people. Damien figures he might lose his position over this. Maybe even get the boot altogether.”
“Who do you think would replace him?” asked Jack.
“A guy from Quebec we call The Toad. He’s been here often in the last few weeks meeting with Damien.”
“Ugly?” asked Danny.
Lance chuckled, then said, “That too, but the name came from his younger days, before he joined the club. From his not-so-secret ingredient in makin’ the special brand of acid that he was selling.”
“You figure he could replace Damien?” asked Jack.
“He was runner-up last year.”
“I think I saw him that day,” said Jack. “Ugly, with a heavy French accent. Short and scrawny. Not what you expect for a biker.”
“That’s him. But he has other assets. He’s intellectual, sneaky, vicious, not much of a conscience. Sometimes makes for a wicked combination.”
When the meeting was over, Danny waited until Lance had left before turning to Jack and saying, “Looks like you just replaced Damien with a sociopath to run the biggest organized crime family in Canada. Is this what you call progress?”
Jack sighed and said, “Consequences are not always so easy to predict.” It was what Natasha had said to him. At the time he’d thought it had made him feel better. Now it just feels lame.
“Yeah, I guess,” replied Danny. “Sorry, didn’t mean to sound like I was upset. I’m just really tired.”
Me too. Tired of screwing up.
Damien sat at his kitchen table and closed his eyes as Vicki massaged the back of his neck and shoulders.
“What is it, Papa Bear?” she asked.
Damien gently reached for her hand and guided her around to sit on his lap. He glanced at the kitchen clock.
“You want to go out for dinner? Just the two of us?” suggested Vicki.
Damien shook his head. It had been forty-two hours since he had walked into the storage locker and discovered they had a traitor. A lot had happened. A lot that Vicki did not know about. He heard the muffled sound of the entertainment centre coming from another room. Briefly, he wondered what Buck, Sarah, and Kate would think of their dad when they found out. Would it change their image of him?
He whispered in Vicki’s ear, “I’m finished. Out. Maybe a couple of months ... but then I’ll be gone.”
“What are you talking about?”
Damien put his finger to his lips to tell Vicki to lower her voice, and then whispered, “I screwed up. Cost the club millions. We’re going to have to sell off some of our assets to pay back what I lost.”
Vicki’s eyes revealed her concern. “How? What happened?” she whispered back.
“Business. We had a traitor. Got ripped. My fault.”