Primal Fury by Piper Davenport
Jekyll
Three days later, the meeting with the Kings was set and the plan was to meet at the Spotted Frog, an English style pub known to the local riff raff as neutral territory.
As I’d promised Indigo, I had not killed or maimed Caleb… much. He was a wealth of information, however, and that meant, we were heading into this meeting with the balance of power on our side. Drea had been selling ‘forgotten’ children to what she thought were loving couples, in order to make a little money. Caleb was the broker, and he’d take the pretty ones and sell them to the Kings. The reason Caleb was even at the club was the Kings had threatened death if he didn’t get inside and find their product. What Caleb didn’t realize, was the Kings were gonna kill him anyway, and I was perfectly happy with that.
Sundance, Wrath and I arrived ten minutes early to find Baby Doll and his crew already seated at a table in the back. As we approached, we were stopped by two large, well dressed men. Clearly Baby Doll’s security.
“I gotta pat you down,” one of them said.
“I don’t think so, Hoss. We know the rules. No one here is packing,” Sundance said.
“Sure, I’ll just take your word for it,” the guard said sarcastically, before stepping forward.
“I’d advise you not lay your favorite hand on me. ’Cause you’re gonna lose it the second it touches me,” he replied.
“It’s okay, boys,” Baby Doll called out in a syrupy tone. “The Howlers are my friends. At least, I thought they were, until recently.”
“We’re here to clear the air, that’s all,” Sundance said.
“I assume we all respect Earl and his place enough to come unarmed,” Baby Doll said.
Sundance nodded and we took our seats across from the Kings.
The Spotted Frog was originally owned by a well-respected fence named Earl Jacoby. A British ex-pat who could move stolen goods like no one else in the area. The pub started out purely as a way for Earl to launder the money from his highly lucrative fencing operation, but soon became his full-time passion and pride and joy. Eventually, Earl went completely legit, but the Spotted Frog remained as neutral territory for Rocky Mountain hoodlums and thieves like us.
“I trust your kids are good. How’s Orion?” Baby Doll asked, as if we were visiting over tea.
“A fuckin’ pain in my ass most of the time, but at least he isn’t in jail, and no one’s calling me Grandpa, so I can’t complain.” Sundance played along with the pleasantries.
Baby Doll sat in the middle of two men. To his right was a man I recognized from the night we rescued the girls. He was wearing sunglasses to hide the shiner I’d given him and puffing incessantly on a vape pen. On Baby Doll’s left sat a younger man, who sat silently, doing his best to look tough.
Despite his appearance and demeanor as a jovial, rotund, ball of joy, Francis “Baby Doll” Mason was a ruthless gang leader who was responsible for numerous kidnappings and murders. But despite his body count, at his core, Francis “Baby Doll” Mason was on opportunist. A bottom feeder. He was smarter than just about everyone he came up around, and possessed an uncanny ability to read people, so was able to survive and eventually thrive on the streets.
Like most criminals, his real education began when he was first enrolled in the Colorado State Penitentiary. That’s when he started the 719 Kings and when he first met Dagger, his cellmate. If Baby Doll was the brains of the operation, Dagger was the muscle. Plain and simple. Baby Doll didn’t give a shit about old school beefs or political race wars within the prison, and he kept his nose out of the other gangs’ businesses. Baby Doll built his empire on missed opportunities left by the other gangs who were usually too busy trying to kill each other rather than make money while on the inside. His initial crew was made of rejects and castaways but grew quickly in numbers while managing to fly completely under the radar of the prison staff. Once released, he took his education to the streets and the 719 Kings truly took root.
“I’m so glad to hear your family is well, Sunny. Now, would you be so kind as to tell me which one of these two gentlemen killed Dagger?” Baby Doll asked, all pleasantries removed from his tone.
“Now, look, Baby. Your guys took out one of ours first,” Sundance said.
“And we’ll surely deal with that here tonight,” Baby Doll said, barely restraining his seething anger. “But first, I’ll ask again. Which one of these two killed Dagger?”
“I did,” Wrath said. “I shot him right in the fuckin’ head. You know what else? You don’t scare me.”
“Shut the fuck up,” Sundance ordered before turning back to Baby Doll. “I’m sorry. Wrath doesn’t always think before he acts, and I haven’t done a good enough job explaining our history.”
“It’s only because of our history that we’re here tonight,” Baby Doll said.
“And I appreciate that,” Sundance said. “It’s my hope that we can shake hands and walk away even.”
“I’m sorry, what was that? Even?” Baby Doll bristled. “Your men execute my best friend, steal my property, and kidnap two of my members and you think we’re even?”
“Like I said, your men drew first blood,” Sundance said. “Wrath shot Dagger in self-defense.”
“Wrath assassinated Dagger after breaking into one of my houses to steal my property. Your man was killed during the same robbery. And you have my merchandise. I am the offended one here. How to you propose to make me whole?”
“Here’s how I see it,” Sundance said. “Wrath taking out Dagger cancels your guy killing Scrappy. As for the girls, they never belonged to you, so you can just chalk that up as a business loss for this quarter. As for kidnapping any of your crew, I have no idea what you’re talking about, we let the other guys at the house go.”
“Yeah, and we never even found the guy who killed Scrappy,” Wrath said.
“He’s right here,” Baby Doll said. Motioning to the young man next to him. “He’s the one who stuck your little piggy. Earned his stripes for it, too. This is Dagger’s nephew Lil’ Frisco.”
“That’s gonna be one short-lived promotion,” Wrath said, rising to his feet.
“I’m not gonna tell you again to sit down and shut the fuck up,” Sundance growled. Wrath glared at Sundance but did as he was told.
“You need to understand. Wrath and Scrappy were tight,” Sundance explained.
“Tight?” Baby Doll spat out. “I’ve known Dagger most of my life. The Kings wouldn’t exist without him. We’ve drawn and spilled blood together. The guy Lil’ Frisco took out was still wet behind the ears.”
“Blood is blood,” Sundance said.
“Bullshit. Dagger was like a brother to me.”
“Yeah, well Scrappy had a real brother. A brother who would love to get his hands on him,” Sundance said pointing at Lil’ Frisco.
“I told you, he’s off limits. Besides, even if he wasn’t, you still have two of my guys.”
“Who?” Sundance asked.
“Chucky and that other little punk…”
“Leo,” the vaping man said.
“Leo never jumped in with the Kings,” I said. “And neither did Chucky.”
“They’re my prospects and I want them back, along with my merchandise.”
“Call those girls merchandise one more time, fat boy, and I’ll end you,” I said.
Baby Doll smiled wide. His round cheeks nearly forcing his eyes shut. “What’s your name, softy?”
“Jekyll.”
“Well, Jekyll. Now I know whose idea it was to crash the little slumber party I had planned for those girls,” Baby Doll said with a sickening smile. “What’s the matter? One of them your little sister? Or do you have a little sweet tooth, yourself?”
I am a single point of light.
I am smaller than the human eye can see.
I am insignificant.
My light is pure.
It cannot generate heat.
I am a single point of light.
I don’t know how many times the words cycled before the rage subsided. I’d been repeating them for so long now, they’d become more like a mantra than a string of meaningful words. The words first came as a part of an exercise with Dr. Ambrose. Which then became a tool for visualizing and eventually overcoming my anger impulses. I could say the words in my mind a dozen times within seconds in moments of pure rage, and I hadn’t been this angry in a long time.
“I’ve never known you to be in the skin trade before, Baby,” Sundance said, pulling me back to the surface. “What’s the matter? Slinging dope doesn’t pay what it used to?”
“No. Thanks to your kind,” Baby Doll replied. “Legal pot in Colorado has changed the very nature and structure of the heroin and meth markets. And now the Beast is putting the squeeze on everyone that’s ever claimed a corner. Every crew out there is looking for new ways to make money.”
“By selling kids?”
“Kids that no one cared about,” Baby Doll said. “Kids that were lost to the system. Kids that would end up on the streets or dead anyway.”
“So why not sell them as sex slaves?” Sundance asked.
“Not all of them,” Baby Doll said, flippantly. “Some of them get lucky and are sold to work as servants for rich bitches in Manhattan.”
It took every ounce of strength I had not to fly across the table and choke that smug piece of shit to death with my bare hands. The daily hell Mina would have faced if Leo hadn’t been so brave. It was too much to even think about.
“Besides,” Baby Doll continued. “I don’t care if you approve of the way I do business. You’re going to bring the girls, my two recruits, and fifty thousand dollars, as an inconvenience fee, right here to me within one hour or I’ll declare all-out war on the Howlers. That means not only your club members are targets, but your family members as well.”
“I understand,” Sundance said, before rising to his feet.
“Good,” Baby Doll said. “I knew you would be reasonable about this, Sundance.”
“There is just one more thing, though,” Sundance said, pulling a manilla envelope from his cut and laying it down on the table before Baby Doll.
“What’s this?”
“Information about the undercover FBI agent who’s been working your case for the past year,” Sundance said.
Baby Doll emptied the contents of the envelope to find a carefully crafted dossier on FBI Special Agent Kurt Holder aka: Caleb Rinna. It contained everything from his record at the training academy to official FBI photos and credentials. All completely fabricated, of course, by Hugh’s contacts within the CIA. Within less than eighteen hours, Hugh was able to get us everything we needed to set up an iron-clad case that Caleb was an FBI agent who was poised to take down the entire Kings organization.
“What the fuck…?” Baby Doll, sputtered as he rifled through document after document, photo after photo.
“It’s true,” Sundance said. “He’s been working undercover as that bitch social worker’s assistant. Lucky for you, we found out about him before he could tell anyone about your little kiddie farm.”
“He did just show up, like a year ago,” Vaping Guy said to Baby Doll. “I mean, what do we know about this guy?”
“Think about it, Baby,” Sundance said. “Caleb shows up and just happens to have connections all around the country. People looking for kids. Big money. No questions.”
“How in the hell did you find him and how do you know he hasn’t told anyone?” Baby Doll asked.
“We spotted him because we’re smarter than you,” I said. “He was parked right outside the house the night we came for Leo. We could tell he was a fed right away and grabbed him as a bargaining chip.”
“Bullshit!”
“I’m telling you. Look at the fucking file. The guy’s a rookie. This is his first undercover assignment. He started singing the moment we started wailing on him. He’s a fucking creampuff.”
“You have him?”
“Baby Doll, he’s in the trunk of my car. It’s parked outside,” Sundance said.
We made our way outside and Sundance popped the trunk of his ’67 Eldorado to reveal “Special Agent” Caleb bound at the wrists and feet with duct tape wrapped securely around his mouth. He’d sufficiently been beat to shit, but that didn’t stop him from whining and squirming from time to time.
“You figure this makes us even?” Baby Doll asked.
Sundance laughed. “Even? Shit no. You still owe me.”
“Owe you? What the fuck are you talking about, Sunny? This fed is a nice gift, but I still don’t have my merchandise. Where are my girls?”
“You’re right, Baby Doll. This is a present. A going away gift. Something to wish you well on your new business ventures.”
“What the hell new business ventures are you talking about, Sundance?”
“I don’t know, Baby Doll. But it’s not gonna be kids. Never again. I give you this fed, and the slate is clean. If not, I let him go, he files his report, and you go to jail for trafficking.”
“If you let him go, the FBI would come down on you too,” Baby Doll said. “And you’d never leave your club’s ass hanging out like that.”
“You’re right, Baby. I’d never let Agent Holder file his report unless I had insurance that the Howlers would be left out of it. Something iron clad like security footage that showed the agent visiting your safe house earlier that night for some play time with one of the girls.”
“He did show up earlier that night, boss,” Vape Guy said.
“That sick fuck,” Baby Doll said. “A fucking fed rat and a perv.”
“No more kids,” Sundance said.
Baby Doll nodded and his goons pulled Caleb from the trunk, writhing and screaming from underneath the layers of tape. It would make no difference what he told the Kings should they remove it. Sundance had sold the con perfectly, and Hugh’s forgeries were flawless. Caleb was all but history and Baby Doll would have to rebuild his empire of shit on something other than human trafficking.
“One other thing,” Sundance said as we began to walk away. “Scrappy’s brother is gonna come for Lil’ Fucko and I ain’t gonna be able to stop him. I’m not even gonna try.”
“I’d strongly advise against that, Sundance.”
“The nuns at my school strongly advised that I stay away from pussy, booze, and cigarettes, but that didn’t stop me, did it?”
We walked away, climbed on our bikes, and headed back to the club. Pulling through the gates, however, Sundance rolled to a stop, giving me a chin lift. “Go to your woman, brother. We’re good here.”
I didn’t wait for him to change his mind, turning around and heading back out the gates. My heart started to calm the second I pulled up to Indigo’s, but I didn’t feel real peace until I let myself into the house, checked in on Mina, then climbed into bed and wrapped my arms around Indigo.
“Hi,” she whispered, rolling to face me. “I wasn’t expecting you. Are you okay?”
“I’m okay now,” I admitted, kissing her. “How’s your leg?”
“Sore.” She stroked my cheek. “But the fact you’re here makes all my pain go away.”
I chuckled. “If only that was true.”
“I’m really glad you’re here.”
I frowned. “What happened?”
“Nothing,” she breathed out. “I just missed you.”
“Missed you too, baby.” I pressed my nose to hers before kissing it. “Your emotional support human is back where he belongs.”
She laughed. “That’s the exact right description.”
I kissed her, pulling her closer. “Go to sleep, baby.”
“Will you fuck me tomorrow?”
“Absolutely.”
She buried her face in my neck, kissing my pulse. “Good night, honey.”