The second I started charging towards him, Country threw up his hands in surrender. “Hold up, man. I was just fucking with ya!”
“Yeah, that’s what I fucking thought.” I looked over to Widow as I complained, “I’m over this shit already, brother.”
“You and me both.”
Doing our best to suck it up, Widow and I went into the kitchen and started grabbing boxes. After several trips back and forth, we finally managed to get everything loaded up in the trailer. Widow, Lynch, and I followed Country as he drove the truck and trailer over to Ada’s. Her house was nestled in the back corner of the club’s storage lot. Considering the location, it was a really nice place. Viper had made sure of that. There were three large bedrooms, a full living room and spacious kitchen, and there were two full-sized bathrooms, which would come in handy with both Ada and Gladys living there. As soon as we were parked, Ada came scurrying outside in her denim overalls and long-sleeved thermal. She was never one to spend a lot of time fixing up, but she always made you feel welcome.
“Hey there, boys. It’s so good to see ya.” She squinted her eyes as she looked out and asked, “Where’s Gladys?”
“Right here.” Gladys stepped out of Country’s truck and started walking over to the porch. “How’s it going, roomie?”
“Right as rain, darlin’.” She held onto the railings as she made her way down the steps. “Can I give ya a hand with your stuff?”
“We got it,” Country answered. “Just need to know where you want us to put it all.”
“Shotgun came by earlier and we done cleared out that back room.” She motioned her hand over to one of the storage units as she said, “And that there locker is empty and ready for anythings you might wants to puts in there.”
Country turned to Gladys and said, “Before we start unloading, why don’t you go check out the room and see what you want in there.”
“I guess that would be a good idea.”
Gladys looked less than enthused as she made her way up the steps and followed Ada into the house. I was beginning to have my doubts about this whole thing with Ada and Gladys. When Country turned to me with a grimace, I realized I wasn’t the only one who was concerned. But that didn’t stop us from unloading all of her boxes from the trailer. Once Gladys told us what she wanted to put in storage and what she wanted in the house, she and Ada went into the kitchen and made themselves scarce while we got to work. As soon as we had all of her things in her room, Ada motioned her hand towards the door. “Now, you boys go on and do your thing whiles we get Gladys here settled in.”
“You sure you don’t need us to stick around?” Country asked, sounding unsure of the situation.
“Now, I wouldn’t have told ya to get gone if we was gonna need ya.” Ada gave him a warm smile as she gave him a pat on the arm. “We’s gonna be just fine. Now, gets on up out here and do what you boys needs to do. Like I told ya.”
“I tell you what, we’ve got some things to check on in the units, so we’ll be around for a bit if you need us,” Country explained. “That sound all right, Gran?”
“Sounds just fine to me.”
“Good deal. Just let us know if you need anything.”
With that, Country and I followed the others to the club’s storage unit. I’d been there the day before with Shotgun, but Viper wanted us to do a second check and get an exact number on the amount of ammo we had in stock. When we made it up to the storage locker, Widow stepped inside and entered the code into the lock pad. Seconds later, the floor started to slide open. Several years back, we’d converted the unit into a secret vault with a hidden floor release that would make it impossible to be discovered by an outsider. We used the vault to store our weapons and coke, along with anything else we needed to keep on the down low. Once the secret floor had moved clear, we all made our way down the stairs.
As soon as we were inside, Widow looked over to Hawk and asked, “You think Menace is really gonna be able to find this Scar guy?”
“I don’t know, brother.” Hawk walked over to one of the shelves and started pulling out the boxes of ammo. “Every time he thinks he’s gettin’ close, he hits some wall and is completely derailed.”
“What do you mean by ‘hits some wall’?”
“All I know is those emails are encoded, and once he breaks through one line of code, another two seem to pop up in their place.” Hawk glanced over his shoulder, and I could see the concern in his eyes. “Makes me think they’re fucking with us.”
“You think they know we’re looking for them?”
“These guys are smart.” Hawk stopped fucking with the ammo and turned to face us all. “They gotta be wondering where their guy Schommer is. He’s been out of their reach for days now, and it wouldn’t take much to put two and two together. But I could be wrong. Maybe they’re just really fucking good at covering their tracks.”
“So, we could be fucked and not even know it,” Country grumbled.
“Not fucked yet.” Hawk motioned his hand behind him at all our weapons and artillery. “Just gotta make sure we’re ready for whatever comes our way.”
I’d like to say his response set us all at ease, but it didn’t. Every one of us knew what could happen if this shit turned out bad. We’d worked too fucking hard to get where we were, and none of us were prepared to give it up. Not now. Not ever. I looked Hawk dead in the eye and meant it wholeheartedly when I said, “We will be ready.”
“Damn straight we will. Just wait and see. These motherfuckers will rue the day they even thought about stepping foot in Nashville.” Country lifted his foot as he boasted, “I’ll kick ’em right in dat ass!”
“Yeah, that should have them running scared,” I mocked. “Then again, you and that ugly-ass noggin of yours do have a way of making folks run in the other fucking direction.”
Country slid his hand down his beard with a smug look. “You know damn well I’m so fine I’ve gotta beat them off with a stick.”
“Beat off who?” I chuckled. “All those chicks you pick up at the laundromat or their sticky-fingered kids?”
“Sounding awful jealous over there, brother.”
“Yeah, real fucking jealous.”
“All right, you two. Enough of your lovers’ quarrel bullshit,” Hawk interrupted. “We need to get this done.”
Knowing he was right, we all started giving him a hand. It wasn’t long before we had an official ammo count and were good to go. Once we were outside, Hawk secured the vault, and we headed to Country’s truck. Before leaving, he and I decided to go check in on Ada and Gladys. I’m not sure what I expected to find when we walked into that house, but it certainly wasn’t Ada and Gladys sitting at the kitchen table laughing and carrying on like they were the best of friends. Hell, Gladys looked like she was about to bust from laughing so hard. Her cheeks were rosy red and tears were settled in the corner of her eyes as she giggled, “You should’ve seen him. His entire front was covered in mud. Looked like someone had dumped a bucket of hot fudge over his head. And the hollering? Girl, you should’ve heard it. You would’ve thought someone had set him on fire!”