Chapter 3

When we got to Mesa, we stopped at a hotel and Nicki took out a map of Arizona, and we started talking about strategies for the attack on the cartel, and the base south of Phoenix. Jack and Johnny thought it would be a good idea to divide and conquer, the three of us take on the cartel, and Nicki and Jade start the fight with the Military, making sure not to kill too many, if any, of them while making their ways towards the trucks. Nicki and Jade thought it would be better if we worked as a unit, taking on the cartel, then storming the military base, killing anyone that got in the way of the trucks. I vetoed both ideas, they were both decent plans, but they both had their flaws that were pretty obvious.

"Priests...and tanks," I mentioned, I was tired and didn't want to spend more time in Mesa than I had to, so I drew a small battle plan. I'd call Alexandria and find out if she was serious about giving us a hand, and see what we could do from there. I stepped outside and told them to relax a bit, before grabbing a beer and walking towards the edge of the hotel railing, pocketing the beer, and climbing up to the roof. I took out my phone and called her, it went straight to voicemail so I left a small message asking if she was serious about the help offered, and cracked open my beer. I took a swig, and a "door" opened beside me, and out stepped Jack, closing the door he sat back down and took my beer and chugged it all. I made two more and gave him one, laughing at him as he chugged the second one and crushed the cans. "Peacekeeper" started playing and I picked up my phone to see that it was Alex's number, I slapped Jack and told him to shut up before answering her.

"Hey, it's that one person."

"Why'd you call me?"

"You sound happy to hear from me."

"Tell me why you called me or I'll hang up." I started laughing and asked for a minute and muted the call, laughing my ass off and clutching my stomach because it hurt so much, Jack started drunk laughing because I was laughing, and we both rolled around clutching our stomachs. I took a couple of minutes to compose myself before picking the phone back up and unmuting the call.

"I'm sorry, that was just too funny,  I called because I wanted to know if you were serious about helping us out with the cartel," I said trying to stop any laughter from bursting out.

"Of course I was serious, it'd be funny to watch you try to be intimidating," I growled at that, I'm not cute, and I'm very intimidating, I don't need to fake it.

"Meet us at the Costco on Southern and Sossaman, we'll talk there."

"Fine, see ya their puppy." She said and started laughing, I growled and hung up and it took all of my willpower not to crush my phone, Jack started laughing and poked my cheek.

"Stop growling, Puppy!" He said through laughter and I grabbed him by the throat and dropped him off the edge, I didn't want him to see me blushing. I waited a few minutes to recompose myself before I jumped down and threw him over my shoulder and walked back into the hotel room, I couldn't wait to hear what the others would think of this. I threw Jack, who was clutching his stomach laughing, onto the table the map was on, and it broke under his weight, taking a seat on the couch I turned on the tv and started looking for something to watch when I felt two fingers pull my lips into a forced smile.

"Don't growl...Puppy!" Johnny said and everyone started laughing really hard, so I decided to give him a piece of his own medicine.

"Stop moaning like a porn star around Derek, JJ," I said smirking, as I knew he hated when I called him JJ, it was his pet name from Derek and so it was funny to call him it to watch him start blushing and stuttering. Nicki, Jade, and Jack all started clutching their stomachs from laughing so hard, and Johnny, who I guess didn't like being mocked, took it one step further against Nicki.

"Stop laughing Nicki, you might end up choking as you do around Jade." He said and I started laughing as Nicki and Johnny were now the ones blushing as Jack and I laughed at them all, and Jade kissed Nicki on the forehead and muttered something that made her blush even more.

"Shut up, cunt." By this stage, we were all laughing our asses off, and I muted the TV, anticipating another roast coming my way, and I was right. Nicki calmed down and looked at me like she was ready to ruin my night.

"We better stop talking about sex and mates, guys, Jake might get all shy and jealous." Everyone started laughing, and I blushed at that and waited for everyone to calm down before continuing the conversation. Many jokes, a lot of blushing, and a case of beer later, everyone was asleep except me, I left the hotel room and climbed to the roof, and laid down to stargaze. The weather was nice tonight, it was clear and you could see stars for miles, I grabbed a beer from the six-pack I brought with me and started drinking. It was a good night to sleep on the roof, it was quiet and peaceful outside, the stars were beautiful and the wind was able to keep me cool. I fell asleep a bit later and woke up in hell, to see Jack taking shots at one of the hellspawn, and it looked like it was more fun for the hellspawn, because Jack was missing most of his shots. He finally hit it on the head, making it crash to the ground, and Jack smirk victoriously.

"One million shots...one kill," I said and made my way over to the pit, shooting one of the poor fucks before they could climb out.

"Shut up, I'm a better shot than you'll ever be," He said and I took that as a challenge and shot to the left of the hellspawn, which flew up in fear, and I immediately shot it once, and as it fell down, another six times "I stand corrected."

"Damn right you do, I'll always be a better shot than you," I said and grabbed a couple of sodas from the mini-fridge and threw one to him. We had mini competitions like this every once in a while, it was fun, but more often than not it was just to prove a point.

"So, is she gonna help us out or not?"

"Yeah, we're meeting her at that Costco we passed on our way up here."

"Alright, sounds like a plan. What are we gonna do with the drugs though? No one at home is a druggie." I laughed at that, the idea of someone from home doing drugs is hysterical, because everyone in my family is not only kind to one another, but doesn't do anything really harmful except for occasionally smoking pot and drinking a couple of beers.

"Probably sell them, or we could use them for bribery."

"Or framing..." Jack said, and he had a point, we would often stage an arrest on someone who was getting too close or knew too much. We had already gotten several news anchors and police chiefs arrested on drug charges.

"I like it, but we have time, and a lot of options," I said and sat down in my chair laying my legs on a footrest "Hey, in the morning, after we're done with the cartel, remind me to call Derek, I wanna see how the arms jobs are going."

"Alright...do you think that Alexandria is going to help us? Or is she just trying to get something for free?"

"I don't know, I hope so, we need as much help as we can get. Hopefully, she just takes the drugs or something like that so we don't have to get into a huge debate over who gets what." I said and finished my soda, Jack crushed the can of his and threw it away before grabbing another soda and throwing one to me. I looked at the clock and saw that it was six-thirty in the real world, we would need to wake up soon to be able to get the jump on the cartel.

"Are we going Guerilla or just a full assault?" Jack asked and I pondered the question for a second, there were good points for both, both could get it done fast and efficiently, but it would depend on Alexandria, and whether or not she brought help.

"It depends, we'll talk it out with Alex when we get to Costco," I said and slapped myself awake, when I woke up everyone else was waking up and getting dressed, so I grabbed my jacket and took the keys from Johnny's back pocket, to start up the big rig before we left. We left after a quick breakfast and went to the intersection I told Alex to meet us at, and luckily she did show up, with a couple of other mutts with her. I parked the truck and we got out to start discussing the plans, and I noticed that the mutts beside her looked anxious around us, I smirked at it but didn't pay it too much attention.

"Alright, so if Derek is right, there should be a few hundred cases of ammo, and guns there and about fifty kilos of Cocaine, and then obviously, the money to pay for all of it. What does your pack want?"

"We just want the territory, we don't care about the physical stuff. No one in our pack does heavy drugs, and we hunt without guns." I rolled my eyes at that and gave her the okay. We loaded into the truck and drove towards a vantage spot overlooking where the cartel was supposed to meet. I climbed on top of the truck and laid back, I had told Johnny to tell me when the cartel arrived, so I was gonna relax for a bit beforehand. Jack joined me up top and we started talking about how the mutts looked uneasy around us, I thought it was funny, but Jack was confused and said it wasn't like werewolves to cower. I told him that it wasn't all of them because Alex was still as stone-faced and bold as she was at the bar, so it was probably just the lower ones because we were stronger than them. He didn't buy it but I didn't care enough to keep arguing, because a group of trucks pulled up below us.

"It's showtime boys and girls, let's do this," I said and hopped off the truck and Jack joined me in the cab, I told the rest to get ready to go as we drove the truck into position, I stepped out and Jack got in the driver's seat while I readied the front. I opened a rift into hell and loaded a metal battering ram onto the front, it was a battering ram of sorts, but it was mostly used to deal damage rather than batter a door open. I stepped out of the rift, closing it behind me, and got in the cab, I opened the passenger side window and checked in with everyone to see if they were ready, everyone was good to go, so I gave Jack the go-ahead, and he floored the gas pedal and we started speeding towards the cartel. At the same time, Alexandria and her mutts were getting into position, and Johnny was on top of one of the rocks there, with his scope on his rifle looking for the best shot. When we were a quarter-mile from the trucks, I gave Johnny the go-ahead and he took his shot, killing the buyer, and whose briefcase fell to the ground, only to be grabbed by one of the mutts and thrown to Johnny, just in time for us to ram the trucks, killing a couple of the grunts, and making space for chaos to reign free. I got out of the cab laughing and walked with Johnny through the carnage towards the van, where the boss had started unloading the crates. I told Johnny to get in the big rig and drive it closer, and he gave me the briefcase, which I gave to Jack, and then worked with Nicki and Jade to get the rest of the crates out of the van.

"You know, after worrying about priests giving us a problem, they didn't really do much except die," Jade said, as Johnny backed the truck up, we started loading the crates into the bed of the truck, and I threw the briefcase in after we loaded everything, but then I remembered the military.

"We got a problem, guys! Get overhear, now!" I yelled, and everyone grouped around the cab "I just remembered something, we need someone to drive the big rig home, but we also have 8 trucks to get home." And at that everyone, except Alexandria and her buds, groaned, sighed, swore, or all of the above.

"Even with our demons we only got 8 people to go home...Alex, do you mind giving us a hand? Or paw? Either work!" Johnny said and everyone, except Alexandria, started laughing, most of us doubled over in pain from laughing.

"Yeah, I'll drive one, Dylan and Mark can drive another one. On one condition though." She said smirking, and everyone calmed down and looked at her confused.

"Ummm okay, what's the condition?"

"Your boss and Jack go with me on a raid." She said smirking, and Mark and Dylan went 'oooooooh' so I suspected it was not a good thing. Jack looked anxious and I grabbed him and walked away for a second to talk it out.

"What the hell is a raid?"

"I don't know, but we need those trucks."

"All of them?!"

"Apparently, besides it can't be that bad, what's the worst that could happen?"

"You realize that this is every horror movie cliche ever, right?"

"Yep."

"Alright, let's go then." He said and we walked back over to the group Johnny was talking to Mark and when Mark finished talking, Johnny looked terrified.

"You tell us what a raid is, and we might help you out in return for helping us with the trucks."

"Oh it's simple really, you join me on a hunt. We go after some hunters, kill them, and then you're all good to go."

"Oh...like demon hunters or werewolf hunters?"

"Both."

"Oh...okay, that's fine, I thought it was something scary, to be honest." I said laughing off any fear I had in my system "Johnny get in the cab and head home, we'll meet you there."

"Umm okay, but can I talk to you two for a second?" Johnny said pointing at me and Jack, we nodded and followed him towards the big rig, looking absolutely terrified.

"Can't wait to hear this one out," I mumbled as we joined him.