"Ready ten minutes ago," she told him with a smile. "Let's get them."

That was probably the moment, the moment he fell in love with her. He wasn't sure now, though, if he hadn't fallen in love with her before this and just now realized the depth of his feelings for her. It felt like he had always loved her and was just now catching up. If it wasn't the moment, it should have been, he decided and got on his bike.

He started the engine up and came off the kickstand just as he saw a flash of red movement in the reflection of the diner's window. In that brief flash of reflection, he recalled with pure clarity the Charger coming up behind them and a large gun in the passenger's hands as he was making his way out of the window to sit down on the opening, preparing fire across the top of the car. They were going to strafe them, right here, right now.

"Down! Gun!" he shouted, and came off his bike, pulling Nicole with him.

His bike fell as its center of gravity was pushed the other way during his hurried dismount. There was no time to look to Brain and he hoped his brother heard him as he rushed Nicole, nearly carrying her, behind a parked car a few feet away. Brian showed up at the back of the car a breath later, his twin guns out and ready. Then Hell hit the other side of the car with a fury of lead and tearing explosions.

There was nothing Cole could do except wrap Nicole up in his arms, and cover her with his body, which he did. He expected her to be screaming, but she wasn't. Cole guessed they were about half way down the side of the car, turning it to junk with the automatic weapon when Brian suddenly stood leveling both guns at their attackers with a smooth, graceful motion that made Cole think of a ballet dancer and pulled the triggers of his hand canons -- once.

In fact, it sounded like only one shot and the effect was as if Brian just turned Hell back off, like he might turn off a radio. The gunfire was gone and he heard nothing on the other side of the car. Then Brian holstered his nickel-plated guns and looked to Cole, "I think there was a small hole in my plan."

Much too curious to lay there any more, both he and Nicole got up, and peered over the hood of their shield. The Cougar was against a parked car across the street, coming to rest there, because the driver was dead and so was the gunman. Both were shot in the head, from what Cole could tell.

Cole was too experienced with violence to be in shock for very long. He left Nicole's side and ran across the street to the car, yanking the dead driver back from his dead-weight slouch against the wheel. A quick search rendered him a new 9mm, a cellphone, and the driver's wallet from the inside pocket of his suit jacket, which felt very expensive.

Brian finished with the gunman, taking a large automatic pistol, which Cole thought might be an Uzi, and said, "Let's go, we'll round up your men on the way."

"I'm behind you. Lead," Cole told him and they ran back to Nicole. Cole yanked his idling bike up, and a got on in one smooth motion. A breath later, Nicole was on the seat behind him. Instead of backing the bike out to the street, he gunned it up over the sidewalk curb, ran around the bullet-riddled car, then back down onto the street with Brian behind him. Just as he was giving his bike fuel, Brian's bike roared past into lead position, heading for the men waiting for them.

Nearly halfway back to the club, the four riders pulled over at Cole's signal and Cole got on his cellphone, dialing Jim's by memory. As soon as Jim answered, he ran down the ambush details without preamble and told him they were on their way to the club. "I think they’re going to hit the club, Jim. It's burning in my gut."

"Got it and I'm on it," Jim told him and the connection was broken.

"Jim's on it; let's ride," he said to the others and they rode through the streets as fast as they could with the traffic, weaving in and out of cars and sharing lanes between them.

When they arrived at the club, there were chains across the parking lot entryways and a large sign that said the club was closed due to remodeling; please come back soon. As they approached, two men dropped the chains and let them into the lot.

Once inside Jim's office, Jim asked, "All right, tell me what happened" with as demanding and threatening a voice Cole could ever remember hearing, including what was used during all of the action movies he's seen.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Cole was about to begin his report when Nicole said, "Well, we had breakfast and then Brian came up with this amazing plan that was simple, easy to execute… just brilliant, really, but then he decided to just kill them so we could get back here."

Cole and Brain tried really hard not to laugh, and failed miserably. A second later, Jim joined them and in a release-of-stress moment, he took her in to a bear hug that lifted her up and had her legs kicking about a foot off the ground. After he set her back down, he tousled her hair and said, "You're all right, kid. I'm really starting to like you."

"You're all right, too, big guy," she smiled.

"Now, once again," Jim chuckled, "but with a little more detail.”

Fifteen minutes later, Logic, a wiry man standing five-ten and weighing little more than Nicole, was on his laptop, hacking into the CPD database to look up the names of the two men in the Cougar. Cole recited the license plate for him.

Bear, the club's Sergeant at Arms came in right after him – a large, burly looking man with a full and wild beard that had several colored memento beads braided through the whiskers. He received a recap of the drive-by from Brian and was then on the phone lining up rosters and summoning men.

George, the List Master, who ran the security and outrider details, came in right behind Bear. George looked like a CPO who rode on the weekends. His hair was perfect, fingernails perfectly trimmed on manicured hands, and white pearl teeth, which generally smiled often. He wasn't smiling right now and his face became more serious as Brian recapped the story.

"What makes you think they'll hit the club?" Jim asked Cole.

"The driver's suit," Cole said, "it was too expensive. A suit like that might have cost him close to five grand, maybe more. No one on Gabriel's crew brings down enough to wear a suit like that on a drive by. These guys were skilled, patient, and professional. Gabriel has brought in mercs, probably from the docks. Mercs aren't going to fuck around with strip clubs and liquor stores. They'll hit us where it hurts. They'll hit us here and at our homes. They'll buy lists of current members from CPD contacts and start hitting where there will be no security, and no protection."

Everyone in the room was silent and had only eyes for Cole. Then Logic spoke, "He's right about the two guys, Jim; they are both heavy hitters for Lou."

"Fuck," Jim hissed and rested his forearms on the desk, staring at the wood grain.

"Lou?" Nicole asked.

"Louis Donadio," Brain clarified. "He runs the smuggling at the dock yard. Nothing moves in or out that hasn't been taxed by Lou. He's honest-to-god, real-as-it-gets mafia and very unhealthy to get tangled up with." Brain explained to her, making her eyes go wide.

"How the fuck could Gabriel bring in Lou on a skirmish like ours? How could he afford to bring in Lou?" Bear asked.

"He's insane, he really is, medically insane," Jim said, his voice low and filled with awe. "He's got to know this will cost him his business."

"No," Cole told him, "Gabriel doesn't. He's obviously delusional enough to think he'll find a way out of that eventually."