The uniform pulls a folded piece of paper out of a pocket and holds it up. I narrow my eyes at him. He remains several feet from the rider closest to him and doesn’t hand the paper to Briggs or let any of us see what’s on it.
I remain on my bike, offering Briggs a knowing smile. “Nice try, asshole.”
I know this little shit’s game too well to fall for his tricks.
Briggs cocks his head at me. “Don’t play with me, Spider.” He puts a mocking edge on my name that drips with long-running dislike. “You’ll lose.”
“That so?”
“Off the bikes. Now.”
Still, no one moves.
“So that’s how you want to play it. Suit yourself.” Briggs starts toward the back of the van, nodding to his lackies. “Men—”
In one step, Dragon puts himself in Briggs’ path, cutting him off from the van. “Until I see that warrant, you’re not getting near our vehicle.”
Briggs waves over the officer holding the supposed warrant. Once he has it, he unfolds the paper and holds it up in front of Prez’s face.
Dragon snatches it and gives it a once-over. Then he holds the paper up and puts his face inches from the cop’s.
“This only allows you to search the clubhouse. It doesn’t cover the van or anything else we own.” Dragon tears the paper in half. “Did you seriously think you could get away with railroading us?” He drops both pieces of paper, letting them flutter to the ground.
Briggs watches the papers fall, seemingly unaffected, then puts his head back to look up at Dragon as if he couldn’t care less that Prez could probably snap him in half if he felt like it. “Enough important people in Nevada want you and your…. boys rotting in cells, Dragon. No one cares how we do it, as long as the Outlaws are gone.”
Yeah, I’m pretty sure I know how the asshole intended to play this. As if having heard my thoughts, Dragon presses in closer to him and voices them for me.
“Let me guess. You were hoping we wouldn’t check the warrant out. Of course, you knew we would, so you had a Plan B all set up. If you have to, you’ll call in a favor. You’ve got some two-bit dirty judge who’d be happy to magically make the paperwork appear as long as you take whatever price he wants up the ass. By the time you had us all in cells on some trumped-up charge, it would look like you had the paperwork all along.”
Briggs’ shoulders stiffen. It’s the only sign he shows that the insult got to him. “No false charges necessary. We know you’ve got illegal hardware stowed in that van. You and the Outlaws have made enough trouble in Vegas. I do what I have to in order to keep vermin off my streets.”
Dragon crosses his arms again. “I have people too, Officer. I have ways of making sure the right people see that whatever papers you materialize are as dirty as you are.”
“That a fact?”
“After all this time, you should have learned you can’t jam us up that easily, asswipe,” I tell the cop.
“Call your boys off, Briggs,” Dragon adds. “Come back when you have a legitimate warrant, and I’ll be happy to let your conduct your search.”
I can’t help smiling. By the time Briggs manages to get a legal one and search anything, the guns will have disappeared, safely squared away where he won’t find them.
Briggs rounds on his men and stalks to his car, signaling for them to get back in theirs. He turns to Dragon, giving each of us the same livid glare. “You’re only putting off the inevitable, Outlaws. One of these days, you will fuck up. And when you do, I’ll see you all buried so far into the prison system that none of you will ever get out.”
“Have a nice trip back to your hole, Officers,” Dragon says with an ear-to-ear grin. “Give Nikki a kiss from us.”
I snort. Nikki is Briggs’ cute daughter. If I remember right, she just had her eighteenth birthday. “We’ll buy her a present,” I add, and laughter from the boys breaks out.
Briggs lets out a string of curses before he gets in his cage and slams the door.
As soon as the squad cars are gone, Dragon hops on his bike. He fires me a glare over his shoulder before I can start up my ride.