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“Damn,” Wyatt said. “That was lucky.”
Griz shrugged. “Or a hell of a coincidence.”
“What do you mean?” Wyatt said. “Why was Ripper out here, anyway?”
“To make nice with Becca, was what he said. But also, he was pitching his gun contact to me.”
“Who’s the gun contact?” Wyatt said.
“The cartel,” Griz said.
“Fuck, Griz.”
“I know.”
“You know how that could play out,” Wyatt said. “How it could end up taking us down a shitty road.”
“I know,” Griz said. “But like I told Ripper, when Death’s Head was shooting at us… we were totally pinned down. It was like I could do nothing back.”
“Yeah, having bigger guns is a major advantage,” Wyatt said. “Still.”
“Something needs to change, Wyatt,” Griz said. “My dad’s been shot. You’ve been shot. They’ve come after Becca three times now. We can’t keep going on like this, always at a disadvantage. We do need the bigger guns.”
“Uh, I don’t want to ever experience anything like that ever again,” Becca said, “but if it does happen, I definitely want Griz to have a giant Rambo gun. That’s my vote.”
“I hear you, Becca, but the real question is, what does it cost us?” Wyatt said.
“Exactly,” Griz said. “That complicates everything.”
“What do you mean?” Becca said. “Like, how much money the guns will cost?”
“Not that,” Wyatt said. “Dealing with the cartel isn’t like buying groceries from the store. Once you’re on their radar screen, that’s it. They think they own you.”
“What does that mean?” Becca said. “Own you?”
“You never know what they’re going ask of you,” Griz explained. “What they might end up demanding of you.”
“You could always just say no to it if it’s something really bad,” Becca said.
“Not really,” Wyatt said. “At that point, if they think that you owe them, and you say no, they’re likely to come after you.”
“They’re much bigger than Death’s Head,” Griz said. “And richer.”
“And better connected,” Wyatt said. “And their base of operations is in Mexico, so good luck trying to strike back at them if they decide to go to war with you.”
“Death’s Head at least knows that if they come after us, we can come right back at them,” Griz said.
Becca gestured around the shot-up cabin. “It didn’t stop them from coming after us today.”
“Yeah, but this is random drive-by stuff,” Wyatt said. “If it was the cartel, they would’ve sent a dozen guys, taken you both prisoner, and tortured you to death on video. Then sent the video to the rest of us. Something like that.”
“God,” Becca said. “How do you deal with this?”
“You don’t,” Wyatt said. “That’s what I’m saying. If you don’t deal with the cartel, you stay off of their radar, and they don’t bother with you.”
“But if we get into a deal with them,” Griz said, “our club gets put into a situation where we get faced with a choice between bad options. Do what the cartel wants, or now we’re fighting two opponents at the same time.”
“And the cartel will know this, and ask for as much as they can think of,” Wyatt said.
