Biff and Ray originally acted as Los Zeta Cartel enforcers in the East LA area before Fernando Carone bought their contracts. They lived like kings now, killed anyone or anything Fernando pointed at with displeasure. They handled all expansion details, including collections, once gangbanger trade annexed an area’s business with protection and extortion rackets. Fernando assigned one of his craziest gangster run crews to the Monterey area. After losing contact with Jay Parks, the leader of the gang, Carone waited impatiently for accurate word about his holdings in the area. With only jumbled news paraphernalia about a drug war with many dead, Fernando sent his best men down to find out the truth.
“Lawyer say Jay dead, so what we meetin’ with the punks for, Biff?” Biff’s partner, a black man no one messed with in East LA since Ray reached puberty, sipped from his glass with a nod of satisfaction.
Biff, a medium height, thin, mixed race broker of pain and death, smiled at his partner. When anyone needed finished off, Biff made the kill shot. He lived for the sight of death. “You know Fernando. We do everything until we get it done in detail, including burying Jay’s two jailed idiots in the desert. Remember… we nice as pie until we get them alone where we can find out what the fuck went wrong. One minute Jay’s crew ‘bangin’ and extortin’ – next… all but these two are dead.”
Ray nodded. “Fernando looked worried when he sent us. Fernando never worried… ever. Somethin’ bad here, partner. Rocky cliffs, bustin’ big waves crashin’ against the rocks, foggy salt smellin’ nights, and no threat in sight. What’s that all about, brother? We can’t whack nothin’ to make anything right here. I say we collect the garbage, bury them in the sand, and go tell Fernando the area toxic.”
Biff chuckled, sitting down in relaxed manner with drink in hand. “We don’t get paid to bring fairy tales back to the man. He find out… it’ll be us eatin’ sand. Tell you what, brother… now on… we go slow… step by step. The lawyer say the ‘bangers don’t know what happened to Jay and his crew. They damn sure can explain better than him about what the hell happened to them.”
“Yeah… I hear you. I-”
A knock at the door startled them. Embarrassed, Ray shoved away from the table. “I got this. You got me wantin’ to kill somethin’.”
Ray looked through the peephole at a beautiful, mini-skirted woman in her early twenties with long black hair. She looked up at the inspection peep hole with a sultry pose and smile. Ray chuckled, turning to Biff. “Hey, blood… you order a hooker?”
“Nope.” Biff walked over to glance through the seeing-eye peephole with interest. “Damn… she fine. She don’t belong here. What she doin’ knockin’ on our door?”
Ray grinned as another soft knock sounded. “Don’t know. She can’t be here entrapping us. Maybe Sea Breeze has connections. They ought to at least have her in one of those sexy maid uniforms.”
Biff snorted. “I’m good with finding out. Want me to meet and greet?”
“Yeah… I’d probably scare her away,” Ray replied, moving out of sight.
Biff unlocked the deadbolt on the door and opened it. He eyed the woman with undisguised lustful notions. “Hey, baby doll – you lost?”
She reached over to run a slim hand over Biff’s cheek. “I don’t think so. Fernando said you two might like some entertainment. I can make the time pass for you and Ray in ways you two never dreamed of.”
All suspicion left Biff’s features at the woman’s mention of Fernando and Ray. “You know who I am too, baby?”
“You bet I do, Biff honey. Fernando told me not to come in unless you and Ray asked me.”
“Damn… you hear that, Ray?”
“Hell yeah, brother.” Ray moved from his place of concealment to stand next to Biff. “You are one fine lookin’ piece. Did Fernando tell you we like the rough stuff, baby. He know-”
A dead eyed man whipped around the doorway with a silenced MP5 machine pistol pointed at their faces, his finger hovering over the trigger with almost a caress of desire. “Move a finger and I blow your faces off with one burst! Interlock your fingers behind your heads and carefully kneel on the floor. Miss a step and this will be an execution rather than an arrest. Now, ladies!”
“Fuck!” Ray watched the woman stifle amusement and scamper around behind the man he could tell was a killer. “Do what he say, Biff! He wants to pull on us. I tol’ you this fuckin’ place is jinxed. We in it now.”
“What’s this all about, officer?” Biff interlocked his fingers behind his head as did Ray. He switched tone of voice to cultured confusion. “May we at least see some identification? We have done nothing wrong.”
“Oh, yes Sir, I’m sure this is a misunderstanding,” the dead eyed man said. “Once you have knelt and are restrained, I will show you badges from both the FBI and US Marshal’s Service. I am US Marshal, Nick McCarty. Kneel now with care, gentlemen.”
Ray began to get suspicious. “He’s a killer, Biff. There’s-”