All Good Things

Chapter Nine

Impatient, Randy leaned against the chrome-plated handlebars of the rumbling motorcycle beneath the relentless desert sun, waiting for Mr. K to purchase the decryptors for their Vault heist. By that point, he'd been trying to get the job started for almost three aggravating hours, and his mood had only soured further when his gang leader completely ignored his proposal to bring Ray Mond along. Even months later, some grudges went unsquashed, apparently. Although, the level of disdain the leader felt for Randy's protegé was unwarranted, in his opinion. If K should have been mad at anyone for the second-in-command's lack of focus, it should have been Randy himself. Not that he was ever distracted enough for his conduct to negatively influence the gang, anyway... but that was a whole other story.

Seeing the Dragon finally start down the rickety stairs of the old trailer, Randy straightened up on the bike and tried to wipe any signs of irritation from his expression. "You get everything?" The older man gave no verbal response, only nodded his head.

As Mr. K slid into place behind him, the snow-haired man felt a continuous vibration in the pocket of his tan cargo shorts. Pausing to slide the device out and check who demanded his attention, he saw Jaylen's name flashing on the small screen. A deep crease formed between his brows as they cinched closer together. Jaylen rarely called, and when he did, it was usually pertaining to an urgent matter. Pinning his phone between his ear and shoulder, Randy answered the call while he repositioned the bike to face the road, "Hello?"

"We need you in Little Seoul right now," was the response he was met with, the words spoken with a rushed exigency. In the background, he could hear the sound of gunfire and loud commands spilling through a radio speaker. Randy was confused. Their bank job hadn't even started yet, and the morning discussions had given him the impression that nothing else big was supposed to be happening. So why could he hear the unmistakable sound of a gunfight? A knot grew in his stomach, suddenly fearful that he knew exactly who was in trouble and why he was the one being called.

With a new influx of anxiety filtering through his veins, Randy swiftly asked, "Are you good?" And, waiting only long enough to hear Jaylen's confirmation, he added for clarification, "For what? For what?" cutting the younger man off.

"Ray's getting raided if she goes to prison. She has a lot of weed." And just like that, his suspicions were confirmed, and the worry flowing through his body morphed into full-blown dread.

"We're coming right now," Randy said and hung up the phone. In the next second, the dark motorcycle was flying down the two-lane road, swerving around the other motorists as fast as the bike was capable.

Just barely audible over the rush of wind and adrenaline racing in Randy's ears, K yelled, "Who was that?"

"Jaylen," Randy shouted back. "Ray Mond's getting arrested for drug trafficking, and they need help saving her."

The gang leader said nothing in response to that, but the British man felt it as the older man stiffened behind him, his annoyance about the change of events painfully evident. Displeased with him or not, though, Randy was going to do everything he could to save Ray. At the next intersection, Randy rolled to a stop just long enough to text Jaylen and get the radio channel.

"-not sure where they took her, but it couldn't have been far," a static voice was saying as he hopped on the correct frequency and gunned the bike down the highway once more.

"I think they might have her somewhere near the construction site around the corner." Fast approaching the city now, Randy identified the new speaker as Chang Gang's infamous, redheaded siren.

Hutch spoke next. "Cops are circling and staying pretty close to that area, so you're probably right. I'm going to try to get closer- see if I can scope out the area." There was a stretch of silence following his statement, and Randy was zipping through the Vinewood hills at an absurd speed as he awaited further details. Unexpectedly, a car pulled out of a driveway right in front of the bike and nearly sent him and the Dragon soaring, but Randy managed to swerve around it at the last second.