A child walked up to our group of motorcycles and begged, “Please kill my stepdad for me.”
People stopped chatting. Fifteen veterans in leather vests stood still and stared at the little boy in a dinosaur T-shirt who had just asked us to kill him while he was asking for more salsa for his tacos.
His mom was in the bathroom and didn’t realize that her son had gone to the most dangerous table at the Sanborns in Calzada de Tlalpan. She had no idea what he was going to say that would change our lives forever.
“Please,” the child murmured in a quiet but strong voice. “I have 120 pesos.”
He pulled out some crumpled bills from his pocket and put them on the table, which also had coffee cups and half-eaten enchiladas on it.
She was trembling her hands, but those eyes… those eyes meant business.
“El Gran Miguel,” our club president and grandfather of four, bent down to his level.
“What’s your name, champ?”
“Emilio,” the boy muttered quietly, looking at the bathroom with an uneasy look. “Mom’s coming.” “Are you going to help me or not?
“Emilio, why do you want us to hurt your father?” Miguel asked in a quiet voice.
The kid pulled down the collar of his shirt. There were purple marks on his throat.
“He said that if I tell anyone, he will hurt my mom more than he will hurt me.” But you ride a bike. You are strong. You can stop him.
That’s when we saw something we hadn’t seen before: how she walked with her body tilted to one side.
She
“How about your real dad?” said “Bones,” our sergeant-at-arms.
“He died.” Emilio said, “I was in a car accident when I was three,” and then he gazed at the door to the bathroom. “Please, Mom is coming now.” “Yes or no?”
A woman came out of the bathroom before anyone could say anything. She was in her forties and very lovely, but she walked like she was in pain.
Her face turned white with fright when she saw Emilio at our table.
—Emilio! Sorry, you’re bothering us… He ran toward us, and we all saw him groan in pain since he was traveling too quickly.
“It’s no trouble at all, ma’am,” Miguel responded, standing up slowly so she wouldn’t be startled. “Your son is smart.”
She touched Emilio’s hand, and I saw that her doll’s makeup was running, leaving purple bruises that looked like her son’s.
“We have to go. Come on, my dear.
“Actually,” Miguel said in a calm voice, “why don’t you sit with us?” Dessert was on the way. It’s our treat.
She was scared and her eyes went large.
“We can’t…”
“I insist,” Miguel said, and the way he said it made it clear that it wasn’t just a suggestion. Emilio said he likes dinosaurs. My grandson also does.
She carefully sat down, cradling her child close. The youngster looked back and forth between us and his mom. His small face exhibited both fear and optimism.
Miguel said, “Emilio, you need to be very brave right now.” You were braver than when you begged us for what you wanted. “Can you do it?”
The child nodded his head.
—Is someone hurting you and your mom?
The mother’s gasp told them everything they needed to know.
“Please,” she pleaded in a quiet voice. “You don’t get it. He is going to kill us. He said…
“Ma’am, look at this table,” Miguel whispered softly, cutting her off. “All of the men here have been in wars. We’ve all protected people who didn’t do anything wrong safe from abusers. That’s how we do things. Please tell me if someone is hurting you.
She lost her temper. Tears began to fall.
“His name is Rodrigo.” My husband. “He’s… he’s a cop.”
That scared her to death. A police officer who is abusive knows how to use the system, how to make reports disappear, and how to make the victim look crazy.
“How long?” Bones wanted to know.
Two years. Since we got married, things have gotten worse. I attempted to get away, but he always finds us. Emilio was in the hospital for a week last time. She rubbed her ribs without thinking about it. Rodrigo said he got off his bike.
Emilio replied in a hushed voice, “I don’t even have a bike.”
I felt anger go through the table. Fifteen warriors who had seen a lot of violence in their life recognized that hurting a child was a totally different thing. That wasn’t right.
“Where is Rodrigo now?” “Hey, Miguel questioned.
“On duty.” She looked at her phone and remarked, “It leaves at 12:00.” “We have to get home by then, or else…”
“No,” Miguel responded with certainty. “You don’t have to go anywhere.” “Where’s your car?”
—Outside. The Honda was blue.
Miguel waved to three younger guys.
“Check for trackers on her.” Also, check her phone. He put his hand out to her.
“You don’t get it,” she said in a voice full of fear. “He knows people. More cops. Judges. I phoned the cops on him once, and I ended up in a mental hospital. “They told me I was crazy.”
“What’s your name?” Miguel asked.
—Lucia.
—Lucia, you have to trust us. Can you do that?
—Why would they help us? They don’t even know who we are.
“Because they’re heroes, Mom,” Emilio remarked. Just like Dad. “Heroes do good things for people.”
Miguel’s face relaxed.
“Did your dad serve in the military?”
Emilio said with pride, “Marina.” “She died for Mexico.”
Everyone at the table stopped chatting. An immoral police officer took advantage of the widow and son of a sailor, which hurt them. For each veteran who was there, that was personal.
“Lucia,” Miguel said, “I’m going to call some people.” We have something we can utilize. The law says so. “But first we need to get them to a safe place.”
She answered, “There is no safe place away from him.”
“Ma’am,” said Torch, the club’s youngest member and a lawyer who had served in the Iraq War, “I work on cases of domestic violence.” I know judges who don’t have to do anything for anyone. “But we need proof.”
Lucia laughed out of fury.
“He is careful. “He never leaves footprints,” and “He never hits where people can see it.”
Torch saw that the bruises on his wrist said something else. “Emilio’s neck does too.”
—He’ll say we weren’t telling the truth. I did that to get Emilio ready.
Bones responded, “It’s not easy to kill yourself.”
Miguel’s phone started to ring. He picked it up, listened without saying anything, and his face went hard. “They found three devices in your car that could track you.” Two on your phone.
Lucia’s face turned white.
“He knows where we are.”
“Okay,” Miguel said, which shocked everyone. “Let him come.”
—You don’t understand; he is…
