A child came up to our table of motorcyclists and begged, “Please kill my stepdad for me.”
No one talked anymore. Fifteen veterans in leather vests stood silent, staring at the little boy in a dinosaur T-shirt who had just asked us to kill him while he was asking for extra salsa for his tacos.
His mom was in the bathroom and didn’t know that her son had gone to the scariest 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 low but strong voice. “I have 120 pesos.”
He pulled out crumpled bills from his pocket and put them on the table, which had coffee cups and half-eaten enchiladas on it.
Her hands were shaking, but her eyes… those eyes were serious.
“El Gran Miguel,” our club president and grandpa of four, bent down to his level.
“What’s your name, champ?”
“Emilio,” the small boy muttered quietly, looking at the bathroom with a worried look. “Mom’s coming. “Will you help me or not?
“Emilio, why do you want us to hurt your father?” Miguel asked in a quiet voice.
The kid pulled down on the collar of his T-shirt. There were purple marks on his throat.
“He told me that if I told anyone, he would hurt my mom more than me.” But you ride motorcycles. You are tough. You can stop him.
We witnessed something new then: how she walked with her body bending to one side.
Her wrist was in a splint. She used cheap cosmetics to cover up the yellow bruise on her jaw.
“How about your real dad?” inquired our sergeant-at-arms, “Bones.”
“He died.” Emilio said, “I was in a car accident when I was three,” and then he looked at the bathroom door. “Please, Mom is coming now.” “Yes or no?”
Before anyone could answer, a woman came out of the bathroom. She was in her forties and attractive, but she walked like she was in pain.
She turned pale with terror when she saw Emilio at our table.
—Emilio! Sorry, you’re getting on our nerves… He ran toward us, and we all saw him groan in pain from moving too quickly.
“It’s no trouble at all, ma’am,” Miguel remarked as he slowly got up so she wouldn’t be startled. “Your son is smart.”
She touched Emilio’s hand, and I saw that the makeup on her doll was running, leaving purple bruises that looked like her son’s.
“We have to go now. Come on, sweetheart.
Miguel said in a calm voice, “Actually, why don’t you sit with us?” We were going to eat dessert. It’s our turn.
She was scared and her eyes went large.
“We can’t…”
Miguel said, “I insist,” and the way he said it made it clear that it wasn’t just a suggestion. Emilio said that he likes dinosaurs. My grandson does too.
She carefully sat down with her child in her arms. 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.” More bold than when you asked us for what you wanted. “Are you able to do it?”
The boy nodded.
—Is someone hurting you and your mom?
All they needed was the mother’s gasp.
“Please,” she pleaded in a quiet voice. “You don’t understand. He’s going to kill us. He said…
“Ma’am, look at this table,” Miguel whispered softly, cutting her off. “Every man here has been in a war. We have all protected innocent individuals from abusers. That’s how we do things. Please let me know if someone is hurting you.
She lost her mind. Tears started to fall.
“His name is Rodrigo.” My husband. “He’s… he’s a police officer.”
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 seem crazy.
“How long?” Bones wanted to know.
—Two years. Things have gotten worse after we were married. I wanted to flee, but he always finds us. Emilio was in the hospital for a week last time. She touched her ribs without even thinking about it. Rodrigo said he got off his bike.
Emilio remarked quietly, “I don’t even have a bike.”
I could feel anger running through the table. Fifteen warriors who had seen a lot of violence in their lives recognized that hurting a child was an entirely different story. That wasn’t right.
“What’s going on with Rodrigo now?” What did Miguel ask?
“On duty.” She checked her phone and remarked, “It leaves at midnight.” “We have to be home by then, or else…”
“No,” Miguel responded with conviction. “You don’t have to go anywhere.” “Where is your car?”
—Outside. It was a blue Honda.
Miguel waved to three of the younger guys.
“Check her for trackers.” You should also check her phone. He held out his hand to her.
“You don’t get it,” she said in a voice that sounded scared. “He knows people.” Other police. Judges. I called the cops on him once and had to go to a mental hospital. “They said I was nuts.”
“What’s your name?” Miguel asked.
—Lucia.
—Lucia, you have to trust us. Can you do that?
—Why would they want to aid us? They don’t even know us.
Emilio said, “Mom, they’re heroes.” Just like Dad. “Heroes help people.”
Miguel’s face calmed down.
“Was your dad in the military?”
“Marina,” Emilio said with pride. “She died for Mexico.”
Everyone at the table stopped chatting. A dishonest police officer took advantage of a sailor’s widow and son, hurting them. That meant something different to each veteran that was there.
Miguel said, “Lucia, I’m going to call some people.” We have items we can use. That’s what the law says. “But first we have to get them to safety.”
She said, “There’s no safe place to be away from him.”
“Ma’am,” said Torch, the club’s youngest member and a lawyer and veteran of 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 in rage.
“He is careful.” He never hits where people can see it. “He never leaves footprints.”
Torch saw that the bruises on his own wrist said otherwise. “Emilio’s neck does too.”
—He’ll say we were lying. I did it to set Emilio up.
Bones said, “It’s hard to kill yourself.”
Miguel’s phone rang. He picked it up, listened without saying anything, and his face went hard. “They discovered three tracking devices in your car.” Two of them are on your phone.
Lucia’s face went pale.
“He knows where we are.”
“Fine,” Miguel said, which shocked everyone. “Let him come.”
—You don’t understand; he is…