The Way of the Jaguar – Chapter One

The clock on his dash read 2:17 a.m. Will had just turned into the long, sloping driveway that curved down to the stunning home he had recently bought in the west hills above Portland. On a clear day, he could see Mt. Hood directly to the east, Mt. Jefferson to the south, and Mt. Adams and St. Helens to the north from his expansive deck. On an exceptional day, he could even see Mt. Rainier, far up to the north, near Seattle.

As Will pulled up to the garage, he shut down the engine of his Carpathian Grey Defender OCTA and felt a deep self-satisfaction looking out over the city lights. He had fought hard all his life with unrelenting determination for everything he had. Will had finally made it. He was finally able to relax. This house and the beautiful woman waiting for him in bed were just the beginning. This last deal was the real kicker. If everything turned out right, he could see himself walking away with twenty million or more. That was the just beginning of some serious cash, he thought to himself.

Will walked through the front door and into the kitchen. He poured himself a glass of water from his stainless-steel reverse osmosis water dispenser and looked out the floor-to-ceiling windows into the expansive night sky. Portland had good water because of all the rain, but his water was by far the best he had ever tasted. 

“Not bad for a street kid from Felony Flats,” Will said aloud. Down below and across the river to the south, he could just make out the lights of his old neighborhood far in the distance. It seemed like a lifetime ago when Will had roamed the dangerous, gritty streets of Southeast Portland and Milwaukie, battling along with the rest of the throwaways and dregs of humanity just to survive.

Growing up, Will had lived in constant fear. He learned early on to tiptoe around his dad, a war veteran with an explosive hair-trigger temper that erupted out of nowhere. Will often found himself being yanked off his feet without any warning and slammed into the corner of a wall with his dad screaming in his face.

His father wasn’t the only landmine Will had to navigate. As the saying goes, shit rolls downhill. His older brother’s fear had morphed into a wickedly cruel tendency toward the brutal and sadistic.

Stan was six years older than Will and built like an ox. He loved to corner Will whenever he got the chance, stuffing a meaty hand over Will’s mouth so their dad wouldn’t hear as he gleefully pummeled him and reveled in triumph at Will’s muffled screams.

At any moment, Will knew he could be in grave danger, so he did his best to stay out of their way and become invisible. Over the years, he had learned to push his fear and everything else down and refused to think about the shit he had to endure at home.

No one would ever guess it now, but as a young child, Will’s nature was very gentle and tender. He felt like an alien in his own family back then. As a boy, Will was constantly on the lookout for injured and stray animals and did whatever he could to help them. 

He spent hours searching for little creatures like frogs and garter snakes, who he called his friends. When he caught one, he would hold it gently in his palms until it calmed down. Then, he would tell it entertaining stories for a while before kissing it and setting it down tenderly in the grass. When he let it go, he would say his own made-up prayers, for protection and blessing and for a long and happy life over the little creature. 

As he got older and wiser, Will pushed all his tenderness aside. Early on, he had learned to hate himself for it. Life was harsh, and this world had nowhere for that kind of weakness. Will was deeply ashamed and embarrassed by his childish softness and how he was as a kid. 

When he finally escaped home at fourteen, Will faced the brutality of life on the cruel and heartless streets. In those days, Will had never considered himself homeless. That just wasn’t him. He couldn’t stand the shame of seeing himself that way. Will spent most of his nights couch-surfing or sleeping in old, abandoned buildings. The way he saw it, he just didn’t have a regular place to live. 

Will had an aunt he had stayed with for a while in Happy Valley, but she had way too many rules. Thinking back, he realized she was probably the only person who had ever really cared about him. She was just trying to give him some stability. Her expectations were minimal, but having regular mealtimes, homework, and a few chores felt too weird. He just couldn’t fit in with her manicured and well-ordered suburban family life. One night, after an argument over curfew, he snuck out and never returned. 

Back out on the streets, he somehow managed to survive his teen years and miraculously avoid being placed in a group home or foster care. In those early days, the things that Will had done that he wasn’t proud of, just to get by, were way too many to count, but he refused to let himself go there. There was no use thinking about it. His mantra was screw the man, collect as many fat stacks of cash as possible, get ahead, and get out, by any means necessary. Sometimes people got screwed, and some got hurt on the way, but that was just how the world was. 

One thing the streets had taught him was that you had to look out for number one because no one else would. Will was a fighter and a survivor and had found a way to rise above it all. He had finally made it out. 

As he stood in what he thought of as his castle, Will felt proud, strong, and above it all. He swaggered over to his giant wall of windows, stretched his arms out wide, lifted his head back, stared down at the city, and said, “You see all this, assholes? Like I told you, I’m Will fuckin Langston, and don’t you ever forget it.” Just then, Will felt the cold steel of a gun barrel push up against the back of his head.

“Where’s the China Blanca?” Will’s heart pounded as he stood frozen in his tracks. A second man dressed in all black with a ski mask covering his face was dragging Will’s partner Kali out of the bedroom with his hand over her mouth and a knife pointing at her belly. “Give it to us, or I’ll slice her open.” Will’s mind raced, trying to think of a way out. A choking fear gripped his throat.

Earlier that day, Will had received a large shipment of Mexican heroin on credit from a guy he only knew as Sancho and stashed it in his hidden safe behind the false wall at the back of the pantry. Will didn’t know much about Sancho, if that was his real name. Will figured it wasn’t and that was just fine by him. He only knew he was connected to some super dangerous people from Jalisco that he didn’t dare to cross. 

If he let whoever this was take the stuff, Will knew his life was over. “What are you talking about?” Will replied incredulously. “What the hell is China Blanca? I have some cash in my wallet. Here, you can have it.” Will reached into his back pocket and held the wallet out to the man who was pressing the gun at the back of his head.

Will felt searing pain in the side of his head as the man slapped him with the gun, grabbed the wallet out of his hand, and shoved Will down on the floor, pressing his knee into the middle of his back. “Don’t bullshit me, pendejo.” the man roared. “I said give me the stuff or you fucking die.” The man pulled back the slide of the gun. “Okay, okay,” Will stammered. “Just let me up. It’s not here, but I can get it for you.”

Will hated the drug business. In fact, he hated hard drugs altogether. As he lay there on the cold marble tile with his heart pounding, Will’s mind went way back to how it had all started. So many of the people Will knew growing up had gotten hooked on bad shit and thrown their lives down the toilet. Of course, Will had tried crank, molly, blow, and everything else right along with them. But where most of his friends saw a chance for a temporary escape from the reality of the crap they were living in, Will saw cash and opportunity.

If he was to tell the truth, a part of him never really felt right about it. But in the end, he saw the chance for fat stacks of cash and a way out of his shitty existence. Growing up in The Flats, you did what you had to do. At least, that was the way he saw it. That was how he first got involved in the drug trade. It was the most direct way up and out of the shit hole he grew up in.

Of course, Will and his best friend Danny eventually got busted and spent a couple of years at what he and the other inmates sarcastically called the resort, but that was over 15 years ago. It’s wild how time flies, Will thought. All that stupid shit was in the past now. Since then, Will had mostly stayed away from the drug scene. That was until about six months ago when Kali introduced him to Sancho, leading him to the opportunity that had changed everything. 

At first, Will hesitated to cut Danny out of it. It just didn’t seem right. Will and Danny went way back, all the way to their high school days. They had been through tons of shit together, including the fiasco that landed them both in prison. They had both just turned 19 and were selling weed and crank in an old abandominium off Lombard Street in St Johns when they got busted. 

Danny heroically grabbed the shit and flushed it down the toilet just as the DEA agents busted down the door, nearly getting himself shot in the process. Danny always had Will’s back and was one of the few people he trusted. Fortunately, a few days before they got busted, Will had stashed most of the cash under the ruins of an old shack in the woods just south of the confluence of the Willamette and the Columbia rivers at Peninsula Park. 

When he got out, Will retrieved his stacks of cash and used the money to make a downpayment on a foreclosed apartment building in North Portland, where he and Danny joined a new breed of gentrifiers who had recently started calling the rundown area NoPo, to give it a trendy up and coming feel, and became landlords. For years now, Will and Danny had been legitimate and successful real estate and land developers, well mostly legit, that is. 

On the surface, their house flipping and land development business looked squeaky clean. Will was proud of that. But nothing ever really was what it seemed. At least, that’s how Will saw it. Everybody had some shady deal going on if you dug deep enough.

2010 through 2016 had been especially good for them. The 2008 real estate crash softened the market just at the right time. They snapped up multiple foreclosed homes and buildings at rock-bottom prices, renovated them and turned them around for considerable profit a few years later when prices rebounded. 

Danny and Will reinvested most of the profit from flipping houses and apartment buildings back into the business. Will felt good about their achievements. But the business they had built was still frustratingly slow going most of the time. 

Even though Danny was a good friend, he often lacked vision and initiative. As the business grew, Danny became increasingly rigid and cautious. Will was blown away by the change he saw in Danny. It didn’t seem to bother Danny, but Will was incredibly frustrated by all the red tape dealing with the zoning and planning department. Portland City Government was a bureaucratic nightmare.

Maddeningly, Danny refused to cut corners and played by all the rules. Will knew that Danny was afraid to go back to prison, but his newfound meticulous rule-following bordered on paranoia. It had become a point of contention between them and had led to multiple blowout arguments. Will had to admit that Danny’s caution and steadiness were good for the business in many ways, but he was driven and impatient. Will wanted more and didn’t want to wait forever to get it.

*

When the opportunity with Sancho came, Will knew he should probably turn the other way. He didn’t ever want to go back to the resort. He couldn’t stand to think of himself rotting away in that shit hole. If he was to tell the truth, the whole thing made him super nervous. 

It had all started simply enough. A little dive bar near the river on Macadam called The Sternwheeler was just down the street from his office. The joint was dark and seedy, not where you would typically see an ambitious and driven professional like Will, but from the moment he first walked in almost a year ago, something about it felt like home.

Will liked the dark lighting, the faded black-and-white historic river transport photos, and the slowly disintegrating wallpaper. The generously flowing liquor and dank mustiness of it all made it feel like a place where you could blend into the walls, disappear, and never be found. 

When Will entered the bar that night, Kali immediately caught his eye. She was strikingly beautiful and had a strange otherworldly quality. Will felt a powerful yet uneasy pull toward her as he sat down at the bar. Something about her felt dangerous, wild, and raw.

The lighting above the liquor bottles behind the bar gave her raven hair an ethereal glow as she poured his Sazerac Rye. The chemistry between them grew palpable as she smiled, held his gaze, and placed the cocktail before him. That moment was the beginning of an intense connection, a whirlpool of lust and passion that sometimes threatened to pull him under.

Looking back, Will realized that the dangerous quality he saw in Kali was what drew him so powerfully to her. Will had never felt safe with her, yet he was transfixed by her untamed primal energy. Paradoxically, the uneasy feeling he had when he was with Kali was the very thing that was most enticing to him.

Before he met Kali, Will had never let anyone get too close. He usually cut things off when he felt things start to get serious. Despite his tough exterior, for most of his life, Will had secretly lived in fear. He knew he couldn’t afford to have anyone slow him down if things went south.

Will had done everything possible to push those unwanted feelings away and to keep himself free of emotional entanglements. The problem was that Kali excited him more than any woman he had ever known. Kali moved in with him less than a month after they met.

Of course, Will would never admit he was anxious or afraid of anything. On the outside, he had always appeared calm, collected, and tough as iron. Will was headstrong and determined and could be ruthless when needed. Will knew how to handle himself. If it came down to it, he wouldn’t hesitate to destroy anyone who got in his way.

Before introducing him to Sancho, Kali had promised Will a deal of a lifetime that would finally get them both where they really wanted to go. Will was skeptical but wanted to please Kali, so he agreed to meet. 

Sancho insisted that no one else could know about their deal but him and Kali. Will felt uneasy about the whole thing but the profit would be very substantial, and Kali trusted Sancho, so despite his misgivings, he went along with it. Will knew it was a gamble, but he needed cash and a lot of it to get what he really wanted. This was his chance to achieve his dream. So, he found himself sucked back into the drug trade again, but this time, the stakes and the profits were much, much higher.

Kali was keenly intelligent, innovative, and strategic. Together, she and Will devised a way to funnel the illegal cash through the land development business. The funds made their way into some untraceable offshore accounts and then back into a new business entity through overseas shadow investors. So far, it had worked flawlessly, and no one was the wiser, not even Danny. 

Will was super impressed by her cunning ways of manipulating and hiding the funds. Will felt bad about cutting Danny out of it, but street rules still applied. You had to look out for number one. That was how he finally secured the funds he would use to buy large tracts of land for his new development apart from Danny.

The shadow company’s first real test was using the funds to buy the beautiful house in the West Hills. It went off without a hitch. It seemed almost too easy. Will was caught up in the excitement of it all. He knew it was the beginning of serious money, but he had to keep his head and remember that all of it was just a means to an end.

Forest Park Horizons was Will’s real goal. It had always been his dream. He knew it was a big goal, but you gotta dream big if you want a big prize, right? That’s what Will told himself. If everything went as planned, Will would finally be somebody. No one would be able to look down on him ever again. 

About seventy-five years ago, some Portland tree-huggers managed to get an eight-mile swath of the most beautiful prime real estate land on the hillside overlooking the city and the Willamette River designated as a city park. It blew Will’s mind that they had been able to do that, but times had changed, and Will was ready to take advantage of it. Today, the value of even a fraction of the land was off the charts astronomical.

His new house was just on the edge of Forest Park. After he cleared the trees from the adjacent land, Will’s entire new development would have the same stunning views as his home. Of course, he wouldn’t clear all the trees. That would diminish the value of the land. He would leave just enough of the enormous Old Growth Douglas Firs for high curb appeal, but most would have to go.

Will’s plan was simple but crafty. He knew that if the people of Portland found out, they would never allow it to work. There would be outrage and protests. Portlandia was big into protesting. It had long been a haven for environmental activism. That was the last thing he needed, but Will had a strategy for that, too. If everything went as planned, no one would find out until it was already way too late.

When Will was in the resort, he spent much of his time working in the prison library. At the time, he was surprised by how much he loved to read. Will had never been into reading in high school, but since there was nothing but time and not much else to do, Will poured himself into it. He loved all the old books they had on history, philosophy and surprisingly found ancient spiritual traditions like Daoism to be intriguing. 

One day, Will stumbled upon Lao Tzu’s The Art of War while going through a stack of dusty old books. He cracked it open, thinking it was a book on military strategy, but it turned out to be so much more. Consumed by the profound wisdom of ancient China, Will had what could only be described as a mini-spiritual awakening. 

He never told anyone about it, but for weeks, he had gotten a glimpse into another way of seeing the world and felt real peace for the first time. Of course, all of that had quickly faded as Will was caught back up in the craziness and danger of daily life in the joint. However, one thing that never left him was the strategic and methodical thinking the book contained. 

Through its studies on ancient military strategy Will learned that you never directly attacked an enemy unless you had overwhelming force. Even that could be foolhardy. The best strategy was to soften your adversary by subversion, and when they were at their weakest point, a surprise attack with overwhelming force usually did the trick.

He planned to start small. Will would get a small tract of land quietly rezoned. Just enough for about 50 homes with a price point of around 2.5 million each. Once he pulled that off, he would keep eating away at the forest, little by little.

It would take years, but that was the beauty of it. It would be like having a gold mine he could tap for the rest of his life. In his mind, Will’s plan was flawless. He had thought through every angle. He had the vision and the determination and was willing to do whatever it took. He knew it would work if he could just get enough untraceable funds to buy the land and bribe the proper government officials. 

Will was so close. He had a guy in the city planning and zoning department he had been grooming for years, who knew the ins and outs and was ready to pull the right strings. But it wouldn’t be cheap. It would take a lot of money. That was the real reason he had made the massive deal for China White. It was super risky, but the funds from the arrangement with Sancho and Kali were what he needed to get the ball rolling.

The pain in the middle of Will’s back, from the man’s knee pressing down on him, brought him back into the reality of the present moment. “Let her go, and I’ll take you to it,” Will said. “You think I’m stupid?” the man with the gun said, slapping Will across the face. You’re gonna get it for us, and she is gonna be our insurance. We’ll let you both go once we have the stuff.”

Will had to think quickly. “It’s in my storage locker on North Jersey just over the bridge. Just let us go, and I’ll give you the entry code.” The man yanked Will off the floor and shoved him up against the wall, pushing the gun up under his chin. “Don’t mess with me, pendejo.”

“Quedate con ella. Ahorita regresamos.” He said, looking at the man holding Kali.

“You’re going to take me to it. Your woman will be fine if you don’t try anything stupid,” he said to Will as he led him out the door and pushed him into the driver’s seat of his Defender.

Will’s mind raced as they took the road down from the west hills toward the river. He had to find a way out of this without getting himself or Kali killed, or losing his cash or the drugs. “What if I make you a deal of a lifetime?” he said to the man sitting in the passenger seat. “The stuff in storage is nothing compared to the shipment I have coming next week. Maybe we could work together, and both get rich.”

“I think you’re lying to me, mamón, but I’m listening. Tell me about the shipment.” The man replied, lifting the gun in his lap higher and sticking the barrel into Will’s ribs.

“It’s coming into the port next Wednesday morning,” Will lied. “It’s worth 500 Gs. If you let me go, I’ll cut you in on the deal, but I need to talk to my guy alone. If he sees you anywhere near, he’ll bolt.”

“If there is a deal, we are going to take it all. If you’re lying, you and your pretty little chica are going to die.”

Just then, the man’s phone rang. The man pulled his phone out of his pocket and said, “Bueno.” There was a long pause as the man listened, then replied, “Te llamo en un rato,” and ended the call.

“So, the stuff is at your storage locker, right?” the man said, looking at Will with a blank expression.

“That’s what I said, but if you play it smart, we can work out a deal. I’ll cut you in on the bigger shipment next week,” Will replied.

“Are you saying you think I’m stupid, pendejo?” the man said menacingly.

“No, that’s not what I meant. I just wanted to…”

The man punched Will square in the face.

“What the hell?” Will said, nearly swerving off the road winding down from the hillside.

A few minutes later just after crossing the bridge the man said. “Take a left, cabrón. Drive down to the boat ramp.”

Will pulled the car to a stop at the bottom of the hill near the ramp. The man pointed his gun at Will’s face. “Give me your key fob.” Will did as he was told.

“What’s going on? I thought we had a deal.” Will pleaded.

“Turn off the car and get out,” the man said.

Will thought about running but knew he would probably get shot, so he just stood outside of his vehicle and said, “Now what?”

“In there,” the man said, pointing to a trail leading into the trees at edge of the river.

“It’s pitch black in there. I can’t see anything. Can’t we just talk about this and work something out?”

Will heard the pitch of his voice rising and struggled not to sound like he was panicking.

“Use your phone light and move, pendejo,” the man said.

They walked for a few minutes into the dark bushes near the river, Will leading the way, until finally, the man said, “Okay, that’s far enough. Give me your phone. Now turn around and get down on your knees.”

Will felt his bowels start to loosen as panic threatened to overtake him. “Wait, let’s just work something out. Like I said, there’s a bigger shipment coming. I can get it for you.” Will pleaded.

“I said down on your knees, you piece of shit,” the man said through gritted teeth.

Will dropped to his knees as the man pressed the barrel of the gun to the back of his head. “You fucking lied to me, pendejo. Your chica showed my compa the safe behind the wall. Now give me the code, or I’ll blow your fucking brains out.”

“572131.” Will stammered.

“Hola Siri, llama a Chavo,” the man said into his phone. Once the safe was open and the drugs and Will’s cash were retrieved, the man said to his partner, “Lleva su mujer al hotel.”

The man ended the call and said to Will, “Now tell me why I shouldn’t just end you right now and kick your rotting carcass into the water, pendejo.”

“I told you. There’s a shipment coming in at the port next week,” Will stammered. “Let us go, and I’ll cut you in for fifty percent of the deal. 

“Pinche cabrón, tienes huevos. Like I said, we’re taking all of it. And if you’re playing tricks, you and your chica are dead.” The gun slammed into the back of his head. Will blacked out just before his face landed in the mud.