Chapter Thirteen Creighton
Chapter Thirteen
Creighton
Lassiter’s directions brought me to the alley beside Cole Mauricio’s nightclub.
The man who called for this meeting stood just outside Octavia’s side door.
Lassiter, Levi, and a few of my other men stood between me and him.
They stepped aside so I could better view him.
Some of his staff also lingered in the alley.
I noted their guns and knew these weren’t just Octavia’s staff. They were Cole Mauricio’s men.
This was Blake’s new boss. A young manager running a nightclub in New York City for Cole Mauricio.
He was younger than me, and on the outside, we looked similar.
I knew without a doubt that Blake would’ve found him attractive.
“Spence Calloway.”
His nostrils flared at my greeting, but he masked the hostile expression before attempting to smile at me.
I motioned to his eyes. “Those give you away.”
He swiftly inhaled. “Excuse me?”
I took a step closer so he could see my face better.
The light was better. I gestured to my eyes.
“You’re trying to mask your hatred for me, but it won’t work.
You also don’t need to do that. I expect people to hate me before they meet me, then hate me more after they meet me.
You can show your hate. It’s fine. You’re not like me.
You don’t have to worry about appearing a certain way.
I act to appear normal, but you, you are normal.
” I gave him a more considered look. “You’re not a lamb, but you’re not a wolf either. ”
He glared at me, showing me his teeth.
I smiled.
“I shoul—” He reached for his side, but I moved quickly. My hand went to his wrist, and as he started to bring out a knife, I twisted his wrist, applying enough pressure so he made a gasping sound, forcing him to drop the knife or I would’ve broken his wrist.
As the knife slipped from his hold, I took it, stepping back.
“Boss!” Levi and Lassiter both moved for me.
I held up a hand.
They halted immediately, and I offered them the knife that I’d just taken. When they didn’t automatically reach for it, I snapped. “Take it.”
I could feel their hesitation.
I fixed Levi with a glare. “We’ll discuss your slip later.”
He was confused until he got it, and he tried giving me an appeasing look. “Sorry, Bo—”
I growled in warning.
“Creighton,” he corrected himself.
Lassiter was eyeing both Levi and me until he stepped to the side and studied Octavia’s manager instead. I couldn’t place what he was thinking as he watched the other man.
“Did you call this meeting to attack me?” I motioned toward my men, ignoring his men. “That wasn’t well thought out. A bit shortsighted. No?”
Spence Calloway drew back a step and raised his head, trying to regain control over himself again. “You recently came from Chicago?”
That was also interesting. “You hired one of mine. Cole Mauricio has an agreement with my enemies. I wanted to be sure of her safety.” I grinned again.
“There are rules, are there not? Rules on how to operate within Cole Mauricio’s club, or to be more specific, rules for how not to act.
I have the same agreement he has with West and Walden.
” I was trying to figure out his reasons for this meeting.
It wasn’t a necessary meeting. “I am permitted on these premises as long as I am without a weapon. Though, I’m wondering if that’s necessary in this alley.
If someone is standing on one side, it’s easy to shoot across the imaginary line.
Too close together. The other side belongs to Ashton Walden.
You’re aware he owns that building?” I gestured to the side.
Spence’s eyes widened.
He hadn’t known that fact. I wondered if his boss had.
I made sure to turn and smile at the security cameras that were attached to Walden’s building.
Both cameras were blinking, so they were active.
I was about to press this new fact when there was a screech of brakes. Shouting was next. Gunshots. Then a pair of headlights swept through the alley.
A vehicle barreled right at us.
Levi and Lassiter got between me and the vehicle while my men began shooting. Tristian West was driving, with crazed eyes, white knuckles on the steering wheel, and most importantly—he was alone. There were no guards with him.
My body hummed.
Spence was gone. I wasn’t done with Octavia’s manager.
Irritation beat in me, a steady drum as I turned to focus on the impending arrival.
The vehicle suddenly stopped, and I stepped out from behind Levi and Lassiter, my hand in the air to halt my men from shooting him. “Don’t.” The front door flung open. Tristian West shoved out of the vehicle, a gun in one hand and a wrench in the other.
I paused at that.
A wrench? I expected the gun. A knife at the very least. But a wrench? He could do better with a bat. A steel bat. I would gift him one, or send it to Ashton Walden’s hospital room and have it addressed to “the best friend.” I liked that idea.
“You think this is fucking funny?” He growled, advancing swiftly. The gun was raised.
He was going to shoot. I had seconds to react.
I moved at the same time he pulled the trigger.
His shot went wide, hitting the wall behind me.
I wasn’t paying attention to anything else, just needing to disarm the threat.
Personally I didn’t like guns. They were a coward’s choice of weapon.
Anyone could hold a gun and pull a trigger, but a real monster was a weapon in themselves.
I liked knives. Or machetes. Or any other weapon, to be honest, because they were just a tool.
I was the weapon. How I used them was the weapon.
Guns, they were like a cheat card. But because they were effective, I didn’t like having one pointed at me, so as West’s first shot missed, my men yelled from the street.
West turned.
Levi and Lassiter were there.
Levi moved in to block him, and Lassiter grabbed West’s arm, disarming him instantly. West went still, seeing the odds. He was outnumbered.
He came here to kill me.
Levi shoved West hard against his own vehicle. It jarred him, but didn’t stop him. He swung the wrench.
“Levi,” I barked, yanking him back.
He shot me a look, but I ignored him. We both knew it wasn’t because I was worried about him. Levi could hold his own. It was because I wanted in on some of this action.
“Fuck’s sakes, Creight.” But he moved back, and West lunged for me.
He swung again.
I stepped to the side, noting, “Was it the sight of your best friend that did this? You’re not thinking clearly, West.” When he swung a second time on me, it was almost insultingly easy to avoid that one too. “You’re also not good at this either.”
“At what?” he growled again, swinging backward. “And fuck you, Lane.”
I’d taken his best friend, strung him up, and tortured him. I did to Ashton Walden what his reputation says he does to others. As for Tristian West, there’d not been much information on his fighting ability. I could see why there wasn’t. There wasn’t anything to report.
“Enough.” I ducked one last time and twisted the wrench out of his hands. As soon as I did, I tossed it to Levi. He caught it and grabbed West from behind. He brought his own wrench around West’s throat, using it to hold him in place.
Tristian West wasn’t thinking clearly. That much was obvious. I took a step closer to inspect him. Between his wife’s gallery burning down and what I had done to his best friend, had I put him over the edge?
I leaned in. “You are the steady one in your group. Your wife is not steady. Your best friend certainly is not. His woman, no. You are. That’s your role. That’s not what this is. This isn’t who you are.” I shook my head. “What were you thinking? Why didn’t you send your guards?”
“Because you would’ve killed them.”
“They’re guards. That’s their job.”
“Not mine.”
This was perplexing.
He was a king that felt his fall coming, but most kings ran to survive.
They tried to become king somewhere else.
He wasn’t going away. He came in place of his men.
I sought to hurt him and Ashton Walden where it would do the most damage.
I didn’t go for their men. Their businesses. I went for their heart.
I hurt their women.
My men were going through his vehicle. It was as I suspected. No guards. No other weapons.
“I am your enemy.” I pointed to the camera set up on Walden’s building.
“You came for me because you knew my location, but this?” I motioned to him and his SUV, shaking my head again.
“I am within my right to take your life. You came at me. I should kill you because that’s what we do.
You sent someone after my woman.” I ignored how Lassiter went still at those words.
“You threatened her, multiple times in one sitting. You came after me like this. You—” I didn’t like it.
I didn’t like it at all. I motioned to his SUV again.
“At least have a bomb on that machine. That would be a good move against me. A last move of yours, but a move that I would respect. This—” I motioned again to him.
Disgusted. “Your man will heal. Your woman can paint more masterpieces. You can build a new gallery. Walden’s woman can build a new bowling alley.
I am the fox that threw a firecracker in a chicken coop.
I expected your team to react, scatter a little, but not this reaction. ”
He had paused, his chest heaving up and down, but he never stopped glaring at me. There was a white line around his mouth. “I will kill you—”
“Yes!” I got back in his face, some of that uncomfortable feeling began to dissipate.
Thank goodness. I smiled again. “I am testing your team to see how you react, and I am not impressed. Sending my own cousin to kidnap Blake, that was a move that I respected. I was furious, but I respected it. You are the brains. You see the big picture.” I moved even closer until my chest was grazing his.
“The planner. This was not a planned move. Your loved ones will recover from what I did to them. Come back with a better move.”
I was done with this. It was a glitch. That’s what this was.
I had hoped, but no. Both of these men, West and Walden, were not like me. They loved. They felt.
They were normal.
I’d been mistaken.
I turned and began to walk away.
“It was me or him.”
I looked back.
West was still glaring, but there was some defeat in how his shoulders slumped down. He was rubbing at his throat, where Levi had been holding him. “Ashton was going to come after you. I came so he couldn’t.”
Understanding dawned. That made more sense.
I dipped my head to him. “I respect that. Perhaps you won this one.” I still wasn’t going to kill him.
Not yet. It was too soon. I wasn’t ready to move onto the next stage in our fight.
So far none of the main players had been killed.
There was a sense of teasing still in this stage.
A kind of foreplay in the air. I liked this phase.
I wanted to prolong it as long as possible.
“You are psychotic.” Tristian West’s voice was dumbfounded.
I kept going. That wasn’t anything new to me, just to him. He’d learn.
My men inspected our own vehicles for bombs because maybe I underestimated Tristian West after all. That would’ve been a gamble, but a good move.
It turns out, I had.
There were no bombs, but they found a tracking device.