Chapter 36
Chapter Thirty-Six
Dominic
"If everything's sorted, then yeah, you can leave Percy there and go home," I say to Jaylen through the phone as I flick through the paperwork on my desk, signing another document he's already read through for me.
"Yeah. Warehouses have been cleared, vans are on the way, and according to our last update, the boat is ahead of schedule.
Percy's got everything covered here, including the few dipshits that started a fight and got…
hurt," he tells me, breathing heavily through the phone.
"Honestly, you'd think after all these months, and with Kaleb scaring the hell out of them, Jericho's men would easily get in line. "
"Most of them weren't completely loyal to Jericho, Jay. A lot of them idolised Alessandro, and probably still do. It's going to take a long time to weed out all the bad seeds, but we'll get there eventually."
He huffs, and I hear him shut his car door and start the engine.
Glancing outside the window, I watch as the sun slowly sinks from the sky, casting a darkness over the city.
I've been so swamped today, I didn't realise how late it had already gotten.
My thoughts drift to Alicia, and a smile dances across my face.
I'm glad we were able to clear the air last night. I feel as if a weight has been lifted off my shoulders after being honest with her.
"Do you need me to come back to the office first?" Jaylen asks, breaking me out of my thoughts.
"No. I've got everything sorted here, thanks to you making everything easy for me."
"Glad to know you're happy to have me back. Even if you won't admit it," he jokes. "Anyway, if I'm not needed, then I might pop into Sophia's on the way home, check up on her."
The mention of my sister has me glancing at the photo of us together on my desk, and my heart clenches.
"How is she?" I ask, genuinely worried about her, since she's been in her last trimester.
"She's good," he says, sighing. "Tired a lot of the time, and fed up with Kaleb hovering over her like a fly on shit, but apart from that, she's okay."
"Good. I've been wanting to see her, but shit's been busy."
"I'm sure she understands, Dom. Besides, at least she knows why you're not around much, unlike Jess."
"Is she still doing her disappearing act?"
He chuckles. "Yep. One minute she's here, the next she's not. Aurora thinks it has to do with a man, and I do, too. Especially after she randomly mentioned some Scott guy when we had our argument in the hospital. I think I might actually take Kaleb up on his offer of having Miles track her down."
"Jesus Christ. You need to stop spending so much time with Kaleb. I don't need you turning psychotic as well."
"Says the man who keeps handcuffing his wife to the bed and won't let her leave the apartment."
I shake my head and roll my eyes.
As I'm about to defend myself—even though he has a good point—my office door slams open, and Leo trudges into the room. He sits down on the leather chair across from my desk and crosses his arms over his broad chest, his eyes flicking back and forth between my face and the phone on my desk.
Raising my brows at him in question, I pick up my phone from my desk, taking it off speaker and pressing it against my ear.
"Uh, Jay, let me call you back later."
I hang up before he can reply and place my phone on my desk. I lean my elbows on the surface, interlocking my fingers and resting them beneath my chin as I stare at Leo, waiting for him to tell me why he's here.
We sit in silence for a minute or two, our eyes never leaving each other.
I'm not sure he's actually looking at me, though.
He's got that intense expression on his face—the one he gets when he's thinking.
Although he's looking in my direction, he's staring straight through me, lost inside his own head, and completely unaware of what's happening before him.
I wait another minute or two before I clear my throat, snapping him back to reality.
His eyes focus back on mine, and he sits up, arms resting on his thighs.
"We need to rearrange the gun shipment tonight."
My head rears back, and I make a noise of disbelief.
"What? Why?"
He kisses his teeth and shrugs.
"Lenny has information about the shipment, and a little birdie's told me he plans to be at the docks tonight and intercept it. He wants to take the guns, and I'm pretty sure we both know he doesn't care about killing people who stand in his way."
"How, exactly, do you know this?"
He ignores my question, not supplying me with an answer, and chooses to, instead, carry on telling me about the intel he has.
"Now, I suggest we either get the shipment dropped off somewhere else, or we pull everyone from the marina, and allow him to take the guns."
I open my mouth to speak, but he holds a finger up, pausing me.
"Usually, I wouldn't suggest such a thing, but we have no idea how many men he's bringing with him, and we could be outmanned.
I'm also currently still in charge of keeping you safe while Jaylen regains the rest of his strength, so I'd prefer we don't go because I don't want to injure myself while trying to protect you. "
I watch him with wide eyes and a slack jaw, waiting for him to finish speaking.
When he doesn't add anything else, I stand from behind my desk, leaning on my fisted hands, knuckles digging into the wooden surface beneath them.
"Firstly, don't ever put your finger up like that again to stop me from speaking. Secondly, how the fuck does Lenny have any information about what we've got going on, and lastly, how the fuck do you know about it?"
He huffs, standing up and straightening out his jacket.
"I can't disclose my sources to you, but just know, Lenny's going to be at the marina, and he's planning on taking the guns, so we need to start making calls and sorting something out, Dom."
"For fuck sake! This is bad, Leo. Very bad. The shipment is already coming in early. We've only got an hour until the boat's meant to be arriving!"
Grabbing my phone from my desk, I dial Percy's number, slipping on my jacket as I wait for the line to connect.
"We've got a problem," I tell him as soon as he answers.
I pace around my office as I start barking instructions at him. I click my fingers at Leo, pointing to the phone in his hand, and motioning that I need it.
Percy starts rambling off questions while rushing around himself, instructing my people on what to do while I use Leo's phone to contact our supplier, hoping I can get him to redirect the boat.
Forty minutes later, Leo and I are still battling our way through London traffic, trying to get to the marina by eleven in time for the boat to arrive.
Thankfully, we were able to arrange for the guns to be transported elsewhere, and I got Charlie to assemble a team to collect them and move them to one of the clubs that's currently closed for renovations. The boat's still on its way, just empty now, and I'm hoping Lenny has no idea about it.
Percy's still at the docks with at least twenty of our men, waiting for the ambush—if it's actually going to come.
Glancing over at Leo as he weaves the car through the busy streets ahead of us, I watch him with narrowed eyes.
The man's loyal to a fault, so I know I don't have to worry about him being a mole, or knowing of one and not telling me about them, but I am wondering how he's come to know Lenny's supposed plans to ambush my men at the docks and take over my shipment.
My phone vibrates in the centre console, Percy's name flashing across the screen, and I immediately tap the green button, putting the phone on speaker.
"We're still about eight minutes out. What's happening?"
"Nothing," he says quietly. "There's no movement, boss."
"Nothing?" I ask, glancing at Leo again.
"Yep. I've got Harmen on the cameras, I've got Kyle and Maze scouting the place, but there's nothing… are you sure your intel was valid? Because from what I'm seeing, you were sold a bunch of lies, man."
"He's there," Leo snaps, white-knuckling the steering wheel. "Trust me, he's there."
Percy sighs through the phone.
"Well, unless we've missed—"
His words cut off as loud gunshots ring through the air.
My eyes dart to the phone, as do Leo's, silence descending upon us as we hold our breaths, waiting for anything other than the sound of gunshots.
My heart pounds inside my chest, palms sweating in my lap, and my stomach twisting in knots.
"Percy?" I shout, desperate to hear my friend's voice.
Leo slams his foot down on the accelerator, jamming his hand into the steering wheel to honk the horn at people in our way. He swerves around them, racing towards the marina we're still five minutes away from.
"Percy!" I scream again, picking my phone up and holding it close to my ear, allowing the sound of bullets whizzing through the air to pierce through my skull.
The phone call cuts out, the beeping signalling the end of the call echoing through the car, and my heart drops into my stomach.
"Three minutes out," Leo says, taking one hand off the wheel to open the glove compartment in front of me, revealing two guns. "Take one, and hand me the other. Make sure they're both loaded first."
"I know what I'm doing," I spit, slowly moving through the motions, eyes darting to my phone every few seconds.
"Yes, you do, but you're distracted because you're worried. Dom, get your head in the game, man. Don't focus on Percy and the unknown," Leo says, skidding around a corner and racing down the road. "Lean into the back of the car, pull down the seat, and grab the smoke cannisters hidden in there."
"What?"
"Pull the seat down and grab the cannisters!" he shouts, shaking his head.
"Why are we gonna need smoke cannisters?" I ask, unbuckling my belt and leaning through the middle of our seats to reach into the back.
"We don't know what we're going into, Dom.
We're going to need everything we have. You need to remember—Lenny is from the Garcia family.
They play different fucking games over in America than we do here, trust me on that.
We need to be prepared for anything. If everyone is dead, or injured, then it's us two against however many people he has with him, so get the fucking smoke cannisters so we can use them if we need to! "
Grabbing a few cannisters from the back, I push the seat back into place and sit back in my seat just as we round the last corner leading towards the entrance of the docks.
Leo stops the car, and we both jump out, guns in hand as we slowly make our way through the gated entrance.
The night is silent. Gunshots no longer ringing out.
There's no shouting, no movement, no painful cries or screams.
The silence is eerie.
Moving through the shadows of the tall buildings behind us, we make our way past an array of different boats, heading towards the end where I know Percy and all my men are meant to be.
Leo grabs my arm, pointing towards a figure lying on the floor ahead of us, and my heart stops for a moment as my eyes assess the parts of him I can see.
Thankfully, the motionless body isn't someone I know, and I breathe a sigh of relief as we make our way past it.
Blood and bullets are scattered across the floor beneath our feet, and my eyes dart around, searching the darkness.
As we grow closer to the end of the docks, I hear the low sound of a murmuring voice.
Leo and I stop moving, our backs against a boat, cloaking ourselves in shadows.
Pocketing my gun, I shove my fingers in my mouth and whistle a tune that Percy and I have used to signal to each other for years.
Seconds after my shrill whistles echoes through the air, I hear an identical noise from close by, and I sigh in relief.
"They're gone, Dom," Percy calls out.
Leo and I move out from behind the boat and are met with my men coming out from their hiding places too, some bleeding, some limping, but all of them still, thankfully, alive.
Percy walks over to me, clapping a hand on my shoulder.
"We're all good," he tells me, giving me the reassurance I need. "Just a few injured, but nothing that can't be fixed. We picked off one or two of his men, and then they fled, realising they were outnumbered. I think I counted six men in total, but I can't be sure."
"P, we can talk details later," I tell him before glancing at the men around us, raising my voice slightly as I address them all with my next words.
"In the meantime, everyone who's uninjured, start cleaning this place up.
Everyone that is injured, head to Charlie's place. I'll make sure Doc meets you there."
Everyone around us starts moving, doing as instructed, and I pull Percy off to the side, my gaze scanning across him.
"You're okay?" I ask, needing the confirmation.
He nods. "Yeah. I'm all good, man. Not a scratch on me. I do need a new phone, though. Mine's shot to shit."
He laughs, and after a moment, I do too as the worry finally starts to dissipate.