Chapter 6 #2
And what these bastards held near and dear to their hearts tended to run the lines of guns and drugs and trafficking of every sort.
Their millions made on others’ agony and pain.
Cash and his crew, Sovereign Sanctum, focused on the abused. Helping women and children in horrible domestic situations get free and setting them up with new lives.
My crew?
We specialized in wiping out the organized.
Expunging the filthy underworld that stained society.
Cash’s crew and mine turned to each other when we needed the help.
Right then, I was in dire need of it.
For years, I’d been hunting for a way to extinguish Kent Ellison. The motherfucker who’d stolen everything from me.
I’d been so close until Kent had somehow managed to get to my sister, thinking he was getting me under his thumb by doing so.
Little did he know, he’d incited a war.
Now, everything was riding on this plan.
Cash
I know, man. But you know this situation is delicate. It’s going to take perfect planning.
I could feel his empathy. The dude had been the broodiest fucker I’d known until the only woman who could break through his wounds had made her way back to him.
Daisy and her three kids softening his hard, impenetrable heart.
Honestly, I’d do anything for the guy just because he’d do anything for me.
But what had me truly indebted to him? He was the one who’d physically gotten Elena out.
He’d gone in during the dead of night and rescued her.
Me
I know. But now that Dereck’s sister is here, it feels like a race against the clock.
I paced in the other direction, boots clomping across the dirt, hesitating before I tapped out another text, trying to put a finger on exactly what I was feeling.
Stomach unsettled and my mind spinning.
Me
Don’t trust him, man.
Cash
No. I don’t, either, but we’re still going to need to use the information he’s providing.
It was the deal.
Protection for Dereck’s sister and the gift of his pathetic life for the exact locations of Kent Ellison’s operations.
And it all had to come down on one specific night.
Me
I know.
But if he betrays us?
Cash
I’m working overtime to verify everything he says. He was true with the intel he gave on Elena. Right down to the second.
You can be sure I will do everything I can to validate whatever he gives.
Me
And how sure are you that you can do that?
It took all of a second for a text to blip through.
Cash
You questioning my skill?
I could feel the humor he injected into it.
Me
Never. Just…
Cash
I know, Silas. I get it. And I promise we’re doing everything we can on our end.
Me
How long?
Cash
I’d plan for two to three weeks. Seems he’s getting buzz about a big shipment around then. We’ll have to piece everything else together around it.
Air blustered from my nose, and I scrubbed a hand over my face, forcing myself not to send back a message that said that was unacceptable.
I had to be patient.
If you rushed into jobs, things got flubbed and the wrong people got dead.
And the only ones I planned on putting in the ground were the ones who deserved to be there.
Me
Okay.
Cash
Good. And how is the girl?
How was the girl?
Infuriating.
Gorgeous.
A giant pain in my ass.
Me
Clueless. Thinks she’s working off a debt for her scumbag brother. A feisty thing, though.
Cash
Keep it that way.
I glanced up like I might be able to see her through two layers of block wall.
I figured I could feel her, though. That burn knew no boundaries.
Me
I will.
Cash
I’ll keep you posted as details come in. For now, get your men ready.
Me
You can be sure they will be.
I started to trudge back in the direction of the clubhouse, needing to go over a couple of issues with Colby, one of our enforcers, when my phone vibrated in my hand again.
I expected it to be Cash bidding farewell, so I stalled out in my tracks when I saw who it was from.
PJ.
It wasn’t like I was going to save the piece of shit’s contact as Dear Ol’ Dad.
PJ
You have a lot of fucking nerve.
Me
And you apparently have a death wish.
I sent it with enough spite that I’d be surprised if it didn’t strike him down at the knees.
PJ
Big talk for a small-time criminal.
Was he kidding me? Like he hadn’t spent his entire pathetic existence scamming his way through life. One hand conning some unsuspecting target and the other swinging blows at his family.
That was if he wasn’t completely destroying the good.
Me
What do you want?
PJ
You know what I want.
Me
And you know there’s not one fucking chance I’m giving him back to you.
My teeth ground as I sent it, the oath I made slashing through my consciousness with the same depth as a five-inch blade.
PJ
Then you’re gonna pay for him.
Scumbag was always the same. Wondering how he was going to benefit from every situation. How he’d spin it so it landed in his favor. Like that little boy was a bartering chip.
Me
You can fuck off to whatever hole you crawled out of because you aren’t getting anything from me.
PJ
We’ll see about that.
Me
Try it, old man, and find out just how serious I am.
Because I might have been weak then.
Unable to stop it.
But I would never allow him to hurt the innocent again.