Chapter 13 #2
Yes, they had an agreement where Sarang was concerned, but his older brother surprisingly took his job as Dominus seriously. He wouldn’t like it if Shiloh kidnapped his underboss and didn’t have a plan on how to keep the Eumia running in his absence.
“Elixir isn’t cheap,” he said absently, watching the way a particularly thick droplet of blood rolled down the edge of the blade as he turned it. “I doubt someone like you was able to afford this much product up front. That means you’ve got a backer. Care to share?”
The alpha currently kneeling on the dirty, blood and dirt-stained floor, knew better than to talk back, but that didn’t stop him from glaring.
Shiloh couldn’t fault him for his hatred toward him.
The man was currently surrounded by a dozen of his fallen friends and co-operators. There was crimson smeared on the walls, a few fingers oozing on the ground, and drenching the green felt of a poker table with wobbly legs.
Bai Crate, the apparent ringleader of this operation, wasn’t the only person who’d been caught off guard this night.
Since the jig was up, and he needed a strong show of power to convince the mafia not to question Sarang “putting him in charge”, Shiloh had opted to handle this himself.
He’d brought along eight lower-level members and Tullius, an alpha general who was part of the Hierarchy, ordering the lot of them not to interfere.
Thirteen against one meant Shiloh had taken a few hits, but his split lip and left eyebrow barely hurt at all, and the adrenaline rush from the fight still had him buzzing.
He’d gone in hot, wielding dual blades, slashing his way through the group meeting.
Their intel said the gang, known as Lady Luck—which was the dumbest gang name ever, by the way—would be gathering tonight to discuss their botched attempt to take out the weak omega Eumia prince.
Bet none of them thought Shiloh was weak now.
“Here’s the thing,” Shiloh kept his tone conversational, “I’m no genius, but what I lack in intelligence, I more than make up for in…
other ways.” He leaned forward and dragged the tip of the blade from the rise of Bai’s right cheek down to his chin, slicing such a fine line, that blood didn’t immediately well until seconds later.
The alpha trembled with rage and fear, but didn’t pull away.
Credit for holding his shit together in the face of death.
“Not willing to talk?” Shiloh hummed. “I get it. All your friends are dead. Your operation is in shambles. What’s there to live for, really.”
“They weren’t my friends,” Bai surprised him by stating tersely. “And the operation was already about to be busted. All you did was speed things up.”
“Prince.” Tullius, who’d been searching through Bai’s multi-slate, scowled. “He’s I.P.F.”
“No shit?” Shiloh chuckled. “Well, this just got more interesting. What’s an Intergalactic Police Force agent doing on Glyph?” He waved the dagger at the room. “Don’t tell me you were working a drug case? Seems kind of beneath you.”
The I.P.F were a universal agency that protected the galaxies and helped uphold Intergalactic Conference law. If one of them had been sent here and instructed to infiltrate a minor gang like Lady Luck, there was clearly something bigger going on that Shiloh wasn’t aware of.
And, frankly, had no interest in.
He sighed. “I’m assuming you’re after the supplier?”
“A shipment of elixir heading to the Crystal Sea galaxy was pirated six months ago,” Bai replied, shocking Shiloh yet again by suddenly being so forthcoming. “Small time dealers just like this one have been cropping up all over. I’m just one of several sent to try and get answers.”
“Find any?”
“Yeah, but that’s my business.”
“Did this pirate have anything to do with that stunt two weeks ago?”
“No, that was Ricky’s plan.”
“Who?”
Bai chucked his chin toward a body in the corner, his mouth tipping upward slightly.
“Ah. Not a fan?”
“Ricky was the real leader of the gang,” Bai said. “He was using me as a cover after things went south with you.”
“Why you?”
“I’m the newest member.”
Made sense.
“Why was he after the prince?” Tullius demanded to know.
“The Eumia controls the main city. He wanted to negotiate and start dealing at some of the clubs. His bright idea was to leverage the Dominus’ brother. At first, his idiot followers got the wrong one, so—”
“Wait.” Shiloh held up a hand. “Are you referring to Elm Erskine?”
“The artist.” He nodded. “Yeah.”
Kian would be happy to hear that that little part of the mystery had been solved.
“What’d they do with him once they realized he wasn’t who they were sent for?” As of this morning, there’d been no word that Elm had been rescued, which meant he was still missing.
“I don’t know,” Bai said. “I’ve been trying to find out myself, but Ricky clammed up whenever it was mentioned. He looked scared. The guys who kidnapped the artist never came back either.”