CHAPTER ONE #4
“What the hell are you doing that’s mine.” She called out jumping up from her desk. And watched as Alex took a deliberate long pull of the liquid deliciousness. She squinted her eyes at him.
Payback’s a bitch…….. and she’s called Luce……
She watched him as he let the straw go and pointed the glass in her direction.
“Want it back?”
Eww, thought Luce grimacing. “Not now no.”
And sat back down again trying to ignore him.
Damn……. She’d been saving that bit…..
Alex put the glass back on the counter. He’d even left some.
Sacrilege…… The bastard!...
Cos she was gazing annoyingly at the glass she missed that he’d picked up her cake and started stuffing it. Luce’s mouth opened.
“That’s….. taking the piss. Get out.”
Seriously fucked off, she told him pointedly watching him as he stuffed the last bit of chocolaty heaven in his face.
“Thank you for sharing your tea.” He told her as he turned and walked away.
“Who the hell was sharing. You stole that. Don’t delude yourself.” She shouted after him.
Bloody hell…..
He was chuckling she didn’t like that one bit. She couldn’t ring down and ask for a third. And slumped in her chair.
Shit….Next time she’d hide it…..
Then it hit her. Luce smiled. Payback was going to be a bitch. Pulling up the list of phone contacts she found Alex’s. She grinned.
Oh yeah…… He wanted milkshake did he? Kelis was her girl and here it comes….
She laughed out loud to no one. Sending an email to Arturo that everyone in the meeting tonight should ring and check each other’s phones just to make sure they were working correctly after the change over.
Arturo listened to the co-ordinated move they were going to make that night on the unauthorised Vamps in his area.
Still pissed there were so many. Pete and Charlee’s information from the day walkers was invaluable in targeting areas they hadn’t known about coming from informants and bribes.
They’d already taken out a few. All Arturo’s senior staff were present as were his lieutenants.
His people had arrived in force and he was their Lord.
Brandon and his staff were also here as were Alex and his men.
They threw options around the table trying to keep the op as quiet as possible away from the public.
A few places were heavy in human population, so caution needed to be taken.
In others, numbers were a factor, not clear how many they were facing.
Arturo told John and Pierre he wanted a backup plan for each place they were hitting and a precautionary measure for any humans.
Both for avoidance and casualties. They didn’t know what they might find going in.
But his people knew what they were doing. They were good at this and Arturo had every confidence in them. “That’s it boss.” John told him.
“Right, it’s early and I want to catch them as their getting up.
I want everyone to check their on-board camera’s and coms, I will be monitoring as will Luce.
And check your ear communications are working.
” Each person turned and checked both. Arturo looked at each of them for signs of problems and got none.
“One last thing, I just need everyone to check their phones please. Call several people from your listing and make sure they’re all working ok.”
Everyone took out their phones and started calling. In the middle of pressing numbers and holding phones to their ears, ‘Milkshake’ by Kelis sang out loud and clear from Alex’s phone.
Everyone looked around at him. “Is someone calling me?” he asked confused looking at his phone it said Gia. Gia put her hand up shyly. “Turn it off.” He told her annoyed.
It stopped. Then started again. Alex looked again at his phone. Pierre. He looked up Pierre. “You calling me?”
Pierre nodded looking strangely about the room at the others as if to say WTF but no one else’s phone was ringing loudly.
“Turn it off.” Alex ground out getting annoyed.
It stopped. This time Alex called Arturo’s phone.
And Arturo’s phone sang ‘Milkshake’ loud and clear.
Arturo looked down at it and let it run. Alex looked at him.
Regin burst out laughing along with James, Pete and Charlee, the others all sniggered. “Looks like you have a ring tune Alex.” She told him. The room erupted in laughter. “Wanna tell us what that’s about? Into ‘Milkshake’ are you Alex?”
Some had tears running down their faces. He sat in stony silence pissed as hell and that made it worse. The music stopped. Then started again….. “I know you want it. The thing that makes me. What the guys go crazy for. They lose their minds. The way I wind, I think it’s time. La la-la la la”
Alex looked at his phone.
What the hell was wrong with it?.....
Their laughter doubled and some were sliding off their seats. “I don’t get what’s so funny.” He told them. And they doubled in laughter again.
Arturo watched holding in his own laughter barely in check, as Regin managed to calm somewhat to answer him.
“I’m guessing you pissed someone off. You might want to check out that song. And grovel.” She told him.
Arturo kept looking at him and raised an eyebrow. He sat completely still for a moment then nodded yes in a slow manner. And grinned ear to ear.
“Ok now we all know Alex’s ring tone. Let’s get moving.” He told them.
The crowd broke up and moved out. Arturo came around to him clearly amused. “Wanna tell me what that was all about?”
“Nope,” he replied still grinning.
“Anything I need to worry about?” Getting up he stood by his friend.
“No. I just got a shot across the bows.” Raising his eyebrows, Arturo slapped him on the back. And walked after his men.
Regin found her in the kitchen leaning on the counter talking to Alice as she was preparing to leave for the day.
“That, young lady was inspired. We all needed a good laugh and boy did you give it to us.”
Grinning. “Was he pissed?”
Regin grinned back at her. “Honestly, at first he was so confused and had no clue till it was pointed out to him. It was classic. Why’d you pick that song?”
She cringed a bit. “He nicked my milkshake then ate my cake. I was not a happy bunny. And then he stood there making sure I saw him enjoying it. I got angry.”
Regin laughed out loud slapping the breakfast counter. “Don’t let me ever piss you off. That was great. But he’s gonna come back at you, you know that right?”
She nodded. “Yep. Looking forward to it.” Regin squeezed her shoulder shaking her head before looking at Alice rolling her eyes and leaving.
“What?” she asked Alice.
He knew when he’d walked out Arturo’s door that he wouldn’t find her at her desk. And was right. He gave it a cursory look, his beast demanded it, shook his head and turned around heading to the front door. He felt great. She’d buzzed him alright.
Stepping out into the night with a grin on his face, he spotted his men and quickly made his way over to his cars. “We ready?” He asked his firstin Steven and second Chris. They both nodded at him.
“We’re ready. The boys are already in place just waiting for you sir.
” Alex got in the car and settled back. Doors closed and they pulled away.
He hoped it didn’t take all night. Turning his phone in his hands, he had someone to see.
And for the first time in a long time, Alex was intrigued by a human.
That both scared him and made him yearn for more.
But this time, he didn’t have to remind himself she was a child.
Why did I agree to sit this out?.....
Arturo thought he could be far nearer the action.
Agreeing to stay back at a mutual central point, in case this was a well-set trap, had sounded like a good idea at the time.
Now, he was re-thinking that. Yes, he would co-ordinate should it go pear shaped and he had his personal security with him.
But maybe he could have done more. They had three teams in reserve should they be needed as reinforcements at any given point.
His lieutenants and senior staff each had their own roles to play tonight.
That didn’t worry him. They all knew what to do.
He felt like he was hiding, and it sat uncomfortable with him.
Only his closest circle knew where he was, and he could feel Regin in his mind. The bond link just there.
Settling back in the car, he watched the screens.
There were several built into the back of the partition.
It showed real time views of each of the raids from body cams and drones, giving an overhead view of events.
Luce had introduced those. He’s seniors, Brandon and Alex as well as his lieutenants each having an on-board camera showing him what they see. Arturo watched the countdown.
As the cameras counted down to 00:00:00 and it flashed on screen they came to life full of action.
“Go, go, go,” Pierre shouted. His people took out fences, doors, security, and went inside buildings.
Arturo switched to personal cameras. They had night vision the same as the drones.
There was fighting on all fronts. As expected, several pockets were larger than they’d first thought.
Arturo tapped his ear communication and sent in reserve teams to James and Valentina to back them up. The rest were holding their own.
On the edge of her seat, she watched it play out from her desk.
All the feeds from the cameras were on her bank of six monitors, all running through her new network.
She also had access to ear and mic communications coming across to her as she switched from one to the other on individual ID tags.
It was like a movie. Only this she knew was real.
She tried to be neutral but kept going back to Alex’s team.
He drew her. The camera gave her a wide angle which was often different to what the person was actually looking at. And this camera was Alex’s.