Chapter Thirty Five
Leighton
The mood around the new dining table was heavy. The bombing at our safe house that had taken out one of our captains and injured two others was a clear declaration of war from the Jackals. The attempt to snatch Victoria outside the spa that resulted in Ella's death was something else entirely.
"You're sure they weren't Jackals?" Rich asked.
"Positive. None of them had the tattoo and our cleanup crew recognized a couple of them from one of the smaller drug dealer's crew. It's pretty clear this was part of that fucked up post Craig found." I replied.
"Where are we on our fucking leak?" Rich growled. "It's clear our mole has made the entire underground of Sacona aware we're back. We'll never get ahead of this shit if we don't plug the leak."
"Understatement of the fucking year , Rich," Az said dryly. "We've had three attacks on our territory, and we've barely been back a week. Four if you count being flushed out of the cabin."
"My guys are getting pretty antsy about all of it too." Joey added. "Had another one not show for work today, not that I blame them. We've been sitting with our dicks in our hands and not retaliating for anything."
"Except the vet, which you still owe me new rope for." Craig spoke.
"It's on fucking back order, get your panties out of a twist. Also, not the point here." Joey snarked.
"We have bigger fucking problems than some goddamned rope!" Rich barked, slapping his palms hard against the table.
The doorbell rang at that moment, causing Rich to scowl and mutter about people managing to get to our front door unchecked. Shaking my head at him, I rose from my seat and strolled over to open the front door. Phil was standing on the other side, James, one of my trio of psychos I'd use for the big stuff, beaten and bound at his feet. Morgan, one of the prostitutes I used to frequent before she settled down with a Jackal, stood just behind Phil.
"Phil! My man!" I smiled, clapping him on the shoulder. "Good to see you, but what the fuck happened to James?"
The scrape of chairs on the floor was followed by the other four moving to stand at my back.
"Boss," Phil said, tipping his head in respect before bending down to hoist James over his shoulder. "I think we should talk."
"Yes, we should." Az snarled, surprising me. I expected Rich to be the one going Az-hole on poor Phil. "I'd like to know why you've shown up with a Jackal whore and one of Leighton's pocket crazies beat half to death."
"Hey now, you be nice to Morgan," I said in defense of the short, curvy woman. "It's not her fault the love of her life is a cockroach. No offense."
Morgan snorted. "Good to see you too, Leighton. Though, I gotta say, adding new scars after each visit hasn't been missed."
I stepped back, almost colliding with the others, before turning to shoo them all away from the door. Phil stepped into the house, moved toward the dining room, and dropped James on the floor. Morgan glanced around nervously before following him. Closing the front door, I gave the other guys my best ‘behave yourselves' look and moved to face Phil.
"You never answered my question, man," I said, crossing my arms over my chest. "What happened to James?"
"I did," Phil shrugged.
"Normally, I wouldn't be happy with one of my guys turning up like this. But if he lost the fight, then maybe he's not fit for his spot. Good on you man," I put my arm up for a high five, and Az slapped me in the back of the head before grabbing it and putting it back down.
"Care to tell us why you happened to James?" Craig spoke up.
"He's the fucking mole." Phil answered. "It wasn't until he conveniently disappeared around the time you five showed back up in Sacona that I realized something wasn't right with the bastard."
"Yes, that is… Convenient." Rich drawled.
I whirled on Rich and pointed at him. "I told you, Phil was loyal. Now shut up and let him talk, fucker."
Phil blinked several times, looking at Rich before confusion gave way to realization. "Not gonna lie… I'm a little offended that notion would even be on the table," he sighed, "but I suppose I can see how it looked after what happened with the cabin."
"If I may," Morgan piped up. "Phil is telling the truth. James has been working with my ol' man for a hot minute now."
Az turned to glare at her, narrowing his eyes. "Why on earth would we believe you? You may not be a Jackal yourself, but you have every reason to cover for them."
"With how much Leighton paid me for my… time, before I met Carl, I'd have squealed regardless. But as it stands, my man wants out. He's not happy with the way things are going and I figured the information I have was just the right amount of leverage to buy him some protection from the horsemen."
" If you're telling the truth about your man wanting out, then we might be willing to cut a deal. Depending on how good the information you've got is." Rich said.
"Fantastic," Morgan smiled, swinging the purse that hung on her arm to her front and unzipping it. "I'm sure this will be plenty good enough."
She pulled out a small recorder and her cell phone, unlocking her phone, and opening her photo gallery before holding both out for one of us to take. Craig snagged the recorder at the same time I grabbed her phone.
"Got any nudes on here, Morgan?" I asked, waggling my brows at her as I started swiping through images of James and a man, I didn't recognize with a visible red spider lily tattoo on his forearm.
"You're lucky Victoria isn't down here to hear that." Joey snarked. "Doubt she'd appreciate that remark."
"What? I'm just trying to make sure I'm not gonna accidentally see something I shouldn't." I huffed.
"I followed Phil to their location." James' voice cut through the room, a slight staticky sound to it as Craig pressed play on the recorder. "I covered my tracks, so he has no idea he was followed, but if you move fast, we can set him up to take the fall for it."
I nearly burst out laughing at the expression on Phil's face. If we weren't his bosses, I had no doubt he'd have been telling us, ‘I told you so.'
"How much for the information this time, James?" another male voice spoke.
"Seeing as making Phil the fall guy here is gonna make things tighter in the organization, I'm gonna need at least a hundred grand."
"Well," Rich said slowly, taking a few steps toward James. "That's all I need to hear." He drew his gun and shot the unconscious man between the eyes.
"What'd ya do that for?!" I whined. "I wanted to interrogate him!"
"That's gonna be hell to get out of this wood flooring," Morgan murmured.
"He sang like a canary when I was working him over, already, Boss." Phil spoke. "He's the one that took Jace out, leaked the safehouse locations, the warehouses, all of it. Fucking psycho got greedy and thought he could stay on the payroll and be on the take for the Jackals."
"So," Morgan interjected. "About that deal. Do I have your word that my man has your protection?"
"I'd say this solves a lot of our problems, Rich," Craig said.
"Fine. You get your man to our territory and we'll get word out he's to be taken to ground. When the dust settles, get that tattoo of his removed and get the fuck out of town." Rich said with a sigh.
"God, Leighton liked to slice me up and somehow, he's the nice one." Morgan rolled her eyes. "But fine, we accept that deal."
"Actually, Joey's the nice one. But yeah, Rich is an asshole." I said with a grin, before turning to face Rich. "Phil deserves a raise by the way. I think it should come from your grumpy ass."
"We'll deal with that once we've sorted out just how much of our operations your man managed to leak," Rich replied. "Call the cleaners and somebody get this fucking body out of my house."
"Not it!" I sing-songed. "Somebody should check on Victoria after everything that's happened. Come on Az, I'm not doing this by myself in case she decides to throw something. I'd much rather it hit you."