Chapter Thirty Seven
Craig
The next several days were spent working with Phil to determine which of our business locations and safe houses had been compromised. Looking at the map with markers on every place James had sold out to the Jackals, I was surprised we were still operating at all. Everyone in the house was on edge, realizing that we would have to give up a lot of territory to pull our operations in and move them to more secure locations.
While the other guys worked to move their men and products quietly, I holed up in my room, filtering through all the information my programs had scraped. I was determined to hunt down ArachnoWraith and end the bastard for putting the bounty on Victoria's head. I'd also been letting some plans for her piece of shit ex, Benson, simmer in the back of my mind while I worked. Unfortunately, it seemed the fucker had vanished into thin air. With our return becoming known on the streets, he'd disappeared from the public eye, and I couldn't find any trace of where he'd gone.
Footsteps pounding on the floor outside my room, coming to a halt before my door, followed by someone banging on it.
"We got another fucking problem!" Leighton's voice was slightly muffled by the door.
Groaning, I stood from my desk, walked over, and pulled the door open. "What now?"
"One of Joey's warehouses just got blown to fucking smithereens. Half his men were taken out in the explosion, not to mention the fucking product."
"How? I thought we had most everything moved?" I asked.
"It was the last spot that needed to be packed up and moved." Leighton said. "Most of our manpower went to moving our main ops first."
"How many did we lose?"
"Count is still coming in, but at least twenty. Maybe another couple hundred grand in product."
"Fuck," I breathed. "Where's Joey now?"
"He barely stayed for the call, as soon as he heard his place had been hit, he took off out the door. Rich and Az are following after him. I stayed long enough to fill you in and let you know I've called in Phil to sit with Victoria."
A ding sounded from my computer that caught my attention. Leighton jerked his head in that direction before turning away. I shut my door again and returned to my desk, slumping in my chair. A black window popped up over my other programs, and a cold sneer crossed my face when I saw it.
Looks like you boys are having a hard time. Losing that much territory, manpower, and cash flow. I can see the forum headlines now: "The end of the Horsemen. Gentlemen gangsters put down."
If there was ever a time I wanted so badly to reach through a screen and choke someone to death, it was now. The last thing I needed was to deal with this smug motherfucker's taunting.
But I must say, it's been more entertaining than my favorite shows. Nothing like a bowl of popcorn and watching an empire burn over a live camera feed after a hard day. Tell me, VoidPhase, what's it like to watch it all go up in flames?
I had to remind myself that punching my screen would only be a 'me' problem.
Arachno, it's about time you crawled out of whatever hole you're hiding in. I'm glad you've been enjoying the show so far, though it's regrettable you won't get to see how it ends. It's always a tragedy when someone with skill passes away, so it's a shame that you had to pick the wrong side.
My system pinged from another monitor, another window popping up with the words ‘searching location' flashing slowly as my protocols did their jobs.
You're awfully cocky for someone standing on the edge of losing everything, Void. You're never going to find me, and when you're gone, my webs will run this space.
‘Location Found' popped up on my other monitor, and a slow grin spread across my face as I took down the address.
I'll see you real soon, spider. I'm going to enjoy pulling your legs off.
I sent that last message and closed the window, throwing up some additional protocols to lock that motherfucker out. Pulling up my phone, I had to bark a laugh at just how close ArachnoWraith had been to me this whole time. It was funny, in a mostly infuriating way. They lived close enough to me that I'd probably even seen them, and it made me want to punch a wall. I holstered the gun on my desk, ensuring I had a silencer on it first, and pulled on the hoodie I had draped over my chair. Yanking open my door, I slammed it on my way out and moved to the stairs.
I took them two at a time to get down to the main area. I almost skidded to a stop as I noticed Victoria leaning casually against the counter, sipping from a teacup and chatting with Phil, who looked much more unusual, holding the dainty cup in his tattooed hands.
"–that going between the two of you? Did you make it official yet? She sounds like she'd be good for you." Victoria asked Phil, a little smile on her face. Phil scrubbed his hand across the back of his neck.
"Well, that's the problem. I can't, as much as I'd like to. If I ask her out, then it officially becomes a conflict of interest, and I gotta find a new therapist." Phil sighed.
"Well, maybe when the dust settles, we can look into something–"
"Hey, Boss." Phil cut her off, turning toward me. "Heading out?"
"Yeah." I clipped. There was a little squeeze in my chest at Victoria seeming to fit seamlessly into our lives, but now wasn't the time to acknowledge it.
"Good luck with all that. Don't worry, I'll keep eyes on your ol' lady like she was my own." Phil said, giving me a two-finger salute.
Victoria laughed and shook her head when she looked at me. "No. I promise you he won't."
Phil blinked slowly before his eyes widened with realization. "That's not how I meant that!"
"You're fine, Phil. I know what you meant." I huffed impatiently as I moved to the door and put my shoes on. I opened it to head out.
"Be safe!" Victoria's voice called out as the door closed behind me. I paused outside the door, considering going back for a goodbye kiss… but couldn't waste the time. I didn't want to risk losing the spider because they packed up and scurried away.
I climbed onto Leighton's bike, glad he didn't give enough of a fuck to hardly ever take the keys out of the ignition when it was parked at the house. I resisted the urge to speed away from the house and toward my location. The less attention I drew, the better.
The place was only a fifteen-minute drive going the speed limit, and the closer I got, the more amped up I got. We needed a fucking win right now. Squashing the bug might not fix all our problems, but we'd all sleep better knowing it was done. They were obviously very interested in our dealings, so there was no telling what kind of treasure trove we'd find in their system when I got my hands on it.
I pulled up to a small brick house with bright blue shutters, double-checking that the numbers on the mailbox and next to the door matched the one my computer had pulled. I raised an eyebrow as I eased into the driveway behind a silver Kia Soul and climbed off the bike. A well-tended flower garden along the sidewalk led to the door, with brightly colored garden gnomes placed throughout. The overall picture the place painted was vastly different from what I'd imagined for the spider's lair.
Shaking my head slightly, I approached the porch and knocked loudly on the door. The sound of someone shuffling inside was shortly followed by the door opening to reveal a smiling short, curvy, black-and-purple-haired woman. Her bright green eyes, tattoos, and piercings were shockingly familiar as I took in the sight of my favorite barista from the coffee shop I frequented.
"What the fuck , Shania." I managed to get out.
Her smile fell as she took me in. "Well, fuck."
"Not even gonna pretend to be the wrong person?" I scoffed.
Shania shrugged. "Eh, why bother? You wouldn't believe me; maybe you'd force your way in the house. We'd struggle, you'd probably toss my tiny ass like a shot put, I'd end up hurt, and we'd still finish in the same place. I'm not walking out of this situation, so why die tired?"
I was a little taken aback by her forthrightness. "Fair enough." I said, drawing my gun. "Now I'm gonna have to find a new person to make my coffee. God damn it."
She held a hand up, gesturing for me to stop. "Wait, just one favor for old times' sake. Make it quick and painless."
I raised the gun and shot her between the eyes. "Hope that was quick enough for you."
I looked around to make sure no one saw or heard anything before stepping over her body and pulling it into the house so I could shut the door. I pulled out my phone and dialed Leighton.
" Where the fuck are you man?" Leighton said when he answered.
"Taking care of a little bug problem." I clipped. "You got any street guys you can spare?"
"Did… you forget we have a bit of a situation going on here, dude?" He paused for a second. "It's Craig."
"Where the fuck is he?" Az barked in the background.
"He's apparently busy. And he wants some street guys." Leighton answered.
"Did you tell him that we're a little fucking busy here?" I heard Joey snap.
"Duh. What do you take me for? and don't say a criminal. That bit is over; we did it already." Leighton responded.
"Leighton!" I snapped. "I just need a couple of guys. Tell them to wear gloves. I need them to trash a house while I do some digging. I don't care who you can spare. I'll text you the address."
"Yeah, fine. I'll send someone as soon as we can." Leighton replied, hanging up on me.
I scowled down at Shania's body. Finding out the woman I'd been leaving massive tips for because she made my coffee just the way I liked ate away a little of the satisfaction I'd found discovering Arachno's location. Huffing to myself, I turned to look around the small living room and spotted the narrow hallway.
There were three doors along the hall; one went to a small bathroom, the other to what had obviously been her bedroom, and the furthest down the hall held her workstation. Leaning my head side-to-side to crack my neck, I stepped into the room and made myself comfortable as I booted up her system. I let out a derisive snort at the lack of password on her computer; it was clear she never expected to be found, let alone have anyone get into her office, and went to work.
Not long into my digging, I understood her laissez-faire attitude toward security. There was next to nothing saved on the system. It was evident that she conducted most of her business offline. That was more apparent when I stumbled on an email from the one man all five of us wanted to string up and burn alive.
A contact said that you could help me. I've been made aware that the men holding my fiancé have decided to target me, and I need to go underground while I gather my resources. I'm too well known in the public eye to use my personal contacts to disappear while I put my team together. Someone of your skills is what I require. I am happy to pay whatever your price to get the job done.
B. Prescott
"Fucking idiot," I muttered to myself.
I spent a bit longer trying to find any response or information to lead me to Benson, but there was nothing. If Shania had taken the job to help the weasel disappear, she'd done it offline. I decided to pack up her computer and take it back to the house. Some of my personal systems could potentially pull something off the hard drive that I wouldn't find on my own.
I unhooked her system and looked around the room for something to pack it up in . I'd have to give the setup to the guys Leighton sent because putting it on the bike to take back was impossible. I didn't trust them to move it around properly. Maybe I'd warn them that if it showed up damaged, I'd personally step on their throats for it. That would ensure it was handled with care.
There wasn't much in the room that was of use to help me pack the system up, and the more I looked, the more irritated I got. I found a small storage bin that looked big enough to haul everything underneath some stuff in the closet. I tossed some useless knick-knack over my shoulder, and when it hit the wall with a hollow thud, it caught my attention.
Turning around, I found a crack in the drywall that was only a few inches across and stopped suddenly. What could the little spider have been hiding there? I mused as I pulled chunks of the broken wall out to reveal a hollow space, and sitting inside it was another hard drive.
"No wonder she wasn't worried about that one." I scoffed. I picked it up and put it in my hoodie pocket. Still wouldn't hurt to take the other one; never know what could be on it. And if nothing else, I could salvage it for additions to my setup. I yanked the bin out of the closet and dumped the contents onto the floor. Then, I boxed up the tower and any auxiliary equipment that looked worth taking.
I carried it out into the hall, set it by the door, and stood inside, waiting for our people to show up. Fortunately, I didn't have to wait long before I spotted a pair in dark clothes heading up the walkway. I opened the door and let them in.
"Trash it. Take whatever looks valuable if you want, I don't give a fuck. Oh, and this ," I indicated the storage bin with the hardware, "if it doesn't get back to our place intact I will hold each of you personally responsible. Understood?" I clipped.
"Yes, Sir." One of them said.
"Anything else?" The other asked.
"You can take things, leave nothing behind, so wear some fucking gloves," I pointed at the storage bin again, "and remember. Intact, or it's your asses."
They nodded as I let myself out and shut the door behind me, looking around as I moved back to the bike. I climbed on and headed for home.
I slammed the door a few minutes later as I walked in, kicking my shoes off, and stomped through the main room toward the stairs. Phil looked up from whatever he and Victoria were doing.
"What's got you slamming doors, Boss?" he asked curiously.
"I had to shoot my fucking barista! I'll be in my fucking room!" I snapped loudly, stomping up the stairs two at a time.