Chapter 22 #2
“The department is getting anonymous tips,” Holden says quietly.
It’s still surreal he makes himself so visible now; I’m fucking proud of him.
“We think there is someone on the inside working for Jay. I’m trying to figure out who.
” Holden ran the names that Zane gave him.
Nothing suspicious, like large money transactions, was found, and he told us he was dumping phone records this morning.
“Alexey, Dmitri, I want you to pay a visit to Jay’s dad, Gregory Hoover, at Hoover enterprises. He might know where he is or where he could be. Make some fucking noise, do what you have to,” Les says, giving out orders.
“Am I late?” Mateo asks, rounding the corner. Leo jumps up and jerks him into a bear hug.
“Right on time, bro,” Leo says, slapping him on the back. I didn’t expect to see Evander rounding the corner behind him, and Leo hugs him just as hard.
“What about me?” Evander asks with a laugh when Les hits him full force in a hug. I watch as Micah’s entire body stiffens from the sound of his voice.
I need to find out what the fuck happened. I’m nosy by nature, and not knowing is killing me.
“You’re back!” Les crows, stepping back from the hug.
“I heard we were fucking with Russians. I couldn’t pass that up,” Evander says with a smile. He looks at Alexey and Dmitri. “No offense.”
Dmitri waves his hand. “None taken.”
Mateo jerks Les into a hug. “You’re looking good, girl.”
“I might have missed you, but I won’t hesitate to shoot you if you don’t let her go,” Leo threatens with a grin.
Mateo steps back from the hug, raising his hands, and making Les laugh.
We all get settled around the table again, everyone looking at Les.
“Alright. Next on the list is Club Catch.” That’s one of Viktor’s biggest money-makers.
“My guys and I will make some noise over there.” She looks at Micah.
“I want you, Mateo, and Evander to go to Whispers in Russian.” Micah’s gritting his teeth so hard at getting sent out with Evander; I’m surprised they aren’t dust yet.
But the look on Les’ face is telling him not to argue.
I grin. “You guys do look hungry.”
“That restaurant is his pride in joy,” Alexey grins back. “You want to piss him off? That might be the way.”
“Go ahead and head out. Keep your phones on,” Les says. “I won’t risk any of you guys, so if you start getting too much heat, back off. We’ll meet back here later.”
Everyone else heads out, Micah reluctantly leaving Les with her guys. “Did you send Micah with Evander on purpose, Pretty girl?”
Her lips twitch, but she tries to control the smile I can see forming. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“He’s going to be pissed,” Leo laughs.
Les shrugs. “Call it payback for the way he acted toward Zane.”
“You just put Evander in a tough situation, though,” Ryder points out with a chuckle.
“I have a feeling Evander can handle himself,” Les answers.
Zane looks between us. “Am I missing something?”
“Oh!” I sit up, animated. “We’re sure Micah and Evander want to fuck or have fucked, and it didn’t end well, apparently.”
“Fuck’s sake, Gage,” Dex says, shaking his head. “We don’t know what happened.”
Les laughs. “You know you feel the tension rolling off them in waves.” She points a finger at him. “You saw the same thing I did in the kitchen that day.”
“Fair point,” Dex shrugs.
“We ready to head out?” Les asks, standing from her chair. Ryder reaches out to stop her before she does.
“I wanted to talk to you guys about something first,” Ryder says.
“About?” Les asks slowly, lowering herself back into her chair.
“Ghost and Squid.”
Les frowns. “Is something wrong?”
“Not at all,” Ryder says, squeezing her hand. “I think we should pull them up through the ranks.”
I know the shock shows all over our faces. I don’t think I’ve ever heard Ryder say he wanted to promote someone, especially someone from the street crews.
“What do you mean?” Les asks with a tilt of her head.
“They both proved themselves by looking for you. They’ve done what we ask without hesitation, and they were able to bring their gangs together. Something Xander never could fucking do.”
“What about the Vipers and Disciples?” Les asks, and I can tell she’s considering it. “Pull someone else in to lead?”
Ryder shrugs. “They could run them for now until someone else shows the initiative to lead.”
Les nods. “Have them go to Hoover Enterprises with Alexey and Dmitri. See how they handle that.” She looks around the table. “Any objections or comments?” We all shake our heads because Ryder’s right; they deserve to move up. They busted their asses helping us, all for Les.
“One more thing,” Ryder says, turning to Zane. “You need to know when you go out with us today, you’re outing yourself as one of hers. You ready for that?”
“It’s a long jump from the other side of the law,” Dex agrees.
Zane shrugs. “I’ve always been hers.” Zane looks at Les. “I’m more than ready.”
Les’ smile lights up her whole face. “Alright,” she says, standing up. “Let’s go piss off Viktor.”
We ended up at Club Catch around lunchtime, and our first clue something was wrong? They let us in without question. Holden stayed behind at the house to watch the cameras and continue working on everything he had.
This club serves lunch and dinner and then becomes a nightclub. Just like Maximus that Les owns, an idea Viktor stole from her when he opened it up.
“I don’t like this,” Dex mutters when we’re seated. We ended up sitting the same way we do at the house.
“I don’t either,” Ryder agrees, looking at Les. “Thoughts?”
She rolls her shoulders back, tense as hell. “He’s here.”
I feel it too. Viktor is lurking somewhere and saw us pull up.
“What’s the plan, Baby?” Leo asks, sitting back in his chair. I still can’t believe how well he’s adapted to this life. He takes everything in stride now, never questioning what happens or how he feels. Hell, he kidnapped a man with me so Les could kill him. Leo was made for this life.
“We eat.” She smiles, but it has a crazy edge.
Zane raises an eyebrow. “That’s it?”
“For now,” Ryder grins.
“Ms. Poletti,” the waitress greets, looking nervous as hell. “This is for you.” She pulls over an ice bucket with an open bottle of wine with shaky hands. “Compliments of Mr. Orlov.”
Les raises an eyebrow as the waitress sits out five glasses. “There’s six of us.”
The poor girl swallows. “He said we don’t serve his kind here.” She darts a nervous glance at Zane when she says it, causing me to choke on a laugh. It isn’t this girl’s fault that her boss is a massive dick.
“That’s okay,” Zane says with a smile, letting her know he doesn’t blame her.
“I’m so sorry,” she whispers before almost running in the other direction.
Les watches her go, then looks back at us. “That girl is scared to death.”
“Do you blame her?” I ask with a snort.
Les reaches for the bottle of wine, turning it so she can see the label. “Oh. It’s vintage,” she exclaims, then turns the whole bottle upside down into the ice bucket, letting the contents flow into it. “How clumsy of me.”
We know we’re being watched; Viktor has cameras everywhere. Holden hacked into them last night so he can watch everything go down and warn us if we need to beat a hasty retreat. No matter how petty we have to be, we’re going to draw Viktor out. This is just the beginning.
The scared little waitress walks back over, looks at the bucket, and her shaking intensifies. She takes our order, except for Zane’s, then disappears again.
“Don’t worry, Big daddy; I’ll share,” I quip, causing Les to shudder at the nickname.
Zane turns to me with a glare. “Keep calling me that, you little asshole…” He leaves that threat open for me to fill in the blanks.
“You’ll spank me?” I ask with a waggle of my eyebrows.
Everyone starts laughing, but Zane, causing several heads to swing our way from other tables.
“Now, why the fuck would he do something you would like?” Dex says dryly and loudly. Not only are we not dressed to their high-class dress code, but we also aren’t their typical clientele.
I shrug. “He would like it too.”
Everything about Zane screams big dick energy, just like Les said this morning.
And he can back it up. I never saw myself being friends with him, but something about finding him in his apartment drunk off his ass made me feel sorry for the dick.
He was hurting just as badly as Les, and none of us stopped to think about that.
All we were worried about was ourselves.
He changed just as much as she did since he’s been with her, and it isn’t even because of what happened to him.
He doesn’t give a fuck about that; all he cares about is what happened to Les.
While we’re waiting for our food, a commotion in the back of the restaurant catches my eye. Two guys that definitely don’t work here walk toward our table. “Heads up,” I warn with a jerk of my head. These guys are Viktor’s; you can tell by how they’re dressed.
They stop beside the table, and Les doesn’t even spare them a glance. “Mr. Orlov wants to see you in the back,” the biggest one says, making sure he flashes the Glocks hanging in his holster.
Les looks up, glances at them, then looks back at the table, dismissing them without a word.
“That wasn’t a request,” the other guy grits out.
“You can tell Mr. Orlov,” Les says with a sneer, “to fuck off.”
Everything happens fast. The biggest one reaches for Les, grabbing her arm and jerking her to her feet.
Zane moves in a flash, his chair toppling backward when he stands up.
“Remove your fucking hand, or I’ll blow your brains all over this fucking floor,” Zane growls, Glock pointed at the guy’s head.
Shit. That escalated way faster than we expected. Everyone in the restaurant is staring, shocked as hell.
Ryder casually points his Glock at the other guy’s junk without standing up.
Les jerks her arm free, eyes blazing. “If Orlov wants a meeting with me, he knows where to find me.” She jerks her head, signaling it is time to go.
She turns to walk away when we all stand, then looks back.
“And if you ever lay your hands on me again, I’ll cut your balls off and feed them to your fucking boss. ”
We all follow her to the car without a backward glance, all of us piling into Ryder’s Explorer, Les up front with Ryder. He squeezes her thigh before shifting into drive, leaving the parking lot.
“Nice reaction time, Big daddy,” I remark, causing Zane to slap me on the back of the head from his seat behind me.
Les groans. “Please stop calling him that.”
We make it a block from the restaurant when Les’ phone rings. “It’s an unknown number.” We know what that means. I jerk my phone out of my pocket, firing a message to Holden to tap into her phone, hoping to track this asshole. She slides to answer, flipping it to speakerphone. “Hello?”
“That was quite the show you put on, Precious.”
All color drains from Les’ face at the sound of that voice; Ryder takes one look at her and jerks the wheel, pulling to the side of the road. I subtly rub my scar, remembering this motherfucker almost took me out.
“What do you want?” she asks with a quiver in her voice.
Jay chuckles. “You,” he says simply, and I hear Zane growl behind me. “I see Zane didn’t listen again.”
As much as we don’t want Les to go through listening to him, we need to keep him on the phone so that Holden can trace the call.
“I don’t know what you mean,” Les replies, her voice getting stronger.
“I see you, Precious,” he purrs. “No matter where you go, you can’t hide from me.”
“Good fucking thing I’m not hiding, then,” Les grinds. Pissing him off could go in so many different directions; the only one we want is him dead.
“One by one,” Jay sing-songs, then the line goes dead.
Les drops the phone, all bravado leaving her at once. Ryder jerks her to his chest over the console. “You did good, Il mio sole.”
Ryder glances at me, and I shake my head. Holden messaged and said he couldn’t get a trace; the call ended too quickly. Ryder shuts his eyes and pulls her closer. He strokes her back until her shoulders stop shaking, and she pulls back with a smile. “I’m okay.”
Jay has to die.
Soon.