Chapter 5
Sawdust flies into the air before swirling away in the warm breeze that brushes over my skin. I go to push the next plank of wood through the circular saw when my phone rings in my back pocket.
“Eli? You got something?” I say with haste.
“Yeah. I’ve found one of Ricky’s dealers. He doesn’t know that I know that, so you’ll need to go undercover as a buyer. We ambush him at the location and question him.”
Trepidation fills my veins. I haven’t used my weapons since my last job. I never thought I needed to, but now I need to bring out the man I buried a long time ago.
“What do you need me to do?” I say with a voice that’s unrecognisable to me.
“Bring everything you have. I’ll have comms ready and I’ll text you the location. This fucker is pretty sleezy so we’ll need to watch our backs.” He pauses for a moment, then speaks again. “You ready for another job?”
What Eli doesn’t realise is that I’m more than ready. I’ll lay my life down to get Ana back and if this means slipping back into that dark mask, I’ll do just that.
“I’m ready.” I say with determination.
Eli ends the call and I turn off the power tools before heading back inside, finding Lyla snoozing away near the front door.
Lightly I step over her and make my way into the bedroom, the scent of Ana’s fragrance hits me full force everytime I come in here and my knees nearly buckle from the memory of her.
Gripping the door frame until it creaks under the pressure, I give myself a moment to get my shit together before opening up the closet doors and shoving the clothes aside to reveal a wooden panel that I lift away.
A gray safe sits central inside the cavity wall.
I can feel my head beginning to ache at the memories of previous jobs and my time in the Marines, gunshots and crunching metal echo in my ears. I can’t let myself fuck this up. I’ll drench the world in blood to save the woman I love.
Inhaling heavily through my nose, I collect my thoughts before turning the dial on the safe, the mechanisms clicking, releasing the door.
Inside I find several hand guns, semi automatics and knives.
My rifle stays firmly planted under the bed.
What I have planned for this fucker, I’ll need close range weapons.
He’ll give me exactly what I want, and then I’ll smear his insides across the floor.
I grab a black holdall bag from the bottom of the closet and place the weapons inside with several boxes of ammunition before dipping my hand back inside to grab an item right at the back. The rough material feels like home the moment I wrap my hands around it and bring it out to the light.
The balaclava sits heavy in my hands, a horrifying face staring back at me. A face that many have seen before their last few seconds on earth. A face that will probably haunt them until the end of time.
I brush my fingers over the menacing smile with a forked tongue that graces the bottom half of the balaclava, feeling it’s dark energy pumping through my bloodstream.
The deaths I’ve caused whilst wearing this face thrum through me like a heavy, hypnotic beat and I can almost hear the agonising cries in my ears.
“It’s nice to see you again, Viper.” I murmur to the open air before shoving the mask into the bag, then proceeding to lock up the safe and get changed.
After about an hour or so, I’m slipping behind the wheel of the Raptor and heading over to the location Eli provided for me.
Gray clouds wash over the sky as I leave the town of Rockford behind, the quaint shops of the main street getting smaller and smaller in the rearview mirror the further I drive away.
Tension coils in my stomach like barbed wire as I pull up to a run down warehouse where I see Eli’s truck in the distance, hidden behind a dense treeline.
I pull up at the side of him and shut off the engine, basking the open space in a heavy silence again.
The dark window of his truck rolls down to reveal him, his brows furrowed in a frown as he scours the screen on his laptop.
“Alright. The dealer should be here soon.” He says whilst checking the time on his watch. “You got everything you need?” He asks, turning to face me.
“Yeah. The moment he hands over the cocaine, we hit him. We won’t have the time to take him to another location so we’ll have to question him here and get creative with it.” I say, my mind flooding with ideas of how I can get this fucker to bleed.
Eli smirks at my words. “I knew you’d slip right back into it again, Viper.”
The call sign rings like alarm bells in my ears and I can feel the pull of the mask in my bag, my hands itching to slip it over my face but I can’t yet. I need this cunt to believe that I’m here to buy drugs from him.
The sound of crunching gravel has our heads whipping over to the warehouse where a shitty beat up car pulls to a stop before flicking the headlights off. In an instant Eli’s phone lights up, signaling that the dealer is ready to meet.
“Go get em tiger!”
I shake my head at Eli and zip the hoodie over the bulletproof vest before checking to make sure the knife that’s strapped in my cargo pants pocket is secure, then I grab the bag of counterfeit money out of Eli’s truck.
Show time.
Loose gravel crunches under my boots as I stride over to the derelict warehouse to meet the dealer who slips out of his car the moment I come into his view. A short guy with floppy brown hair comes to stand before me with a bag tucked tightly under his arm.
“You Jay?” He asks whilst tipping his head at me.
“Yeah, that’s me. Got what I asked for?” I keep my voice even so as not to alert him of my plan.
“Two grand’s worth of snow.”
I nod before gesturing to the bag. “You mind if I have a look?”
The man shuffles on his feet before plonking the bag on the hood of his car, then proceeds to unzip it to reveal stacks of heavily wrapped cocaine.
“It’s pure? No cutting?” I question as I check the white powder. I couldn’t give a fuck if its pure or not. My main goal is for him to give up anything about his boss.
“Of course it is. Only the finest from my boss.” The guy says with a frustrated tone, and that’s when I make my move.
Swiftly I drop the drugs back in the bag and send my elbow flying into the dealer’s face which causes him to stumble on his feet before hitting the floor with a heavy thud.
Blood pours profusely from his nose and he tries to use his hand to stop the heavy flow but it’s no use, I’ve already got him by the scruff of the neck, my arms clamping tightly around his throat to cut off the flow of oxygen.
He scrambles in my arms, his limbs flailing aimlessly to try and pull me off him but I easily overpower his thin frame. After a couple of seconds, the weight of him becomes limp and heavy and I drop him back down onto the floor, then signal to Eli.
“Storm. The dealer is down. Grab the stuff.”
“Heard. On route.”
“Shit. He’s a bit blue isn’t he.” Eli says behind me, his gaze travelling over to the guy who’s currently having a quick nap on the gravel floor.
“Shut the fuck up man. Let’s get him strung up somewhere before he wakes up.”
“You’ll be lucky if he does wake up!” Eli chuckles out before making his way further into the dark warehouse, leaving me to grab the dealer with his ankles to drag him into the damp space.
Chains and metal support beams make up the ceiling of the abandoned warehouse with broken windows lining the outside walls which allow beams of moonlight through to illuminate the grim looking floor.
There’s also a metal hook hanging from one of the iron beams which I use to hang the dealer from after securing his wrists in handcuffs from Eli’s bag.
His feet swing inches from the floor whilst his head hangs heavily between his shoulders.
“This is the real shit you know?” I hear Eli say as he cuts open the brick of cocaine before running the finely milled powder between the pads of his fingers.
“Yeah? I wonder how much of this shit he’s pumping out onto the streets then?” I say whilst unzipping the hoodie and throwing it onto the floor with the bags containing our weapons.
“Fuck knows man. We just need to know what else he’s dealing in. Kidnapping Ana doesn’t benefit his drug business, there must be something else that we’re missing.”
The mention of Ana’s name has me gritting my teeth until they ache. I’ve gone over a month now without her by my side. A month of my soul being empty like a barren wasteland. Everyday she infiltrates my mind, the sound of her voice and the way she laughs at absolutely nothing in particular.
“We’ll get her back man.” Eli says, breaking me out of my trance, his hand landing heavily on my shoulder.
“Oh I know we will. I’ll do whatever it takes. Starting with that fucker over there.”
The chains clang together as the dealer comes round from his loss of oxygen induced sleep.
“Where.. where the fuck am I?” He mumbles and I watch Eli dip into the weapons bag to grab my mask before extending it out towards me.
“Ready to strike Viper?”
Taking the mask from Eli’s grip, I slip it over my head, leaving only my burning green eyes in view.
“Let’s do this.”