24. Mack
Mack
Franco sits in his oversized chair with the fury of a thousand damn suns sitting on his reddened face. Great. This can only mean something bad has happened. Yet again. Or we’re in trouble. More guards stand around the room, looking tense and on edge.
“You can leave, Rico,” Franco grits out, jumping from his seat and gesturing for all his guards to vacate the room. “And the rest of you.”
“Yes, Boss,” they say in unison.
We wait in silence as three of his guards and Rico make their way from the room and shut the door behind them.
Once the door separates us from the rest of the party, Franco takes a deep breath and retakes his seat with a huff.
Folding his hands on his large mahogany desk, he checks the three of us over with stern eyes.
“About ten minutes ago, one of our storage-receiving buildings was firebombed by the docks.”
You could hear a damn pin drop in the room.
“Firebombed?” JJ asks cautiously.
“Which building?” Hux asks, cracking his knuckles.
And me? I stand there stunned that someone would have the balls to light one of our storage buildings on fire. I mean, they don’t hold much. Maybe a torture room here or there. Most of our buildings by the docks are for imports, anyway. Casino supplies. Alcohol deliveries. Things of that nature.
“What was in the building?” I finally ask after a beat of silence.
Franco’s jaw tics. “Casino supplies,” he grunts, balling his fingers into a damn fist and pounding it into the top of his desk, making his computer screen and pens jump with each hit.
“Alcohol imports,” he grits out. “It went up like a fucking Christmas tree!” he shouts, tossing an arm out and emptying the top of his desk of its contents.
“And now, all my businesses will be short within a week. Who the fuck wants to gamble without a drink?” he grunts the last part breathlessly, losing his composure.
JJ blinks several times, trying not to flinch from the violent outburst. “All our supplies, then?” he asks, tilting his head.
“I need you three to assess the damage. I don’t trust any other fuckers to do it. You understand?” he hisses, locking eyes with each of us. “Someone…” He trails off, gritting his teeth hard. “Those fucking Shades have to be behind that. They’re the only ones with a damn vendetta.”
Vendetta, huh? We don’t even know who the leader of the Shades is or why he’s been hunkered down for so long, with only two associates. Well, that we know of. We’ve always kept an eye on them, though. They are on our damn territory. Franco insisted we didn’t have to worry about them.
“Of course, sir,” JJ parrots back with a sharp nod. “We’ll leave now and head out to assess the damage to the building.”
Yesssss. Anything to leave this stuffy party and try to forget that our daddy-o is about to become the mayor of this godforsaken town. The people better say their prayers, or they’re going to wake up to a fucking hellscape like I do every day.
“Any leads on the Shades?” Hux asks, crossing his arms.
“The Shades were never a faction we had to be worried about,” Franco starts, shaking his head.
His lip curls back. “They were a piddly little fuck ants who never held a candle to me!” he shouts, slamming his fist once again.
“But it seems we need to keep a better eye on them. More than before. Watch Malic and Wilder.” His eyes glare straight through my damn soul when they land on me as he says my brother’s name.
“Watch them fucking closely. I want to know when they fucking breathe, shit, and what they’re doing when they aren’t going to class.
” A redness coats his face as he thinks of them.
“I want them to pay,” he growls, reverberating through my damn bones.
“Sounds like a fucking plan.” A smirk pulls at my lips when I crack my knuckles in preparation.
Ah, I can’t wait to see my brother’s face when he finally faces the consequences of aligning himself with dickbag losers instead of being with me. Although that’s not a fucking prize either. Shit. We should all run away. Fuck the gangs of Greenwood.
Hux snorts. “Yeah, we’ll keep a steady eye on them. Follow them around and see what they’re up to. Discreetly,” Hux mumbles the last part, flashing me a look.
Asshole. I’m not that unstable. I can be discreet when I want to be.
“I’ll check the security footage,” JJ says with a nod.
“Good,” Franco retorts, blowing out a breath. “Of all the nights to fuck with me, they’ve gone and done it tonight.”
Yeah, how fucking suspicious of them. I mean, if it was them. It could be any of Franco’s enemies. All millions of them.
“And we’re positive it wasn’t the other crime families living in our town?
” Hux asks, unaffected by the way Franco whips his gaze toward him and narrows his eyes.
“We’ll investigate,” he continues, holding his hands up in a placating gesture.
“But we’ll make sure we’re doling out the punishments to the right people. ”
“Even if we hate their fucking guts,” I grumble, wrinkling my nose.
Franco huffs. “Go on then, you won’t be missing much here.
But boys?” He stalls, getting to his feet and placing his palms on the desk.
“Don’t fuck this up. I will be under a microscope now with this announcement.
Someone in this town will try to air our dirty laundry.
We can’t let them. Understood?” He narrows his beady eyes at us, like we’re the ones who made him run for office.
“Crystal clear,” I retort, saluting him with a grin.
“This remains on the downlow,” Franco grits out. “I want answers by tomorrow morning.”
Tomorrow morning? Well, fuck me. That means zero sleep before I’m forced to go to practice at six in the morning, then to class, and then to the bazillions of other things I have to do tomorrow to keep me busy and out of trouble.
All by Franco’s design. All because I got myself into a little too much trouble after Livy died. I mean, it wasn’t that serious. I blow out a breath at the memory knocking around in my mind. I grip my hair, roughly pulling at the roots to keep myself grounded in the bullshit now.
Precious Theodore was fine. My record, though?
It was not. In the eyes of the law, I was a damn menace to society.
A criminal, for fuck’s sake. I hung around my jail cell for three damn days before I went before a judge to plead my case.
A judge! Franco didn’t spare me in the slightest. Except for paying Theo off so he’d run on and forget about the day Macklyn Owens owned his ass in a fight.
“You can count on us,” JJ smoothly says, gesturing for Hux and me to follow him toward the exit.
Once the doors to the party shut behind us and the noise of the elite simmers down, my shoulders relax.
Out of the damn fire and back into…er…an even bigger cluster fuck of a fire. Fuck.
“So, how should we terminate Malic and Wilder? Flamethrower? Toss them off the cliff?” I raise a brow when Hux shakes his head.
“Carefully,” he grumbles. “We need to tread lightly until we know all the facts. No reckless bullshit.” His gaze cuts to me. Again.
“That’s rude.” I point a finger at him. “I’m not reckless.” Hux scoffs at me, muttering something under his breath. Jerk. But I guess he does have a point. “Okay, maybe just a little.” I hold my index finger and thumb a millimeter apart.
“A little?” JJ scoffs.
“Not you, too. I thought we were friends,” I gripe, pulling at my bow tie. Relief whooshes through me the second I loosen it and shove it in my pocket. “Finally,” I groan.
We walk through the casino, dodging the drunks and the patrons high on winning. Too bad they won’t be winning for long. The house always wins. Everything. Suckers.
I take a deep breath the moment we step outside into the fresh night air. The stars sparkle in the sky, and the moon helps to illuminate our path through the crowded parking lot.
Hux holds out a hand from the driver’s seat when we all get into the SUV and buckle our seat belts. At least he was responsible tonight and didn’t have more than one drink.
“First things first, we’ll have to go down to the damn docks and see the building for ourselves. See the damage and make an appearance.” Hux blows out a breath. “This seems really…odd for them to attack us like that, right?”
I nod. “It is weird. They’re docile puppies.”
“Puppies?” Hux quips, starting the engine and slumping back. “They’re up to something. Obviously. Maybe that psycho thinks I’m still responsible for Meredith.”
“He did adultnap you right out of the damn house. Really easily, too. We need to beef up our security and shit.”
“We’ll start by locking the doors every time we leave or when we go to sleep,” JJ pipes up from the backseat with a frown.
“Solid first step. And Waffles, that double-crosser. He needs some attack training. A sic balls, on command. Can you imagine the look on old Mal’s face the second Waffles gets a whiff of him and latches onto his sack?
” I cackle to myself at the imagery. “Besides, how can he let some massive asshole into our house without alerting us?” I scoff, loosening my tie more so I can finally breathe.
“Not even a damn bark of alarm. Just ate the steak without protest. He’s a traitor. ”
“Better camera angles, too, apparently,” JJ mutters.
“Couldn’t see him sneaking around the property.
I’ll fix that.” There’s an extra edge to his voice, and his face hardens.
“So, if you drop me off at home, I’ll check the security footage from the buildings at the docks and order more surveillance supplies.
Especially if there’s about to be a fucking war. ”
“Don’t jinx us with war talk,” Hux grumbles. “The last thing we need is to bring that on campus. We’ll all be at each other’s throats with civilians in the mix. What a joy that’d be.”
No. War could be exactly what we need. Shut down Greenwood U for good. Get rid of the extra crimes and take back our future. Grab it by the damn balls and seize the day.
“Well, if this does end in war, I call dibs on Wilder. That fucker needs a good unsanctioned punch in the throat.” I fake a karate chop, grinning at what could come.
Hux scoffs. “Your own brother?”
“Don’t you judge me. You didn’t have to live with the fucker or see him around giving hateful looks,” I grumble. “You know he’s a pain in my ass.”
In the past, present, and future. If I could knock some sense into him, I’d be more than happy to do it. His misery is his own doing. A long time ago, I invited him to join me at Franco’s mansion. But no. He turned it down. Stuck his damn nose in the air like he was too good for the gang and me.
I still don’t understand why he spent so much time and money on our mother. No. Fuck that. She wasn’t a mom. She was a body in the house, starving us, letting her boyfriends beat us, and making us miserable.
Whatever. He chose the opposite side of me, turning his back on me at every turn.
Fuck him. Fuck Malic. And especially fuck that Shade asshole in charge.
“All right, let’s get this over with,” Hux grumbles, swiping a hand through his hair, as we begin our drive.
In the mirrors, I gaze at the casino, and its flashing lights get smaller and smaller behind me, replaced by the beaming streetlights, pouring over the vacant streets as we head toward campus to drop JJ off and change our clothes. The closer and closer we get, the more settled and content I feel.
Some days, I can’t wait to put this entire town into my rearview mirror, but there’s one anchor I have a hard time leaving behind, nestled in the graveyard. A person I can’t seem to get over or think less about.
Olivia.