“Are you listening?” Angel asks.
Rolling a cigarette between my fingers, I lift my eyes to my VP.
“You’re repeating yourself, sweetheart. I listened the first time,” I murmur.
Rolling his eyes, he opens a beer and slides it across the table to me.
“With Effie out of the picture now, Ford will join us on the run tomorrow. It’s time he gets back to business.”
“I agree,” he confirms.
“King, Warren, and the prospect will stay here.”
“Max still needs to locate the Hades Hog assholes.”
“Warren can handle it himself for a few days, I want Max with us.”
“I get why you want King and Warren to stay behind, but why the prospect?”
“Trey can drive the van, the prospect stays.”
“Not gonna give me an explanation?”
The prospect walks into the bar and I tip my chin at him, and he makes his way over.
“We leave tomorrow for the next run. I want to hear progress is being made getting our hands on the warehouse by the time I get back.”
He nods.
I move from the table to the bar, taking my beer with me. On one of the security cameras, I watch as Max and Warren return. It’s the van that rolls to a slow stop just inside the view of the camera that I focus on.
It doesn’t move for thirteen minutes before my anger mists the world around me blood red. Max has a beer in his hand and his boots up on the table as he fucks about with Trey. Warren disappeared up to his room and hasn’t been back down.
Leaving the bar, I slip out the back door, scale the wall until I’m in the warehouse the old man refuses to sell me and head out onto the street. I come up behind the van and take out my gun. Quietly, I try the back doors, but they’re locked. Releasing the safety, I stroll around the side of the van and knock my gun on the tinted window. The engine comes to life, and I’m left standing on the curb watching them hightail it out of sight.
If they weren’t hanging around with good intentions, they would have lowered the window. It could have been the gun spooking them, but I doubt it. My gut is telling me they were casing our place.
Putting the safety back on, I stow the gun back in place and cross the street. Shoving the door open, Max is closest to me, and I drag him off his chair and have him by the collar and shove him up against the wall. To my left, Angel and Warren rush over. They know better than to touch me. They hover to the side.
“Prez? What the fuck?”
“You and Warren, did you not fuckin’ notice a van tailing you?”
Confusion covers his face. “Today?”
I pull him toward me and slam him back against the wall. “It parked up the street as you and your brother rode in. What the fuck have I been telling ya? To watch your fuckin’ backs!” I bellow.
“It was a one-off!”
“A one-off? That’s all it fuckin’ takes to get to us, you fuckin’ asshole!”
“I’m sorry!”
“I don’t need you to be sorry! I need you to have eyes everywhere!”
I slap his patch. “This means we’re better than every other fucker out there. You made a rookie fuckin’ mistake today and lucky for you, nothing came of it.”
I release him and he straightens his cut. I glance at his brother, and warn, “Watch your fuckin’ backs, and ours, we can’t afford one slip-up.”
