Dex appeared from a hallway, dark attire, hair slicked back, with his phone attached to his ear, and as soon as his gaze hit mine, he lowered his voice and pulled a cigarette to his mouth. I walked closer, and he turned his back to me, quickly ending the call. Facing me again, he pocketed the phone in his jeans. “You’re late,” he approached the kitchen counter and rolled the tip of the fag into an ashtray to put it out enough to save for later, “You need to get a handle on this situation, Oliver.” He nodded over to the other three arguing. He was hiding something from me, and I eyed him suspiciously.
Was he deflecting? I pointed to the phone in his pocket. “Was that about Scott?”
“Not that it’s any of your business, but no. It had nothing to do with you.”
“You know damn well it’s my business, or did you forget our deal?”
The younger boys yelling match behind me became background noise as Dex stepped closer and puffed out his chest. “Remember your place. You work for menow. When and if I find Scott, I’ll let you know,” his tone was smooth and collected, and I fisted my sides to hide my agitation, “but until then, you don’t get to ask questions.” He punctuated his sentence with his pointer finger bouncing off my forehead. The ability to control myself from driving my fist into his face was unheard of, supernatural almost. But it didn’t stop my fists from clenching or my teeth from grinding, mustering restraint from places I’d never visited before.
The fear of never finding Mia was what kept me back. I was already in too deep with Dex. I’d given him a week, and he had two days left.
Dex patted my cheek and flashed a smirk. “Now, round up the boys.”
Nerves ran wild inside the cabin of the car toward the rivalry’s drug house on the opposite side of town. Reggi drove, and I took notice in the way his hostile gaze drifted to James sitting behind him in the rearview mirror.
“We’re not doing this until you guys hash out whatever has both of your knickers in a twist.” It was none of my business what the two were arguing about, but we needed to bust through the rival’s door as a team, so I made their business mine.
“James is fucking my girl,” Reggi gritted out. “Caught the two of them. In my bed.”
James chuckled. “We were just having a little fun.”
Reggi slammed his palm against the steering wheel, jaw flexing.
“Is this a girl worth losing a mate over, or is this mate worth losing the one over?” It wasn’t a question meant to be answered here and now, but something to think about. “We all have complications in our lives, but once the four of us pile into this car, nothing else matters but the job. James, Adrian, and me, we’re you’re safety net and priority, and vice versa. We’re going in together, and coming out together. This time, guns loaded.”
The drug house we were busting belonged to the rivalry gang, BOGs, or Blood of Grays, controlling most of the drug trafficking in the surrounding cities east of London. Recently, the BOGs clientele had decreased in numbers, so their new drug has been spreading into the outside areas, rolling into Links territory. Fentanyl and heroin was a lethal concoction, taking the form of a Pez candy. The ideal packaging had become popular among the youth. The delivery was good marketing, but the only reason their numbers were decreasing was that the BOGs were killing their customers with overdosing amounts of fentanyl, and that was bad business on their part.
Links only cared about taking back what was theirs, and though this operation was forced upon me because of the deal Dex and I made, at least I could do some good in the process and possibly save lives.
We turned onto the street of our target location and parked out of sight a few houses down to go over the plan one last time. I had checked out the property the day before and walked the perimeter. The drug house was on a quiet street in an upscale neighborhood, a house no one would suspect. If they were smart, they would only have two—maybe three—blokes preparing and guarding the lab so not to raise suspicion, giving us the numbers and upper hand.
There were three exit doors. I directed James and Adrian to barge through the front as I came through the end, Reggi guarding the side door in the garden leading to the detached garage space just in case. “There are no customers, and these blokes will have guns fully loaded,” I reminded them. “But this time, so will you.” Before, we were in a public setting with innocent lives on the line. I’d spent the last forty-eight hours teaching these boys everything they needed to know about a gun, down to taking the bloody thing apart and piecing it back together.
When I was thirteen, a punter by the name of Gauge taught me one night after my mum passed out on the living room floor. I hadn’t shot it at the time, but he said since I was living this life, it was time I learned a thing or two about the weapon, and when I grow up, I should invest in one to protect myself and my mum. Guns were illegal and hard to come by, but they weren’t extinct within gangs. I never did get one and learned to fight instead. Firing a weapon was clipped, distant, and easier than bloodshed caused by your hands. I knew from experience. Maddie was the only life I’d ever taken, and I planned to keep it that way until I was face to face with Ethan Scott.
James and Adrian took the front as Reggi, and I crossed the garden. He took the side door, and I waited at the back. The night was in the forties, clear open skies and dotted with stars with fierce winds. I lifted my head and pinned my gaze on the moon, and the thought of Mia breathing under that same moon washed away my nerves as voices boomed from inside the house.
Swiftly and quietly, I picked the lock and entered the home. My shoes made little if any noise against the tile leading to the chaos. James and Adrian stood facing me with guns drawn, pointing to the two BOGs, who also had their weapons drawn in return. James and Adrian didn’t acknowledge me as I crept behind a BOG who had his back to me.
He didn’t see me coming, and I gripped the wrist of his gun-holding arm, aiming the barrel downward, and jabbed my palm up against his elbow, breaking it.
In seconds, the BOG was on the ground with a broken arm with his gun in my hand before the other BOG had a chance to turn. Now it was three against two, and painful memories surfaced when Mia had a knife against her throat. At that time, I had a disadvantage. Maddie had us fooled, and I had everything to lose.
“Drop your gun,” I demanded to the other man who couldn’t decide on where to point the barrel, waving it back and forth. He knew it was over, but it seemed as if something else was holding him back. “Drop it!”
“I can’t let you walk out of here with everything. They’ll kill us. Either way, we’re dead. I’d rather take a bullet from you than find out what they’d do to us.” The young BOG was scared. He’d rather die a quick and painless death than suffer the consequences of their failure from their boss.
The gun in my hand was pointing at the young Blood curled up on the floor. James and Adrian had theirs aimed at the only one left standing, shaking with a pistol in his hand. The BOG wouldn’t pull the trigger or draw attention to the house. The last thing the gang needed was the police to know one of their locations. “James, tie him up.” I nudged my head to get him to start moving. Time wasn’t in our favor.
James walked toward him and pressed the tip of the barrel against his temple as Adrian pushed his gun into his waistband before snatching a nearby wooden chair. I used my free hand to retrieve my mobile from my front pocket to send a quick text to Reggi, advising him to pull the car into the garage.
After my men cleared the house and James confiscated all weapons, drugs, and money, I approached the two BOGs tied to the chairs. “Get out of this life,” I advised, throwing my fist into one’s jaw to show he took one for the team. The one with the broken arm growled as Adrian secured his ties. “You both are still young. You have a whole life ahead of you.”
I left him with a swollen eye and a mouthful of blood.
Before we made it back to Dex and his crew, I’d driven us down an abandoned alleyway. Neither of them questioned my motives for taking them here. At this point, all three of them already looked up to me, putting their lives in my hands, which was a hefty burden to carry.
The car stopped behind the factory.
