I pulled my gun from my waistband.
The room went completely silent, and for a split second, I hesitated.
Not because I planned on sparing them, but because something about the familiarity of this moment unsettled me. While I wanted to embrace these parts of me as Booda had told me, I still found it hard to believe I was this person. Pullinga gun on people should’ve disturbed me after everything that happened.
Instead, it felt natural.
“Koko…” one of the soldiers said carefully from behind me.
I ignored him.
The man in the middle started shaking harder the second he saw the gun.
“Please,” he whispered.
I shot him in the head.
The sound exploded through the warehouse, and before the other two could react, I fired again.
Then again.
Three bodies slumped motionless in their chairs while gun smoke drifted through the air between us.
I lowered the weapon before turning around to face the room full of soldiers staring at me. “If anybody else switched sides, this is your chance to die honestly.”
Silence.
Not one person opened their mouth.
“Good,” I said as I glanced at the darkness near the back offices. “Booda. Come here.”
Every set of eyes shifted as Booda stepped beside me, and the tension inside the warehouse thickened instantly.
“Now that the team’s back together, we’re taking everything back.”
Nobody said anything. Not a single word. Some looked shocked. Some looked confused. Most looked terrified. But nobody challenged me.
I tucked the gun back into my waistband and walked toward the large table near the center of the warehouse.
“Everybody who still loyal, get over here.”
Chairs scraped loudly against concrete as people moved.
Maps, burner phones, weapons, and handwritten notes covered the tabletop. I leaned over it, and routes, trap houses, and side streets surfaced in my head faster than I could fully process them. Some memories still came in pieces, but instinct kept filling in the blanks, keeping me from becoming overwhelmed.
I pointed toward the map.
“Rich thinks we’re scattered. That’s why he’s being sloppy right now.”
Booda stepped beside me. “We hit every spot at the same time,” he added.
I nodded. “That’s smart. If we hit every spot at the same time, that’ll really throw Rich off his game and have his men spread thin. They can’t be everywhere at once.”
***
The stash house smelled like weed and copper. We had cleared it in under four minutes. Three of Rich's soldiers lay facedown on the kitchen tile while my people swept the bedrooms for product. I stood in the living room, rolling my shoulders, trying to shake the adrenaline loose.
Booda moved through the kitchen, looking around while I stood in the living room, rolling my shoulders, trying to shake the adrenaline loose.
