Page 54 of Zombie

I was pissed at him for lying to me, but I was mostly hurt that he didn’t think he could come to me with his secret. I would have listened and not judged. I would have done anything to help him; I had the resources to do so. He worked on a team that specialized in taking down Ricci’s empire, for fuck’s sake.

On the other hand, I understood why he’d fear losing his friends. I’d been left before. But I had a sneaking suspicion that Dante hadn’t had a lot of experience with people leaving. Dying, yes, but leaving, no.

Despite my understanding, and despite how sorry he was, I wasn’t about to forgive him. He’d hurt me, and I wasn’t going to stand for it.

I spent my time working with the Elite Squad on their next mission of taking Sarah out. I wasn’t for killing people; however, after all the hurt and pain Ricci and his daughter had caused, I wanted to bring justice by any means necessary. Based on the condition she was in after the warehouse explosion, this mission would most likely be a walk in the park; but we needed to plan for all sides of it.

At this point, both teams knew about Dante and his involvement with Ricci and Sarah, and everyone seemed to be on edge. I found his team was more pissed about Dante lying to them than they were about his relation to Ricci, though. Badger had divulged to me that she didn’t blame Dante about Lily, but also wished he had let her in after he confirmed that Sarah had her, to ease some of the tumultuous thoughts that she had.

Buddha was still seething, and seemed to take the news the hardest, after me, anyway. He still thought Dante had something to do with Arrow’s death, and I could see why, even though no one else was coming to that conclusion. Buddha also seemed really on edge every time both teams were together. He kept giving Ollie longing glances, but I couldn’t read into that too much right now.

I took on a more hands-on approach with the teams, giving my input and working with Evelyn on erasing Sarah from the digital world.

As I typed on my computer, Ollie sat on the corner of my desk with a worried expression on her face. I stopped what I was doing and gazed up at her.

“What’s up?” I asked, a little annoyed that she was distracting me from my work.

She bit her lower lip. “Are you okay?”

The question caught me off guard, and I could see that Jax and Gwen were also looking my way to hear my answer. I gave her a smile that didn’t quite reach my eyes.

“I’m great. Just focused.”

Ollie gave me a “Don’t lie to me, bitch,” expression before putting her hand on top of mine. “I know that this has been hard for you, especially because of your involvement with Zombie.”

I hated hearing his code name. I wanted to shove it where the sun didn’t shine and never hear it again.

When I didn’t respond, she continued. “I’m here if you need to talk.” She glanced over at Gwen and Jax before turning back to me. “We all are. When you are hurting, we all hurt.”

I gave Ollie a kind smile. “Thank you. I just need this all to be over so that I can move on.”

She nodded in understanding and gave my hand a little squeeze. “Then let’s take this bitch down.”

FORTY-THREE

ZOMBIE

I threw my phone onto my bed after sending yet another text message that I knew Lennie wouldn’t read. This was driving me mad. I had no idea what she was doing because I hadn’t had the chance to install a camera in her condo.

Georgy perked up at the motion and tilted his head. I’d grown surprisingly close to him; he was all I had left, after all, and I didn’t have much to do other than train him and take him on walks. Toby had everything taken care of at the coroner’s office and told me that there was no need for me to come in.

Although Chief had said it was okay to gather intel but not go undercover, I’d made the executive decision to continue business as usual. Had I stopped abruptly communicating and showing my face to Sarah and her team, it would look strange and potentially put the whole mission in jeopardy. I knew it was risky, and could lead to me ultimately being permanently removed from the squad, however I needed to see this through. I needed to see all of them taken down and watch the Ricci Empire crumble.

I walked into the bathroom and glanced at myself in the mirror. I hadn’t shaved in weeks, which left me with an unkempt beard, and the circles under my eyes were prominent.

Sarah was still in rough shape, and only alive due to my interventions after the blast—burn care, fluids, and lots of antibiotics.

It had been easier than anticipated to be welcomed to the throne of the Ricci empire. I had received lots of comments like, “Glad to see you are taking over the family business” and “I see why they want you in charge.” The comments made me sick, but I had gone along with them for the sake of the bigger picture.

I’d sent my team countless calls and texts with no response. I understood why no one was talking to me, but the silence was killing me, eating my insides like a cancer.

I picked up my phone from the bed and sent a message to Chief.

DANTE:

Large shipment coming in tonight. Buyers will be coming as well.

Seconds later, a read receipt appeared on the message.