Whiskey: A Reed Security Romance (Reed Security Series Book 7)

by Giulia Lagomarsino

  “Fine, I’ll let you two get the next one.”

  “Gee, thanks for being so accommodating,” Jules muttered.

  I pulled my knife out of the asshole on the floor and made my way out of the house, making sure that I hadn’t left any evidence behind. Jules and Ice followed me out of the house and we made our way back to our truck that was parked a block away.

  “The next fuckers are ours,” Jules said as he slammed his door, getting in the truck.

  “Fine. They’re yours. I won’t touch them.”

  We drove to our next location in an old apartment building in a shitty part of town. I remembered it from growing up here. Back then, it had always been a drug haven and it didn’t look like that had changed over the years.

  “I doubt anyone here will call the police over gunfire, but better to keep things quiet,” Ice said as we parked a block away. We walked to the building and easily slipped inside. There wasn’t any security or cameras in sight. Still, I lowered my head as I made my way inside. I followed Ice and Jules up to the third floor and down the hall to the last apartment that happened to be by the window with the fire escape.

  Ice pounded on the door and it swung open, reeking of pot. Ice grabbed the man by the collar and threw him across the room. He crashed into a glass table that was covered with lines of heroine. I pulled a rag out of my pocket and quickly tied it around my face so that I didn’t inhale the drugs. Jules and Ice did the same.

  “Dude,” one guy said as he looked at the man on the table. “You totally just fucked up my line.”

  I started to stalk toward the table, but Jules put out his hand, stopping me from moving forward. I turned a glare on him, but he just raised a brow.

  “This one’s ours, remember?”

  I huffed in irritation and crossed my arms over my chest as they went toward the other room. There were four guys sitting around, fucked out of their minds. It was an easy kill for Jules and Ice. It wouldn’t be any fun anyway. The guys didn’t even try to defend themselves at first. They just watched in awe as Ice pulled out a knife and rammed it into one man’s gut.

  Another man started laughing and slapping his knee. “That was totally fucking awesome.”

  Jules turned to him and chuckled. “You think that was awesome?” The guy nodded. Jules motioned for the guy to come closer and he did. I shook my head at the idiocy of these assholes. They were so fucked up that they didn’t even realize they were being taken out. When the man was close enough, Jules snapped his neck in one swift move, dropping him to the floor and stepping over him to the next guy. As he approached, I saw the fourth guy looking a little nervous. He started making a move for the window. Ice saw him too and started after him. I whipped out my knife and threw it across the room, stabbing the man directly in the neck, nicking his carotid artery. He started bleeding out immediately. I crossed my arms over my chest and leaned back against the wall as if nothing had happened. Ice turned to me and growled. I shrugged like I didn’t know what had happened.

  “I fucking told you they were ours.”

  I raised my hands in surrender. “I didn’t touch them.”

  Ice walked over to the man and yanked the knife from his neck, wiping off the blood on the man’s shirt before tossing the knife back to me.

  “Asshole,” he muttered as he shoved past me. I smirked and walked out behind him.

  “Let’s see how Cash and his boys are doing,” Ice said as we got into the truck. He pulled out his phone and dialed, leaving it on speakerphone. I immediately heard screaming in the background and felt a little bit of anger that my kills hadn’t been quite so gratifying.

  “Cash here.”

  “How’s it going on your end?” Ice asked.

  “Not bad. I gotta say, I’m a little disappointed that they’re not putting up more of a fight.”

  “They aren’t scared yet. They’re still too fucking high to realize we’re coming for them,” I surmised.

  “Let’s leave it for tonight. We’ll see how they react tomorrow. I have something special in mind to fuck with them.”

  “Alright. We’ll meet you back at the safe house.” Ice ended the call and sat back in his seat. “I feel like I should be happier about tonight, but it was kind of a let down.”

  “That’s because Chris took all the fun out of it,” Jules glared at me.

  “It’s because they were too fucking high to care that we were there to kill them. We need them sober so that we have a worthy adversary,” I shot back.

  “Still wouldn’t be worthy, but maybe at least they could put up more of a fight. I guess we call it a night and see what Cash has in mind for tomorrow.”

  He put the truck in drive and we headed for the safe house, all of us hoping that tomorrow would relieve a little more tension. Hopefully things were going better for Cap.

  ✯✯✯✯✯

  Eli from OPS pointed to a building on the city map, pointing out our next location. “I scoped out this location yesterday. This is where they meet up every day. It’s sort of like their clubhouse or something. As far as I can tell, they just kind of sit around doing drugs all the time. This is where we want to hit.”

  “You want to take them out all at once?” I asked. “I thought the plan was to make them suffer?”

  “Did I mention this is a sniper’s paradise?” Eli said with a grin. “I’m suggesting we all set up around the building and take out one person each.”

  “Just one?” Jules asked.

  A grin split Eli’s face. “On any given day, there’s thirty guys there at once. There’s eleven of us. That’s a lot of guys that see their friends murdered and wondering when we’re coming for them.”

  I nodded, liking his idea. It really was a great plan. We could take out a bunch of them and scare the shit out of the rest of them all at once.

  “I’m guessing they’ll be meeting tomorrow to discuss why their men are being taken out. Let’s slip in there tonight and set up coms so we can hear what they’re saying. We need to know if they suspect us and what they’re planning,” Cash said.

  We got to work, gathering up the supplies we needed and headed for the building. Eli was right. This was a sniper’s paradise. Tomorrow would be too easy.

  ✯✯✯✯✯

  “I’m fucking telling you, man. That was a professional hit. Someone’s after us and they’re letting us know they’re coming.”

  I watched through my scope as the man tweaking in my line of vision ranted about us taking out other members of the club.

  “Would you calm the fuck down?” Slasher yelled. “If you guys weren’t so fucking high all the time, this wouldn’t have happened. That house last night was packed with smack. We’re fucking lucky that we cleaned it up before the police could get there. We would have been fucked. They would have looked at anyone wearing our colors and then most of you would be in fucking jail right now. We don’t have the kind of dough to fight that shit.”

  “That’s because you gave all our money to the Night Kings. You should have just cut that bitch loose,” T-Bone yelled at Slasher.

  “She took my fucking kid. I couldn’t let her just walk away.”

  “That’s the fucking problem, man. Ever since you took over for Bullet, you’ve been taking everything and we get nothing. We’re fucked if anything happens.”

  “Ice, you catching all this?”

  “Loud and clear,” Ice responded.

  “T-Bone is gonna start a mutiny and take everyone out before we get the chance,” I said irritatedly.

  “Everyone got eyes on their target?” Cash asked. We all answered in the affirmative. “Remember, no one takes out the higher ups yet.”

  I looked through my scope again at my target. I took in a few deep breaths to slow down my breathing. I wasn’t a sniper by any means, but I had been trained enough to know how to shoot long distance.

  “On my mark. Three, two, one, mark.”

  We all fired simultaneously, shattering the glass from the windows and hi
tting our targets. They dropped instantly to the ground, every one of them a kill shot. The rest of them dove for cover, thinking they would be hit next. We waited as chaos ensued inside the building. Men ran, trying to find a way out of the building, thinking that at any moment they would be hit. It was really quite funny to watch.

  I watched as Slasher started yelling at people and I looked back through my scope, finger on the trigger and ready to fire. I really wanted to take out that asshole, but I wanted it to be up close and personal. Still, the thought of him being in my sights and not pulling the trigger didn’t feel right.

  “Stand down, Chris. You’ll get your revenge. Stick to the plan,” Cash ordered.

  I took my finger off the trigger and sighed. After a few minutes, the remaining Blood Devils started slipping out of the building, watching their backs the whole way. We had them scared and that was the whole point. Now I just had to be patient and wait for my opportunity to take the rest of them out.

  ✯✯✯✯✯

  “He’s coming out the back of his house,” Ice said over coms.

  “I’m on it,” I said as I slipped through the bushes around the house. This fucker was a low level peon, not even worth the trouble of torturing. He didn’t know anything and he probably had nothing to do with Ali, but he was a part of the Blood Devils and I was here to send a message.

  I walked up behind him, careful not to alert him of my presence, and instantly locked him in a choke hold. I didn’t want to kill him, yet. I just wanted him to pass out so I could easily get him into position. When his head dropped, I released my hold and dragged him behind the garage to the tree where Jules was waiting with a rope. I tied the rope around his feet and hauled him in the air. Ice tied another rope around his wrists behind his back.

  Working with rope, there were too many possibilities of leaving skin cells behind or blood if we were cut. All three of us were wearing black from head to toe and when we finished, we would burn everything we were wearing, including our gloves and masks. Even our shoes had a protective cover so that we didn’t leave prints behind.

  I leaned back against a tree, pulled out my knife, and started sharpening it as I waited for the guy to wake up. It took longer than I would have liked and I started to get bored. So did Jules and Ice because they kept sighing as they sat on the ground with me.

  “Did you ever see Robin Hood?” Jules asked.

  “The one with Russell Crowe?” Ice said as he leaned back against a tree.

  “No, the one with Kevin Costner.”

  I stopped sharpening my knife as I looked up at him. What the hell was he getting at? “You want to rob them first and give the money to the poor?”

  “No, I want to cut out his heart with a spoon,” Jules smiled maniacally.

  “Why a spoon, cousin?” Ice asked in a British accent. “Why not an axe or a knife?”

  “Because it’s dull, you twit. It’ll hurt more,” Jules laughed.

  Ice leaned forward with one arm resting across his bent knee. “Serious question. Our best fighter versus Kevin Costner’s Robin Hood. Who wins?”

  “Me,” I said, almost insulted that they had to ask.

  Jules huffed out a laugh. “Yeah, I don’t think so. Definitely Knight.”

  “Why Knight? You don’t think I could take on Kevin Costner?”

  “Since when do you know how to use a bow and arrow?” Ice laughed.

  “Since when does Knight?”

  “He has a point and Robin Hood didn’t use guns, so that leaves knives.” Jules shrugged. “Sorry, Chris. Knight wins out against you.”

  I stood and flipped the knife blade so it was resting in my hand. “You don’t think I could take Knight?”

  They both started laughing and I smirked. “Belly button.”

  “What?” Ice asked. I spun around and threw the blade directly into the man’s belly button, hitting it dead center. That woke him up. He screamed in pain and tried to curl into himself, but the pain was too intense. I looked back at Jules and Ice who were staring in surprise.

  “Didn’t know I had those skills, did ya?”

  Ice shook his head slowly and Jules started nodding. “Okay, fine. You could take Knight in a knife throwing contest, but I still don’t know about Robin Hood. That man was a badass.”

  “Robin Hood wasn’t a real person, asshole.” I walked over to the man hanging in the tree and yanked out my knife, causing him to scream. “It was a name given to petty criminals during the 13th century. Get it? Robin?”

  “Oh, shit,” Jules said in awe. “That makes so much sense.”

  I nodded and turned back to the man hanging from the tree. “You know something else they used to do in the 13th Century?”

  The man hanging upside down from the tree shook his head violently as blood spilled from his stomach. “They used to hang, draw, and quarter people convicted of high treason. Now, since we’re not in the 13th Century, that seems a little drastic, don’t you think?”

  The man nodded vigorously as he moaned. I nodded and flipped my knife a few times in my hands as if I was thinking things through. “The thing is, I don’t really give a shit which century we’re in. Technically, I was supposed to hang you from your neck until you almost died and then cut you down, but I thought it would be more fun to gut you as you hung upside down. Which do you prefer?”

  The man breathed heavily and looked to Jules and Ice for help. When they just stared at him, he started crying. “Please, I just joined. I don’t know who the fuck you guys are.”

  “And I’m truly sorry that you felt it was necessary to join such a vicious gang, but when you run with these assholes, you die with these assholes.”

  I slapped some tape over his mouth and plunged the knife into his groin, dragging it down to his ribcage. Tearing through that muscle is a lot harder than it looks, especially when the victim is trying to get away. I sliced across his belly to make an equally deep cut. Gravity did the work for me and started spilling his innards all over the ground. He was on the verge of passing out. Either that or dying. I had no idea how long it would take.

  Ice walked toward me and crossed his arms over his chest as we stared at the man that was dying in front of us. “You know, I think you got just a little too much pleasure out of that.”

  “Probably. Can’t say I’m sorry about that. They fucked with the wrong man.”

  The guy jerked a few more times as his innards spilled all over the ground. I did get a sick kind of pleasure out of watching it, and this was only the beginning. I would be making sure that every single fucker I came across suffered a similar fate.

  ✯✯✯✯✯

  We walked into the barn where Red, Eli, and Bradford were currently holding one of the other gang members. They had called us an hour ago and gave us a location to meet up if we wanted in on some fun. I was all for it. One kill tonight just wasn’t enough to satisfy the need running through me.

  “Glad you guys could make it,” Eli grinned. “We’re just about to get this party started.”

  There was a large whiskey barrel standing up with the lid removed and a man strapped to a chair next to it.

  “What do you have planned here?” I asked.

  “Hydrofluoric acid,” Red nodded to the barrel. The man in the chair squirmed, trying to yank his hands free of his binds. The gag in his mouth was so tight that he was practically gagging.

  “Who is this guy?” I asked. It seemed like a waste to use acid on some nobody in the gang, but when Red smiled, I knew he had someone good.

  “This here is T-Bone, second to Slasher. We caught him staggering outside Slasher’s house to take a piss. Yep, sobered him right up when he saw the acid over here.”

  “Tell me something, T-Bone. Why did you join the Blood Devils?”

  He mumbled around his gag as snot dripped from his nose. I yanked the gag out so he could speak. “Same reason as you.” I narrowed my eyes at him, wondering what the fuck he was saying. “I didn’t want to join. I had no choice.”<
br />
  “I didn’t join. I walked away.”

  “Only because Slasher killed your brother in front of you. I didn’t get the chance to walk away.”

  “That was almost twenty years ago. You stood by and watched as Ali and Axel were used as punching bags. You didn’t do anything to stop him when he sent the Night Kings after us.”

  “I didn’t want him to do it.” His voice shook and I could see the fear in his eyes. He was telling the truth. This guy never wanted to be a part of the life, but he made his decision and now he would pay. “I tried to change his mind, but he was determined to get them back. He wanted his kid alive, but he didn’t give a shit about Alison. He blew all the money we had to pay off the Night Kings. There’s nothing fucking left.”

  “So, he blew all your money to get his kid back and now you’re fucked,” I grinned. “What’s wrong? Drug trade isn’t as lucrative as you hoped?”

  “Slasher keeps most of the profits.”

  “Why do you stick around?” Red asked.

  “There’s no walking away,” he said solemnly. “If I tried, he’d just kill me and all my family. You were lucky,” he jerked his head at me. “Bullet wouldn’t let Slasher kill you all those years ago. He was different. He was softer than Slasher. That’s why Slasher took him out,” he rambled. “Slasher’s always wanted all the power and he’ll do whatever it takes to get it.”

  “Where’s he staying?” I asked.

  “Man, come on. You know I can’t tell you that.”

  Bradford grabbed him by the front of the shirt and stood just inches from his face. “You see that barrel over there?” T-Bone nodded. “It’s gonna be a painful death. Now, I can make it quicker for you or I can make it excruciatingly painful. Which do you want?”

  “I can’t,” T-Bone whimpered.

  Red sneered at him. “You’re being loyal to a man that would hand you over faster than his worst enemy if it meant sparing his life. You fuckers have no idea what brotherhood is all about.”