Page 70

Joey

I’d been doing my best to avoid my parent’s house since the night I found my mother in my room. With all the extra time I was putting in with my crew, we’d managed to secure a new warehouse and setup for the operations I typically carried out. In between, we were hitting the streets looking for Jackals near our territory and coming up empty. I was starting to grow restless, and I didn’t have anything to keep my mind busy since Craig had revoked my access to our data backups. No papers to pour through, no guns to sell, no Jackals on the streets to take out. I decided it was time to move rather than wait for the next attack.

“We’re going on the offensive tonight, boys,” I told my crew, who stood in a loose semi-circle around me on the warehouse floor. “We’ll be moving in on the Jackals posted on Twelfth and Poppy. I want to see it all burned to the ground, no prisoners, you got me?”

“I’m not sure this is a good idea, Sir. Did Az sign off on this?” Terry, one of the older members of my crew, spoke as he stepped forward from the crowd.

“Am I or am I not the Boss here, Terry?” I demand. My crew didn’t need to know that I was barely on speaking termswith the other guys. They’d effectively shut me out the second they closed ranks around that fucking viper, Victoria.

“You’re the boss, sir,” he replied.

“That’s what I fucking thought. I don’t need Az to sign off on my movements. There’s only one person who makes the calls for this crew and that’s me and me alone. If you have a problem with that then maybe you aren’t cut out to work for me.”

Terry dipped his head in respect and lifted his hands in surrender. “I’m good, boss. Whatever you say, we’ll get it done.”

“That’s what I thought. I want to move in an hour. Get yourselves armed and ready to roll out. Anyone not on time will face consequences.” I barked before heading toward the space I’d claimed as my office.

I had an hour to kill, and then I’d finally be doing something productive. Settling in at the desk Phil had procured for me, I switched on the desktop computer and reviewed the intel my crew had gathered a couple weeks back on the territory we were going to hit. It appeared to be a standard residential area to anyone not in the know. There were two blocks of townhouses with a handful of single-family homes interspersed, each housing a Jackal foot soldier who had worked on Candy’s crew. They were under new management, but their new Capo was a freshly made man with barely enough experience to keep from losing control of his people. He hadn’t even established a perimeter patrol around his territory, practically inviting me to waltz right in and snatch it from his grasp.

Reviewing the intel barely took ten minutes, and I was left to deal with my warring thoughts. The harder I tried to steer my mind away from the viper, the more it turned toward her. My father’s words played on repeat. Telling me over and over again to go back farther if I wanted to find someone to blame. That small piece of me that still wanted Victoria to be the pure, loving soul I’d thought she was latched onto it. The stronger it got, themore pissed off I became. Why couldn’t they see I was right, and why the hell couldn’t I snuff out that stupid voice that whispered I was wrong?

My internal struggle had settled into anger simmering just beneath my skin by the time the hour was up. Snatching my weapons from my desk, I secured them to my body and stalked out of my office. My entire crew was there waiting for me.

“Glad to see you all understand who runs the show.” I smirked. “You’ve all had time to review the layout of the two blocks we’ll be hitting tonight. Tonight we make those mother fucking Jackals pay for coming for us. No more sitting back and waiting for them to take from us again and again. I want the streets to run red with their blood and when they stand there in the reflection of the flames of their burning homes, I want them to know, the Horsemen always hit back.”

Cheers broke out among my men, and I let them revel in our pending revenge for just a moment. With a sharp whistle, I called them back to attention and motioned for them to load into the SUVs that waited outside. We drove toward our destination in the rapidly darkening streets, pulling off into a parking garage a few blocks away just as dark fully settled in.

We made it to the first set of townhouses without issue. I couldn’t help the satisfied smile that split my face as they went up in flames, the Jackals inside each sporting a bullet to the head. Things were going exactly as I planned until the first bullet whizzed by my head.

“Take cover!” I shouted to my crew as I raced to the nearest house that wasn’t burning.

The flash of a muzzle had me dropping to the ground to slide behind it. Getting my feet back under me, I peeked around the corner and fired back, taking out a Jackal on the front lines. The intel I had made it seem like this would be an easy hit. None of the Jackals were supposed to be on guard and prepared for anattack, but the rapid firing of guns back and forth told me they’d been prepared.

“We should retreat, boss.” Terry called out as his back hit the wall of the house I was hiding behind.

“No.” I barked. “We take them out like we planned.”

I mentally marked my next hiding spot and tore out from behind the house, opening fire as I raced to my new vantage point across the street. I felt heat singe my arm as a bullet tore through my shirt, just missing hitting my bicep. I blindly fired back, pleased when I heard a body drop. At least I was until I turned my head to check on my crew and realized the body that dropped was one of mine. Worse, as I squinted against the flames from the house we set fire to, I noticed a group of Jackals moving to take position behind us.

“Fuck,” I hissed before sticking my fingers between my lips and letting out a loud whistle. “Retreat!”

I heard the voice of my crew echo the order as we scrambled to disengage from the firefight. Trusting them to find their own way out, I zigzagged my way through the homes, taking side streets and alleys where I could. My lungs were burning with strain, and my breaths came in short pants, but I kept running until I was certain I was clear. Eventually, I made it back to the parking garage without anyone tailing me.

Nobody spoke on the drive back to the warehouse. The plan had gone to shit, and we all knew it. Sure, we’d managed to take out a handful of Jackals, but it wasn’t enough. It wasn’t the scorched earth I’d been chomping at the bit to dish out. We parked our convoy of SUVs behind the warehouse and stalked inside, feeling defeated. I’d just stepped toward my office when Terry grabbed me by the arm and forced me to stop and face him.

“We can’t do this again, boss.” He said solemnly. “We’re all hurting over the big boss, but you gotta get it together, man. No more of these half-cocked fucking missions.”

I jerked my arm free of his grasp and scowled. “You really want to do this right now? Did you forget the repercussions from the last time someone questioned me?” I snarled.

“If telling you that you’re not acting like yourself is enough to get me shot, then go ahead and do it. But we lost four good people today because you were fucking reckless.”

“Reckless? I was reckless? We moved based off of intel, how the fuck is that reckless.”

“You got that intel two weeks ago, boss. Did you send anyone to verify it hadn’t changed? I already know you didn’t because I’m the mother fucker doling out jobs in your absence. Shit clearly changed. Shit we should have known about and would have if you weren’t so lost in your head. I held my tongue long enough and it cost us four lives. How many more do you need before you start acting like you know what the fuck you’re doing again?”

I reared back, wishing I could put Terry in his place, but I couldn’t. He was right. I’d been so busy salivating over the thought of revenge while waging a war within myself over Victoria that I hadn’t followed up on the intel. A snarl ripped from my throat at the realization the viper was fucking up my ability to run my crew properly. Terry shook his head in disappointment, as if he thought the sound were directed at him.

“The whole crew can see you falling apart. If you can’t get it together soon, I can’t say they won’t ask to be reassigned. After tonight, I can’t say I blame them.”