Page 39 of Into the Blue (Shades of Vengeance #1)

After our first fateful date at La Récolte, I noticed a change in Blue.

He was my Milo again. The one who made me fall and fall hard.

I didn't miss our fucked up mind games. He made good on his word to learn to trust me more, in everything but letting me leave his heavily guarded home.

Instead, I enjoyed our growing ease in whatever this was as I played Rapunzel in his captivity.

It was nice, but I had to set my feelings aside to finish what I started.

I would have to ask for his forgiveness later.

I would find a way to make him forgive me when the success of my purpose here caught up to him.

The first week that Blue was gone, Lidia informed me on everything I have missed in Atlanta.

Her intimidating height and frame were a sight for sore eyes.

To have someone familiar in the house made me feel less like the hostage I was and more like the boss I am.

I don’t know how she recovered from seeing or hearing what happened on that deck but we both are moving past it.

There were much bigger things at hand.

When cocaine became the product of choice because of Junior’s stupid decisions, my family—my old club—were stuck with nowhere to go.

It was hard to see it happen and having lost people I loved because of it.

Either to the drugs he was peddling or fleeing the pressure of his miserable presence there.

Worst of all, my mother.

Because of Junior, she was introduced to the addiction that would ultimately take her life. Losing her empowered me to take what I had learned in my schooling to take from him, in turn.

I had to take everything.

I was sick of how we were treated by men like Junior but learning of our familial ties infuriated me further. I was sick to my stomach and knew I had to do something.

Men are so easy.

Every good dancer knows that.

And there were many good dancers at The Chrome Flame.

I showed them my ideas and invited them to back me in this endeavor to ruin Junior.

Using our feminine wiles, there were several monied men–and men who just loved these ladies–willing to make some extra money boosting green and moving it elsewhere.

The dancers who didn’t have loyal clientele, were bait for marks within the Faye ranks or coincidentally, the Dupont ranks. Women like Nina who weren't working the floor yet but had a penchant for getting what they wanted. Men tell all their secrets to the ones that make them see stars after all.

I’ll always be grateful for how Lee had followed the plan to the tee. I outlined several areas that could be weakened by a little commotion for the new women in these men’s lives–Dupont and Lafayette.

And even better if we could plant any ideas of loyalty to someone else that could improve their financial standing.

“Lee moved to the second location. We’re at capacity for the first,” Lidia tells me. “If we fill the second, we’ll have to start moving it or risk legal suspicion.”

“It won't be a problem. I will figure out how to get out of here by then.”

“What can I do?” She has already done so much.

I had barely formulated a plan for infiltration like this.

The highest infiltration I had gotten was Thane and he wasn’t very high up or respected in the Dupont family.

His partner Kitty was, though she was not one of ours. It was likely better that way.

There were a few of my people in the lower ranks to keep tabs on how Blue was moving, but my original goal was never to trick him. Only to show the Fayes that I could do what they did and better. That I could show them how to be better with me .

Over the course of January, Lidia and I were able to come up with a system to communicate back home more effectively, so I could be more hands on with the decisions necessary for my plot.

I finally had a chance to talk with my family for more than ten minute phone calls. No one batted an eye because Milo was able to feel comforted that I wasn't giving his new guard shit while he relaxed with the brief reprieve of our attacks.

We had one close call where Davis was a little suspicious with how much I was laughing after a particularly funny recollection of Lee's newest exploits as Madame Lee. All efforts were going smoothly and it felt good to let off a little steam with my friend.

It’s February, and the guard rotation has gotten more smooth, so I’m able to increase what we were boosting from a quarter, to thirty percent of what was promised.

Having the exact location of the drops helped.

Blue had made no changes to any of the information I’d relayed to Liezel that night.

But it was harder for my team with Duponts aware of potential threats.

Unfortunately, there were several more casualties.

When we were lifting small bits, it was easier for my people to get it and go.

It’s more difficult, even with more certainty, to move that kind of weight undetected.

I had been thankful on those nights that Blue wasn’t here to see my tears for the ones who had fallen.

I was gutted by those losses on both sides.

My girls were safe, but the men they had been whispering to weren’t.

They were on the line and that was just how it went.

I couldn’t spare anyone cooped up like I am.

When Blue was home, he was exhausted. I could tell that this was affecting him and instead of taking it out on me, he leaned into his obsession with keeping me protected.

Even when I knew he was starting to lose more than what could be negligible.

I let him lose himself even more in my body.

And frankly, I was doing the same, knowing that I was destroying us both.

I knew that this was bloody work, but I was still remiss at the cost. It was senseless.

If Senior had trusted me to do what I knew I could, none of these losses would have to come to pass.

Yet, I knew that there was nothing I could do.

Business like this wasn’t for the weak and I had to follow protocol.

Each name would be remembered and my team sent what was agreed upon to their families if they had them. It was the very least that I could do.

Still, securing this kind of leverage was unfathomable. Years of my hard work and research finally coming into fruition. I wish I were celebrating the highs and lows with my family back home. I had to settle for what little conversation I could have on Lidia’s rounds in my part of the house.

March rolls around and this was the hardest. Knowing that we were upping the margins once more, I made sure everyone was armed and protected as best I could. Everyone knew that this was a risk.

At this point, I reflected again on what it would be like to actually work with Blue instead of against him. He was convinced that I was a casualty in this war. I couldn’t be the one to inform that it wasn’t me but him . That hurt even more.

I couldn’t go back and I couldn’t redeem my actions. If I were to be taken seriously by either family, I had to earn the respect twice over.

For playing both sides and just because I’m a woman.

It was his side who spilled the most blood and my numbers were relatively unscathed. Blue was working with skeletons, literally and figuratively, as we held over three months of his product.

Any business missing that much would surely not last long.

April comes sooner than I expect. And now, everything has gotten far more tense. After so long of him flying under the radar, Lee has pinpointed Junior’s location. And that is bad for him. If Lee found him—then other people certainly could too.

But that—that’s my way out of this house. My way to leave and step into the power that I had been amassing from the safety of my enemy’s home.

All without his notice.

It’s the first week of May and I send a fateful text message to Blue’s second-in-command.

Like the person I’ve heard he is, he calls Lidia’s phone immediately after receiving it. “Lidia, the fuck is this?”

“It’s not Lidia,” I say onto the line with all the confidence of someone who knows they’re landing an expert move.

There’s a pause where I’m sure Redd is trying to put the pieces together, but I don’t make him work for it. “I have what you want. As long as you help me, I can get it to you before week’s end.”

No one hates the Lafayettes more than Redd Blundell. I’m gonna serve Junior up on a silver platter.

“Help you how?” he questions with skepticism thick in his voice.

I look to Lidia who gives me an encouraging nod. She’s just as ready to go home as I am. “I need out of this house.” He laughs, no, guffaws on the other line. I grit my teeth and let him have his fun. “I can tell you where Terrell Junior is, unprotected and unarmed.”

That shuts him right up. There’s a click and then Redd asks, “How do you expect me to get Blue’s most prized possession out of a house that’s armed to the teeth? Even against me?”

Running the pad of my finger over his name on my palm, I take a deep breath and tell Redd, “Leave that to me. Do what I say and you can have the revenge you’ve always wanted.”