Page 94 of Into the Blue

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.”

Chapter 28

You know what’s a really good natural stress reliever?

You don’t have to guess, I’ll tell you.

It’s killing the men that have been on your must-kill list, but out of your reach for months.

Before me, Keith Brussaud, Ervin Mallard and Lawrence Lafayette are strung up by a single arm to a random pipe in my warehouse. It’s cold, they’re wet and let’s just say that plenty of my men are happy to take their stress and frustration out on them as well.

After some digging and not that much effort, Redd had figured out who took Racquelle from the grocery store that day. Like Junior, they were hiding and staying out of reach for very good reason.

Well, they showed up in Clayton Terrace again.

Big mistake.

My knife itches in my palm to finally get the retribution they deserve for hurting my woman.

Not the knife that laid claim to her body, forever letting her, and anyone, know that she was mine.

This is my K-bar. And it’s been too long since she’s tasted blood.

It was extremely unlucky for them that my memory of Racquelle’s injuries were as vivid as they were, seeing her in front of me that night. The pain that she endured—every moment of her misery in recovering. Crystal clear in my mind.

None of these men would survive.

Though I couldn’t be sure that it was because of them that my weed was going missing. I couldn’t be sure that it was because of them that my men were dying trying to protect what was mine. I could be sure that my patience had little to say to uncertainty. Elimination was a sure thing for these three. They were high enough in Junior’s ranks that he would absolutely feel their absence.

I wanted him to feel it.