Page 6 of One (The Towns Syndicate #2)

Ally

M y office was slowly becoming my own. It was weird to think of it as mine and that Christmas town was now run by me.

The excitement had worn off as I thought about how this was now my responsibility and fear had replaced it.

Boogie and King were excited for me a few days ago, but they couldn’t disguise their worry.

The heads of the town were always in danger. This was a high-profile job and with that, people always thought they could take what they wanted, but I wasn’t going to let that happen. If the Mayor thought I could do this, then I was going to do this.

I went through the files that the Mayor had left for me detailing a few men that could potentially do well here.

A few would be stopping by in about thirty minutes and I wanted to reread their files.

As I poured over them they all looked great at first glance, but I needed men who weren’t going to be afraid of a woman in charge.

It seemed that was going to be my biggest problem.

Pulling them out, I stumbled upon the last set of files I had been ignoring. One that haunted my dreams and the other one that I was too afraid to tell the guys about. I hadn’t opened it yet, afraid of what I would find, afraid of what it would make me feel.

My hand shook as I opened the folder, right at the top was the photo the year I had been taken.

The happy child looking back at me was a stranger, someone I didn’t recognize.

The memories of my childhood were cloudy and fuzzy.

The more I tried to remember them, the more my head hurt. I hated that I couldn’t remember.

The police report wasn’t very detailed and my brother’s name wason it, along with my mother’s. The report included where I was taken and what I had been wearing. My lip trembled as I read how long they looked for me, and where they looked. My case went cold after two weeks.

Tears fell down my cheeks as I turned the page to see another police report. My parents had been at the wrong place in an aggravated robbery and died with one of my brothers three years after my disappearance. My aunt had taken in my two other brothers.

I flipped the page to look at pictures of them now.

It seemed one of them had done well and one of them had fallen in with the wrong crowd.

I turned the page, and I gasped. Gray eyes stared back at me as I looked at a picture of Boogie when he was little.

He was so damn beautiful even at a young age.

He was smiling in this photo, looking carefree, just like a child should.

Behind the photo sat his police report and just as I was about to read it, footsteps made me close the file.

No one should read this except Boogie. I grabbed the files I was originally looking at and opened them before the knock on my door.

“Come in,” I said, attempting to look like I hadn’t been caught doing something bad.

Lance walked in and sat in the chair in front of my desk, still looking like a college student. Sometimes, I wondered if he could really protect me.

“Are those the people she’s recommending?” he asked as he leaned forward.

I nodded, giving him the first file. “I like this one.”

“We need at least two more for the drop off,” he stated, as I gave him another one. “It would be great if there could be more, but?—”

“But quality over quantity.” I finished his sentence.

“Yes, but quantity might not be bad especially for our first drop,” he said, flipping through a file.

“We could always get rid of them afterwards,” I said, passing him another file.

“Exactly, I just don’t trust the men we are meeting,” he said, laying the files on my desk.

“I don’t think we should trust any man,” I said, leaning back against my chair. “Especially any man that trusted Kris.”

“You’re right,” he said, grabbing the ones we liked. “Come on, let’s see which assholes we keep.”

What did one wear to drop off a half ton of drugs?

How the fuck did I know? I dressed in black pants, a bullet proof vest and a red shirt with my hair in a high ponytail with comfortable shoes.

My leather jacket was lined with fur to keep me warm, but I had a gun strapped to me alongwith four knives hidden in my jacket, thanks to King.

Lance and I had chosen four men. Three had shown no interest in me being a woman; one was on the fence so he might need to be dealt with afterwards. We walked into the warehouse that Lance and Rogelio had scouted out before we arrived.

The man I was meeting was a big drug dealer in the west and apparently one of Kris’ best customers. If I could get through this deal, then most of my other deals would fall in line and I wouldn’t have to worry. They had followed his lead, and he followed our lead.

Jay Emmanual Galvan walked up to us with four men behind him. He was in a tailored suit that screamed he worked in a corporate world instead of peddling drugs. He had more diamonds on him than most women had touched in their lifetime and his face hardened when he saw me.

We had spoken on the phone, he knew about the change in power. From the look on his face this wasn’t going to be easy. He wasn’t happy about the change and if my guess was correct he was a misogynistic asshole, but I had what he needed so I hoped he would just tolerate me.

“So… sleeping your way to the top has worked for you?” Jay smirked.

“It gave me the opportunity to slit his throat and win my freedom,” I said, putting my hands in the pocket of my jacket to run my hand along the blade of one of my knives.

I wasn’t good at throwing like Boogie or King, but having it in my hand made me feel better. My guys were behind me which made me more vulnerable to a frontal attack, but I had to show that I wasn’t afraid.

Jay's eyebrows raised. “And did the Mayor give her blessing?”

“Would I be here if she hadn’t?” I said, lazily, appearing to be bored.

“So just like that, you become?—”

“Do you have a problem with her choice?” I snapped. “If that’s the case maybe we need to save ourselves a meeting and you can clear your shit with her, then you can have your product?”

His nostrils flared.

“You don’t want to mess with me, little girl,” he snarled.

“I’m not the one wasting time.” I walked forward. “Do you want the product or not?”

“You don’t want to alienate me,” he said, steppingforward.

“True, I don’t, but it seems you have a problem,” I said, as we stood face to face. He wasn’t that much taller than me, like my men.

He stared down at me, his jaw clenched tightly.

“The drugs are the same, take it or leave it,” I said softly, so only he could hear me. “We can continue this relationship with no?—”

He grabbed me by the back of the head and brought his knee to my head. Pain exploded across my face as he tried to let go of me, but I held onto him with one hand. With the other I pulled out the knife and pressed it into his dick.

“Do that again and I’ll make sure I cut your cock off and choke you with it,” I snarled, as blood poured out of my nose. “Stand down, Lance. I think this little piggy wants to live to fight another day.”

I didn’t have to turn around to see my guys had their guns drawn.

Jay stared down at me as I pushed the knife into his cock more. He stiffened, searching my face for something.

“I have no problem dying as long as you die with me. Right next to your pathetic cock is an artery that will have you bleeding out in less than five minutes,” I said, spitting out blood. “I’ve survived years with Kris. I’m not afraid of you, asshole.”

He didn’t move or say anything for a long minute before laughing. The fucking psycho laughed as he clapped my shoulder.

“Tu eres muy loca, and I like it,” he said, letting me go, but not before I slammed my palm up into his nose.

“Chinga tu pinche madre!” he yelled before he laughed like a maniac.

“Oh, Noelle, we might get along just fine, but next hit, I’ll fucking kill you,” he grinned.

I studied him for a moment before letting him go, wary that he was going to do something stupid while my guard was down.

“You started it, pendejo,” I said, wiping my mouth.

“Let me sample, Noelle, and I’ll get your money.” He smiled as he motioned his guys over, giving me his handkerchief. “I have a bathroom you can use if you’d like.

I shook my head. “Lance, sample.”

I was not going into a room where he could trap me, and I wanted to get the hell out of here.

Lance brought a suitcase with all the samples I needed.

My nose was still bleeding as Jay opened the suitcase, and Rogelio gave me a water bottle.

I rinsed my face off as best as I could while watching Jay sample everything.

The product was better than Kris’. I wasn’t cutting it as much, it was packaged better and if Jay stuck around, he would deal with less bullshit with me.

I don’t know how Kris had run Christmas Town for so long without running it into the ground. It was a fucking miracle he had made any profit, but I was starting to figure out that’s why he had sold women and children.

Jay snorted a line of coke and the moment it hit him I saw the devilish look in his eyes. “When you told me the price, I was ready to haggle you, but it seems you don’t operate like Kris,” he said, wiping his nose. “How bad was he fucking me over with product?”

“I can’t tell, but he was fucking over a lot of people,” I said. “Kris’ way of doing business isn’t how I will run things. This is business. I do well, you do well and that’s the way it’s going to be.”

Jay stared at me for too long before he motioned to one of his guys. Cash was brought out.

“D will finish out this transaction, but I look forward to working with you, Noelle,” Jay said, holding his hand out to me.

“You too, Jay,” I said, shaking his hand. “D, get her a drink and a fucking chair and anything else she wants.”

With that last command he left with a few men. It took twenty minutes to count the money and only until I was in our SUV did I let out my frustrations. My eyes watered and my body started to shake. I knew this was goingto be dangerous, and if Jay had wanted, he could have killed me and my men.

“You did great,” Lance said, as we drove off Jay’s property.

“For a moment, I thought he might kill us,” I sighed.

“It was a test,” he stated.

“A stupid dick measuring contest.” I rubbed my temples.

“We need more men,” Lance said softly from the driver seat.

“We need a fucking army.” My voice wavered as my adrenaline wore off.

Maybe Boogie’s and King’s concern was valid, maybe I was in over my head.