Page 64 of Papa's Beloved

“Jimmy bakes?”

“We all do,” Papa says. “Mom made sure we could all cook. She said it would make our wives happy one day.”

“She’s a smart woman.”

Both men chuckle.

“Are you out having a nice walk?” Gambit asks.

“We are picking a home site. How do you feel about having neighbors?” Papa asks.

“I love the idea. We’ll get the brothers crew on it ASAP.”

We spend the next few minutes talking to Gambit. Stormy comes out and joins us. I feel a sense of peace I haven’t felt for a long time. Maybe I can do this. Have a happy life. A husband, children and a job I love.

All those nights I spent with perverted men and women, I never imagined I’d be anything but dead at this age.

Our fingers threaded together, we walk to the Bodega. Papa grabs a card and I grab one of the pads. The pads are to keep inventory. You scan the items you grab off the shelves and the pad records it and adjusts the inventory. When the stock is below fifty percent, it emails notification to Stormy. Wizard set it up.

“Stormy did an amazing job,” I say.

“She knocked it out of the park fo’ sure,” Papa replies.

Papa and I spend the next half an hour playing around in the bodega. We each have several bags to carry back. I needed to work off that second slice of pie anyway.

Chapter 48

Papa

The last few days were hectic. We had members from our allied clubs come in, as well as most of the members from our Baton Rouge chapter. The new Houston chapter showed up in force with every member coming to take part in tonight’s war games. Only it’s not a game. It’s for real. Tonight we wipe a fuck ton of scum off the face of the earth.

The cleaners are ready. They even brought in back up from a few other cities. Bastian and Outlaw have their bayou brothers on standby to help with cleanup or warfare if needed.

Two days ago, Detective Stone called us to inform us they’d found Doctor Ethan Montgomery tortured and murdered. Vega and Simmons, now prospecting for the Kings, discovered information at Montgomery’s home that ties him to Linden and the Dawgs. Piece of shit got what he deserved. He was their backup plan to nab Nay. Stupid paranoid fucker left us detailed notes in an encrypted file on his hard drive.

It took Wizard all of five minutes to crack the encryption. If we were the type to go to the police, we could turn it over and take down the Dawgs, Linden, and a few others in the human trafficking ring. Instead, we’ll keep the information on the others for future use. This is one too many times human trafficking has touched the life of one of our women.

Last night in emergency church, we decided we were going to work to take down the traffickers in our city once and for all. Bug is going to use his government access and contacts. Nitro’s friend is using his mafia connections to suss out information forus. I have no idea how long it’ll take us to do this, but it will get done.

I can’t begin to imagine the horrors these men, women, and children have gone through at the hands of monsters. When you work black ops, you get to see a lot of monsters. The underbelly of the earth is far darker than most can imagine, and I hope never to experience.

“Papa, are you ready?” Gambit asks.

I turn my attention back to the president, best friend, and tactical leader.

“Beyond. I can’t wait to wipe Linden from the face of the earth.”

We were all gathered in Lagniappe. There are nearly fifty of us not including prospects. A contingent is staying here to protect the woman and children. We would never, under any circumstances, leave them.

Four groups of ten men are hitting four different targets. With eight men and three prospects left to stay behind to guard the compound.

Smoke, Sentry, Ryker, and Reaper leading teams. Gambit is the mission commander. After Gambit goes over the mission plans, we head to the club's armory and load up. It has everything we need: weapons, explosives, night vision goggles, gear, etc.

Our cargo vans pull up a few blocks away from the Marriot. Linden is staying in the penthouse suite. We make our way into the back and a well-paid employee is slipping us in and taking us to the roof.

Smoke, Blue, and Freak are going down the stairs. While a fully armored Angel, Rook, Cobra are taking the elevator up from one floor down. Gambit and I are repelling down from the roof and going in through the windows. Earlier today, when the window washers were there, we had them score a window tomake it easier for us to break through. Two men are on standby. They’ll move where needed.

I check my watch at the same time I see Gambit check his. We’re less than two minutes away from go time. Each man has a com linked to his unit. Smoke and Angel gave us the signal that why were in place.

---