Page 4 of Trust In Me

As soon as he mentions that his little girl is just in the next room, I know he’s serious. We really are safe. I think once I got that straight in my mind, it was easier then for me to really take in what’s happening in front of me. The dangerous aspect of it is almost thrilling, and I think the way my heart is racing has everything to do with the situation, and nothing at all to do with the gorgeous man currently squeezing my hand, breathing all over my ear. Seriously, as soon as his breath touches me, it’s like he ignites a match that burns straight to my core.

“Now, you all know how very fucking serious I am about running this Family business. I want to set the record straight about some recent events, and get them dealt with officially. I hope this will give you a bit of insight into how I will be running this business. Then, at the end, if you feel you don’t want to remain in business with me, that’s perfectly fine, just let me know. But let me make one thing very fucking clear, if you walk away from me, you better be walking away from the business in general. Whatever it is you deal in, I am the only Family, the only person running London. You want to go work somewhere else, then go. But, if you stay in London, you are my competition and that makes you my enemy. You are about to see how I deal with people who become my enemy.” Bree’s voice has taken on a sharp edge and at the end she almost snarls, and I can tell she’s mad. Her lip is curled upwards and her eyes narrow.

Wow, I definitely have never seen this side of Bree before. Just as I was thinking how shit scary my fiery redheaded friend is, Kian, who I hadn’t even noticed was missing, comes in through another side door, and has three big, burly men with him, who each have what appears to be prisoners with them.

Kian’s men are dragging three people who definitely look like they’ve seen better days. They’re all young men, probably a few years older than me. They have all taken one hell of a beating and have their hands tied together with zip ties, and their eyes are blindfolded with a piece of cloth. Once he has them in position in the centre of the stage, the men holding them let go and all three men fall to their knees next to where Bree is standing. Kian walks over to her side, not because he is needed, but because it’s a show of solidarity that the audience seems to understand straight away.

“As you all know, recently I was kidnapped, tortured, and assaulted. Thanks to the amazing friends and family I have by my side, they stopped at nothing to rescue me. These recent events have made me think long and hard, not only about the idea that I need to be very careful about who I keep in my circle and in my employment, but also about how you see me as a boss.” Bree does an amazing job of projecting her voice across the room, and it’s amazing that a room full of men are just watching, enraptured by every single word.

“When I took over from my father as leader, I met with all your firms individually, discussed with you all whether you wanted to align with me, and you all pledged your allegiance. After that, I didn’t think we would have any issues, but apparently there were a few of you that gave me your support, while secretly you were plotting against me. The three men you see behind me are the leaders of these groups. Jedd Sinclair, Matt Hitchins, and Brody Thomas. They each have teams who they rule, but they work for me. Except, it would appear, they were plotting behind my back to overthrow me. Apparently they believe a woman is too weak to rule. Jedd, what do you have to say for yourself?” Bree asks, as she stands in front of the man nearest my side of the stage.

As Kian pulls the blindfold off and Jedd sees the warehouse full of people, he knows he’s in trouble. I see the fear flash in his eyes from my position at the side of the makeshift stage. But he tries to hide it, jutting his chin out and holding his head high. Despite the blood pouring down his face from a cut above his eye, he tries to look professional.

“I don’t believe you are a suitable leader. My crew will never follow your lead!” shouts Jedd, as he launches himself forward, trying to get to his feet and reach Bree. Kian wastes no time in slamming his fist into his face. The crunch of bone against bone echoes loudly, and I can’t help but squirm slightly in my seat.

That’s when I feel Kellan’s hand squeeze mine, and his breath against my neck. Fuck, I wish he would stop doing that, it’s driving me insane, and now I’m squirming for another reason. “Are you okay? If you want to leave, that’s fine. Things are about to get a lot worse.”

I whisper confirmation that I’m okay, and I see Liam wastes no time jumping to stand by Bree’s side, always ready to protect her. I also see, behind their backs, Liam hands Bree a gun and my heart starts to race. Of course I knew what was going to happen here. But knowing it, and then seeing it are two very different things.

“Jedd’s crew, please walk to the front of the stage. Now!” Bree yells, and about half a dozen young-looking guys walk forward.

“This is the CR0, they are based in Croydon,” Kian explains and Bree gives him a small smile. I suspect she knew that, since they work together so well, almost like two sides of the same coin.

“Which of you would become the leader of CR0 if Jedd here was no longer around?” Bree asks the group of men.

All eyes fly to the man standing at the edge of the group. Collectively, there are about twelve men who look to be between the ages of around sixteen and thirty, if that. The group is made up of men from various ethnicities, but the majority are men of colour. They all are wearing tracksuits or sweatpants, vest tops, and far too much gold jewellery. Clearly, these boys thought they were gangsters, a couple even have necklaces and tattoos that say as much.

Without a single shred of solidarity for their friend, Jedd, on the stage, their eyes fly to who looks to be the eldest member of the group. He takes a minor step forward, and pulls his posture higher, jutting out his chin defiantly. I don’t miss the way Bree cocks her eyebrow at him, showing she doesn’t appreciate his challenging behaviour, something he quickly rectifies.

“I’m Dante, second in command at CR0.” Much to my surprise, he sounds more confident than I expected. His Jamaican accent doesn’t seem consistent with a kid who was clearly raised in Croydon, as he would need to have been with the gang for a while to reach this leadership role.

“Well, Dante, today you have a big decision to make, and not just for yourself but for the whole of the CR0s. By that, I do mean each and every member that isn’t here too. As you know, Jedd here has admitted that he doesn’t think I am a suitable leader, and that he was plotting my downfall. I know that as soon as he found out I was in hospital, he made plans to move against me. He actually paid someone to come into my hospital room to try and kill me. Only problem is, your fearless leader here isn’t all that smart. You see, the best assassin in the world is Liam here, so he knew he couldn’t use him. So he asked around for the second best. He made the stupid mistake of not doing any real research on the assassin. It turns out the second best actually trained with Liam, because it’s his brother, Evan.” She pauses briefly to look over at Evan, and so does Jedd. Evan gives Jedd, followed by everyone else, a slight nod, clearly not a fan of being in the limelight—I don’t fucking blame him!—and then all eyes are back on Bree, as Jedd finds his voice.

“You asshole. I thought you wanted her downfall too. You told me you were doing this for your family,” he screams, but Bree cuts him off with her laugh. To the rest of the people in the room she looks carefree, but I can see the lies. The beads of sweat collecting along her forehead, thanks to the pain she is no doubt in.

“Shut up, you cuntwaffle. He works with me, which means he told you what you needed to hear. It’s not your fault you sang like a canary, and to anyone wondering, he is the reason I have so much information on other groups within this organisation.” At this point, there are more boos and hisses from the crowd, and I see the boys in front huddle together as they clearly fear for their lives.

“SILENCE!” Kian’s scream attracts everyone’s attention, and is more than enough to silence their pantomime theatrics.

“Back to my original point. Dante, there is no saving Jedd. Your friend is gone, that leaves you in charge. I would like to build a relationship with the CR0 crew, and specifically with you—as their new leader—but it will not be easy. You will be on probation, and will not have the freedom you had before, not until I trust you properly. I have to be able to trust you as a crew to work for me, without wanting to stab me in the back. If you decide you wish to continue working with me, and can overlook the fact that I have a vagina, then I will arrange a meeting with you and we can get things officially registered with you as the leader. However, if you decide you don’t want to be a leader, you don’t want to work with me, or you don’t like the fact that I’m imposing restrictions, then this is where we will run into trouble. You need to decide right now. You have the few minutes it takes me to deal with Jedd to come up with a decision. Do you understand or have any questions?” Bree asks, as she circles around so that she’s standing in front of Jedd but off to the side slightly. Her body is lined up to face me, but at this angle everyone can see both her face and Jedd’s.

Dante is a little scared to speak, but after some cajoling from his group, he does. “I’m sorry, ma’am. Please can I just ask, if we align with you, will the mistakes we made under a different rule go away? And if we don’t align with you, what will happen to us? I only ask this because there are a few members who want the whole picture before making a decision.”

An evil mask descends across Bree’s face. “If you don’t align with me, you will be punished along with Jedd,” she explains, before turning slightly towards the rest of the room. “You have all heard my evidence. Jedd, do you have anything you would like to say for yourself? One of the things I want to be able to pride myself on during this reign is fairness. If you think you are being treated unfairly, speak up now.”

Jedd’s face crumples with rage, and hatred spills out. “You’re a dumb bitch. My crew will never follow you, no matter what threats you make. They will always follow me beca—”

Before he even gets a chance to finish his sentence, Bree brings the gun out from behind her back, and with Liam holding firmly on to her side, she stabilises herself, before shooting Jedd right between the eyes. His blood splatters all across the stage, and I get hit across my jeans with some residual spray. I can’t help the scared little yelp I emit. The very dead man crumples to the floor, and knowing I have blood and brain matter splattered across my trousers more than excuses my girlie screams—in my opinion.

“Now you have your choice to make. Is it true, are you incapable of following my rule, and you’re prepared to go down with Jedd? Or, are you with me?” Bree asks a very shocked-looking Dante. All the colour drains from his face, as he looks between his leader's body, and his real leader.

“We would be happy to work with you, ma’am,” Dante stutters.

Bree gives him a wide smile before hobbling over to the edge of the stage, nearest where Dante is standing. She reaches over, holding her hand out for him to shake. “I like you, Dante, you seem like a very smart man.”

Bang, bang, bang. The men on the stage are taken care of. One by one, the shots ring out, and screams of fear fill the room as Bree doesn’t even remotely give them a chance to argue their cases. I guess there’s no such thing as second chances in this business. You leave the wrong person alive in this industry, and it could result in your death.

“Thank you so much for bearing with me today. I know some of you may refer to this as a dramatic stunt, or me trying to flop out my dick in a how big is your penis competition, but it really isn’t. The reason I’m doing this is to show you that no amount of disloyalty will be tolerated. The men that were on this stage, they had the nerve to dare to speak out against me, but one man went a step further. He plotted, he helped get me kidnapped, and as a result I was physically harmed. So much so, it killed my baby. But the worst part is, this man was part of my inner circle. I would have trusted him above all others, but he betrayed me, and that is unforgivable,” Bree explains to the room, and they all know she is talking about Jimmy.

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