Page 89 of Cut Me Down

“When?” Damien asks curiously.

“One week from Friday.”

“Well, we’d better be ready. Anyone else get this?”

“Yep. Every restaurant, a few nail salons, the massage parlor, the vitamin shop, DJ's gun shop, Until Dawn, a few other bars, and Cut Me Down.” I feel a small pang in my chest.

“Emmett won’t sell the building.” I say as a sudden wave of protectiveness floods me.

“Right, but that might cause more problems for him. I'll talk to him before the party. Tell him what he can expect.” Damien says as Carter turns around in his chair. Looking over Damien’s hair and face with an intrigued but satisfied look.

“You look good, man.” He does look really good, I'm actually quite proud of myself. I took his hair off of his ears and neck and kept the top a little longer than I probably should have, but damn he looks good with my work on his head.

“Thanks, I have a pretty good barber.” He smirks and winks at me. “Anything else?”

“Always. That Adrien kid from the podcast? He’s selling fucking DH merch now. ‘I support DH’ flags and bumper stickers and shit. It’s ridiculous.” Carter rolls his eyes.

“Jesus Christ, what are we a trend on TikTok?” I chuckle at Damien’s shock.

“What? You haven’t seen the merch yet? I almost bought one.” I tease, smiling at him.

“Are you going to put it in a glass on top of your station?”

“Maybe.” He smirks at me slyly and looks back at Carter.

“Merch causing problems?” He asks, and Carter looks between us both with an approving smile.

“Not yet, but he is gaining a pretty serious following on his channels.”

“Fine, we’ll deal with him later. More?”

“Yeah, Caleb and Kit found another warehouse. Pretty big, holding about twenty women, but they’ve added additional security, even more from the one last night.” Damien’s face sours.

“So, they’re ready for us.”

“Seem to be.”

“Okay, have you picked up any voices on the equipment?”

“None, they have bots running interference. I’m working on bypassing them now, but they run on a three-minute loop, with only a three-second interchange, so it’s going to take time.” Damien nods.

“You’re good, do what you can and let me know what you find out.”

“You got it. How was Marissa?” Carter asks with sadness now laced in his tone.

“About as good as could be expected.” He turns to me. “Henry’s wife.” I nod in acknowledgement as he turns back to Carter. Damien's face turning stern. “We got to do something to let them know they can’t fuck with us.”

“Hopefully we’ll get the opportunity soon, I'll let you know what chatter I pick up, but we might have to use Operation Transfer. The warehouse itself is pretty guarded and armed, but there’s only so much they can do when they move the load.”

“True. If you find out anything about the warehouse, and Zeke thinks he can handle it while we're gone, let him take point.” Carter nods. “Anything from Sahara?”

“Kade reached out, said they’re having more trafficking problems in Seattle. He said they wanted to reach out and let us know they didn’t forget, but that they’re busy.”

“I get it. Especially if they’re dealing with Dust and trafficking too. How are you with the Brittany thing?”

“Oh, I'm good man, you were right, she’s a bitch.” He leans close to me.

“His now ex-girlfriend.” He whispers and I nod my head. Oh, so single Carter? I pull out my phone and discreetly text Ser. “Housing project?” Damien’s voice pulls me away from my phone.