Page 18 of Beautiful Soldier

“Magnum, I need some of the guys still there to check something out. We got wind that a junior guy might have been found in the old fight warehouse this morning.”

Oscar sits forward. “Junior guy?”

“Farmingham,” Johnny explains.

“Farmingham? We never recruited him.”

“But we were, and I don’t think Gregory’s guys ever got the memo. We think it’s a retaliation killing.”

Oscar’s leg jumps up and down. “So, you don’t think they’re backing down?”

K shrugs. “We’ve got to find that out, but I can’t let them think they’re getting to us, so everything is back on as of now. Start the fights again. Get back into the school, recruit, recruit, recruit. I’m sending some guys home today, and we’ll follow shortly. Everyone else is getting the same instructions. Johnny’s returning early to run Candy’s in Dunnegan’s…” He smiles. “...failure to remain alive.”

I can’t help it. I drift my gaze toward Johnny. His shiner doesn’t detract from his good looks, and now I’ll be seeing him soon. He’s going to take Candy’s over. He should since the new club aspect was genius. He took a high-class strip joint and made it into the place to be. He deserves to take that business over.

What the hell am I thinking? It’s a Crew-owned business, and he needs to get as far away from it as possible.

“Keep me updated,” K says, before leaning forward to shut the video down without giving me the chance to look at Johnny one more time.

Mag leans forward and shuts the laptop.

“Who’s Farmingham?” I ask first. I have a lot more questions, but they’ll wait. This seemed like the biggest piece of news since it might be directly related to Gregory.

Oscar’s jaw hardens. He runs his hands down his thighs. “He’s the guy you called out that day in lunch.” He turns toward me just a fraction. “You slammed his head into the table.”

I gasp. “That’s Farmingham? He’s dead?”

Oscar gets to his feet. “The guy was a fucking dumbass, but shit.”

Guilt seeps into my skin like a wet blanket weighing me down.

The door opens behind Oscar, and Brawler walks in. He catches my face, and immediately asks, “What’s wrong?”

Oscar turns toward me. What he sees makes him move forward. “You didn’t do this.”

“You didn’t recruit him because of me,” I say, knowing already that it’s true. They don’t even have to tell me.

Magnum takes a quick second to update Brawler before Oscar’s jaw starts ticking again. “Yes, and it still didn’t matter. He still wound up dead even though he wasn’t a part of the Crew.”

The guy was an asshole and a douchebag, but I didn’t want him to die. “What are the chances this is a message?”

Magnum speaks up now. “We treat every time someone in the Crew dies as a possible message from our enemies. Especially if they died under suspicious circumstances. I don’t know anything about this kid’s death yet though.”

“Gregory probably got antsy because everyone left, and he couldn’t find anyone important to send the message, so he started at the bottom.”

“The bottom? He wasn’t even on the bottom,” Brawler says.

“If he’s starting at the bottom, I need to put the word out at the school.”

I grab Oscar’s hand before he can turn away. “How many Crew members go to school?”

“It’s not just the members,” Oscar says, clearly distracted. “It’s apparently anyone who wants to recruit in.” He motions toward the side of the laptop. “I got you that phone. Johnny’s orders. I already gave out your new number to everyone. I’ll call you later.”

Oscar pulls the keys to his bike from his pocket as he exits Mag’s apartment.

“To answer your question,” Brawler says. “So many recruits. More than half the guys at school want to join. For some of them, it’s their only choice for anything. But there’s about ten junior members who are already in.”

My head spins. I’d only looked at major players when I researched the Crew. I don’t know why, but I never thought about all the little guys. The young ones, like me, getting caught up in this life when you could have some psycho like Gregory decide he wants to take you out to send a message to the higher-ups.

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