Page 23 of Explode
“Riley, it’s Ash.”
They’d taken to calling me Boss or Ma’am after I conceded andaccepted the responsibility placed on my shoulders. But after about an hour of them calling me that, I snapped and told them never to call me that again or I’d slice their balls off. They listened, they’d called me Riley ever since.
Placing the phone on speaker so Miles could hear, I held the phone inthe palm of my hand. “Hey, Ash. We’re on our way out of Forest Point. We should be hitting the city border in about ten minutes. And guess what, Miles is getting married!”
Miles glared at me, and I chuckled.
“He is?” Ash replied, confusion in his tone. “Wait, we’ll come back tothat. Riley, we’ve just had some hot intel. Alex Barnes is at Club Sin waiting for a drug drop.”
My mood darkened in an instant.
Alex Barnes was the prick who killed Jacqueline when Hendrixconvinced me to leave the panic room all those months ago. He lured me out claiming he would kill Jacqueline, and then my friend Kendra if I didn’t leave the panic room. When I did leave, knowing full well I’d be walking into a trap, I stupidly thought I’d saved Jacqueline’s life. That was until we reached the staff lodge where I found Hendrix had killed Thomas, the butler, and then he instructed Alex to kill Jacqueline.
Jacqueline wasn’t just Kai’s maid. She looked after me from the veryminute Kai brought me home. She helped me shower and dress when my arm was in a sling after my shoulder had been dislocated. She convinced me to go ahead with the wedding to Kai. She was willing to sacrifice her life to keep me locked away in the panic room. Not to mention the years she had spent looking after Kai.
She was so much more than a maid.
In the days after Kai’s death, and when Miles and I started ourplanning, I made it crystal clear that Alex would die painfully for what he did to Jacqueline. Until now, we hadn’t had an opportunity to snatch him off the street and make him pay, he was always glued to Hendrix’s side.
It looked like our luck had changed.
“How many?” Miles asked, turning serious and entering badassmode.
“Ten in total. With the three of us and you two, we could easily takethem down,” Ash replied.
Miles looked over at me. “What do you think?”
“I think the fucker needs to die,” I replied without hesitation. I’d seenthese guys work, killing nine gang members and kidnapping Alex would be a walk in the park.
“We’ll head to East Bay then,” Ash said. In the background, theengine of his truck rumbled to life. “We’ll get obs on. RV on Sand Street.”
In the last few months, I’d learned all about their codewords whichwas a good job otherwise I wouldn’t have had a fucking clue what they were on about. They were going to set up observations near Club Sin so they could keep tabs on the comings and goings. When we were near, we’d meet them at the rendezvous point so we could all head in together.
Pulling off the freeway an exit earlier than anticipated, we headed forHollows Bay. Nerves sprung to life in my belly. If we were successful, it’d be another step closer to destroying Hendrix.
It would be risky, more so than usual. When we’d made previousappearances, it was in the dead of night, and we had the rest of the team with us to ensure we could go undetected. Now, it was the middle of the day, and we only had half of the team, but this was too good of an opportunity to pass up. Besides, we were heading for East Bay, the land that time forgot.
If East Bay was a dump when Kai ruled, it was like a shanty town nowHendrix was in charge. Poverty was at an all-time high, drug dealing and prostitution was rife, and The Stags ruled with an iron fist. Hendrix had put so much effort into conquering West Bay that he forgot about the people of East Bay.
Kai always said you had to have the rich and poor factions for a cityto work. There could be no Yin without Yang. Under the guidance of Max, what Hendrix had achieved was putting all his efforts into the Yin, and now the people in the Yang were suffering. And that only meant one thing. They were turning against the hand that wasn’t feeding them.
As for Club Sin, the girls who worked there tried to keep it runningafter Diana died but they didn’t know the first thing about running a strip club. The only one who did have some business sense was my only friend, Kendra, but when Hendrix used the threat of hurting Kendra to lure me out of the panic room, I feared he would threaten her again to lure me out of hiding.
Using some of Kai’s money, I moved Kendra, Zara, and Kendra’sboyfriend, Dion, out of Hollows Bay under the guise of Kendra inheriting a house from a grandma she’d never met. They were currently living a life of luxury somewhere in South America.
Hendrix gifted Club Sin to Carlos when he took over Hollows Bay,and Carlos turned Club Sin from a semi-reputable club into the pits of hell. Girls were forced to fuck clients or face not just losing their jobs but their homes too. In order to get through fucking vile and dirty men, they’d take a shit load of drugs to forget what they had to do. They’d then get addicted and need more drugs to survive, resulting in them getting into debt with Carlos who would make them work doubly hard to pay off their debt.
It was a vicious circle, and one I was determined to end.
As we made our way through the streets of East Bay, I kept low in myseat. I need not have bothered, the windows of the SUV we were in were tinted, and it wasn’t a vehicle that would stand out of the ordinary in East Bay. No one gave us a second look as we headed toward the club.
Miles finally turned the SUV into Sand Street, and into an alleyopposite the entrance to Club Sin. Parked in the alley was an innocuous white van that no one would give a second thought to being parked there. Inside was a different story.
Miles and I jumped out of our SUV, and as we approached the side ofthe van, the door slid open and Tank offered his hand to pull me up. Even though I’d seen the inside of the van dozens of times, I was still in awe at how impressive it was.
The back of the van had been turned into a mobile war room. Therewere computers and screens showing camera footage and maps, radios used to talk to those who were outside the van on whatever mission they were on, and a huge locker filled with weapons. On one of the screens was aerial footage of Club Sin.
“Jack got the drone up as soon as we got the intel,” Ash said,seeing me watching the screen. “We’ve had eyes on for the last two hours, and aside from Alex and the others, no one has been near or by.”
