Page 2 of Explode
If I was honest, I was surprised it had taken this length of time forthem to retaliate. But it didn’t matter if they did, we were prepared for a war. On the night I killed Kai, Max’s gang, The Stags, were on standby to storm the city and take over Kai’s gang, The Shadows.
Within an hour of news breaking that Kai had died, I gave the order forthem to strike, and they successfully claimed the streets.
Every single gang member of The Shadows was given an option-work for me, or die. Suffice to say, most chose the sensible option to work for me. The gangs combined, and under the name of The Stags, I now had a powerful street gang at my disposal.
So yeah, we were ready if the Bianchis wanted to bring a war to thecity.
It was possible that other families were behind the murders. Nowword had spread to other cities that I was in charge, any number of Kai’s old enemies could be behind the deaths, making a play for my city. I was only too happy to let them bring the war to my door.
It was time for the world to find out just how powerful I could be.
Another few minutes passed, and there was still no sign of Jacob. Icursed under my breath. The fucker better have a good reason for his lateness. I pulled my phone out and tried calling him, but like the last four times I’d tried, there was no answer.
“Fucking hell,” I roared, my voice echoing around the large space ofthe warehouse.
I’d just taken a large delivery of cocaine that was being cut andseparated in the back. The sooner Jacob got here, the sooner we could get the product moving, and the sooner money would come in.
I resisted the urge to throw my phone against the wall, settlinginstead with firing a text to Jacob telling him to phone me as soon as he could or expect to be having a one way conversation with my gun.
“Maybe he’s busy fucking one of those pretty girls at Sapphire,”Lawrence, one of my men, sniggered. He annoyed me, he always had to make a sarcastic comment or a joke, and quite frankly, he’d tested my patience once too often.
He was one of the original Stags, and not someone Carlos Rigby wasa fan of either. Fuck knows why Carlos, the head of The Stags, put up with him for as long as he had.
I stopped my pacing in front of him and smirked as if laughing at hiscomment. After all, Jacob did like to spend most nights at the club, fucking one of the whores who worked there.
Without warning, I whipped my gun out. Lawrence’s eyes widened infear before the light was snuffed out. The bang from my gun reverberated off the walls as Lawrence’s body crumpled to the floor, blood pooling from the gaping hole in his head.
The few men who had chuckled at Lawrence’s witty remark fell silentand stood to attention, their gazes anywhere but at me or the dead body, not wanting to end up like their comrade.
“About fucking time,” Alex muttered under his breath, smirking atthe blood oozing from the hole in Lawrence’s forehead.
As I was putting my gun away, a loud screeching noise camefrom outside, the sound of wheels spinning. Instead of putting my gun away, I held it firmly in my hand, safety off, and ready to fire again. Storming over to the door, I yanked it open in time to see a dark van come to a brief stop at least twenty feet away. I raised my gun but everything happened quickly.
The side door of the van slid open, and a body was thrown out by amasked figure. The van took off before the door was even closed. I fired my gun at the retreating vehicle, but all my bullets did was ricochet off the bodywork as the van sped out of the compound.
There was no license plate, no marks on the van, nothing to identifythe black van from any other black van in Hollows Bay. It was eerily familiar to the time me and some Stags delivered the dead body of Isaac to Kai all those months ago.
The men who had been standing behind me leaped forward thesecond I’d fired my weapon, and they too had drawn their guns but lowered them when the van disappeared.
“Go check!” I ordered Alex.
He scanned the area before approaching the body, his gun poisedready to fire if needed. When he reached the body, he kicked it before rolling it over. Even with the distance between where I was standing and the body, I could see it was Jacob.
Alex’s face paled. “Boss, you better come and see this.”
I crossed the lot, the closer I got, the easier it was to see exactly whathad happened to him. I swallowed down the hint of disappointment as I reached Alex’s side and looked down at the body. Good men were hard to find.
Jacob didn’t have a top on. Instead, his torso was covered in blackand blue bruises, along with dried blood. Lots of dried blood from slash wounds which had started to scab over, implying they had been caused at least several hours ago, if not longer.
The last time I spoke to Jacob was over twenty-four hours ago whenI’d arranged to meet him at the warehouse. Whoever had done this to him had tortured him for at least the duration of a day.
His injuries were obvious- dislocated shoulders, smashedkneecaps, fingers chopped off. But those injuries weren’t what made the bile rise in my throat.
Carved into his forehead was the word:
‘COWARD’
The blood in my veins turned into a raging inferno as I stared down atthe carving. The word held only one meaning, but before I had time to process it, the shrill ring of a phone sounded, making both Alex and me jump out of our fucking skins. It took a few seconds to realize the ringing was coming from Jacob’s pants.
