will be done, boss,” Angel’s voice sounded in my ear.
“You have given me a gift,” Devil replied.
Angel was a smooth killer. She would do her job, and she would do it swiftly and with precision: clean and orderly. Devil was somewhat of a different case. She was a precise type of killer, and although she was an expert behind a sniper rifle, the woman loved taking her time with death. She lived to make her victims suffer. If you got between her and a kill, you were next.
Devil was a former government agent who had worked mainly off-the-books cases. Angel was a former Marine. Devi and Angie were my idea of perfection, twins that had doctorate level degrees in the art of death, and they’d been my guardian angels for over four years.
They were who I called each time I knew I needed a little extra special help. A death order of the magnitude that I had just placed would launch a full-scale investigation, no matter where these men were located. I was certain that the FBI and maybe a few other high-level law enforcement agencies would take a peek.
Once the dust settled, I planned to make moves to take back the territory that Raymond had foolishly allowed the Haitians to have. Rumor had it, he had lost the territory in a card game. After the way he had gambled on the entire livelihood of the Black Saints, it was wise to believe the rumors were true.
Once we were all back inside the vehicle safely, we prepared to drive away without a hitch, leaving Trench’s men to clean up the mess I was leaving behind. I didn’t worry about them reporting me to the cops, and even if someone did, I wasn’t aiming a weapon when Trench’s brains were blown out.
I had climbed into the back seat next to Tash, who sat in the middle. I took her small hand, closing mine tight around hers as she laid her head on my shoulder.
“I’m sorry, Tash.”
When she started to say something, I shushed her.
“Relax for a minute. Take a moment and breathe,” I told her.
As we drove away, she lifted her head and stretched her neck to glance back at what had more than likely been her hell for the past twenty-four hours.
“Tash,” I whispered her name.
“Yes,” she answered, her small hand squeezing around mine.
“Who touched you beside Trench and the one holding the rope?”
26
Mecca
“Take us to Jackson Regional,” I instructed Marshawn. I was not taking Tash to that dump my cousin recovered in. I had considered upgrading Rayland to a better hospital, but he had been right where he needed to be.
“I’m okay, Mecca. I don’t need to go to the hospital.” Tash said, lifting her head from my shoulder.
“No. You’re not. I should have gotten you the fuck away from there the moment you started working for me.”
Most of the men that worked for me chose to live on or near the territory they ran. Although they preferred to stay close to where they worked, I made sure they had their own places.
Some wanted to get away from their families, and others wanted to upgrade their families. They all wanted better, and although slinging dope wasn’t a moral career path, it was all some of us had.
“I’ll get you your own place after you’re discharged from this hospital. And you will be going to boot camp. You have to know how to protect yourself,” I briefed, attempting a stern voice, but too emotional to pull it off.
I called it boot camp, but over the years, I had invested in a facility of my own with only top notch trainers like former military and former special forces types who ate, slept, and breathed effective survival and evasion methods.
My heart was hurting for Tash. No one would know my true level of despair because I had learned to suppress my emotions. They usually reemerged as anger.
“Okay,” Tash replied without protest. She didn’t know it, but she was on my shortlist of people I would go to hell for like my cousin, Desiree, and now my husband, who was probably going to kill me for pulling a stunt like this one.
There was no doubt in my mind, the extra fire power I spotted earlier was coming from men he had sent. He may have even been one of them.
Once I had Tash checked in to one of the best rooms in the hospital, I requested a private talk with her doctor.