Vicious Rebel (82 Street Vandals #2) - Heather Long Page 0,9

back to Emersyn. I’d damn well kissed her the night before, then shit went down, and I hadn’t fucking seen her since.

That rasped over every nerve like rough sandpaper. As much as I hated doing it, I boxed up my thoughts of her and secured them in the back of my mind. Fucking Freddie had better be okay, or I’d kill him and everyone else involved.

The rats followed us, fanning out. One by one, they peeled off, including one heading up to a roof to give us eyes on high. Our route back to the cars would be protected, and we’d have warning if they’d been compromised. No one left unattended wheels when strolling into someone else’s territory.

Define irony.

I’d cut the finger off the 19 Diamond who walked into my territory looking for his men. Now, here we were, in search of one of our own. Now ask me if I gave a fuck about irony?

By the time we reached the red curtained doors to the club, there were four rats still with us. More than enough to get the job done.

I rolled my head from side to side, cracking the vertebrae, then nodded to Vaughn. He took doors first. Not that he was bulletproof or anything, but he was just that fucking fast. The speed at which he took doors and the guards on them was equivalent to a freight train. The crunch of fist on bone and the hollow explosions of harsh releases of breath were my cue to follow. I caught the guy swinging for Vaughn’s back with my bat. The crunch of bone in his arm sent him staggering.

It was also the moment that literally cracked the silence of our assault. Kellan hit the stairs with two of the four rats right behind him. The room was thick with a haze of smoke. The room reeked of dope, and it left our targets in a literal lazy state of response.

More than a few were too out of it to even notice we’d invaded or respond until we were literally on top of them. The girls noticed though. I’d give them that. One girl pulled off a cock she’d been riding and hopped from one foot to the other as she jerked down her skirt.

I pointed to the other side of the room with the bat, and she went. Fifteen minutes after storming inside, we had fourteen males present—all 19 Ds—and eight women. Two were club bitches, from the looks of them, the rest were just whores hanging out for a good time.

Trusting Kellan to deal with them, I studied those present. Meeks wasn’t here, nor was his second, a weaselly little fuck named Twister. Middle management made for a good second in some groups. Twister might be a useless, skinny shit in a fight, but the man could spin shit into dough and they made a pretty penny off him.

Vaughn stood like my silent shadow as I swept my gaze over the men in front of me. Some of them were too stoned to take this seriously. Hell, we were all gonna be a little high before we walked out of here. The bar wasn’t called The Smokestack for nothing.

I rested the bat against my shoulders, hooking my hands over the ends as much to keep them away from the guns and the knives as to give myself time to choose carefully.

Honestly, I knew maybe two of the faces. Three if I counted the bartender, but he was old-school Braxton Harbor and while he was a 19D, it was more because they owned The Smokestack than anything else and it offered him a form of protection. I dismissed him immediately. He knew everything and would share exactly nothing.

That was how he kept his cushy position.

Fuck it.

“I’m only asking this once,” I began, keeping my voice at a civil tone and perfectly pleasant.

I was aware of the conversation going on to my left, where Kellan was interrogating the ladies. The fact that no fewer than three had sighed and tittered with laughter said he’d worked his magic, so I shoved them out of my mind. He’d pull me into the conversation if he got anything useful from them.

“I’m looking for Freddie Dunlap.” I didn’t miss the recognition flickering in some eyes but not in others. One pair of unfocused eyes took on a sharper look. I’d keep track of those. The guy would need to be slightly less stoned to motivate. “Be straight with me, and we’ll