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Joe struggles against his binds as Zade moves back to his position across the room, more than ready to stand here all night and wait it out. “Don’t fight against it, Joe,” he says. “You’re only making it worse.”
Joe rasps in agony as I let out a heavy sigh and check my watch. It’s only eight in the evening. This could be a long night.
Taking a seat on Joe’s couch, I let Venom explore, but she stays close, not one to get too far away. The silence is too heavy, and I glance up at Joe. “Yo, what’s that smell out the back? Have you got someone rotting back there? It was fucking putrid.”
Joe glances at me and spits at my feet, and I roll my eyes. This bullshit is always the same with assholes trying to act tough when they know they’re backed into a corner. I prefer it when they’re screaming.
Dalton makes his way through the living room, looking at all of Joe’s possessions and making sure to step right over the growing puddle of blood spreading across the floor. “I thought you had a wife and kids,” he questions, noticing the lack of photo frames and girly shit. There’s no woman’s touch here, and it’s definitely not somewhere anyone would want to raise a family. “You betray her too? Or is she what stinks out back?”
Joe grunts and fights against his binds once again, and I glance at Zade, wondering just how long he’s going to make us sit here. I’m fucking starving, and I still haven’t had a chance to shower after my workout earlier. I go to ask when Sawyer’s phone cuts through the room, and all eyes fall to him.
He shoves his hand deep into his pocket and grabs his phone, glancing down at the screen with furrowed brows.
“Who is it?” Dalton asks from across the room.
“Harrison,” Sawyer says, his sharp, venomous stare locking onto Zade. “I wonder what he could possibly want.” Zade doesn’t respond, just continues to take Sawyer’s hits every time they come rolling in. Sawyer doesn’t wait for an answer before he accepts Harrison’s call. “Hey, man. Everything cool with Dad?”
There’s a short pause while all eyes fall on Sawyer, and even Joe can’t help but be curious.
“Look man, not tonight,” Sawyer says into the phone, his tone conflicted. “I’ve got some shit going down that I need to be here for. What about tomorrow?”
Silence again, yet with each passing second, I can almost sense the way Sawyer’s heart races. “Shit. Yeah, alright. I’ll see what I can do.”
Sawyer ends the call and glances at Zade before focusing on me. “I’m out, man. Dad’s struck a deal with Harrison to get me in tonight. It’s now or never.”
“Yeah, man,” I say, scooping Venom off the couch and standing. I step into Sawyer and clap him on the back. Neither of us like grand shows of affection, but he’s about to say goodbye to his father, and despite the bullshit between him and Zade, I’m not about to let him walk out of here without reminding him that we’ve got his back. “We’ll wait up if you need to throw back a few drinks.”
“Yeah, no doubt,” he says, before nodding toward Dalton and slipping out through the front door.
I glance back at Zade, finding his stare heavy with guilt and self-loathing, and suddenly, he’s not so keen to spend his night waiting for this asshole to bleed out. He turns his gun on Joe again, his eyes darkening with the ghosts of his own insecurities. “When you get to hell, ask my father how he likes me now.”
Without a second of hesitation, Zade pulls the trigger, sending the bullet directly between Joe’s eyes.
Chapter 5
SAWYER
Empire’s prison system is one of the most fucked-up places I’ve been. It’s cold and stale and not somewhere I’d ever want to find myself. Now that Zade’s claiming power, and I’m stepping up into The Circle, it’s not something I should have to worry about. Though, it wasn’t something I thought my father would have to worry about either, but here we are.
Harrison walks ahead of me, leading me down through the twisting tunnels, each of his heavy footsteps echoing around us. It’s damp and smells like mold and rot, but nothing like the foul smell I endured in Joe’s home. My curiosity wasn’t great enough to go searching for it, but either way, I don’t know how people live like that. Even Empire’s deadliest assassins have to practice good hygiene.
“How is he?” I ask at his back, wishing I could be anywhere but here. This wasn’t my plan. I was supposed to have another thirty or so years with my father, thirty years before I would be forced to step up into The Circle. But this is Empire, and nothing is guaranteed in this world.
