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“I got your back,” she states.
Hurricane leads us off toward the giant walk-in chill room. He stops at the door and turns back to look at us. “Before we go in, I just want y’all to know that what went down had to be done this way. For the sake of everyone involved. For the sake of our families. This was theonlyway to save everyone.”
City grips his shoulder. “We know, and it was fucking tough, and it must have been horrific for you to pull that trigger, Pres, but we got your back. For the sake of our families.”
We all nod, even Bayou, as Hurricane opens the door to the chill room. A mist of fog puffs out, the instant wave of coldness hitting us as Hurricane steps inside the cold room. It’s not as cold as a freezer, but it’s still fucking chilly. We all head inside and see crates of products and various shit sporadically placed. But as we walk in, the two caskets in the middle of the room draw our immediate attention.
Silence falls over us as we take a deep breath.
Hurricane walks over to the casket on the left, hesitating, then pulling back the lid. He shakes his head, and we crowd around him, looking down on Six. His hands crossed over his chest, his eyes shut, and he appears asleep. His lips have a slight tinge of blue as we all stare at the fallen president.
“Damn, that’s hard to look at,” Raid states as we all take a few steps back, hearing the telltale click-clacking of high heels entering the chill room behind us.
“Butisthe job done?” she asks, stepping closer with a big smile.
We all turn to face her, Hurricane puffing out his chest, his face tense and angry as hell. “This…thisisallonyou, Constance.”
She walks over to the casket and leans in, taking one look at Six’s still body, the blood on his chest, and then lets out a menacing chuckle. “Job well done. Honestly, Ineverthought you would pull this off. But this? This isamazing.My plan is coming to fruition. Houston Defiance will have someone morepliableat the helm, and I won’t have to worry about Six pushing back all the damn time.”
She lets out another laugh as she starts pacing the floor. “You don’t know what you’ve done, Hurricane. You’ve made my pull in the South superior now. Six was turning people against me.I know he was.Little syndicates here and there telling them to fight back. All becauseIhave the pull.Ihave the power. I think little Six here proceeded up the ranksfartoo quickly and grew too cocky for his own boots. He thought he wasinvincible.He thoughthewould be the nextbigpresidentto rule Houston. The next powerhouse of Texas. I sure showed that little runt, didn’t I? Don’t even get me started on howweakZero has become.Pah-thetic, the bunch of them.”
We all shift uncomfortably, hearing her talk about another Defiance chapter like this, but it is Hurricane who speaks first, “If you can turn on Houston like this, what’s to say you won’t turn on us the second you think we’re not of value to you anymore?”
She snorts out a laugh, waving her hand through the air. “Oh, honey, the second people are of no value to me, I wipe them from my life byanymeans necessary. The idea, Hurricane, is to… stay… of… value.”
The rest of us glance at each other, tense as shit, not liking how this conversation is going, but Hurricane doesn’t budge. He stays strong in his defense. “That’s precisely what I thought you would say.” He sends out a loud whistle.
The door to the chill room opens, and the Houston brothers all stride in, anger etched in their faces, vengeance seeping through their eyes.
I see it—they’re pissed.
But I can’t tell if it’s directed at her or us.
Zero stands in front of all of them as the Baroness lets out a small laugh, rolling her eyes. “Oh, please.Like this show of force is going to scare me.”
Zero folds his arms over his chest, a low growl emanating from his throat. “You plannedallthis? You backstabbed us aftereverythingwe have been through? Aftereverythingwe havedonefor you?”
The Baroness sighs and steps forward, looking at Zero. “Can’t you see? I needed this for us to move forward, so we can go back to how itusedto b—”
“With us groveling at your feet? No, Connie! That’snothow this is gonna work.”
She lets out a long, exaggerated huff. “Why?”
Suddenly, from the corner of my eye, movement from the casket has us all jumping out of our skins as Six sits up, looking directly at us and taking a deep breath.
“Jesus Christ! What in God almighty?” the Baroness screams in her deep Southern drawl, her hand slamming to her chest as Hoodoo rushes over to Six’s casket, checking his vitals.
“Deep breaths, brother, the sedative is wearing off,” he states as he checks Six’s pulse.
The rest of us let out a small laugh as Houston rush to Six’s side, surrounding their president.
While we all stare in shock at Hurricane.
“How?” Bayou asks the question we’re all thinking.
“I filled Zero and Six in on what Constance wanted us to do. And I told him of the plan that we would shoot Six in the battle. From there, we figured out how to make it all happen, but we had to bring Hoodoo in on it.”
We turn to him as he steps away from the casket, Houston still surrounding their president in celebration as Hoodoo steps over to be with us. “I made a blood bag with a minor explosive for Six to wear under his cut. We strapped it to him before the fight, knowing that at some point, Hurricane would shoot him with the blank in his gun. He’d need to count specifically to the right bullet in his chamber. Everything would need to work precisely for it to happen perfectly. Six placed a lot of trust in us to do this because once the blank was fired, I had to run over to him and pretend to revive him when, in actual fact, I gave him a sedative that mimics the effects of death for twenty-four hours. It’s why he looked dead.”
