AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Who and where?” Bastian asks.
“Serpents. Delilah’s sign shop. Meet me there.”
We hang up and I wave Flynn off as I get on my bike. “Go home,” I call out. “We’re going to handle it.”
Once I arrive, I step out to see the slimy bastard from the window of the shop. It looks like he’s yelling at Delilah, waving his arms, and getting into her space.
Just as he reaches out to shove her, I find myself flying into the shop, grabbing him by the neck, and yanking him outside.
“Fucking hell!” the weasel yells. He catches sight of me and his face changes into a smirk.
“You think you can take me on?” he asks as I dump him on the ground. He gets to his feet and squares off. “You interrupted my sales pitch, and I’m not happy about that.”
“Looks to me like you were trying to shake her down,” I growl. “You best step off before you find out what happens next.”
He laughs at me, whipping out a knife. “I’m not scared of some stupid Blood Crips.”
“Jesus Christ, you can’t even get our name right?” Bastian asks, walking around the corner to join us. “We’re the Crimson Blades, you dumbass.”
Relief floods me. “Glad you’re here,” I say.
“I always got your back,” Bastian responds, his eyes never leaving the Serpent.
The Serpent rolls his eyes, lunging for me, but I grab him by the arm and bend it down so the knife clatters to the ground.
He turns, eyes meeting mine. “You wanna do this then?” he sneers, landing a sucker punch directly in my gut. I double over, the wind knocked out of me.
Bastian immediately jumps forward, grabbing the man’s head, and slamming him into the ground. He holds the Serpent down, but the weasel manages to throw his head back and connect with Bastian’s nose, making him release his grip as his hands fly up to his face.
With Bastian occupied, the worm gets back up, spits out a mouthful of blood, and wipes his face with the back of his hand; giving us a deranged smile before kicking a heavy-soled boot into Bastian’s knee.
Bastian lets out a grunt of pain but I’m on the man immediately, shoving him backward into the concrete wall of the shop. “You don’t get to mess with my brother like that,” I say, rising to my full height and towering over him. I reach back and my fist connects with his jaw and he’s knocked backward.
“Shit!” I hear Delilah yell from inside the shop. “Do I need to call the cops?”
“We can handle it,” I call back. “Just get in the back. Don’t hang around out here.”
“Yeah, that’s right. Run off like a little bitch,” the man calls, taunting her. “Don’t worry, I’ll be back for you,” he adds.
I reach out and grab him by the collar, shoving him into the wall again, holding him up there. “What the fuck are you even doing here?” I demand. “What’s your endgame? Why target Caspian Springs?”
“We want what was once ours,” he sneers. “You petty little Blades think you run things but you’re weak and defenseless out here. This place is ripe for the picking and we’re ready to take it back. I mean, did you think that it wasn’t going to happen?”
I can’t believe this guy thinks the Serpents can just stroll in and take over, acting like they won’t get pushback on it. They’re terrors, they roamed the neighborhood when we were kids harassing shopkeepers, and demanding money in exchange for leaving them alone. When people didn’t pay, they’d beat them up or ransack the shops.
The Serpent Syndicate also started buying up available properties and charging triple the market rate, driving long-time residents out of the community.
No one wants a repeat of that shit, so we have to make sure they don’t get a foothold again.
“You make a move and you’ll regret it,” I snap. “You guys had nothing when you were run out of town years back. The Blades of old dismantled your entire syndicate, from the top down. How could you possibly have gotten things off the ground since then?”
He smirks. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
I shake my head, done with the conversation, and drop him before leaning down by the shoulder and tackling him into the wall again, slamming his head back.
He howls, clutching his head, dropping down to his knees. But I’m caught off guard when he looks up, a wretched smile on his face, and says something that has me freezing.
“You fight like that asshole we did a few years back … just kept going till we finished him,” he hisses. My blood runs cold. The only person the Serpents managed to kill in the last few years was Beau’s dad. White hot rage fills me.
