AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Since I kinda sorta promised to be good, I don’t run off. Besides, where would I go? Justin’s dead already, so I can’t make him pay for what he did. The only thing I can do is try to rebuild the shattered pieces of my life after the destruction of the Burrow. We still need a new permanent hideout, and we need to replenish the supplies that were lost in the explosions. On top of all that, I’m pretty sure I’m still on the Cobra’s shit list, which means we have to deal with that headache as well. Lots to do, that’s for sure, but where to start? I sit on the hotel bed and tap my finger against my lip as I try to brainstorm.
“Uh oh,” Keys says, eyeing me sideways. “She’s thinking.”
Doc scoffs and rubs his nose. “That’s almost more terrifying than her fighting.”
I ignore the verbal jab. “Ramsey hates us, right?”
Kendrick nods. “Very much so, it would seem.”
“And he’s a terrible person.”
“I think we can all agree on that, yes.”
A lightbulb moment hits, and I hop to my feet. “Well, then, we’ll take him down.” I say it with a grin, proud of myself for making a decision, but I’m a little disappointed when no one else smiles along with me. “What? He’s scum, he hurt us and blew up our home, and he hurts other innocent people, too. It makes sense.”
“Bunny, there are five of us. He’s got dozens of people on his payroll. Possibly hundreds, and that’s not counting all the cops and politicians that are likely in his pocket.” Doc shakes his head. “We don’t stand a chance if we go head-to-head against him.”
“If we don’t stop him, Doc, who will? The cops that he’s paying off? The feds? They’ve been after him and his crew for ages, and they’ve had shit luck with it. He just pays off witnesses or executes them, like that reporter.” I hold out a hand and tick off on my fingers. “He killed the reporter, he almost killed us, and hell, he even killed Sun Yi, and she was helping him. Ramsey doesn’t give two shits about anyone but himself.”
Keys sighs and pushes back from the small desk. “What do you expect us to do, Bun? We could give the evidence Justin left on Neil’s computer to the feds, but that’s about our limit. Doc’s got a point. We try to take the Cobra head-on, and we’ll be slaughtered.”
“Head on …” Hmm. I wonder … “Keys, pull up the Cobra stuff on Neil’s laptop again.”
He gives me a funny look but does as I ask. I wave at him to keep scrolling through the files until he gets to the one I want. “There! Stop there.” I point at the screen. “That file: OPERATIONS. Open it.”
My eyes fly across the screen as I read the reporter’s data. I have to give the dead woman credit; she managed to outline the entire hierarchy of the Vipers, from the Cobra down to the lowest of his underlings. It’s less of a pyramid structure than an amorphous blob, with the Cobra at the dead center. No matter how many of his henchmen are caught by cops or killed in gang wars, more come in to fill the ranks. A small nucleus of sergeants makes up his inner circle, but the majority of his men are inconsequential to the organization. He’s got hundreds of people on his payroll, sure, but they’re all so far removed from any kind of authority that his hold on them must be tenuous at best.
Anyone with more funds could easily hire the majority of them away from him. The problem is, I don’t have any funds anymore. We had a ton of money saved up in various accounts from our numerous blackmail rackets over the years, but all that data was lost when the Burrow blew up. I sink back onto the bed with a groan.
“Fuck. We need a cash flow again.”
Kendrick frowns. “What’s going through that Bunny brain of yours?”
“I was just thinking that if we had all our resources, we could buy the Vipers right out from under him.”
“That’s a dangerous idea, Bunny.”
Doc has a point, but I don’t care. Danger is easy. Danger is familiar. I live with danger every day. I eat, sleep, and breathe danger. Danger and I are tight. We’re, like, BFFs or something.
Over in the desk chair, Keys’ shoulders slump. “It’s my fault we have no money, isn’t it?”
I open my mouth to reassure him, but Kendrick beats me to it.
“It’s not your fault, Keys. We’re kind of all at fault here. None of us have jobs—well, Neil did until his coworker turned psycho on him—and since we chose to live outside the law and outside the rules, it’s on all of us.” He puts a hand on Keys’ arm. “Don’t try to bogart all the blame, okay? Share it with the rest of us.”
Kendrick … comforting Keys? Willingly? Without prompting? I know they went through some shit together after the explosion, but I still can’t believe what I’m seeing.
Keys gives Kendrick a weak smile, but it doesn’t reach those steely blue eyes of his. “Thanks for the vote of confidence, man, but I was in charge of getting us income, wasn’t I? I don’t remember everything yet, but I seem to recall that some of the computer stuff I did for the Burrow involved finances. I was more than just a pretty face back then.”
“You still are, Tommy.” Neil slides up behind him and wraps his arms around his shoulders. “You’ll get everything back. It’s just going to take some time.”
“Sure. Time that we don’t have to spare.”
Keys pulls a flash drive out of his pocket and turns it over in his hands. “I wish I knew what I put on here when the Burrow’s defenses were breached, but I can’t remember the password yet. I’ve tried everything I can think of.” He sighs and tosses it on the desk. “Maybe I should just get rid of it. It’s just junk at this point.”
I roll over and snatch up the drive. “Don’t throw it away. Past Keys thought whatever he put on this was important enough to save, so we’re saving it.”
“What if Present Keys never remembers how to unlock what’s in it? Or Future Keys?”
