AllFreeNovel
Share Us
And now, I had a van full of wet flour, wet rice, and torn, dried flowers for a restaurant opening. We were able to get an emergency delivery of flour and rice to the client, anyway, but losing those dried flowers for her opening was going to get our contract canceled.
“It looks like a prank, boss,” Anthony mused, his brows furrowing. “But it’s a pretty messed up prank.”
I nodded, mostly because I couldn’t tell them about the real reason. But my gut told me this wasn’t just a prank, not when I never had pranks like this in my years in the business. This was something else. Namely, a specific gang no longer just targeting Matthew’s turf but mine, too.
Yet I had no evidence to pin it on those bastards.
“I’ll get my friend to investigate this, but listen. It’s no one’s fault but whoever tampered with this. For now, we have delayed deliveries and we need to get on it right away before we get our other clients in trouble. Anthony?”
“Yes, boss?”
“Stay and talk to Jansen for a bit. Then you can help Dennis out with the rest of his deliveries today.”
My no-questions-asked tone had everyone gathered moving, aware that I was right and that we couldn’t lose more time and clients. But I was impatient as I waited for Jansen, who arrived half an hour later with a pinched expression on his face. He took one look at the damaged goods and scowled, then got right down to business.
“Tell me everything. Start from the beginning and bring in the witnesses.”
Anthony was cooperative but still so guilty afterward, so I took the time to reassure him that he hadn’t lost his job and this wasn’t his fault. When he was appeased, Jansen and I took one look at each other and had an understanding.
“This has got to stop,” he declared, fisting his hands. The man was usually the calm one, so seeing him like this told me this new sabotage got to him, too. “They’re messing with our livelihoods and they need to be brought to justice.”
“Any chance of a CCTV running of the area where Anthony had his lunch stopover?”
“I’ll check on it right away.”
Jansen left immediately, mostly because he still had some cop duties to fulfill outside this fiasco. I stayed to deal with the cleanup with another worker and was waist-deep in wet stuff when I heard my phone ringing faintly in the background. I ignored it for the time being, finished up, and headed straight for the shower to rid myself of the dirt. After I got dressed, I finally took a look at my phone. Sophie’s caller ID had me picking up right away, not used to her calling me.
“Sophie? What’s up?”
And just when I thought the bad run was over, her voice coated with tension and fear proved otherwise.
“It’s Sebastian. He got attacked and is in the hospital.”
***
Matthew reached the hospital at the same time I did, and we both had a quick eye contact before hurrying over to the room that Sophie specified. When we barged our way in, Sophie was there, immediately turning to Matthew’s open arms while my gaze landed on the figure on the hospital bed that shouldn’t look that bad.
But Sebastian looked bad. He looked fucking terrible. He was in a worse condition than I anticipated, the bandages stark against the black bruises running all over him from head to toe. His ribs seemed to have the most damage, bandaged up to his shoulders, but his face didn’t escape trouble, either. I stared at his black eye, swollen lip, and the large cut on his cheek.
“He had a dislocated shoulder, some broken bones, fractured ribs, and a sprained ankle,” Sophie said.
“What the hell happened?” I demanded.
Sophie bit her lip, clearly worried. “Someone found him bloodied up on a sidewalk and called the number on his wallet. They already called 911 before they called the restaurant.”
My hands curled into fists as my mind already jumped to conclusions. I whirled and would have already slammed my way out of the room, but Matthew had predicted it and was already blocking the way. I glared at him. He leveled me with an even look, then cleared his throat.
“Sophie, would you mind getting the doctor for us? We were hoping to speak with him.”
Sophie was a smart one, understanding that it wasn’t just about us needing to speak to the doctor. She excused herself and squeezed my arm on the way out. While her touch felt good, it did nothing to alleviate my temper as I growled at Matthew’s continuous blocking.
“I need to go there and—”
“And what? Wreak havoc? Let them see that they got to us?” Matthew shot back. “That’s the last thing youneedto do. What we need to do is to calm down. We need to be rational for the gang and Sophie. For Seb, too.”
“Rational, my ass. We’ve been rational since all this started. Now look at what they did to our friend. They beat him the hell up and left him to the rodents—”
“You guys, stop acting like I’m dead. I’m still alive and kicking, though I probably can’t say the same about my lovely face.”
