𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐓𝐀𝐒𝐓𝐄 𝐎𝐅 𝐈𝐓 | 𝟏𝟖+

01 | bloodshed

Liam's eyes go wide as soon as he sees it hanging by my side. "No, no, no," he tries to wriggle away but I raise the gun and aim it directly between his eyebrows. "Boss, please. Don't do this!"

My eyes roll at his pleas and I can't bear a single second more of this, I have things to do and he's taking up too much of my precious time.

I pull on the trigger and the bullet shoots straight through his forehead and into his brain. A couple droplets of blood fall from the wound and into his eyes. Liam's gaze turns to one of numbness as his body collapses down onto the wood.

For a moment I stare at his lifeless body before disarming my gun and placing it back into my waistband. "Merda," I curse under my breath before I glance up at the guards who are standing with their backs to the walls, hands tucked behind them, not looking in my direction.

(Merda: shit)

"Clean this up," I gesture to his body. "I've got things to take care of."

"Yes boss," they both nod and get to work.

I exit the warehouse and signal to my driver as I exit, pushing up the sleeves on my shirt as soon as the heat hits my skin. When I climb into the back I push my fingers into my eyes and release a deep sigh, one that's been riding on my back since I found out that he stabbed me in the back.

Loyalty means everything to me. Proving your worth to me and to this gang. But I hate liars, I hate people who try to cover up what they've done wrong. How can we work together if there is absolutely no fucking trust?

My patience is wearing thin today and I could do with packing in the day and heading to a bar, picking up a woman who can satisfy my needs. But I know I have important things to do and they cannot be put off any longer.

Especially after all the mess Liam has caused.

I'm dropped home twenty minutes later, my house is the only place on this Earth where I can take a breath and relax. But not today, today is not the time to be relaxing and slacking off.

I head straight to my office and get on the phone to my suppliers across the country. There is a lot of explaining I have to do and if they even let me off lightly, I'm still in deep fucking shit because of Liam's mistakes.

A dead man's mistakes I am now paying for. Fucking traitor.

There is a knock at my office door and I can only assume it's Gabriel, my underboss. He's lived with me here for the last couple years, the house is big enough that we have our own space and we don't have to run into each other every second of the day.

It helps to have him here because we can work late or into the early hours. Gabriel is the sort of person who I trust with my life, we've known each other for over a decade and he is one of the smartest and intuitive people I've ever met.

He's got us out of some shitty situations but that's because he's level headed. Some people say that he's the one who keeps me sane, sane enough to not destroy this empire I have built.

"What?" I call out and flick through my laptop.

As expected Gabriel strolls through the door. "Hey," he says as he walks straight towards my desk and takes a seat in one of the chairs.

Gabriel has a certain look about him, hands and arms covered in tattoos, titanium hoop through his right nostril, dark black hair that is slightly out of control but it definitely scores him points with the ladies.

"What do you want? I'm busy."

"Jheeez," he breathes out harshly and rests his arms on the rests. "What the fuck is up with you?"