Bonus chapter!!! ❤️❤️❤️
VIOLENCE WARNING
...
"Lookie lookie!" None other than Wilkes exclaims from behind me. Bile rises up my throat when his silhouette looms in my peripheral. He cuffs me, and I struggle to control my terror, trying to breathe through the ache in my lungs from Trent's brutal fly tackle.
Wilkes bends over and plucks Trent's knife from the ground, holding it up so he can make a show of examining it in the light, "Someone, has been caught, with contraband!" He shouts for everyone to hear. Terribly, my phone starts vibrating in my pocket and I go stiff.
Fuck. Fuck. Scor not now.
I try to twist my hip so the vibrations don't rattle against the ground, but the soldier restraining me forces his knee into my back.
I start trembling but I press my eyes closed, forcing myself to regain my nerve.
Incoming Call – [Scorpius Voytah] or also [Scorpion]
The text flashes across my eSight, the phone buzzing furiously. I try to get a look at my soldier to figure if he's gon' notice.
Wilkes turns to Hito, but then his elated grin drops and he makes a theatrical display of disappointment, gesturing the knife callously, "Well fuck!" He flicks his hand at the soldiers restraining Hito and just like that they let him go. Hito smirks, rising smoothly before he palms his buzz-cut hair, then crosses his tattooed arms over his chest.
The phone stops, and I ease a breath.
Hito watches as Wilkes turns back to everyone, before he clicks at each of Hito's men to which the soldiers subsequently release them. I lay low, so pumped on adrenaline that my fingers quiver. The lights flick, signalling the end of curfew, submerging the hall in darkness.
Wilkes grimaces up at the sparse lighting, "Alright, let's move this on. Vin's boys get seven hundred credits and three days solitary."
Soldiers pick the Dockside gangers up, "Come on, move em' out." Wilkes gestures, "You's made a mess of my fucking hall by the way!" He kicks a chair aside which sends food in Ezza's face.
I fail to breathe.
Wilkes laughs, looking at Hito's men, "You's are free to go, or watch. I don't fuckin' care." The Yakuza men all stay, looking to Hito for orders, but Hito just stares at me before him and Wilkes share a silent conversation.
"Save Myers." Hito tells Wilkes who grins in silent satisfaction. Reid glowers up at Wilkes and a chill runs through me at the utterly fearless defiance that crackles across his masculine features. Gone is his reserved intolerance from before.
My heart drills in my chest, but then Wilkes starts dismissing soldiers until all that remains is eight men in uniform. Terrible suspense grips me as I slowly realise that he's eliminating witnesses. Dread clenches in my gut.
I glimpse Cola. She shouldn't be here to see this.
With every stride, his boot makes a terrible thud, thud, thud, until Wilkes arrives in front of Trent. "Was it your knife?" He looms over him.
"Never seen it," Trent scoffs but his insolent reply pisses Wilkes off. He lines his boot up with his face before he draws his leg back in a long arc, "Right, this one," He kicks Trent in the nose who bursts into enraged screams. His soldiers restrain him but he swears and spits like a rabid dog. "He gon' get... Fipps, give him nine hundred credits. I like how that sounds, nice and just." Wilkes snickers.
He points at Saxon who starts struggling. "Put him down as an instigator. Seven hundred credits and three days solitary."
"No fucking fair I didn't do shi-." Sax's complaints are cut off when Wilkes kicks him too and Trent stiffens.
Wilkes raises the knife in Trent's face who looks at the food-smattered ground like he's fed up, "I don' know, Sergeant." He grits out.
He looks from Trent to Ezza, but he neglects to acknowledge me yet. I make myself breathe but my stomach twists with terror when I realise that he's saving Reid and I for last.
Ezza and Sax look to Trent, but Wilkes catches the exchange with a grin. Trent doesn't say anything, just glares up at him with a stoic expression, but then Wilkes marches over and pretends to line up a footy kick, using Ezza's head as the ball. "I didn't do anything, mate, I swear on my fuck-," Ezza pleads.
"Don' touch him." Trent tries.
"You sure about that?" Wilkes winds up and Ezza flinches, scrunching his face up.
"Fuck you!" Trent exclaims, his breathing becoming more panicked as Ezza's face twists in terror, but then Wilkes kicks him so hard that his nose cracks and he collapses in a heap. Blood instantly gushes from his unconscious face and Saxon rears back, "Fuck! You!" Trent starts struggling, losing his shit, but his defiance makes Wilkes stiffen in rage and he rips his gun out and rams it against Ezza's unconscious head.
I freeze, opening my mouth but then Wilkes pulls the trigger. Pop! Ezza's brains explode out of his ears and Trent screams, the blood draining from Sax's face. I cry out and a girl, no, Cola, screams from amongst the Yakuza.
"Don't look at me like that ever again. You fucked up kid. Two thousand credits, three days in solitary." Wilkes sneers at Trent who gapes at Ezza's corpse, stricken, "Alright move 'em out."
The soldiers pull Trent to his feet, but he screams, trying to fight it exactly like I did when they pulled me past my mother's corpse.
I stare at the blood that glugs from Ezza's ears and mouth, at his slack arms and the soldier pinning his corpse to the ground. The view slaps me into rigid dread. I remember the numb shock. I couldn't even tell if she'd just died in my hands. I choke on air again, struggling against my cuffs. "Wh-What about, Tokyo?" Why did I ask that? Why was that the first thing I thought--. A jarring memory hits me.
My father said don't trust him.
Did he mean don't trust Toyko? No, he meant Jewel. Of course he did, because he did a deal with Jewel so he could sell me off to Hito.
Wilkes marches over and crouches above me which slaps me out of my stupor.
"I wan' ask you two a couple of things." The two soldiers pinning me to the floor shove me so I'm flush on my stomach and Reid takes a deep breath. I make a feral noise when Wilkes grabs the inside of my ass with meaty fingers and shakes me like a piece of meat, again, exactly like he did at the depot.
"I don' know shit." I try to sound unaffected.
He grabs a fistful of my hair, looking at Reid when I cry out.
"Myers, tell me, does she make noises like that when you fuck her?" Wilkes asks.
Reid scoffs like he's unamused.
"Oh, don't be shy, you can tell us," He fake whispers. "Vi, sweetheart, are you about to cry?" He points at the blood that pools around Ezza's head, "Does that look like something you remember?"
"Lemme' go." I snarl.
"Stop fucking around," Hito snaps at Wilkes. The Sergeant rolls his eyes and pulls me so my back arches against his boot.
"Violet. Honey. Tell me, if your daddy is such good friends with Jewel then why is he trying to hide it?"
My eSight starts alerting me, like it did the night Sphynx and Scor got into my eye.
I grit my teeth, "Lemme' go."
"You don't wanna talk about it?" He coos, grabbing my chin with meaty fingers, "Is the blood too much. You don't like thinking about it?"
I make myself breathe. "I don' know anything about my father, or Jewel-."
"Myers, tell Hito what Akimitsu told you about the attack on Newcastle?"
"Fuck. Off," Reid enunciates but his soldier smacks his head on the ground. Reid grins, his canines glinting like a rabid dog. To spite him Wilkes grabs my ass again and squeezes so hard that I lose my shit and burst into struggles.
"Is that what she sounds like? Guess I'll find out tonight, when I fuck the little bitch in-." Reid's bitter smile drops into a feral glare. He looks like an image from hell. He breathes through his nose heavily, blood running down his chin as he watches Wilkes like a manic.
"Oh shit." Wilkes avows, then he points between us. "Oh, shit, yous fuck for feelings?" He laughs, loud, "You's all loved up?"
My cheeks flame in discomfort. I catch glimpse of Cola standing with the Yakuza, trembling as she gawks in horror, unable to do anything. The pool of Ezza's blood crawls toward me.
My phone starts vibrating again when the eSight fails.
It makes me panic harder, because Scor wouldn't try this hard to contact me unless it was imperative.
"Get him up," Wilkes gestures, and the soldiers lift Reid by his arms, forcing him to rise to his knees. He presses his boot harder into my back, and I moan out at the jarring sensation of my vertebrae cracking. "Tell me why your brother's been snooping around the Elizabethan Centre? Is he working with Jewel too? Or does your daddy actually hate him?" Wilkes asks, his stubble grating my temple.
"What?" I snap, but my tone earns punishment, because he balls his fist in my hair and grabs my neck with his other hand.
"Come on, don't be shy." He pushes while Hito watches in silence, "Why did your father contact Trick-."
My eSight starts flashing again, however, this time the code flooding the chat blinks into the right depth. I stiffen.
"Is Craig working with Jewel?" Wilkes drops me, but I fail to focus. Ezza's blood wets my hair, and I flinch away, my heart thudding.
Come on Scor. Finally, a chat opens, but the connection flickers, like this attempt at hacking into my eSight is also going to fail.
"Answer me!" He screams, and I flinch, but then he grabs the back of my head and forces my cheek into the pool of blood.
I try to discern the code, waiting for a chat function urgently. "I don' know-."
"You feel like Hope yet?" He grinds my face in the metal scented liquid that glugs out of Ezza's head, "Answer me!"
Scorpion: I'm gonna be out of range in two minutes. Hit approved. Buyer rescheduled it for tomorrow night. Took your friends out of the listing, so the man on the inside can only help me get you. Don't know why it's early. Love you. "I don't know!"
My eSight blinks back to normal, Scorpius's presence disappearing. The thick, steamy crimson gets in my eyes, painting my vision, and I whine out, grimacing. Wilkes hauls me backward, making me sit on my knees across from Reid, but just when he's about to unleash some form of brutality on me, Hito intervenes. Handoshēku. Is this still a handshake?
"Leave Vi be." He orders.
Exhaling irritably, Wilkes grits his jaw. "You know," Despite his eyes on me, he points at Reid, "Teller broke two of your ribs before you drowned him." Wilkes pivots on one foot before he belts his steel cap boot into Reid's torso. Crack. "Don' sit right that our machines fixed that."
Reid doubles over, groaning in agony, and I flinch.
"Come on, Myers. You're Warrendale's bitch. Tell me, why is he working with Jewel?"
Silence. Hard silence. Reid breathes stiffly, his masculine features twinged with agony, but he doesn't reply, and Wilkes punches him. Cola wraps her hand around her mouth, flinching like he thwacked his fist into her face.
"Warrendale and Trick?" Hito chimes, but Reid simply sneers out a laugh, blood dribbling into his teeth.
"Why is Craig playing sides, what does he want?" Wilkes shouts, but when he starts tugging at the gun on his gear-belt I panic.
"Stop! Dad wants to ruin Holders Bay for Akimitsu!" I lie.
Reid looks at me. Wilkes and Hito freeze.
"Bullshit," Wilkes barks, but Hito gestures. "He can't know about that."
"Keep going, Vi."
I grit my jaw, looking at Reid who's jaw slackens, "My father did a deal with the Heratix, was gon' buy a shit tonne of merch, but he set up a hit on the drop before it was done."
Wilkes pulls his gun, rolling his eyes. "Hito, it's bullshit. We know that hit was by the Hounds, there was that tag, and they found evidence in the Docks." He lifts the weapon.
The Hounds? Hounds are Dockside, Vin and his crew. But Scor and I stole the guns, not him. "I was the hit." I run with my lie, "I was the hit. Before Heratix could drop the last crate, Dad wanted me to steal everything so he could pass it off as a Yakuza attack. Heratix lost a lot, he thought they'd go after Akimitsu."
"Well, they didn't. They seem to like us fine," Hito snaps, gesturing for Wilkes to pass him the gun. "See, Violet, you remember how Tokyo warned me you're a liar? "
"I'm not lying," I make myself breathe evenly, "I'm not lying. Dad wanted me to take-. No!" He raises the gun at Reid's head, "No!"
Hito falters, Reid's chest going dead calm as he prepares for the bullet.
"I'm not lyin-."
Hito snaps his glare at me, "What'd you steal then?"
"Sergeant!" A female voice interrupts and amongst the ruckus the clicking of heels emerges. Everyone spins to look at the figure storming at us, but I hold Hito's gaze.
He jerks the gun threateningly, raising his brows like it's my last chance.
"Guns," I cave.
Hito's face loosens, surprised.
"What the fuck do you think you're doing?!" The woman all but screams. In the dim lit hall all I can see is a medical coat.
Carden.
When she sees Ezza she gasps, going so violently still that she looks unwell, but then she fixates on the crowd of Yakuza, "Witnesses!"
Hito passes Wilkes the gun. "They're Yakuz-." Wilkes defends.
She jabs a pale hand at Cola, "Witnesses?!"
...
I sit against the headboard with my head in my hands, elbows on my knees.
Scor was meant to call me tonight with all of the final details, but, but the buyer rescheduled the hit. He has to travel to get me, and because he needs the VINTAR tech to contact me, he's essentially unreachable.
I squeeze my head, trying to wrap my mind around everything.
"Trent got three days in solitary confinement." Reid mutters. "I saw his papers when they had me in holding."
I glance at him. He leans halfway up the headboard, his legs outstretched and his arms crossed behind his head. He was gone for two hours, then they dumped him in here, only halfway healed because apparently Wilkes pulled him out of the machine before it was done.
"Who else is in solitary?" I ask.
"Sax, Blu, a bunch of Vin's guys... only three Yakuza." He gestures like it's irrelevant, gritting his teeth when he looks at me, before he glares away like he's battling his urge to say something.
"Did Scorpius call you with the details while I was gone?" He mutters.
I don' know what to tell him. The truth? But that could compromise Scor's ability to get me out... a syringe full of fear injects in my stomach, and with my face concealed, I lie. "Yeah. Same plan as always, Thursday night." Wednesday night.
The second it leaves my lips it tastes rancid, but I stomp it down. We never discussed what we are; if we're friends or, if either of us owe it to each other to get out. If I can get him out, of course I'll do it, but I have to make sure it's safe first.
I wish I was a better person. Good people don't survive.
He nods, but his prickling glare indicates that he still has something on his mind. "You told me that when you hit Crip it was for the Heratix."
I look at him quickly, my jaw slackening, "I did."
He squints. "You expect me to believe that?"
I splutter, turning to look at him. "Uh, yes."
"So you jus' lied?" He sits up, "On the spot. Came up with that." He gestures me off as he prepares to stand. "Came up with something that makes more sense than the damn truth?" He scoffs.
I dart forward, grasping his forearm, "Wilkes shot Ezza. I wasn't gon', tell them that Scor and I initiated into Heratix by stealing the guns they were about to sell to my father."
He stiffens, lowering himself, though he doesn't turn to look at me yet. "If Craig wanted a relationship with the Heratix, it would make sense for him to steal the merchandise he was about to buy then blame it on the Yakuza. It'd give the Heratix no option but him, and, he'd get free goods."
"That's why I said it, but you heard Wilkes. They found evidence, and someone left the Hound tag on Crip's tent," I shake my head, "but the Hounds are a dead gang," The Ghouls named our main club The Cruella, because when we were just a small gang fighting for territory, there was a running joke that we skinned puppies, or rather, Hounds, for fur. "I, I don' know anything about it but if my father robbed the hit then why wouldn't he plant evidence on the Yakuza? Or at least leave the Tora instead of the Hound tag."
Reid breathes out through his nose, trying to find a hole in my argument.
I coax him back, "If the Heratix wanted to hide that they used Scorpius and I to steal their own merchandise, they'd plant blame on another gang and absolve themselves of involvement altogether." I push, but then my jaw slackens and I tap his forearm as a thought develops, "Wait, no. That's it. Why did the Heratix put the evidence on the Hounds? Why didn't they point fingers at Dad or Akimitsu?"
He remains silent, and I retract my grip on him, about to give up, but finally he bites. Reid turns to face me, crooking his knee across the mattress, "How you know the Heratix did it?"
"Well, they had to pass the blame off."
Silence.
He looks down, seething out a noise of disdain, "Or they're still fucking working with Akimitsu and it was just a stitch up to screw the Ghouls out of the deal." He snaps.
I look up at him. Still working with Akimitsu.
"No, because Hito never would've believed my lie if the Yakuza were in on the hit. An' Heratix can't be with Yakuza, because they never gave the guns over. Scor still has them. We were meant to drop them in Holders Bay four weeks ago..." I grimace, "Oh shit." Blood drains from my cheeks, and my heart stops. I forgot about that.
"What?"
"Scor stayed at Camden outpost. With the Voyteks."
He blinks, "So?"
"Oh that crazy fuck," I stand up, lacing my fingers in my hair. "We're late on the gun drop."
Reid stands, rounding the bed as I pace one length of the room, but then I stop beside the mattress so I can drum a beat on the cool comforter.
"He sorted out a new date? Right?" Reid grates, approaching.
I turn my body to face his but I keep my gaze cast at the comforter, "He didn't tell me."
"But he would've right? Otherwise that makes you a-."
"Fugitive. To the biggest gang in Australia." I moan, closing my fists and placing them against his chest gently. He curls his large hands around my wrists soothingly, "Heratix own the army. They, they own any man in Holders Bay. Fuck was he thinking?" I rest my forehead, grimacing, "Fuckin' reckless, manic piece of-. He's gon' get us out then use the guns as the bargaining chip to get everyone in." He has to be getting more than just me out then... the acid in my stomach cools slightly, but I can't entirely dismiss the lie I told Reid.
Reid laughs through his nose, and I look up, admiring his cheeky smile as he shakes his head.
"Don' you laugh," I chuckle, "Fuck, soon you're gon' be on his side every time we gotta come up with a plan."
He looks down at me, grinning, "Oh yeah? I'm gon' take your boyfriend's side—."
"He's not my boyfriend," I sigh, exasperated.
"Mhm," He hums, amusedly tracing a circle with his thumb, "We still sharing? Or you gon' kick me out because I was a dick before?"
...
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