Page 70 of Ruthless Beasts

“Why wouldn’t we, Bellamy?” I reached up and brushed a piece of hair away from her. “Did you not decide to pick us?”

Her eyes fluttered from person to person, nervously. “If that’s okay.”

“If that’s okay,” Mercer huffed, then threw his head back and laughed. “This girl will kill me. I’m positive.”

Before she could respond, he turned and walked away, lifting his coffee to his lips before he shook his head and laughed again. When he was out of sight, she looked at me. “What did I say?”

“Nothing.” I fought a chuckle. “Go get ready, Adam. I’ve got our girl.”

A few hours later, with Bellamy consuming my mind, I approached the dock. Sometimes, these places were completely empty, but today, that wasn’t the case. At the end, unloading a boat, a man named Mario stood, lifting crates and offloading them from the boat.

“Mario,” I called, and when he turned and saw me, he cursed. “Good to see you.”

“You’re trespassing,” he responded.

“Is there really trespassing between friends?”

“We aren’t friends,” he spat, literally spat, on the wood next to my feet.

“We want your warehouse,” I cut to the point.

“The answer is no.”

“You’ve not even heard the proposal.” I put my hands casually in my pocket as I stepped closer.

“And I don’t want to hear your proposal. This piece of property is my livelihood. I’ll not give it up for greed.”He stepped up, crossing his arms over his chest, appearing unphased.

“This is where you are wrong. It’s not greed we seek; it’s revenge.” I cleared my throat and looked down. “What’s in the crates?”

“None of your fucking business,” he growled.

Without breaking eye contact, I lifted my leg up, hitting a crate with my foot and careening it over the edge of the dock and into the water. “Oh. My bad, sorry. Was that important?”

He lunged, but before Mario could get even the tiniest of swings in, my fingers were wrapping around his throat, holding his body away from mine as I brought our faces closer. My words lost their friendly tone as he gasped for breath, his life literally in the palm of my hand. “I’ve been patient. I’ve asked often. Given you chances and choices. But now I’m telling you. We will have this piece of land with you dead or alive. This is the last time I’ll be nice.”

With Mario gasping and grappling at my hand, I released him, letting him fall backward on the slick wood. Using my hands, I pushed more crates into the water while he gulped down air. When the last crate hit the water and sunk slowly to the bottom, I brought my attention back to him. “And Mario?”

“Fuck you,” he spat, still holding his throat.

“That product is being distributed in our territory. That alone is enough to kill you.” I turned on my heels, shoving my hands in my pockets and tossing over my shoulder, “Have a nice day. We’ll be in touch.”

I pursed my lips and let a melody flow. My whistle echoed eerily over the water as I walked away.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

MERCER

I got word that they refused to hand over the docks. I wasn’t shocked. I’d just hoped I would have had a nice night in, instead of a bloody one out. Still, I arranged my men, made my plans, and organized the shit that was about to go down tonight. It would be last minute, but I didn’t anticipate problems. These men were nobodies, small fish trying to swim in a big pond, but their fins would have never carried them far.

Popcorn hit my forehead and bounced off. When I looked up, Bellamy was grinning. “What are you concentrating so hard on?”

“Do that one more time, little girl, and you’ll pay,” I growled before letting my gaze fall back on my coded notes. “Just ironing out plans for tonight.”

“So you can kill people.”

“They made their choice.” I shrugged.

“And they choose to keep what was theirs, what they worked hard for. Do you blame them?”

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