Page 60 of The Devil's Conflict

Nikolai’s face remains stoic as he stares at me, but I can feel his judgment, and I curl my hands into fists. I’m going to enjoykilling this asshole when this is all over. I don’t care that he’s the Pakhan’s favorite pet. Once I’m set here, I’ll be bringing in more money than he’s worth; and the Pakhan’s favorite thing more than power is cold, hard cash.

Finally, he says, “You don’t think it strange the MC has suddenly figured out one of the decoy houses when they have never found it before? Or the fact that they were able to locate the one so close to their clubhouse when they haven’t been able to for months, not even when Dmitri was running things and our mole was helping to keep them out of our way?”

I narrow my eyes at that, the implication not lost on me. “You’re saying she’s the one giving them the locations?”

“No, I think she’s decoding the fake locations the useless mole, Dagger, left. He obviously knew there was a chance they might find him out so he had decoy locations made up in a different code, but if they have found that, it means they could very well have found anything he left behind to give the real ones away. And considering Misha spilled secrets to other organizations and families, then that means they may be compromised even more.”

I sit back, pondering on it. How is it that these men keep picking women that directly fuck our operation? Anger burns in my gut. What I need to do is get rid of them all, but especially this newest one. She’s the one that could be our biggest problem, and we have worked too hard to perfect this network for a new bitch to come in and have it crumble.

“And your suggestion?” I ask.

“I suggest you start moving our stocks to our backup locations.”

“Retreat?” I shout incredulously, infuriated. “You want us to fucking retreat like we’re fucking scared of these fuckers? No. Absolutely fucking not.”

He watches me, saying nothing, and his expression equally blank. This icy cold motherfucker, he thinks he’s going to frighten me into submission like he does to these useless soldiers, but he’s very fucking mistaken. Finally, he says, “Fine. What would you like to do?”

“Put out hits. I want one on every single Devil’s Solider member, woman, and child. All of them. And double it for the retrieval of this Athena. I want her alive, because we have use for her.”

“Doing?”

“Whatever the fuck I decide,” I snarl at him. “Get out and get it the fuck done.”

He leaves the room, shutting the door quietly behind him. He doesn’t need to know what I have planned, because I’ve trusted people far too much when I shouldn’t have and I won’t make that mistake again.

No more playing nice with anyone. Not Nikolai, not the Devil’s Soldiers or Heaven’s Misfits, and certainly not the whores they’ve decided to bring into a mess of their creation. But first…

I pull out my phone and make the call. The voice on the other end picks up and I order, “I want the Devil’s Soldiers hurting. I want every one of their businesses burned to the ground. And this time, no fucking mistakes.”

TWENTY-SIX

THEA

Whoever wrote these journals was clever, but not as clever as they thought.

“You made him do that,”Sage accuses Syn as she gingerly sits down on a bag of frozen peas.

Syn sits next to her, looking both amused and concerned. “I swear I didn’t. The padding in the suit must have collapsed or broken when he bit down. I really am sorry, Sage. Did he break skin?”

“No,” Sage grumbles, shifting and wincing. “But damn, I’m going to be bruised enough that King’s not going to be able to smack my ass for a bit.” Then she chuckles. “Or he’s going to spend a whole lot of time making it feel an awful lot better, so I guess I can’t complain.”

Syn rolls her eyes. “Only you would turn something like this into a good thing.” She sighs.

This group is more and more interesting the longer I spend time with them. Watching them cheer on Syn and her dogs while she had them chase Sage in the bite suit was entertaining, but more because Macy decided that she wanted to sit on my shoulders so she could get a better view. She came out of her funk long enough for that, and then Quinn took her inside for a snack. Archer, who is a very smart and entertaining kid, went back inside to play the video games he brought with him.

Though I notice Eden has been looking over at him a lot, so maybe he’s not as comfortable being here as I thought. But what do I know?

As for the rest of them, I notice that for the most part Izzy and Quinn are the quieter ones, though Izzy has her moments of being loud and in charge. But there isn’t one thing I don’t like about any of them. They seem like a great group of women and they’ve welcomed me without a blink. I haven’t had many female friends in my life, so this is definitely a nice change.

“Alright, since the kids are all distracted, we need to take advantage of the time we have,” Rose announces excitedly, then she looks at me expectantly. The other women go quiet and look at me as well.

My gaze moves around the table to each of them. “What?” I ask, confused.

“What’s the deal with you and Sniper?” Izzy asks, a wide grin on her face.

“Other than you two having wild and crazy sex, of course.” Sage giggles. “That’s a given with this crew. Even the old ones,” she adds with a wink at Rose.

“With age comes experience,” Sadie interjects helpfully. “I was with a guy once that was fifty-four, and the things that man could do.” She makes a humming sound of appreciation. “Few have topped it since.”

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