Page 23 of Judgment Day

“What do you need? Tell me. I’ll do whatever I can.”

Nik shoved his hands into his pockets and said, “I need some sleep. I’ll head to my room now.” As Nik walked away, he called over his shoulder, “We’ll talk later.”

“Nik, if you do anything crazy, I’ll never forgive you,” Scar called.

“Crazy is all of our middle names.”

“You know what I mean, Nik,” Scar yelled as Nik got further away.

“Yeah, yeah. I won’t do anything crazy.”

Scar watched Nik until he turned the corner and was no longer in sight.

“Hey...”

Scar looked back. It was Kris. “What’s up, Kris?”

“I’m keeping an eye on him. Don’t worry,” Kris told him.

“Is he going to be alright?”

Kris shook his head. “Not if anything happens to Letisha or James, he won’t.”

Scar looked in the direction Nik had gone. In situations like this, sitting around and waiting on others to help you was the hardest part. It left you alone with your thoughts. For men like them, whose thoughts were already dark, being left alone with them could send them spiraling into despair. A despair that was hard to crawl out of. Hell, anyone could be sent spiraling in this type of situation. If they didn’t do something soon, they could lose Letisha, James, and Nik.

“Kris, I’ve got to handle something with Exa over the next few days. When I return, I want to handle Zian.”

“I’m working on something now.”

Scar faced Kris. “Don’t go in without me.”

Kris nodded.

“You look tired,” Scar pointed out.

Kris yawned. “I’m going to get some sleep while Nik is asleep. Go handle whatever it is you need to handle. I won’t act until you’re back, unless something comes up sooner and forces me to act. Good night, or morning, whatever.”

“Go get some sleep.” Scar patted Kris on the back as he walked away.

Alone in the hallway, Scar’s thoughts drifted down a dark road. A road he hoped they wouldn’t go down. But what if they weren’t able to get her back? What if she died at the hands of Zian? What would become of Nik if that happened? If anything happened to Nik, what would become of Kris?

He didn’t know the answers to those questions. Though he wanted to spread hope and joy, Nik was right. Love didn’t always win. The good guys, or in their case, theless bad guys, didn’t always win in the end. Scar was proof of that. So was Nik. So was Garrett. So was everyone in their crew. For every win they had, they’d experienced double that in losses.

Which was why they cherished the wins so much. Nik couldn’t take another loss. Kris couldn’t watch Nik take another loss. They had to prevent that from happening. In doing so, they may have to offend the Leader. They’d definitely end up offending the Triad. Scar pulled his phone out and called Garrett.

“What’s wrong?” Garrett answered on the second ring.

“I need to talk to you. Come back to the meeting room.”

“On my way.”

Scar grimaced from the shouting in the background. “Is that Kov I hear in the background?” Scar asked.

“Yeah. He wants to eat my phone. I won’t let him. So, he’s having a fit.”

Scar smiled. “He tried to eat my phone also. You need to buy him one of his own.”

“He has a toy phone. He doesn’t want it.”

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