Page 71 of Abel

“Hey, Boss?” Peter has a bad habit of calling me his boss even though he unofficially works for me.

“What did you find?”

“Them. Crazy George, who ain’t so crazy, spotted them about half an hour ago, crossing into No Man’s Land.”

“No Man’s Land? They think God will cleanse them of their sins by spilling a little blood and saying they're sorry, even though they don’t mean it? They can’t hide there forever. They must not know, I don’t give a fuck who I have to kill to get to them. Let’s ride.”

On the way there, the only other thing I can think about is Ivy.

She’s my everything, and I can’t imagine life without her.

She’s the air I breathe, the light I need to see, and the end to a bad day. Every day begins with her.

Some may say I’m turning soft, but I don’t care.

She makes every day a good day to be alive.

I can’t just think about my happiness when Capone is suffering. That’s why I’m going to make sure they both suffer before I finally take what they owe me.

Their life.

“Go around the back. Pete spotted a few stragglers by the entrance. They’ll be easy to take out. I’m not looking to spare lives tonight. I have one thing on my mind… Blood.” The guys look at me, and I see a hunger that needs to be fed staring back at me. “These mother fuckers killed one of us. Emily did not deserve to die the way she did. Think of that when you think about saving a life.”

“This ain’t our first rodeo, Abel, let’s go in there, find them, and be done with it.” Capone yells.

“Keep your fucking voice down, idiot. Do you want them to run before we can catch them?” I ask, speaking with authority. “I didn’t fucking think so. Now, let’s go in and find their leader. Either he’ll tell us what we need to know, or they’ll have a new leader by the end of the night.”

“Hells yeah.” They agree in unison. “Let’s go.

Knuckles and Capone take out the guys hanging around the entrance while the rest of us move forward, guns blazing. Nobody stops or questions us as we pass them by.

Smart move.

We’re coming down a hallway when someone’s voice rings out. “Who the fuck thinks they can just waltz into Hawk’s domain and attack my men?”

“Me.” I say, raising my gun and pointing it straight ahead. “Unless you want to join them, bring us Buzz and his pickle dick friend, Hardhead.” Laughter erupts as the man in question comes out flanked by two men at his sides.

He gives me a once over, squaring his shoulders like he’s ready to fight me til the death.“First off, who the fuck are you?”

“That’s irrelevant right now. You either give Buzz and his friend to me, or we’re gonna start taking members of your crew out.” I promise.

“Yeah, you and what army?” Hawk laughs

Glancing over my shoulder, I give a signal to Tark. A little red dot appears in the center of this asshole’s chest as his eyes travel down and see it there. “Don’t worry about my army, they’re here and ready for my other signal. Now, give me what I want.”

Eyeing me up and down, clicking his tongue, he asks, “What charges do you have against them?”

“Why don’t you bring them out and ask them yourself?” He watches me. Thinking whether or not to give me what I want since I’m making a fool of him on his own turf.

Men and their fucking pride. It’ll be the death of most.

The look in his eye is bitter, and he has an urge to prove me wrong. Finally, he says, “Bring them out.” His two men take off in another direction, with nothing more than just a nod to their leader.

Moments later, we hear a whole bunch of noise and cussing mixed with shouting as his two men come back and toss those two pieces of shit out in the open.

“Here they are, sir.” One of them says.

“Yeah, they were trying to make a run for it.” The other one spit. “You pieces of shit. If we find out what they say is true and they don’t kill you… We will.” He promises, flashing his teeth.

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