Page 31 of Victorious: Part 2
“Bullshit!”Alpha growls, slamming his fist on the Chapel table so hard the epoxy cracks a little beneath his trembling fist. His chest heaves as we all stare at him. “We all know it means, Haven, Cassandra, and my fucking daughter are targets. I need someone on Poppy every second of every. Fucking. Day. I willnotlet these Cartel cunts get their hands on my daughter again. Do. I. Make. Myself. Clear?”
Everyone nods in agreement. “We got you, Pres,” Dutch states.
“Nothing’s gonna happen to that little grommet, not on our watch, bro,” Rip states.
Cuddling into Alpha’s side, he finally glances up at me. “We got this. Poppy’ll be fine,” I tell him.
He lets out a stuttered breath. “And what about you and Nighthawk?”
Smirking, I side-eye Cassandra. “We can hold our own.”
Alpha slides his arm around my waist, yanking me down to sit in his lap in front of everyone. I don’t resist. I don’t fight. Because I know right now, he needs my comfort. Because in his mind, he’s picturing Poppy and me being killed at the hands of Javier. So, I let him hold me, and I wrap my arms around his neck, to ground him. It seems to be the very thing he needs as he lifts his head, a fierce determination crossing his face. “Loki, what else do we know?”
“They’re farming new assassins. Using the prison population as a recruitment pool.” The silence that follows is deafening.
Montana jerks his head back in shock. “You’re saying they’re turning prisoners into birds?”
“Not exactly,” Nighthawk,dammit,Cassandra interjects, and all eyes turn to her. “They’re using a bastardized version of the training. Faster, cruder, but effective enough. The women they’re targeting already have the psychological markers. Trauma, violence in their backgrounds, reasons to want revenge against the system.”
“And they have nowhere to run,” Ink adds grimly. “A perfect captive audience.”
“It gets worse,” I continue. “The tunnels beneath the prison? They’re not just smuggling routes. They’re training facilities, or something is brewing down there that we’re not sure of yet. And according to Cassandra, there are similar setups across multiple states.”
Maverick throws his hands in the air in frustration. “You’re telling me that while we’ve been licking our wounds and planning defense, this bastard’s been building a goddamnempire?”
“That’sexactlywhat I’m telling you,” I state.
“How the fuck did we miss this?” South demands, his phone finally put away for once.
Cassandra clears her throat. “Because Javier learned from what happened to Rico. The old Cartel was centralized and had a hierarchy. Take out the head, the body dies. Javier’s building something different, a network that can survive leadership losses because it’s integrated into legitimate systems.”
Alpha’s voice is deadly quiet when he speaks. “Explain.”
“Senator Wilson isn’t just taking bribes,” she continues. “He’s planning to introduce legislation that would privatize more correctional facilities. Guess who’s got shell companies ready to bid on those contracts?”
The cursing that erupts from around the table would make a sailor blush.
But it’s Montana’s voice that cuts through the noise, raw with desperation. “What about my mother? Is she… are they trying to turn her into a bird?”
“No,” Cassandra says firmly. “Valerie doesn’t fit the profile they’re looking for. She’s too psychologically stable, too connected to her family. But they’re using her as leverage, against you, against Warden Garver, againstthisclub.”
“Leverage for what?” Alpha questions.
“To keep everyone in line while they finish the current phase. But Montana…” Cassandra turns to face him directly. “Your mother’s smart. And according to the intel I gathered before leaving Javier, she’s been organizing resistance among the inmates who aren’t being recruited.”
“Mom’s fighting back,” Montana murmurs, nodding his head. He knew she would fight all along.
“She’s been fighting back since the day she was attacked. The question is whether we can get to her before Javier decides she’smore trouble than she’s worth.”
The weight of that statement settles over the room like a funeral shroud.
We all know what‘more trouble than she’s worth’means in Javier’s world.
Alpha stands, shifts me from his lap, and begins to pace behind his chair. “All right. Let’s talk strategy. What are our options?”
“We could try to extract Valerie,” Strings suggests. “Get her out of there before—”
“And leave hundreds of other women behind? Plus, extracting one person doesn’t stop the larger operation. They’ll move to a different facility and start over, even if it kills me to say that. We all know how much I love Val and want her out of there,” I interrupt.
