Page 83 of Insatiable

That’ll leave a bruise. I already feel the sensitive skin and the ache on my side where it impacted.

I reach the car to find Barry sitting in the passenger seat. “I said to blow it.”

“As immortal as you seem to think you are, I’m not going to put your life in danger, sir.”

“I gave you an order.”

He sighs. “For your safety, I chose not to follow it.”

“YouandStacey are starting to annoy me with this talking-back shit.”

He chuckles and then taps on his phone screen, bringing up the app that connects all the explosives and triggers them. The flash comes first, and then the thunderous sound of the world blowing up nearly ruptures my eardrums. The ball of flame erupts like a volcano into the skies, and I smile at the artwork we created. I would have been in pieces if he had blown it when I said.

I announce to everyone, “Nice going, team. Pack up and get some rest.”

I turn to my assistant. “I need to complete a contract. You good to clean this up, head to your hotel and wait for word?”

Barry nods and climbs out, patting the front of the car.

I look at what was once a warehouse filled with a gang, now obliterated and filled with dead, incinerated bodies.

If Bernadette finds out I eradicated an entire MC, she’ll flip. I can’t be fucked with that. I’ll need to lie and tell her we had an altercation and they threatened to out us, so I simply had to blow them up.

It was unavoidable. A travesty. A huge shame.

Maybe people will learn not to mess with my things.

21

KADE

As the sirens buzz in the distance – Barry’s clean-up team, not the emergency services – I make sure everyone has left, and then I input the location of my target, groaning when I realise it’s a security-infested manor. I follow the map, stopping at a wooded area to burn my clothes and pull on a fresh suit I had stowed in a suitcase along with the drugs I’ll use to gain entry.

Before closing the suitcase full of gear, I take two lines of coke, hating myself a little more than I did a moment ago. But I need to ease the vibrating in my bones, something that happens when I go too long without an upper. The drugs aren’t being forced into me now though; I think that stopped when I started craving the highs they offered.

I pull the suitcase from the car, slide the handle up and drag it behind me as I walk onto the driveway that leads up to electric gates. I press the buzzer and introduce myself as a distributor for Mr Lennox, and whoever it is on the other end lets me in.

I roll my eyes at the security team. How easy was it for me to walk right in here fully armed?

I’m directed to the main room, where an overweight, greasy-looking man is planted behind a desk, smoking a cigar. Gold rings flash on every finger. “What do you have for me?” he asks, coughing through his smoke.

He sits back as I throw the suitcase onto his desk and open it, showing him all the white powder inside. A grin, and he disgustingly gargles in his throat.

But Mr Lennox doesn’t have a chance to lift even one bag to inspect it before I yank my gun out from my waistband and shoot him right in the chest four times, the silencer quieting thepops.

His body slumps instantly, and I snap a picture and send it to Bernadette, demanding the rest of my pay.

I leave the suitcase behind, but I only manage to reach the main stairs before shots are fired at me.

I throw myself behind an overturned table, laughing at my luck as I pull my other gun out, so I have two firing as I run to the pillar, dodging the bullets that whizz past my head.

The coke isn’t helping my accuracy, so I drop one of my guns and pull out a blade, then grab a guy from behind and shove it into his neck, using his body as a shield as I make my way to the back entrance.

I’m not sure how the fuck I reach my car, or how long they chase me until I overturn my Bentley in a ditch. I somehow escape unscathed, but I’m pissed I wrecked my new car and have to run on foot until I lose their tail.

There’s blood in my eyes, turning my vision red as I type a message to my assistant on my cracked phone screen.

Barry picks me up at a nearby gas station, and he huffs all the way to the hotel, telling me I need to be more careful. He offers me a handkerchief for my face, but I shrug him off, thank him and jump out of the car.

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