Page 55 of Vicious Chaos

“Looks like we have our targets for tonight,” Ryder announces.

Everyone seems to nod in agreement. Two targets are easily handled by the six of us. They won’t be the easiest to take out, but both should be alone. They aren’t the types to be surrounded by security. They’ll be confident in their abilities to protect themselves.

I hum as I ponder the idea of taking out some of the people on his cleanup and coverup crews, but it might be too much of a stretch there. People like the mayor and the district attorney are going to take some serious planning. Even though they are my highest priority right now.

Time to root out all of the corruption in this town. It seems like this war in St Graves may just be the bloody cleansing we were desperately needing.

The guys were nothappy about my decision to go with Rachel and Alec.

It was obvious for the teams to be split into groups of three, and it made the most sense for Kade and I to be separated. We are the most experienced out of all of us after all.

If anything, I’m a little nervous about not being with Ryder after everything that happened, but I trust Kade and Declan to be able to ground him. Josh will also be a whole lot more straightforward of a kill than all of the activity we had last night.

It’s a chance for him to reinforce his confidence after the crash this morning. If he starts to rely on me too heavily, it could impede his overall success. It’s something I had to learn to do on my own too. I think if Kade had always been at my side, I wouldn’t be as good as I am now. I would have leaned too heavily on him so that I wouldn’t have been able to stand on my own.

I’ve realized the importance of relying on my men, of leaning on them, of accepting their support, but it doesn’t take away from the necessity of being able to stand on your own two feet.

Having people to love makes life worth living, but it doesn’t keep me alive. I do that. I survive. If my men were taken from me… Well, I’d burn the whole damn world down. But I wouldn’t die.

Ryder needs to be able to survive on his own. This is the chance to remind himself that he can. He’s more than capable of doing this run without me as his crutch. I’ll still be there for him when he needs me. If he even needs to, that is.

I couldn’t have sent him or Declan with Rachel and Alec either. It had to be me or Kade, and to be honest, I’m just excited to see how they work with my own eyes. It was a good, low risk opportunity to get the chance to.

I flip the guys off as they glare at me and climb into Kade’s SUV. I settle into the backseat of Alec’s ride, pulling out my laptop to continue working while we drive. We are headed into some of the infamous traffic of SoCal and the dreaded 405.

Normally, you couldn’t catch me dead trying to do a run at this time of day. It’s the absolute worst time to be on the roads. It’s going to take us at least an hour to get to the other side of St Graves to where Faucher lives.

Not only is it not convenient to be moving around at this time, there is a much higher probability of someone seeing us. That can be maneuvered to our advantage though. It’s much easier to blend into a crowd. At least this guy doesn’t live in a small suburban neighborhood where every slight deviation from the norm is noted. We should have no problem going undetected.

I hum as I begin working. I left a note for Noah and Luca when they wake up. Part of it was explaining where we went, but the other part was asking Noah to start organizing everything we have on Romano. It kills me a little bit to admit, but I have a feeling he will be able to get it done faster and more efficiently than I could.

Now I can focus on making plans for the next people on our list. The St Graves DA, Jason Ryans. He’s pivotal in Romano having been able to move into our town. It was only after Ciar moved his girls here that Romano started creating a large presence here.

He was never here full time before that. It would have gone against our alliance, since we have made it clear this is our home base. Romano was far too big to have been able to claim our space as his without causing issues.

That means, his contacts here are on newer terms than some of his others. Ryans and our lovely Mayor Higgins have just started dabbling in the dark world of Romano’s enterprises. Too bad for them, when it comes to trafficking and sexual assault, it’s all evil. Even if they just watched and haven’t dipped their toes in, they’re as guilty as the vilest characters in Romano’s crew. They all deserve death and lucky for all of us, I love the chance to balance out the evil in the world.

I start by collecting everything I can on Ryans. His work schedule, his associates, his habits. I dig into every crevice of his life that I can get my hands on until I can paint the full picture of what a day in the life of him looks like.

It helps to decide not only when is the best time to corner him, but also how we are going to cover it up, and what risks we need to prepare for. He most likely has at least some level of security around him. The question is just how paranoid is he?

I see Rachel turn her attention to me from the corner of my eye.

“I heard you guys are opening a new club instead of reopening The Black Rose,” she says conversationally, but I can hear the intrigue behind her words. Whatever she has heard has made her want to know more.

I arch a brow at her as I continue to type. “We haven’t announced that yet.” I point out.

Alec chuckles from the front seat. “You know how our world works. Nothing good stays secret for long.”

I hum. It can be true, but some secrets are meant to be buried and they do stay that way. I’ll never let who I really am become fodder for the criminal gossips. You’d think we’d be above such things, but really. We are worse than a ton of middle schoolers passing along gossip like it’s a currency. I snort to myself. That’s exactly what it is. It’s what we’ve built our empire on.

We haven’t announced it, but it also isn’t some state secret we’re trying to harbor. There’s no harm in the word getting out. I already know more than a few associates that would love the idea.

Sexual deviance goes hand in hand with societal deviance after all. We make a habit of going against the grain.

“It’ll be a new type of club. It won’t be like any of our other ones,” I assure them both. It’s not like we are trying to compete with ourselves. I continue making my outline of Ryans, starting to have a slight semblance of how we can target him.

“What type of club?”

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