Page 15 of Savage

With that, we got out and watched as the buyers emerged from their truck. The first was an older, grizzled man wearing a black leather coat. His face was hidden in darkness, and his eyes held a hint of menace. The second was a younger man, and there was something about the way he carried himself that gave the impression he was new to all this.

The older man stepped forward and asked, "You got the goods?"

"They’re in the back."

The man nodded, then we all followed Wrath to the back of the SUV.

He opened the hatch, and without any hesitation, they reached for the crates and started sifting through them, checking the inventory. “Looks like it’s all here.”

“You sure?” The younger man sounded concerned as he asked, “What about the AR15’s?”

“I said they’re all here.” Annoyance marked his face as the older man turned to Wrath and handed him an envelope. “Tell Bruton the next shipment better be on time, or we’re done.”

Wrath didn’t respond. He simply took the money, then stepped back, giving the two men some room to start moving the crates from our vehicle to theirs. As soon as they were done, Wrath gave him a nod and said, “That should do it.”

He closed the hatch, then we each got in our vehicles and started out of the parking lot. We were just about to pull out on the main road when two Camaros, one red and one black—both with dark tinted windows, came inching by. Even though none of us could see who was inside, they were obviously checking us out.

Wrath pulled his gun from his holster and held it by his side as he growled, “What the fuck are these assholes up to?”

“Checking to see who’s in their territory.” I kept my eyes trained on the tinted windows as I said, “Just another reason we don’t do business in places like this.”

“Agreed.”

Once they drove past, I whipped out onto the road and sped off in the opposite direction. As soon as I knew we were in the clear, I called Maverick to let him know that the drop had been made and that we were on our way back. I’d barely hung up the phone when Torch leaned forward and said, “I gotta say... Minus our little drive-byers, that went better than I thought it would.”

“Yeah, but it just as easily could’ve gone to shit. Next time, we’re gonna do things our way. Fuck this three-man bullshit,” I grumbled. “We take who we wanna take, and we meet where we wanna meet.”

“And if Bruton doesn’t agree?”

“I don’t give a fuck if he agrees or not. He’s not going to have a choice. We move it our way or not at all.”

“I like your way of thinking, VP.” Wrath had a faint smile as he said, “I like it a lot.”

Runs are usually pretty intense and leave us needing to decompress. We usually hit the bar, down a couple of beers, and share our triumphs and fuck ups.

And tonight was no different.

Everyone was there, including my father.

I was actually kind of surprised that he stuck around. It was the first run where he wasn’t calling all the shots, and even though he’d never admit it, I knew that had to be hard for him. I grabbed a couple of cold ones from the cooler, then carried them over to his table and said, “How ya making it?”

“I was just about to ask you the same.”

“I’m hanging in.” I placed his fresh beer on the table as I said, “Things went well today.”

“I knew they would.”

“I’m glad you did because I certainly had my doubts.” I took a pull from my beer, then added, “Bruton’s location was sketchy as hell, and whether he likes it or not, we need more men there to make sure we’re covered.”

“I’m sure you’ll work it out.”

“You sound confident.”

“Because I am... I wouldn’t have stepped down if I didn’t think you boys could handle things, and I was right. You’re handling it just fine.” He leaned back in his chair and smiled. “And for the first timein a very long time, I can sit back and let the stress of it all fall on someone else’s shoulders.”

“Like you wouldn’t be the first one to lose it if something went wrong,” I scoffed.

“I’m just a brother now, son. I can lose it all I want, but it’s not gonna change anything.”

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