Chapter 9
1403 Words
Chapter 9
Raven
As soon as I got her message I didn't think twice. I let go of him.
I pushed through the crowd like I wasn’t going to dance with a man a few minutes ago. I shrugged off all my thoughts and kept moving. My body moved faster than it should. Like default. Like I was used to running away from situations like this.
But as soon I got to my bike, hands wrapped around the handle, something inside of me ticked, the warmth of his hands stung my face even though it was no longer there and for the first time in a very long time, I turned around to look at a man I left.
Our eyes met for a second, he was surrounded by a lot of people, it was a festival after all but someone the only being I saw, the only eyes I could see was his, looking at me with confusion and worry.
I turned away immediately, I grabbed my helmet and placed it on my head hopped on my bike and the engine roared so loud that the festival noise faded behind me.
HQ wasn’t far. It’s at the edge of the city, an abandoned warehouse everyone pretended not to notice.
Jade was already there when I arrived, sitting on the hood of her car which she got recently. She looked up the second I turned off my engine, jumped down and walked up to me in her black fitted leather trouser, her fitted tank top and her hair tied into a ponytail.
“You took your time,” she mumbled, it was her way of telling me, I was never late, why the hell did it take me fifteen more minutes to get here.
I rolled my eyes as I stepped out of my bike, “I was—- busy,” I replied, taking off my helmet and doing everything but looking her in the eye.
Suddenly I noticed this disturbed shocked look plastered all over her face. She squinted as she looked intently. She stepped closer and closer and each time I took one step back, she took two steps forward until she caught up to me.
Her finger dragged through my cheeks and only then did I realize why she was staring. I still had the face painting Jake did on my face.
Stay calm.
“You went to the festival?” She asked, awe swimming out of her mouth.
“Yes.” I answered, keeping cool as possible.
“Oh my f*****g goodness, since when we're you a festival person? You never went all the years you’ve been here, what’s gotten into you?” she blurted, laughing and walking by my side as my hands rubbed off the paint on my cheek.
How can I answer a question that I don’t know the answer to?
I sighed “What happened?” I asked, ignoring her question and thankfully, Jade didn't push it any further.
“Intel came in twenty minutes ago. Two trucks, one from the east, the other cutting through the water routes. Arms and drugs. Same supplier we’ve been tracking.” She didn’t waste time.
“Where?”
“Docks and highway splits”.
“Tonight?” I asked and she nodded.
Good.
“How many?” I asked.
“Enough to be annoying,” Jade replied. “But not enough to scare us.” She said after a beat.
I smirked. “Perfect.”
Whatever softness that had crept in me earlier had evaporated fast.
“We’ll wait, no rushing.” I said. “Let them get comfortable.”
We took our time after that. We made calls, the crew came in one by one. Those are my people, they don’t ask questions, they only trust my calls. We let the night stretch instead of forcing it.
It was time to move.
“We split,” I said. “Half of you will be with me on the docks. Jade takes the highway with the other half crew.”
“We block, we seize, we disappear.”
Jade smiled faintly. “What about the cops?”
“Covered,” I replied. “Lopez is handling distraction.”
The reeving of our bikes split the night in half. It didn’t scare the city. Everyone in this city knew one thing for sure, when the Phantoms moved as one, something ugly was about to be cleaned.
The warehouse sat at the edge of the water, old and neglected. We pulled up behind the warehouse by the docks.
I turned off my engine and stayed seated while I listened to what’s going on inside. Metals clinked, low voices.
“Don’t die today.” I said quietly.
Die tomorrow.” The phantoms echoed it back.
The side door was already cracked open when I pushed it open.
Inside was shipping crates stacked too guarded, stamped with serial numbers that never existed. Tables with wrapped drugs stacked like offerings, guns laid out carefully like trophies, cleaned like they were meant to last. Armed men place like dogs trained to bite.
I exhaled slowly.
Disgusting.
Someone had plans.
“Well,” a voice said lazily, “this just became uncomfortable.”
I turned.
I followed the voice until it stood before Mensah, Popularly known as Switchblade as he stepped into the dim light.
A Middleman arms dealer. The kind of man who never got his hands dirty but always smelled like money. He hid behind contracts and boys with guns.
“Ironhide,” he said smiling like we shared history worth remembering.
“What’s this?” he continued. “You expanding into customs now, Raven?”
I didn’t answer.
I walked past him and picked up one of the guns, inspecting it like it offended me personally.
I said calmly. “You’re bringing arms into my city.”
He laughed. Actually laughed.
“City?” he scoffed. “You don’t own this place.”
I picked up a wrapped drug, weighed it in my palms and drop it back on the table.
“You’re also bringing drugs.”
He smiled. Business is busine…….
I didn't let him finish as I threw a punch, hitting the bridge of his nose, nonchalantly without breaking a f*****g sweat.
“f**k,” he yelled as he slammed into a crate, drugs scattering across the floor like spilled candy.
“You f*****g bitch.” All I could hear was his pain and it filled my heart with joy.
“I warned you,” I said, stepping closer. “No poison, no weapons. Not here.”
He laughed but it craked in between, “You can’t just walk in here and act all…”
Before he could finish, Isla slid in behind me, she had her gun trained on the guards. Kai cracked his knuckles slowly.
No one moved.
“Say it,” I said softly.
He swallowed. “Boys,” he barked, voice shaking. “Shoot them!”
I laughed quietly. “They know better.”
I walked close to him until we are almost nose to nose.
“You smuggle drugs.” I said. “People overdose, some even die trying to recover from it.”
I tapped the gun behind him.
He moved back, of course he was a coward. Men are.
He straightened suddenly, his pride flaring up like a dying match. “You think you scare me? You’re still just a woman…….”
I leaned back, staring at him.
“You have one chance,” I said. “Tell me where the rest of the shipment is.”
He laughed through the pain. “Or what?”
I leaned in. “Or I start removing things you’ll miss.”
He spat in my face. Bad choice.
I picked up a pair of bolt cutters from the table and pressed them open slowly, letting him see.
He suddenly shoved me hard, grabbing a knife on the table.
Too late.
I caught his wrist, twisted it until the knife clattered on the floor.
His scream ripped through the warehouse.
“Please!,” he begged.
I pulled back.
“Burn it,” I told my crew. “Every crate, evergy weapon. Don’t leave anything out.”
I glanced at him, curled and broken on the floor.
“And tell anyone who asks,” I added, voice cold.
“The Phantoms don’t deal in drugs.”
- Writer
