Taste of it

Chapter 14 The Mole

Landon's dark eyes zero in on mine. I lower my breathing. He doesn't scare me. Having a gun pointed at my chest doesn't scare me. Though my heart pounds against my ribcage at the adrenaline running through my body.

We both know he's irrational but he wouldn't destroy this when he knows we bring him in so much money in return. "Shoot me and you'll get nothing," my voice is so dark that I almost don't recognise it.

"Lonzo, Lonzo, Lonzo," he shakes his head with a bitter smile. "You have no idea what game you're playing here."

I bite down on my gums. "We got you your money. We'll get you your interest and this will never f*****g happen again."

He hums and stares at me down the barrel of his gun. "You're right," he sighs sarcastically. "This won't ever happen again. Not when your empire is f*****g lousy, slipping through snakes that betray their own kind?" He's laughing again. "I'm embarrassed for you, Lonzo."

"If we're done here," Gabriel barks before I snap. He knows me too well and we all want to go home tonight without wounds or dead members. "Then there is nothing more to it. Sunday you'll get your money and this will be finished. Got it, Landon?"

Landon tilts his head towards Gabriel and lowers his gun. He grins like a mad man but I ignore the feral look in his eyes. "Only I get to tell you when it's finished."

He glances from Gabriel to me before beckoning his men to lower their guns and head out. We watch them carefully as they leave, sizing us up as they do. Inside I'm shaking with deep frustration, I wish this s**t never happened.

Gabriel checks on our men before sending them home, organising a meeting in the morning so we can discuss what happened before we arrived. But right now, we all deserve to go home, drink half a bottle of whiskey and pretend the last hour never happened.

We climb back into our car and head home.

"Lonzo," Gabriel's voice floats through the car. "Lonzo."

"What?!"

He stares at me but I don't look at him. "You're about to turn this f*****g car over. Chill out."

I scoff sourly at his words. "Chill out?

Don't you f*****g dare tell me to chill out." "We will get him the money by Sunday," Gabriel says. "We have a job Friday, it will carry us through."

"But we have a f*****g mole in our empire, someone who is prepared to f**k us over. They did it once, and they'll do it again if we don't knuckle down and find who it is," I find myself hissing through my teeth. "And tear them apart until they tell us what we need to know. I don't care whose fingers and genitals I'll need to cut off in the process. Fanculo questa merda."

(Fanculo questa merda: f**k this s**t)

Gabriel clears his throat and rolls up his sleeves, flashing his tattooed arms. "Then tomorrow with the meeting, we will crack down on this s**t and we won't stand for it anymore. This will destroy us, Lonzo. We need to be harder on them, this s**t is serious and either of us is going to end up dead."

I turn to look at Gabriel who is already holding my stare. "And if they know Alexia is staying with us," his voice is hoarse. "It could change everything."

"They won't find out," I promise. "We keep our business to ourselves."

"They better not," he focuses his eyes on the road. "I can't have her in my protection and fail her. She doesn't deserve this s**t. She's never been a part of it, never wanted to be a part of it but she has no other choice and I feel like a shitty brother for even dragging her into more danger."

I pull up to our house and make our way through the gates, parking the car in the underground shelter. We get out of the car and make our way into the house, Gabriel goes upstairs to check on Alexia but it's late and I desperately need something to wash down this rage.

Once I'm in the kitchen I notice one of my canters is on the side, the top popped open and a glass that hasn't been put away in the dishwasher. My eyes begin to burn because I know Alexia must have touched my drink.

My whiskey that even Gabriel doesn't touch. No one touches because it's mine.