Page 74 of Torch

TORCH

Over the last few days, the club had been busy. The first thing we did was take care of the pharmacist. We didn’t want his death to look like a murder, so Bear stripped the brakes on his car. The next morning, on the way to work, he lost control of his car and crashed into a tree. He was dead by the time the authorities arrived.

We were slightly worried that they might investigate why he crashed, but what they found in his trunk was more alarming. He had six duffel bags full of the fentanyl he had been cooking up. The chief realized he was the person responsible for all the drug overdoses. It was all over the news how the town's well-known and respected pharmacist had become a drug dealer.

After that, I did exactly what Viper asked me to do. I burned the laundromat down to the ground. Smoove had been radio silent. He wasn’t even going back to his condo. He suspected we were after him, and now he was hiding out. We only knew this because the night we burned the laundromat down, he called someone in the living room of his condo. He said he was getting out of town for a while until things died down.

I didn’t know how much of that I believed, but we were working on finding him. He hadn’t used his cell for days, and the girls suspected he was probably using a burner. We were keeping our eyes open until he resurfaced. Once he did, he was dead man.

Today, I had another problem I had to handle.

Julian.

Blade was along for the ride. I could have handled this alone, but I knew my brother wouldn’t take no for an answer.

Once we arrived at the marketing firm, I parked my G-Wagon and got out. Blade and I were both dressed in suits. If we tried walking into this building in our normal attire and cut, we would have been flagged by security for sure. We had to look like we were here for business.

In a sense, I was. It was just personal business.

When we walked into the building, we headed to the elevator. Brit had already given instructions on how to get to Julian's office. I had to promise I wasn’t going to do anything to end up in jail just for her to give me the information. After the elevator doors opened, we made our way through the hall swiftly while people openly stared.

Some were people who attended the charity event. I recognized a few. As we approached Julian's office door, his assistant stood.

“Welcome to Elite Legacy Marketing. How may I help you?” She smiled while practically undressing me with her eyes.

“You can’t. I’m here for your boss.”

She stepped in front of the door as we approached it, holding her hands up. “Wait. Mr. Ramirez is in an important meeting right now.”

I put on a charming smile, watching as her breathing changed when I hovered over her. “I really need to speak to your boss. How about you take a bathroom break or something? I’ll let Julian know you weren’t here to stop us from going in. Maybe I can take you to dinner for your troubles.”

I swear I saw a little drool slip from her mouth before she eagerly nodded. “O-okay,” she stuttered before briskly walking away.

Blade snickered. “Poor girl didn’t realize you didn’t even ask for her number.”

I chuckled, nodding my head. “That was too damn easy. Like taking candy from a baby.”

Pushing Julian’s office door open, I watched his head snap in my direction as he frowned. His father and Myron were seated in front of his desk. Myron rushed to his feet with a beaming smile. Even Julian’s father seemed thrilled to see me. Inside, I was laughing. I would never, in a million years, do business with a man who couldn’t be loyal to his own son.

Don’t get me wrong, I hadn’t started any of the problems between us, but damn, have some dignity. My father didn’t care whether my siblings and I were right or wrong. He was standing behind us one thousand percent. If we didn’t like you, then he didn’t like you either.

“You finally decided to come and talk some business with us.” Again, he had that same phony-ass grin, extending his hand to me. Just like last time, I looked down at it like he had shit on it.

Handing my briefcase over to Blade, I moved like a lion on a gazelle. Grabbing the pistol from my waistband, I flipped the gun, smashing the butt against Julian’s jaw. I hit him five more times, loving the sound of his nose breaking. His father was paralyzed with fear.

Myron, on the other hand, felt like being a hero. He gripped my arm, halting my attack. I paused, looking down at his hand. “Unless you want me to break each and every last one of your fingers, get your motherfucking hands off me,” I growled.

He quickly wised up and let me go. Julian's father reached into his suit jacket, and pulled out his phone. “I’m calling the police.”

Blade stepped forward with a sinister laugh. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.” He opened my briefcase, took out the file, and placed it on the desk.

I got pure satisfaction watching the color drain from his face. He stared at me in shock. “W-what is this about? Why are you doing this?”

“Now you want to play dense?” I raised a brow. He appeared thoroughly confused. “Wait, so you don’t know your brothers vandalized Brittney’s shop?”

His eyes widened, and then he glared at Julian. “I told you to let this go.”

Julian spat a mouthful of blood onto the floor. “You only told me to let it go after Myron told you she was with a Romano. She embarrassed me, and all you cared about was getting in good with his family!”