Читать книгу The Nightmare on Trap Street - C. N. Phillips - Страница 6

Chapter 2

It wasn’t the sound of the television, the birds chirping outside the window, or even the housekeeper who kept knocking on the hotel room door that woke Ahli Malone up. No, her eyes didn’t open until her hand reached to the right side of the bed and was met with nothing but air. The white oversized comforter was soft and warm around Ahli’s body as she sat up and stretched her arms in the air. Glancing around the hotel suite, she searched for the person responsible for making the night before so exceptional. However, her boyfriend, Brayland, was nowhere to be found. When she looked down to where he had fallen asleep beside her, she saw a folded piece of paper on his pillow. It was a note. She grabbed and unfolded it, trying to fight the smile creeping to her lips.

Last night was the most fun I’ve had in a while. I don’t remember the last time I danced. I wish I could see your face waking up to me, but the boss called me in. I love you.

P.S. Whatever that thing was you did with your tongue? I like it.

A giggle slipped through her lips, and she kissed the note before letting it fall on the bed. She was a little upset that they wouldn’t be able to grab breakfast together, but duty called. Ahli knew what that meant. The day before was the first day off either one of them had in six months, and just like that, it was over. Since Brayland had driven and was now gone, she figured she would just call a driver to take her back to the mansion.

Ahli got out of bed and went to the desk her phone was charging on to check for any missed messages or calls. There was nothing on the screen when she looked, but still she decided to shower and get dressed. In her realm of work, it was better to be ready instead of having to get ready when someone summoned her. She unsnapped her bra, letting it and her lace panties fall to the ground as she walked to the large bathroom. She turned the water in the glass-enclosed shower to the hottest that she could stand and got in.

Placing her hands on the wall in front of her, she allowed the water to run from her hair to her toes. Her eyes were closed, and the events from the past three years passed on the backs of her lids. If someone else were to tell her story, Ahli wasn’t alive in it. She and her sister, Rhonnie, supposedly died three years ago at the Opulent Inn in the clutches of Madame, the woman originally in search of Vita E Morte. Ahli’s mother and father had hidden the formula, but Madame never stopped searching. In fact, the risk their parents took cost their father his life. So when Sadie Thomas, a leader of one of the biggest drug cartels in the United States, saved them and killed Madame, it wasn’t hard to say goodbye to their lives from before. They were able to fall completely off the grid, although both refused to get new names. Technically, on paper, they didn’t exist anymore, but Ahli was all right with that.

After the untimely death of her father, Quinton, and the horrific events that followed, Ahli didn’t know what her purpose was anymore. Her mother had died years before that, and Rhonnie was all she had. Ahli was a thief trained in combat with nobody to rob and nobody calling the shots. It wasn’t until Sadie rescued them that she found a new purpose, and that was protecting the head of The Last Kings at any cost. Sadie hired both Ahli and Rhonnie to be her personal security detail after seeing what they were capable of, and she gave them a second chance to live.

Ahli stood up straight and finished washing herself before turning off the water. She stepped out of the shower and wrapped one of the white towels around her body. Her long, wet hair hung loosely around her face when she exited the bathroom. She almost jumped out of her body when she saw a woman sitting with her back to her on the hotel bed.

“What the fuck,” Ahli breathed when the woman turned her head to face her. “Sadie, you scared the hell out of me.”

“We thought to call, but then we figured the element of surprise would be better,” Rhonnie’s voice sounded, and she rounded the corner from the small kitchen in the suite. “So, surprise!”

Rhonnie held her hands up and wiggled her fingers. She was dressed in a nice tan suit with a blazer and red heels. Her hair was pulled up into a ponytail broadcasting her cheekbones and chin definition. She looked so ridiculous moving her fingers around that Ahli almost laughed, but she was too busy trying to figure out how they’d gotten in her room. Actually, she wanted to know how they even found her.

“Your credit card is attached to my account, remember?” Sadie said, seeing the look of confusion on Ahli’s face.

The smile on Sadie’s face was kind, and Ahli shook her head sheepishly. For the most part, Sadie gave both women their privacy. So much so that Ahli had forgotten that their entire existence was attached to hers.

“I didn’t think you would need us until later today,” Ahli said, pulling a black suit and some lotion from her overnight bag, “but Brayland said you called him into work.”

“About that.” The smile on Sadie’s face turned into a serious line. “I sent him on a few runs, just as extra muscle. But honestly, I just needed him out of the way.”

“Out of the way for what?”

“I called a meeting for later, and I only want the two of you to attend it with me,” Sadie answered. “I want to make sure everything goes smoothly. Nothing like what happened yesterday.”

Sadie shot Rhonnie a look that made Ahli look at her too. Rhonnie shrugged her shoulders, but Ahli could tell by the malevolent smirk on her face that she’d done something ridiculous.

“Do I even want to know, NaNa?” Ahli asked with a raised brow, calling her sister by the nickname she’d given her when they were younger.

“I didn’t even do too much this time. I just used a machete on one of the dudes rolling with Cam, that’s all.”

“So you’re Madame now?” Ahli asked, making a face as she reflected on Madame’s killing methods. “I would have thought that after what happened, you wouldn’t want to play with knives.”

“Maybe if Sadie hadn’t paid for my complete facial and body reconstructive surgery, but now I’m good as new!” Rhonnie ran her hand down the side of her face.

Just by looking at the two of them, a person would never be able to tell that their bodies had once been covered in several cuts and gashes. They had to undergo a few surgeries, but in the end, there wasn’t even a blemish that stood out. Ahli just rolled her eyes at her sister and let the towel drop to the ground, not caring that she was standing there naked.

“It sounds like this is an important meeting,” she pondered aloud as she applied lotion to her body. “And if it’s so important, why are Rhonnie and I the only security detail you want to have? Usually you roll a few trucks deep to important things.”

“This is so important that I only want the two I trust the most with me,” Sadie said while she and Rhonnie exchanged a look.

“And why is that?”

“Vita E Morte is ready to be placed on the market,” Rhonnie answered.

Ahli stopped rubbing lotion on her leg mid-stroke. “W . . . what?” Ahli’s eyes were wide as she looked from Rhonnie to Sadie. “I didn’t think it would be ready so soon.”

“So soon?” Sadie asked, furrowing her brow. “My scientists in the lab in Azua have been working day and night for the past three years to perfect the drug. It’s finally ready. I’ll be presenting it to potential buyers today.”

“Are you sure it’s the right time?” Ahli asked, getting dressed into her form-fitting suit. “I mean, I thought business has been doing well.”

“If there’s one thing you should know about me by now, it’s that there is never such a thing as too much money,” Sadie told her and eyed her suspiciously. “Are you good, Ahli? You can be honest with me about whatever you’re feeling.”

“Yeah, I just . . . I guess I never thought of how I would really feel when Vita E Morte was ready. I mean, my mother hid it for a reason. I can’t help but to think, what if she was right? Maybe it isn’t supposed to be on the streets.”

“Shit, crack wasn’t supposed to be on the streets. But you see fiends buying eight balls left and right,” Rhonnie butted in. “I’m with Sadie on this one, sister. I mean, this is going to be big. Probably bigger than the crack epidemic, and it’s ours. And Mom had a whole life that we never knew about. How do we know what her real reasons were for hiding the formula?”

Ahli chose to be quiet because to that she didn’t have a rebuttal. She finished getting dressed and went back into the bathroom to brush her teeth and pull her hair up into a bun. Her thoughts were all over the place. Just an hour ago, she had been in pure bliss, but now she had an uneasy feeling in the pit of her stomach. However, she had to remember that it had been she who told Sadie where to find the formula, and it had been she who gave Sadie the okay to use it. Ahli sighed in the mirror and rubbed her hands over her small waist. She hoped that she wouldn’t have to ruin another work suit at the meeting later. She’d just replaced an entire closetful.

“You all right in here?” Sadie appeared in the doorway.

“I’m just finishing up,” Ahli said a little more tersely than she meant to, and it didn’t go unnoticed by Sadie.

“If you want me to get someone else to come, that’s all right. But I did want to tell you face-to-face what the meeting was about.”

“No, it’s fine. I’ll go.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.” Ahli nodded and she meant it. “You saved our lives, and for that I owe you my service and allegiance. Where you go, I go.”

“That’s what I like to hear,” Sadie said and smiled. “And speaking of what I like to hear, how was your night off?”

“It was amazing,” Ahli said as a happy feeling came over her. “We went to dinner at Eddie V’s, and then he surprised me by taking me to Amor to go dancing. It’s been so long since I felt that free. It was like time stopped for a few hours. And as you see, we ended up here for the night. But now I’m thinking that I should have been with you two. What happened to Cam?”

“The same thing that happens to everyone who goes against the family,” Sadie said dryly. “His body was dumped outside his mother’s house. It’s been a while since somebody moved on us in a way like that, and hopefully this situation with Cam is a reminder not to. Now hurry up and finish getting ready. I have something that you and your sister are going to like.”

“New guns?” Ahli guessed, and her eyes lit up.

“New guns,” Sadie confirmed with a wink.

That was all she needed to say for Ahli to put pep in her step. She was satisfied with the silicon carbide–grip Glock 19 pistols she had, but she wouldn’t turn down any new weapons. Getting new firearms was like getting new toys for her and Rhonnie. Within minutes, she had everything she came with thrown in her overnight bag, ready to go. They left the hotel and traveled to Sadie’s mansion in Rhonnie’s snow white Rolls-Royce.

Rhonnie and Ahli had moved in with Sadie when they were relocated to Detroit. Sadie’s $2 million home had been built on land that she purchased, complete with a small pond and forest area in the backyard where the girls trained. The twenty-acre property was beautiful and desolate, just the way she liked it.

The gate surrounding the property opened when they got to it, and Rhonnie drove through. She took the Rolls-Royce into the garage attached to the mansion. The garage was the size of a house itself, being as it held all twelve of their vehicles. When they all were out of the car, Sadie led the way.

“They’re in the shooting range,” Sadie said over her shoulder, taking them inside the house.

They followed her down one of many long hallways to an elevator at the end of it. Besides elevators, another one of the modifications Sadie had made to the home was having a gun range built inside of it, enclosed by soundproof walls, complete with bulletproof glass and unlimited firepower. It was Ahli’s favorite place to go when she needed to let off some steam.

“I had Alberto bring this shipment directly to the house because I put this order together meticulously for you two,” Sadie said once they stepped out of the elevator and into the bottom level of the house.

The lights in the wide hallway were motion-sensor operated, and with each step, a new area lit up. Every wall was white, and the floor was marble with black-and-white furniture. They walked past the spa room, the theater, and Sadie’s office before they came to the gun range. Unable to hold her excitement in, Rhonnie hurried past them and was the first to enter.

“Goddamn, Sadie,” Ahli heard her sister say in an amazed tone.

Curious, Ahli quickly stepped around her boss and went to see what Rhonnie was talking about. As soon as she entered the bright room, she went directly to the artillery station on her left. A table had been laid out, and the top of it was covered with weapons and ammunition. Rhonnie was already standing in front of it, holding what looked to be an assault rifle, an AKM to be exact. That wasn’t all that was there. Ahli’s eyes went to two fully loaded M16 and M4 carbine tactical rifles, complete with scopes and drum mags. Next to those were four brand new Glocks 19 pistols with black frames and diamond-encrusted slides. Lastly, she took notice of the AR-15 rifles, and although her fingers were itching to shoot one, she grabbed an M4 instead. Even with all the customizations, it was still lightweight in her grip. When she saw that it had all the functionality for a soldier to use, she raised her brow at Sadie.

“Are these military grade?”

“Yes. I had them made to order. No serial numbers or any other identifiers.”

“Ghost guns.”

“Ghost guns,” Sadie confirmed.

“I like this,” Rhonnie said, putting the AKM back and grabbing an AR-15. “This AR has a carbon-fiber barrel.”

“I thought you would prefer it over a bull barrel,” Sadie told her. “But if you need one, I ordered some of those, too.”

“Cool,” Rhonnie said and went back to examining all the guns.

Ahli placed the M4 down and turned her attention to Sadie. She couldn’t wait to shoot with her new toys, but there was something itching at her in the back of her mind. “Why do we need military-grade weapons?”

“In light of this new drug, I want to take every precaution possible to avoid any chaos when it hits the streets. And if it inevitably breaks out anyway, I expect you two to contain it.”

Her answer was simple, and Rhonnie nodded. However, Ahli read between the lines. Sadie might have been her boss, but she was also the only friend she’d ever had besides her sister. She was able to read Sadie the same way she could Rhonnie, and she always knew when something wasn’t right.

“You’re worried.”

“I didn’t say that,” Sadie countered, grabbing one of the Glocks and heading over to the first shooting station.

“Then why are you expecting chaos?”

“Sometimes the world reacts to change in a good way and sometimes it doesn’t. Vita E Morte is something no other kingpin has, and it’s something they won’t ever be able to obtain . . . without me. I’m the only one with the formula, and when the market for it opens, some might not want to go through me to get it. And, well, you know what might happen after that.”

“So you are worried.”

“No,” Sadie said, aiming the gun at the paper target and emptying the clip. After the last shot rang, she turned back to Ahli and handed her the weapon. “Because I just bought you new guns, and I know you’ll use them well. Those, by the way, are just the ones that would fit on the table. You two have a few hours. Have some fun. But I need you dressed and ready by four o’clock sharp. There will be a driver here to pick us up.”

Ahli watched her walk out of the room without another word. She almost called after her but stopped herself when she realized that she didn’t have anything else to say. The only thing that she could do was trust her boss like she’d done for the past three years. In the time she’d worked for Sadie, she learned quickly that her boss was a master of covering all her bases even when she didn’t need to. It was what made her so elite at what she did. However, there was something different about her honesty that time. It was the kind of different that Ahli couldn’t put her finger on.

Instead of trying to, she grabbed a pair of earmuffs and a firearm. Taking her place in the first shooting stall where Sadie had been, she noticed that the paper target had received all head shots.