Their Rose Petal

Chapter Thirty One

Elias' POV

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Mateo, Kaleb, Neil and I watch the footage of the man on the screen over and over again. We're showing it to him as he is tied to a chair in the middle of the warehouse. Tears are swelling in his eyes due to fear, and beads of sweat form on his temple. We watch as he walks into our baby's restaurant, package in hand. He gives it to a server who then gives it to a cook. He turns and leaves the building, casual and unsuspecting. He then gets into a beat up piece of shit car.

"We've watched it together three times. We've zoomed in on your bitch ass face, and matched the license plates to the vehicle to your registration." Mateo presses the tip of a knife against his stomach, squatting down to be closer. "So, Zachary. Who sent you?"

The man sits there no shirt no shoes, just boxers and rope. His eyes are bloodshot. "Look, man. I don't know what sick shit you've got going on here. All I did was deliver a package."

Mateo tasks his tongue, taking the knife and slamming in down into his thigh. His screams light up the warehouse, but us four stare unphased. He cries in agony, shaking his head back and forth. "You see, you aren't a fucking delivery driver. You came in a beat up piece of shit car. It's a package you had no business delivering," Mateo gets in his face. Anger flows out of his every pore, his veins pulsating with each syllable.

Mateo has been someone that everyone feared since we joined this business. He doesn't play games, and he doesn't bullshit. If you fuck him over, you face repercussions. He doesn't feel remorse for low life's. This whole situation with Michelle has thrown him into a loop. We love that woman, and we never expected to feel this way about her or any other female for that matter. Our lifestyle has put her innocent life in danger. For what reason? We're unsure. Yes, we may be ruthless and unjust. However, we've never been unfair. We don't scam, we don't withhold product. Someone just simply wants our wealth or our entire operation, and they're using Michelle as a ploy to throw us off of our game.

"You see, Zachary. I'm new to this bullshit feeling some call love," he flicks the knife. Zachary begins to hyperventilate so Mateo grabs his face and smooshes it in his hand. "Deep breaths, my friend. If you don't start talking these will be the last breaths you take; enjoy them. As I was saying." He stands up, taking a few steps back.

"The package was a threat to my woman, our woman," he glances at me and Zachary's eyes follow. "You? You look soft as hell. You aren't someone with a devious plan to try and harm something that belongs to me. Hell, I don't even think you know who I am." He chuckles, but it is dry and low. "So, tell me who is."

"I don't know," Zachary begins to sob. What a bitch. "Look, look. I'm an addict, okay? I was buying from a new guy on Harrison Street. And, and he asked me if I wanted to make a deal." His words come out choppy and uneven. "He said all I had to do was take that package to the restaurant and he'd supply me enough to last me months. I just wanted a quick fix, man, I swear."

"That's just not enough information for us, unfortunately." I speak up, shrugging my shoulders. "Told you he wasn't good for shit." I take my gun out, aiming it at his temple.

The guy screams, thrashing his head to try and get it out of my aim. He looks kind of stupid, I don't ever actual end people. I am sure as hell not starting with him. He doesn't know that.

"Harrison Street! There were two of them, uh- a tall white dude with brown hair and sunglasses and Hispanic. On the corner of Harrison and Burnett. It was around midnight, they've been there every night for about a week now." He blabbers, blood squirting from his leg due to his movements.

It's approaching ten thirty now, Mateo's lips are in a straight line as he looks at Zachary.

"We're going to go check it out. If you're right, we'll leave you be. Send you away with a contract to sign and more money than you'll see in this lifetime." He says, cocking his gun back. "If you lied? I'm going to place this bullet in the center of that scrambled shit you call a brain."

The guy just continues to sob. Neil seems to have had enough and his fist collide with the poor guys face. He's unconscious within seconds. Neil sighs in content before wrapping a bandage on Zachary's leg to prevent him from bleeding out. He nods at Mateo when he's done.

We all get loaded into Kaleb's car, seeing as it's the least noticeable. The rest of us drive unnecessarily expensive and flashy vehicles.

"What's the plan if they're on the block?" Kaleb asks as we ride towards the city. The windows are darkly tinted, so remaining unseen isn't a problem.

"Depends what we notice when we're there. If we know who they're related too, we'll shoot on sight. If we don't, we'll bring him in to take Zachary's place." Mateo loads his gun with a new clip as I watch the road when we pass.

My heart thumps in anticipation. I send a quick text to one of our guys that's at the house keeping an eye on our girl from a distance. He responds quickly, letting us know her and Kinsley our both safe inside.

We park a bit down the street, the car off. It's silent, all eyes on the corner as we wait and see if the intel was helpful. An hour passes, and everyone in the car has gotten angrier by the moment.

"Lying piece of shit," Neil groans out, sitting back in his seat.

"Wait," I say, all eyes returning to the street. Three men are walking towards the street sign. I squint my eyes, trying to get a better look. Kaleb takes out binoculars he brought with us, waiting until they walked under the street light to look.

"Son of a bitch, the one on the right is one of Alaric's people. Jasper or some shit like that," Kaleb mumbles.

Neil snatches the binoculars, looking himself. "The one in the middle looks familiar too, but I don't think he rolls with Alaric."

My eyebrows scrunch in confusion. Mateo looks after Neil. "That's Kyndal. A respected member of Lorenzo's operation." Mateo mumbles, throwing the binoculars against the dash in anger. "Alaric and Lorenzo are working together. Son of a bitch."

Lorenzo has wanted our territory and product for a long time now. He's only acted on it once, back when he raided one of our warehouses a few months ago. He's a greedy bastard, with three times the men and money than Alaric. They don't even sell the same product, them working together raises a lot of questions.

"Kill them." I say, anger running through my veins. The third man is just baggage unfortunately.

"You heard him, I got the one in the middle. Neil you get the other two. Headshots only. Aim right, no stray bullets." Mateo says.

Kaleb presses a button on his dash that pulls a cover over the license plate before turning the car on. All three heads snap towards the vehicle, but they don't react quick enough. Our windows are rolled down as Kaleb speeds quickly towards the walking dead men. Silencers on the pistols help void the noise, but my ears start to ring as the three bodies fall to the concrete.

Lorenzo is a lot more dangerous than Alaric, he doesn't play fair. Woman and children have never been off limits to him. He'll visit hell and come back smiling just to obtain what he wants.

This time, he'll just have to go to hell and burn.