Devil in Your Smile

Chapter 32, Silenced

3RD PERSON POV

When Harry and Louis walk into the building, Louis' jaw drops down even further than it was before. In front of him, shelves upon shelves of guns are standing, holding what he can only imagine is a thousand firearms of all sizes. He elbows Harry, speaking low as he says "When you said it was a 'weapons warehouse' I was thinking that it held a few crates of guns, but this place is filled! Who needs so many guns?" He flashes a cocky smile before he explains, "we buy them and move them. Basically, I'll buy each gun for twenty-five dollars, and sell them for five-hundred. The ones that we don't sell are used to give to some of my members." Louis' expression doesn't change as he asks, "How many people are in your little gang? Christ, I feel like I'm in assassin heaven right now." Harry leads him down one of the isles with guns on racks, talking as he goes. "There's 500 close knit members, but in the lowest ranks, there's gotta be eight or nine thousand in each? Last I checked, there were fifteen-thousand in Chicago alone. That's just the American branch, though." Louis is baffled by the time Harry finishes talking, lost for words. When Harry turns and sees his face, he laughs, making some of the people around him stop and stare. His face goes from humored back to his normal closed-off glare, looking at a few people with the stoic face to get them to stop looking. Louis becomes aware of the amount of people around them when the rows of guns end. A bunch of tables are set up, maybe five or six each having two or three people around them, taking guns apart and putting them back together. When Harry sees Louis peering at the groups, he continues his talk.

"Some of the weapons we get here still have the serial numbers on them. Every man and woman you see hovered over a gun is probably busy filing or changing them. I can't have my men killing people with hot guns, that could be tracked." Louis understands this, having filed the numbers off of his own weapons when he got them from one of Oli's connections. Harry hands Louis a clipboard and a pen, responding to Louis' confused face with, "Well, you wanted to come with me. Start workin'. All the guns in that crate need to be counted and separated." dejectedly, Louis follows what Harry says, and begins counting.

While Louis is busy, Harry goes up to the office and looks at the information that has been collected in the last week. Usually, there's someone who he sends to do this, but one of his men got killed by a C18 member a few days ago, and until he can find someone who he can trust enough to take over, it's on him. He sits there going over the information for about an hour before he hears a commotion from outside. He shoots out of the office, hurrying down the stairs to get to the source of the noises. When he gets outside, Louis is standing behind a man he doesn't recognize, one of the knives from his harness held against the man's neck. "What's going on out here?" he speaks to Louis, but Louis doesn't answer, the man in his hold speaks up before anyone surrounding them can. "Boss, tell this little twink to back off! He just came at me! He got the upperhand because I wasn't expecting it!"

HARRY POV

I watch Louis roll his eyes as he pushes the knife deeper against the guy's neck, making him bleed a bit. I give him a look, trying to silently tell him to take it easy as I look around at the others who've gathered. I make eye contact with Sierra, one of the higher ranking women that I know, and she immediately shakes her head. Speaking out towards her, I say "Did you see what happened, Sierra?" she shoots a scolding look towards the man in Louis' hold before she turns back to me and nods. "He's been acting out all week, Boss. This is the third time he's harassed one of us, but this is the first time that I know of that Lee has touched someone." The familiar fire lights in me, the same fire that started when I saw Louis get drugged, and I don't hesitate before I pull my gun out and aim it at the blonde man's head. Immediately, the man starts panicking, defending himself, even though it only makes me more angry. "NO! Sir, he was chatting me up, I swear! Sierra is lying! She's mad that she didn't get moved up, I may have teased her about it, but it was just some fun!" I listen to his American accent, listen to him plead, but I ignore him in favor of looking at Louis. I can practically see the rage burning in his eyes, the piercing blue looks more gray than anything, something I only see when Damien is brought up. He looks at me, not breaking eye contact as he holds the knife steady against Lee's jugular.