His Drug Of Choice

12 - Romero

Ron's POV

I was in the study, going through all the business plans Clay and I had been looking into for the past two weeks. My phone started ringing, a video call from Romero so I picked.

"Valdo, you need to see this," Ethan said abruptly, halting in front of his desk. He gestured toward the large flat screen mounted on the wall. The screen flickered to life, revealing a CCTV feed of the club's back alley.

"What's this about?" I asked, my curiosity piqued.

Ethan didn't answer immediately. Instead, he fast-forwarded through several frames until the footage settled on a chaotic scene. My jaw dropped as I watched a girl group in a heated confrontation with Clay, Larah was right besides Clay and Briah on the other side.

"Wait, that's... that's Candice behind Clay!" I said, my voice rising with shock. "And is that, Larah? What are they doing?"

"This is what happened just 5 minutes ago. Family was attacked by another girl group. I need to know why, and we need to get to the bottom of it. My guys have the leader of the group detained in the basement here," Ethan's jaw tightened. 

"Of course," I said, nodding. "But first, send the girls back to the mansion. Secondly, let's get everyone together, I'll be there shortly. We need to figure out what's going on," Ethan agreed. 

Within the hour, I was with Nate and Ethan in his office; Nico and Luca shortly arrived; and a few other guys who worked for me. As we huddled around the screen, the footage replayed, this time with the sound on. The din of shouting and scuffling filled the room as we all focused intently.

"What's the story behind this?" Nico asked, his tone serious. "These girls look like they know what they're doing."

"I don't know," Ethan said, his frustration evident. "But I do know that our group came out on top. That's not the issue. The problem is why this happened in the first place."

"Let's start with who the other girls are," Nico suggested. "Maybe that'll give us some insight."

"Good idea," Luca said, nodding. 

"From what I could see, the girls attacking our group were..."He paused, pulling up some close-up shots from the footage. A few of us squinted at the screen, trying to recognize the faces. "The girl with the dark hair," Ethan said, pointing. "That's Bella. She's been in the club scene for a while, always stirring up trouble. The others are her crew."

"Wait, pause it right there," I sighed connecting my eyes with Nate's, "Nate, you remember this girl?" He looked closer, "From the first time we went to the club with Clay and Larah?"

"This cunt!! You're right, it's her. You said she's in the basement?" He asked Ethan and he nodded. 

"Let's not jump to conclusions," I said. "There should be a reason for this, I don't want us to just brush it off. I think we need to dig deeper."

The room was filled with murmurs of agreement. Ethan handed out copies of the footage and photos of Bella and her crew to everyone. It was time to get to work. Nico, always the tech whiz, took on the task of tracing any recent connections between Bella's group and ours. Our boys would handle the legwork, questioning anyone who might know something. Ethan would focus on any leads that might come through the club's network. 

"I'm sensing something personal about this. It's not just jealousy of Larah and Clay's friendship anymore. I'll talk to Larah tonight and see if she knows anything," Nate said and I nodded.

I stepped aside and dialled Briah's number, her insights were always sharp, and it might help with our investigation.

She picked immediately, "Briah, do you have any idea why Bella's group would target you guys?" she paused thoughtfully.