Slay (Storm MC 4)

I raked my hand through my hair. “Fuck. Phil Deacon’s behind this, isn’t he?”

The motherfucker had a reputation for bribing union officials into shit like this.

Ben nodded. “I suspect that, yes.”

“Jesus,” Merrick muttered. “If that job isn’t completed on time, we stand to lose a lot of fucking money.”

I eyed Ben. “What do they want?”

“New negotiations on Enterprise Bargaining Agreements.”

“Fuck, if that goes through, it pushes the final cost up at least thirty percent.”

“Yeah,” Ben said.

Tension smashed through me. Phil fucking Deacon had been a thorn in my side for far too long. “It’s time to teach that motherfucker a lesson,” I declared.

I knew I’d made the right decision when both Ben and Merrick gave me their agreement without hesitation.

Pointing at Ben, I said, “Get the guys together. This shit goes down tonight. I’ll let you know the details.”

“Will do,” he agreed, and left Merrick and me to it.

“We should have dealt with Deacon years ago,” Merrick mused.

“Yeah, well, he’s about to wish he’d never fucked with me.”

“Good. I always thought you were too soft on him.”

He was right; I had let Phil get away with a fuck load more than other people. We’d had a good relationship once, and with loyalty being one of my strong points, I’d struggled to deal with him once he’d started pulling away from me.

“I have,” I agreed. “I won’t make that mistake again.”

My phone rang, interrupting our conversation, and Merrick left me alone to take the conversation.

Scott.

“Hi,” I answered it.

“I had a missed call from you.” He cut straight to the chase. Pure Scott.

“I know who Blue is.”

“Fuck. Who?”

“Your uncle.”

Silence. And then, “What the fuck?”

“Had a visit from your mother, and she mentioned his name during our chat. Blue is her brother. I got out of her that he has something over Marcus from years ago. He used that to blackmail Marcus into pulling Storm out of drugs, and then he left. Went into hiding from what I can make out.”

“Fuck,” Scott muttered. “Uncle Dan. Haven’t seen him in ten years.”

“How the hell did you not know he was Blue?”

“I never called him that growing up. Must be Mum’s nickname for him. Red hair and all.” He paused before adding, “Why are you telling me this? I heard you were out, brother.”

Brother.