Absolution (Road Kings MC And Underworlds 1)

A total of three hundred and five men were now being processed, and were on the road to being incarcerated.

It also meant that five of the gang's most significant compounds had been wiped off the map.

What they didn’t know was that any stragglers had been picked up by mine, Nick, Ben, and Raig’s men, and they were now being interrogated in our warehouses. Every so often, we’d text updates to each other to let the others know what we’d found out, but it was a busy night.

Pulling my blades out of the dead man, I nodded at the next one to be brought in as they pulled the body away, leaving a red trail behind it.

Work like this was highly psychological, because you had to break the mind down to get the answers that pain wouldn’t give you. We were all adept at it, and I knew Raig and Nick had their own ways of doing it, whereas Ben and I had trained the same way.

I’d worked the last man while this one watched. Now it was time for Vadim to take over.

The screams didn’t mean anything to me as he inflicted pain on the guy. It was words I was more interested in.

“He wants the trade routes,” the guy screamed finally, and I held a hand up to Vadim to stop as I got up from where I’d been leaning on a table.

“So he can transport drugs, guns, women, and likely all of the valuable things he’ll get out of Africa. Correct?”

The man only had one eye that wasn’t swollen shut, and it widened as I spoke. “How did you know?”

“I’ve got a brain. Now, how’s he going to get them?”

When the man didn’t answer, I jerked my chin at Vadim to continue. For the next twenty minutes, as screams and yells rang out around me, I checked emails and texted Nell for an update on the boys.

“He’s going to get the woman to get you to give it up,” he screamed.

Not lifting my head, I asked, “And how’s he going to do that?”

“He’s got men working on something. We all get assigned to different things, and we’re not allowed to talk about them outside of the group we’re in.”

This time when I spoke, I lifted my head to look at him. “Are there any men here who were in the group for what he was working on?”

He swallowed, looking like it caused him pain. “No. They have to stay in the small cabin about ten miles away from where you live. They’re not allowed to come outside, and never joined us at the compound.”

Rubbing my lips together, I took in the man’s body language and realized he had nothing left to tell us. He was just one of the guys who processed what they were giving to distributors, so he didn’t know anything else beneficial to us.

Glancing at Vadim, I saw that he’d reached the same conclusion by the expression on his face as he waited for me to give the order.

Getting up, I gave it to him by tapping my head.

As I walked out of the warehouse and waited for the next load of information to hit me from the others, I heard a gunshot, signaling one round to the man's head.

Truth be told, I hated making the choice to take someone’s life. I was the judge and jury, and it didn’t always stand right with me. Some people deserved it, and some didn’t.

I needed to make moves so that my sons never had to stand in my shoes, but that would come after I sorted this shit out.

Five days later…

I was at Raig’s warehouse, discussing everything we’d found out from the men we’d caught.

“The cabin they’re talking about is here,” Dimi said, pointing to a red circle on the map we were looking at. “This one’s Dad’s house, this is the business compound, this is my place, and this one over here is Taras’ home. They’re all within ten to fifteen miles from this it.”

“He said ten miles from your place, meaning mine,” I reminded them, frowning as I looked at the area between us. “There’s no way they can approach from either side because we’d see them coming.”

“With all of our men waiting, there’s no way they’d get anywhere near it,” Nick sighed, rubbing his face tiredly. “What are we missing? We have enough information from the men to put together how the operation ran, but this piece is what’s bugging me.”

I was about to suggest that we take a step back and then look at it again after lunch, when Yakov and Stefan burst into the room.

“There’s been an explosion under the house. All teams are moving in to retrieve Penelope and the boys.”

I was running out of the room as soon as they finished talking, but I still saw the look of horror on the men's faces as they realized what we’d missed.