C o l e

"The only way you two are going to leave out of here without a bullet in your head is if you explain to me how exactly Francis got out" Eros asked, his patience clearly running thin and I could see he was trying very hard not to lash out.

If this is what his contained anger looked like, I'd hardly want to see it unleashed. The two guards who had been on watch at the time currently looked like they were about to piss their pants and honestly, I don't blame them.

Mikhail, Jamie, Harvey, and I stood to the side watching the interrogation go down.

"We don't know..." one of them muttered.

"You don't know? I cannot and will not accept that as an answer. Why in the fuck were you two sleeping? Do I overwork you to the point where your bodies are so tired you can't bear to keep your eyes open?" Eros words were quick, sharp, and deadly. It left no room for objections or even justification and it didn't look like the two had any reasonings for their actions anyways as they quivered in fear.

"Eros..." Mikhail started but he stopped when Eros glared at him.

"Francis planned an attempt on our lives. I could have brushed this off if it was only me he tried to kill but just for the fact that Harvey, Jamie, and Cole were also there, I will not let this go. Give me one good reason why I shouldn't kill you two right here, right now" Eros said.

The two had no excuse for their actions and bowed their heads, ready to accept the fate Eros was about to place upon them.

Listening to the conversation made me feel as if something was missing. A piece of information that would help all of this make sense.

I looked around the area.

There was a table with two chairs, though the table was clearly too far for Francis to have reached his hand through the bar and grab the keys on the guard's belt. Jamie also said that there was no signs of force on the bars, so that meant someone had voluntarily let him out.

If they had to use the bathroom or go on break, I doubt they would go at the same, one would stay while the other went. Leaving no room for Francis to ever be by himself.

But strangely enough these two both fell asleep at the same time...I wasn't sure if either of them were light or heavy sleepers but I'm pretty sure they'd wake up if they heard that cell being opened.

I looked back to the table and on it was a single plate, whatever had been on it was gone and nothing but crumbs were left.

"What was on that plate?" I asked, pointing to the plate on the table.

Everyone in the room looked at me as if I was crazy.

"Cole, this is hardly the time to ask how one's meal went" Eros said and I shook my head at him.

"Think about it. No signs of force and these two were asleep? Are they even known for sleeping on the job? Because I hardly believe you'd let them have this position if they were" I said and after those words, Eros immediately understood what I was getting at and I could see his shoulders relax.

These two were drugged.

"Answer his question" Eros said, turning back to the two.

"Uh...I don't even remember?" One of them said and the other nodded in agreement.

Walking over to the plate, I picked it up and smelled it. The crumbs left gave off a sweet aroma so this had to be some kind of treat.

Cookies?

"I think these were cookies" I said.

"Aw bloody fucking hell man, now we've got little red riding hood drugging our guards" Harvey said.

"Charles, Ivan, I'm going to contact a doctor who's going to test you for the drugs in your system as well as give you guys a check up. Go get ready" Eros said and those two all but ran out of here, thankful that their lives weren't taken.

"Jamie, did you ever figure out who was the owner of that restaurant?" Eros asked and Jamie nodded.

"Robert Hudson. Seems to be a very old friend of his, the two used to go to college together. I haven't seen any signs that gave much indication of the two keeping in contact over the years but who knows, they don't exactly have social media profiles" Jamie explained.

"Did you find an address?" Eros asked and when Jamie nodded, he pointed to Mikhail.

"You two find him and bring him here" he stated and the two nodded before leaving the room.

"Harvey, Cole, I want you two to go find his cousin, Terrence, and do the same. Unharmed...well, if force is needed then you can do that but don't kill him" the entire time Eros spoke, he was giving pointed looks at Harvey who just shrugged.

"You kill one guy I swear..." he grumbled.

"What are you going to do?" I asked.

"I'm going to go make that call to the doctor. I need to know what drugs they were slipped. Either we have a rat or one of Francis' people really did manage to sneak in but I have more faith in pigs flying than the latter outcome" Eros explained.

After the plan had been set, we all went our separate ways.

"Is Francis the head of his group?" I asked as Harvey and I walked out of the basement.

"Pssh, no, the guy's a fucking coward. Though he's obviously trying to climb up the ranks. Had he managed to take out the head of one of his group's biggest competitor's, he'd surely get some power under his belt" Harvey said.

"So...what exactly does he do?" I said and Harvey shrugged.

"You know, I don't really know. I always tell myself to pay attention during meetings but eh, I'll do it someday" he said.

We made it to the garage and my worst nightmare sat in there, parked in the form of a motorcycle. Harvey walked over to it and tossed me a helmet but I let it fall on the floor.

"Uh, why didn't you catch it?" He asked.

"You don't know how to drive a car...?" I asked and Harvey laughed.

"Sure I do, but do I own one? Nah. C'mon Cole, you know Eros hates to be kept waiting" He said and I suddenly wanted to stab him in the throat. Grumbling, I picked up the stupid helmet and put it on.

"I hate all of you people" I grumbled as I got on the bike and wrapped my arms around Harvey's torso, giving it a death squeeze to spite him.

"Glad to know you can hold on tight" he wheezed out.

Harvey was surprisingly a safe driver...well as safe as you can be when on a motorcycle. He likely thought I was dying back here because at every stop light he would ask me how I was doing.

"Okay, we're finally here. You can release my stomach now" Harvey said.

When I finally got off the bike, I thanked everything holy that my feet were able to touch the ground again. I really hate vehicles.

"It's only the afternoon, I doubt he's in" I said, checking the time on the phone that was provided to me by Eros. Only his and the others contacts were in here but he'd expressed to me that if I needed anything, to just call him.

"Well we can still go in and see. If he isn't, we wait til he is" Harvey said.

"So we're just gonna barge in there?" I asked as Harvey prepped his gun.

"Yeah. Element of surprise, duh. Besides, if we come in hot it won't give Terrence any time to run" Harvey said.

The door was already open, so obviously someone was here. So quietly, Harvey and I snuck him and as we walked in further we heard voices. Staying to the shadows, we peered just the tiniest bit to see who was in the bar.

There was only seven men, one of them obviously being Francis' cousin as he was the only one not dressed in black or wearing an earpiece.

"Aw man, what the fuck are they feeding that guy? I know my math isn't always right but those biceps on him look like two whole extra people" Harvey whispered as he nudged his head to the guy on the far left.

And though I wouldn't admit it, I too wondered why the hell he was so big.

"Shut up" I whispered back.

"Who the fuck are you?" A voice from behind startled us and a man stared at us in confusion.

"Shit. Why didn't we close the door?" Harvey muttered.

"Did you hear that?"

"Who's there?!"

"God damnit, are you fucking blind? Can't you see we're hiding?" Harvey asked before shooting the man in the head.

Welp, there goes our cover.

Using the man's dead body as a distraction, Harvey threw him like a sack of potatoes over to those men and we followed out right behind.

I shot at two guys on the right and they fled behind the bar while Harvey managed to get one in the shoulder.

"Who the fuck are these fuckers?" I heard one of them ask over the gunshots.

"We just want Terrence!" Harvey yelled as he let off a few more blind rounds.

"Quit wasting bullets! Besides, we can't hurt him" I said and Harvey shook his head.

"Eros said if force was needed, use it and it's looking like we need to use force right about now" Harvey said.

We continued shooting at the other men, only managing to actually kill two of them while the others kept managing to dodge our bullets.

"Fuck, I'm out" Harvey muttered and when the place got quiet, I knew they had to be as well or if not damn well close to it. I still had a clip left in my back pocket so I grabbed it.

I peeked my head over and my eyes widened when I saw Terrence creeping towards a door in the back. I was about to fire at him but a gunshot aimed at me made me duck back down.

"He's gonna make a run for it. Harvey, you gotta go after him" I said.

"What? There's like four of these guys left, six if you count that guy's biceps!! It's not a fair fight Cole" he argued.

"A fight doesn't have to be fair for me to win it. Now go, I have a clip left, I can use it to keep them off you" I explained as I reloaded.

"Cole, please make it out alive cause if not then we're gonna be in hell together. Eros will skin me alive if you die" Harvey said and I rolled my eyes.

"I'll be fine. When I tell you to, run" I said before crawling over to a turned over table.

"Now!" I called as I stood up and shot bullets at any heads that popped out from their hiding spots like this was whack-a-mole.

Harvey managed to follow out the back door after Terrence and I stopped firing after that.

"I know you guys don't have any more bullets. We don't want anything to do with you, we just want Terrence" I stated.

"You think we're really gonna let you out of here alive?" One of the men said and they all started coming out of their hiding spots.

"No, but maybe you should be thinking about it the other way around" I said.

Noticing that I was by the pool table, I inched over towards it.

"You sure are full of yourself for someone who's friend ditched them"

At those words, I stood up. The four were close and that's exactly what I needed. Grabbing one of the cue sticks from the tables, I twirled it in my hand before swinging it down on one of the guy's hands that were also reaching for a cue stick.

He cried in pain but I gave him no time to recover as I wacked him across the face with the stick.

Noticing a guy coming around the table, I quickly flipped the cue stick so the tip was facing him and jabbed it in his eye. When he went to hold his eye, I turned the stick around again and smacked him across the face before kicking him away.

"I'll give you guys one last chance to leave here unharmed" I said slowly as I stepped backwards.

Not heeding my warning, the three men ran at me and I ducked under the pool table before rolling away and standing up at the other side. Reaching across I grabbed one of the men's tie's and slammed his face down on the table twice before letting him go. He fell back but one of the guy's pushed him out of the way and tried to climb the table to get to me.

This was going to take a while...

~ with Harvey ~

H a r v e y

God damnit this bald fat bastard runs fast! I guess when your life is on the line, anyone will run with all they've got.

I had to constantly dodge through the various things Terrence had knocked in my way to slow me down but I'll be damned if I let some alley trash stop me from catching up to him.

A part of me was worried about Cole, I knew what he was capable of, maybe not to its fullest extent but the numbers he had on him still made me wonder if he really was okay.

Yeah, I know what some would think. Why am I worried about him? Honestly, I wanted him dead just like everyone else at first but after the conversation with Eros and some nights of thinking, it only made me come to the realization that Cole couldn't be blamed for his father's actions.

I've known Eros since we were stupid kids back in high school, and I know that if he truly believed Cole had some part in Preston's death, he would not be so gung-ho about letting him stay with us or even becoming one of us.

Cole didn't seem like the kind of person that would aid someone in the murdering of an innocent man. He was a pretty chill guy once you got past his brooding behaviors and blunt honesty.

So yeah, I was worried about him which made it all the more important that I hurry and get this asshole so that I can go back to the bar and see that Cole is alright.

Luck seemed to shine through as we happened upon a dead end and Terrence tried to climb the wall but I was quicker and dragged him down to the ground.

"Please stop! Don't kill me! I'll give you anything you want!" He cried.

"What I want is for you to shut the fuck up" I said before punching him hard and he was out like a light.

I rested for a moment, my heart hammering in my chest from the workout I just got. This guy was too big to try and carry by myself so I dragged him over to a pile of trash bags and hid him underneath.

Once I was sure no one but the rats could get to him, I made my way back to the bar.

Hearing some crashes, I ran only to see Cole not being the one in need of help. Big and burly Charlie, my name for the huge guy with two people for biceps, was currently get his head slammed across the first shelf of liqueur behind the bar.

All of the other guys were all down for the count and when I looked back, I saw Cole delivering the final blow with his left foot as he raised it high and slammed it back down on the man's head.

See? Nothing to worry about.

"Cole, you alright?" I asked as I stepped in further.

His fists were bloodied and his cheek was bruised, but aside from that he seemed to be fine. Though I noticed him clutch his stomach as he walked over to me.

"Yeah, you get him?" He asked and I nodded.

"Son of a bitch runs fast but dead ends can be your friends at times" I said.

"So where is he?" He asked.

"Unconscious under some trash" I said and I could see a look of disgust cross his features before he let out a sigh.

"At least you got him. C'mon let's go get him and get him out of—....." Cole paused for a moment and I looked at him confused.

"Harvey, how are we getting him out of here?" Cole asked and I frowned.

"What do you mean? We have the— oh...didn't think that through" I said when catching on to what Cole meant.

Shit.

"Well, this is great" Cole said as we walked out of the bar.

"We can just call an Uber" I said as I pulled out my phone.

"You want to bring an unconscious man that smells like trash in to the uber?" Cole asked in disbelief.

"What? We're in front of a bar, they'll believe us if we just say we had a crazy night" I said and began to type in our location.

"Unbelievable" Cole muttered.