Chapter 13 THE STASH
Leo nodded. “There is a guy named Rocco who runs a small gang a few blocks away. He owes us over twenty thousand dollars for a job we did before the ambush. He refused to pay because he thought you were dead. He thinks we have no teeth now.”
“I can do that,” I said.
“You won't even have to fight much,” Leo said. “You just need to prove you’re back and collect the debt.”
Jax let out a long sigh but didn’t protest.
An hour later, I was walking down a sketchy alley street with Jax at my side.
I was amazed at the way people looked at me. Rough-looking men on the corners stopped talking as we passed. Women pulled their children back.
There was wonder, respect, and a lot of fear.
“It's actually Siren.” I heard someone whisper.
“Hell, yeah, she’s back.” Another hissed with excitement.
I felt a surge of pride, but it went low when I remembered that I am an impostor in a woman’s body, more powerful than I could have ever dreamed.
I lowered my head down, trying to be invisible.
“Straighten up,” Jax muttered out the side of his mouth. “Walk like you own the concrete, Si. Don't let them suspect a thing.”
Instinctively, I pulled my shoulders back and tilted my chin up.
Before I knew it, I started to strut.
I looked at my reflection as we walked past a shop window. I looked like a confident supermodel who could kill you with a look. I loved it. This new body was a masterpiece.
Jax’s entire aura changed the moment we stepped into Rocco’s den. He went from a teddy bear to a grizzly.
We walked into the back room, where a greasy man with a gold chain and a nervous twitch was. He tried to hide his shock when he saw me.
“Siren,” he said, leaning back in his chair. “I heard you were awake. I didn't believe it, though.”
“I want my money, Rocco,” I said. I felt out of my depth, but I leaned on Jax’s presence.
“Money?” Rocco laughed, though it sounded forced. “What can you do? You’ve been gone so long that your turf is overrun. I’m not even sure you can do shit after sleeping for months. We all know women get weak when they aren't used in a while.”
A hot, white rage flared in my gut. It wasn't Elena’s rage. It was Sienna’s.
Before I could even think about what I was doing, I reached out, grabbed the pen that was on his desk, and in one blurred motion, I drove through the center of Rocco’s hand, pinning it to the wooden table.
Holy fuck! I couldn’t believe I just fucking did that. But I held myself from flinching, letting Sienna’s instinct take the front seat.
Rocco let out a blood-curdling scream, looking at his hand in shock.
His men reached for their knives, but a single look from Jax made them freeze. He looked like he was waiting for an excuse to tear them apart.
I leaned over the desk, my face inches from Rocco’s, and twisted the pen.
“I would cut your hand off if I thought you were worth the effort,” I growled. “If I leave this place without my money, the next time I come back, it will be to burn this building down with you inside. I will kill you all like the cockroaches you are.”
Rocco whimpered, his face pale and sweating. “Okay! Okay! Just take the pen out!”
He gestured to one of his men, who quickly brought over a thick envelope of cash.
“If this is even a few dollars short,” I growled. “I would come back and…”
“I’m sorry, I swear,” he wheezed as I pulled the pen out. “The reason I refused to give them the money is that I have been short.”
“That’s your fucking business, asshole,” Jax growled out. “You will definitely pay for trying to dupe us.”
“Please… I have truly been short on cash because of the fucking council. Ever since that damned Ice King started ruling the council, the Harbingers have been taking over more turf and raising the taxes on everyone. It is harder to do business.”
I froze. My hand tightened into a fist until my knuckles turned white. “The Ice King?” I asked, my voice was a whisper.
Ice King was Kanan’s street name.
Jax looked at me with sudden suspicion, his eyes flashing to my shaking fists.
I quickly forced my face back into a cold mask, and I turned to Rocco. “The ice king rules the council now?” I asked.
“Not a rule exactly,” Rocco said, clutching his bleeding hand. “But after the Cruz massacre months ago, he took over his wife’s family turf and assets. Then he took the ones under them.” His lips twisted into a hateful sneer. “He now has more power than anyone else, and the council is wary of him. He’s been expanding and destroying everyone in his path like a madman, and no one can curb him.”
“Interesting,” I muttered under my breath.
Jax nudged me. “Is it? None of this is our business, Si.”
“There are even rumors that he found some hidden treasure,” Rocco continued, eager to keep me talking so I wouldn't stab him again. “Seems like the Cruz’s weasely father had hidden away cash and precious jewels somewhere on his property. Some say it is worth hundreds of millions.”
Pain spiked through my chest. My father had hundreds of millions of dollars?
He had that kind of money, yet he treated me like a cash cow when he could have taken us and fled the country.
He could have literally saved us, but he was too in love with his dirty power that he gambled our lives away for a throne he couldn't keep.
All men in this business were the same. All of them were power-hungry demons.
“So with that money and those assets, that bastard is like a mini-god now,” Rocco hissed. “No one can stand in his way.”
I looked at the envelope of cash in my hand, my jaw tight. It felt light. It felt like nothing.
Kanan had actually gotten what he wanted.
Kanan was a god. And I was just a girl in a garage, having to stab someone just to collect a few measly thousands.
“Mini god, in?” I whispered under my breath. “We will see about that.”
I turned and walked out of the den, the strut in my step feeling more like a march toward a war.