The Joy of Revenge

BOOK 3: RETRIBUTION CHAPTER 166 Aftermath Liam Thursday after the Highland Oaks Massacre “Where is that as shole?” | asked one of my guards as soon as | exited my car.

“In the shed,” he answered curtly, gesturing to the simple, one-story structure at the far side of the mansion.

| quickened my pace, eager to confront him after days of searching high and low for him. As | approached, | noticed the door of the shed was slightly open. | pushed on the door, opening it bit wider forto see what was inside.

The shed once served as a workplace for carpenters who were now long gone. The Cohen ancestors loved to have furniture built from scratch especially when trees were cut down to accommodate the creation of residential areas.

Now, it was a makeshift prison.

There, in the middle of the shed, handcuffed to a chair was Demon with his head drooping forward. As soon as he heardwalk in, he raised his head and took one look atbefore spitting on the floor.

E There was blood dripping from his nose, the red viscous liquid covering both his lips and his chin, while his right eye was swollen and bruised. | also noticed he had a nasty cut on his forehead. Apparently, while waiting forto arrive, my guards decided to teach him a lesson.

But that wasn’t enough for all those poor souls he and his crew had killed.

“MC, is this how you treat your friends?” He asked smirking, showingan incomplete set of front teeth.

This little punk had sballs.

“You aren't a friend,” | growled. “Tell me, Demon, what part of pretend did you not understand?” “I told you, there ain’t no such thing as pretend. You wanted a massacre, we gave you a massacre,” he said, before spitting on the floor again.

1/6 11:18 Fri, Apr 5 M.

BOOK 3: RETRIBUTION CHAPTER 166 Aftermath 76%1 “No one was home. | tossed the place and couldn't find no deed of sale. All | found were spapers and jewelry in the safe. It’s all in the bag.” He moved his head, gesturing to the backpack sitting on an old workbench.

“I messaged you to check the McDowell residence. Were they there?” | asked.

“I asked my homey to check, but he didn’t messageback. That's when | heard an assault rifle, then this really loud bang that cfrom the nearby hill. Dude, it f ucking scared the sh it out of me! I didn’t know what to do, so | left.

“Who do you think could have been behind all that?” | asked.

“I don’t know. Maybe one of the people living there. But | thought about it... You're the only one who has the army to kill us.” “Well, well, look at you! Suddenly, you're so bright, | said, clapping my hands, mocking him, hiding the fact that it wasn’t me. “I assthen, you know what's going to happen to you now.

“Yes?” I quickly pulled out my gun and shot him right between the eyes.

Goodbye, Demon.

| woke up with a start, raising my head from my desk, realizing | had dozed off. | wiped the drool from my chin then raised my hands above my head to stretch my body, trying to focus. | noticed the sheets of papers and file folders strewn in front ofand sighed. | was at home.

Ever since last Friday, I've had trouble sleeping. | must have fallen asleep while trying to find out who Pete's second in command was. | looked at all the folders on my desk and grimaced.

| wasn’t even halfway through.

| sighed. The thought of finding Demon and killing him was so ingrained deep within my subconscious that I actually dreamt of killing him.

| grabbed my phone to check for the tand uttered a curse. On the screen were several notifications, including a missed call and a couple of messages from Virtue. | quickly scanned her most recent message informingshe and K iki were already on the plane back. to Bismarck from Chicago with her wedding gown in tow.

S hit, I couldn't believe I missed her call.

2/6 11:18 Fri, Apr 5M- BOOK 3: RETRIBUTION CHAPTER 166 Aftermath Anyway, Bo and Chip would be picking them up from the airport. If there were people who could keep her safe, it was them.

Knowing | wouldn't be able to go back to sleep, decided to take a shower, get dressed into. more comfortable clothing and have dinner in my office while | went through each sheet of paper in these folders. | suspected there must be something about Pete’s capo in these files, but | just couldn't find anything.

The warm water didn’t do much to alleviate the stress | was feeling. Even though the week had gone by peacefully after the Highland Oaks massacre, the guilt and the anxiety of it all ate atevery day.

The Sheriff and his men were tagged as heroes, despite having done nothing. However, until now, we had no idea who had killed the eight masked men at Highland Oaks.

“Liam, | have been meaning to ask you this... Did you have the Colonel clean up your mess?” The Sheriff asked once he was done with the media. He foundstanding alone beside an ambulance, overseeing the victims.

“No and to tell you the truth, | don’t know what happened. | suspect their leader, Demon, killed them off, so he could walk away with the payment | promised him,” | answered.

“Well, he couldn't have killed them with both a sn iper rifle and an assault rifle at the s time... that’s for sure,” the Sheriff replied. My brow furrowed at his statement.

“What do you mean?” | asked, confused.

“I mean, those a ssholes were killed by more than one man,” he answered. “Two were killed by sn iper, one with an assault rifle, the rest by small caliber fire arms, mostly close range. He couldn’t have done all of that himself.

If it wasn’t the Colonel, then who killed these idiots?” “I-1 don’t know... Could it have been Pete?” | asked. The Sheriff shook his head.

ins were “I don’t think so. One, Pete doesn’t care about these people. Two, all his hired killed at the OI’ Barn. Three, I'm guessing he didn’t know about this unless he has someone following you. And lastly, if he did know about this, he would have used this against you by now,” the Sheriff explained checking his phone. t See? There isn't anything on social media pointing to you as the mastermind. I'm thinking maybe these thugs were gunned down by the townsfolk themselves. But none of these folks can afford a s niper rifle and none of them know how to fire one. Hand gun, sure, but a sn iper rifle?” He shook his head to answer his own question. “Anyway, no one has cforward to take credit, even though they're heroes.” 3/6 11:18 Fri, Apr 5 M.

BOOK 3: RETRIBUTION CHAPTER 166 Aftermath “They're probably afraid they'll be taken in for manslaughter instead of self-defense,” | reasoned. Sheriff Combs paused to think about it, then nodded his head in agreement.

“You're right about that. Anyway, where are the Martins?” He asked, looking atstraight in the eyes. “Jack says they're missing.” “I don’t know, but we can use their absence to our advantage. Send out an APB stating the Martins are now wanted for the Highland Oaks Massacre,” | instructed, “on the pretense they press. hired a group of mercenaries, so they could escape. Tell Jack to announce it to the We'll plant sevidence in their house... maybe weapons and a burner phone.” He nodded his head and took a step forward to find Jack, who was inside Highland Oaks processing the crscene. However, he stopped in mid-step.

“Liam, you may be on to something,” he said unexpectedly. “Thomas is a member of the organization right? What if the Angels of Darkness got him out?” “How could he have possibly known about this? | asked incredulously. “No, it couldn’t have been the Angels of Darkness. Link calledearlier at the exact tthese idiots were shooting at people. He sounded scared,” | pointed out.

“Fine, Thomas probably didn’t know about these thugs, but he could have called for help. Pete left his capo in charge while he was gone and Thomas must have asked him for a favor.” Sheriff Combs abruptly stopped as an unfamiliar female EMT walked by us. | was about to ask if he knew who she was, but he quickly continued voicing his speculations once she wa gone. “And you may be right thinking the Martins themselves hired someone to help them kill the escape. The only way for the Martins to get out of Highland Oaks safely was to masked men and that takes tto plan, being they were an unforeseen circumstance. Honestly, their deaths look synchronized, strategic and tactical. Someone with military training killed these guys. If it wasn’t the Colonel, then it was most probably the organization,” the Sheriff explained.

This is why | hired the Colonel. | wanted the organization out of New Salem.

“Well, ask Link,” | instructed. “He must know something. The Martins were with him during the entire ordeal.” “Actually, Link wasn’t with them the entire time,” the Sheriff replied. “Apparently, while he was outside helping people evade the shooters, he tripped, hit his head, and lost consciousness.” “Well | already searched the McDowell place. Even without electricity. | went through every evervé 11:18 Fri, Apr 5 M BOOK 3: RETRIBUTION CHAPTER 166 Aftermath inch of that house. They weren't there,” | said. “I even went to the basement.” have a “That's it,” the Sheriff exclaimed, waving his finger in the air. “The lights went out. Jack said power was out for twenty minutes. That's enough tto kill the thugs and get the Martins out of Highland Oaks. All they had to do is go over the fence and that isn’t hard if you harness. I'm going to lead the investigation on the deaths of these thugs, just to get sclarity. I'll tell Jack to send out that APB and make the Martins our primary suspects.

Liam, we need to be prepared for a retaliation. This isn’t over.” The next morning, with the ongoing manhunt for the Martins as the masterminds of the shooting, | was able to console the people and offer them scomfort through the aftermath. After my father’s funeral where only a handful of people were in attendance, | visited the bereaved families who lost a loved one at Highland Oaks including those we killed at the OI’ Barn.

| was grateful Virtue was there to help me. With the guilt eating away at me, she becmy rock, my foundation. She providedsomething no one else could give me...solace.

At least | had someone who was there for me. | actually felt all alone.

However, the loneliness was more palpable at night when there was no Virtue standing or sitting beside me. | would lie awake in my bed staring at a picture of her that | took with my and phone, longing for her, fervently wishing the picture would calive. It was her hugs. her kisses | wanted and needed... to help ease the turmoil inside me.

Link left town unexpectedly without telling anyone. | only found out when | called him.

gone and Pete's Although | didn’t really need that deed of sale, now that the Martins were g capo showed no interest of wanting ownership, it was best if it was in my safe, locked away with all the other important documents.

“Mayor Cohen, | was waiting for your call,” Link said, his voice light and cheerful. “Unfortunately, | had to leave town on important business, but I'll be back right before your wedding. Don’t worry, | have the deed of sale in a safe place. Ill hand it to you when | get back. You can consider it as a wedding present. | heard him smirk before saying his goodbyes. He was a slick one... that lawyer.

Aside from my small problem with Link, | found myself faced with another dilemma. Christine never met with Dan. It was a shock to discover both Randy and his wife were missing.

| always thought Randy was a doofus, however it seemed he had stricks up his sleeve.

Well I had more 5/6 11:18 Fri, Apr 5 BOOK 3: RETRIBUTION CHAPTER 166 Aftermath Since Christine was near her due date, we suspected they couldn’t have traveled far. | decided to send my men at every hospital and birthing clinic within the nearby cities and towns to keep a watch for the Evans.

| got out of the shower, toweled myself dry and looked at myself in the mirror. | needed to sh ave and get a hair cut. | didn’t want to look unruly at my own wedding.

Tomorrow was a big day.

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