Home Fire: A Suspense Thriller (A Hawk Tate Novel Book 5) by Dustin Stevens

Author:Dustin Stevens [Stevens, Dustin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-07-16T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Forty-Nine

The exchange hadn’t gone quite as well as Ronell Brinks would have liked. Big Man had been standoffish at best. He wasn’t even invited inside the building.

But that was okay because the end result was what he wanted. It had been ugly, an uphill climb in getting there, but he had made it.

That was what mattered.

When Big Man told him to be prepared, he knew what was being referred to, even without being told us much. Gaining entrance into the S-2 followed a very specific protocol, outlined steps that every member to ever wear the brand had to go through.

The first step was stealing a car. Or breaking into someone’s home. Or swiping something from a store. The particulars often changed, but the meaning behind them was the same.

Anybody that wanted in had to prove they had skills, marketable abilities that could be presented to the group, both for financial and sustainability reasons.

They also had to prove that they knew how to handle themselves. Getting pinched wasn’t the worst thing in the world. Rolling over on the others, ever saying a word that might get a sideways glance cast toward the group, was.

Rumor had it that the S-2 had contacts with the local police, guys that would report directly back if their name was ever floated in the precinct.

Ronell had no idea if that was true, but he knew better than to chance it.

Not now. Not with everything he’d been wanting so close.

Ronell and his friends had passed the first test. They’d been invited back for round two, a perfunctory exercise that he had no doubt he would pass. It was just a matter of hours now, a short time before he was fully inducted.

Pulling up in front of Joey’s house, he could feel his adrenaline soaring. Despite the short night on the couch, he didn’t feel the least bit groggy, his eyes wide, his nerves on edge.

Parking nose-to-nose with the Honda in the driveway, he hopped out and headed for the door. Ready to share the news with his friends, he pushed inside, a smile on his face.

The first sign of trouble was the dark spot of blood on the floor. As large as a baseball, it was crusted almost black, a pair of flies buzzing around it, impossible to miss on the tan carpeting.

Dropping to a crouch, Ronell poked at the fibers surrounding it, seeing that it had congealed into a solid mass, moving as one under the slight pressure.

“Jamal!” he called, shifting his head toward the living room. “Joey!”

The stain had not been there two hours before. There might have been a small spot outside the bedroom from where he hit the girl, but that was on the opposite side of the house.

This was new. Somebody had been here.

Reaching to the small of his back, Ronell felt for the .38 that usually resided inside the band of his jeans. Feeling nothing, he remembered he’d been forced to leave it behind, the S-2 not allowing any non-member to show up strapped.

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