“Yeah, this is it. No doubt about it.” He glanced around the rundown kitchen and said, “There’s gotta be something we’re missing.”
We were all gathered in the kitchen when Blaze asked, “Is there a basement?”
“No idea.”
We all started looking around, and it wasn’t long before Menace discovered a secret hatch door in the bottom of the pantry. As soon as he opened it, the familiar scent of marijuana filled the room, and I knew we’d found what we were looking for. After he turned on the lights, we followed him down the wooden steps and into the small cellar. When we reached the bottom step, I saw that there was a makeshift table in the center of the room that held about twenty small, pitiful marijuana plants—not even a fraction of what Kiersten had out at the Manor. Lynch’s brows were furrowed with confusion. “Is this really it?”
“Certainly looks that way.”
“But that can’t be right,” Hawk argued. “The guy had seven or eight men with him. How the fuck did he manage that when this is all he’s got?”
I shook my head with disgust. “Yeah, there’s not enough here to wipe my ass. No way this Drake asshole is making any real money off this shit.”
“You’re right,” Hawk agreed. “There’s got to be more somewhere.”
“I’ll go outside and see if there’s anything in the barn,” Riggs volunteered.
He rushed back up the steps, and we all could hear him stomping through the kitchen as he made his way out of the house. I was looking around to make sure we hadn’t missed something when Hawk asked, “What do you guys think we should do with this shit?”
“I figure we got two choices.” I looked over to Hawk as I continued, “We can take it back to the Manor or torch the whole place and be done with this shit.”
Drake’s place was at least ten miles from town without another house anywhere in sight, so burning the place to the ground seemed like the best option until Riggs came back into the house and shouted, “You guys need to come and see this shit.”
We all rushed upstairs and out to the barn, where we found a dozen or so crates filled with heavy artillery, each with a variety of handguns, shotguns, and even a couple of semi-automatic rifles and plenty of ammo. Lynch was the first to voice his suspicion. “Holy hell. This guy was in deeper than I thought.”
“You think he’s moving all this on his own or working with someone?”
“Figure the guy is on his own,” Riggs answered. “Otherwise, he wouldn’t be so fired up to partner with Kiersten.”
“Sure hope you’re right about that.” Hawk went over and picked up one of the crates. “It’ll be daylight soon. Let’s get this shit loaded up in the trucks.”
“And then what?”
“We’re gonna fucking torch the place.”
With our plan in place, we carried the crates outside and stacked them in the back of the SUVs. After we got everything loaded, we grabbed a couple of gas cans and spread fuel all over the house and barn. The second we were done, Hawk tossed the match, and the entire place went up in flames. The old wood was dry and rotted, so it wouldn’t take long for the entire place to be nothing more than a pile of ash. Once we were certain the fire had taken hold, we loaded up and got the hell out of there.
None of us spoke on the way back to the Manor. The adrenaline had officially worn off, and we were too fucking exhausted to even speak. I leaned my head back on the headrest and closed my eyes, and it wasn’t long before I found myself thinking about Kiersten. I could only imagine the hell she’d been through last night, not only with the shootout but the whole fiasco with Billy. I had no doubt it had taken its toll on her, and I was eager to get back and make sure she was okay.
Viper was there waiting for us when we pulled back up to the Manor. Menace and Hawk explained what we’d found and told him how we’d torched the place. He stepped back to the rear of the SUVs and checked out the crates, and like us, he was quite surprised by the number of weapons the guy was holding on to. Viper shook his head. “I gotta admit. I wasn’t expecting this shit.”
“None of us were.”
Viper closed the back hatch of one of them and said, “Somebody is going to be expecting this shipment, and when they don’t get it, they’re gonna come looking for it.”
“Yeah, more than likely. So, what do you want us to do about it?”
“Nothing,” Viper replied. “I’ll make sure Billy takes care of it. Right now, all we have to worry about is getting someone in here to take care of Kiersten’s office. That asshole made a real fucking mess of the place.”