Payment (revised)

Chapter 30

Derek wanted to kill him, slowly.

"Where. Is. Boyd," Erica demanded.

The men behind Theo continued to stir restlessly, none of them had gone to help their fallen comrade. The men shifted, trying to reassure themselves that the knives in Erica's eyes were not real and could not hurt them. Derek wanted to remind them that her gun, on the other hand, most certainly could.

Theo huffed, miffed as he realized the reactions around him were not due to his own triumphs.

"Now, that was rude. You can't just barge in here and shoot my men."

"We can and we did. Tell the girl what she wants to know," Derek said, pulling the hammer back on his own weapon.

He had given the authority to Erica on purpose. He wanted to see Theo squirm like a fish on a hook as he gave up Boyd's position to someone of the better sex. It was about time the boy learned how to talk to women.

Theo raised his hands in surrender.

"Okay, okay, I know when I've been beaten," he relented, and turned to Erica, "He's in the back."

Theo pointed to the bathroom and started chuckling. He waded up the saliva in his mouth and spat it at Erica's feet. Derek didn't interact, waiting for Erica to make the call. If she decided to rip his tongue out of his mouth, he'd gladly get out of her way.

A chuckle built up from Theo's chest. The boy took a swaggering step closer to Erica; she looked about to shatter in a way none of them could pull her back from.

Except for one.

"Or, he could be in a body bag, sorry sweetheart," Theo murmured, eyes roaming Erica's figure like she couldn't strip him of his very dignity.

Derek's entire group tensed, and Theo knew he had struck a nerve.

He stepped away from Erica who was seething, but afraid to make the wrong move in case it could somehow affect Boyd.

"No, just kidding. He's not there yet, but I had you for a minute, didn't I?"

The facade dropped, and Derek saw the visceral anger that had caused the kid to kill his old man.

"I'm not telling you without a fight, you Hale bastard," he snarled, spraying Derek's face with his intensity.

Derek could tell Theo's men were feeding off of his energy. Their small brains recognized that their leader had the confidence of someone who had the upper hand. They didn't have the capacity to realize that the confidence was based on a falsity.

Derek, stone faced, glanced at every one of his packmates, making sure to hold eye contact with each of them.

He gave a sharp nod, and it started.

As if they had choreographed it, The Hale Pack surged forward just as Racken's group pulled themselves together enough to get out their weapons.

Off the bat, Allison and Issac were surrounded by four men who looked to be some of the more intelligent ones of the group, not that it gave them much of a lead. These men were used to scaring off their enemies by intimidation alone, they weren't prepared when it came to opponents who actually knew how to fight.

Issac quickly disarmed two. Switching out his weapon for theirs, he disoriented them with quick jabs to the throat. He then crossed his arms and fired twice, their bodies dropped with a heavy thud.

Allison swiftly danced around the others, kicking one back as she sent an uppercut to the taller of the two. She didn't give them time to regroup before unsheathing her hidden blades and slicing the taller one's neck clean open so his blood came spraying out like a waterfall. Her assailant's knees cracked against the floor as his limp body fell. Enraged after seeing what had happened to his friend, her second adversary came back firing two shots. She ducked and rolled through the man's legs.