Submitting to My Best Friend's Dad-Chapter 981 : Escalation

*Leo*

“Here’s your report.”

A thick file slammed onto the desk in front of me and I barely looked up from my paperwork though I did hover the pen over the paper. A bit of black ink splashed across the white page and I let a small smirk cover my lips before I looked up.

My face was now completely blank, I surveyed the kid in front of me as he stood there with a scowl. Though he didn’t look happy, he said nothing more as he let me survey him for an uncomfortably long time.

Absolutely covered in dirt and blood, he was soaked from the brief rainstorm I knew had been reported tonight, dripping all over the floor. His muddy bootprints left a trail from the doorway to where he stood and some of the filth on him had started to crust up and flake off onto the ground.

Anyone could see he’d had a miserable time out.

“So,” I smirked, taking a little delight in the look of hatred in his eyes, “What happened out on patrol?”

Grunt work was usually simple patrols, training duties, escorts, checking in with employers, or supply drops—nothing too exciting or important.

I didn’t know if it was karma or just bad luck but every instance of Darion’s grunt work somehow went wrong.

Sure enough, he bristled up like a hedgehog, still looking pitiful and angry.

“Oh, come on!” He threw his hands up in the air, giving me a harsh look as he glared at the report he’d slammed onto my desk and then me. “What’s the point of making me write the report if you make me tell you everything anyway?”

“The report is for management. Making you tell me is just for my own enjoyment,” I smirked, leaning back in my chair to face him fully. “Now get to it. What happened now?”

The stink eye on his face almost had me breaking into a laugh but I had a tougher poker face than that.

Darion glared at me, a little hint of loathing in his eyes as he clenched his fists at his side like he wanted to punch me but I just raised an eyebrow, waiting patiently in this little staredown. Sure enough, he cracked first.

His fists relaxed by his side as he let out an exhausted sigh, there was a helpless, resigned look on his face as he jumped straight into his story. Turns out, I was right.

After yet another accident occurred during the patrol, in which the cement truck on one of our construction accidentally backed up too far, Darion had gotten into an argument with the driver in an attempt to stop him.

Darion had ended up on the short stick as an unfortunate series of events which included a woodpecker entering the driver’s seat, him getting tackled by a stray raccoon into the ditch and the bird hitting the right controls to release all the cement above him.

On top of the rain, we lost about five hundred bucks in cement since the rainwater had coated the pit and would have to be redone, and we had to pay the medical bills for the driver who had laughed so hard he’d nearly broken a rib.

At the end of his story, Darion’s entire face was bright red as he glared at the floor like it had offended him. I shook my head in utter amazement at how things with him went so wrong so quickly. I didn’t laugh at him, no matter how much I wanted to because despite everything that had gone wrong, he still didn’t complain about being sent out.

He’d been a real trooper about it.

Franky didn’t have that same restraint. Across from me, his shoulders shaking as he hid his head in the laptop, his snickers ringing out in the silence as Darion flushed even harder. The poor kid looked like he wanted to sink into the ground at the moment, so I cut him a break.

“Go get cleaned up and then report to Derrick, you’ll be going with him for a product transfer tonight,” I waved him off with a grin.

“Fine,” Darion sighed, his shoulders relaxing as he slowly turned around, flakes of cement peeling off of him as he waddled his way out of the room like a stiff penguin.

It wasn’t until he was completely gone that I let myself fully laugh at the absurdity.

“You know I take it back,” Franky snickered, “He really has grown on me.”

“Please, you just like seeing him screw up,” I retorted with a smirk. Franky just shrugged, not even bothering to deny it.

I focused on finishing up the rest of my work, only a few more documents and pages to review before I could go home to my lovely Bianca. My fiance and love of my life. The woman carrying my child. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

As I raced through the last bits of paperwork, I was literally on the last one before I heard a loud hissing sound come from Franky. When I glanced over in alarm, Franky had a dark look on his face.

If I knew Franky and I did after working together with him for so many years, that expression didn’t mean anything good.

“What happened?” I sighed, realizing I wasn’t getting home early tonight like I thought.

Instead of explaining, Franky just turned his laptop around and fully displayed the surveillance footage. I recognized it as just out on the border of our territory, but that wasn’t what caught Franky’s attention.

I stiffened as I saw unfamiliar men, covered in tattoos and ranging from muscular to skinny as all hell, stalk across our territory. Loaded with guns and ammunition, it was unmistakable from the tattoo of wings across their bodies that they were not ours.

“They’re getting bolder,” Franky said darkly. “The Angels have been pushing their limits more and more after winning territory from us last time.”

“Where are they headed?” I asked, my eyes scanning the other footage for the sight of them as they moved off-camera. I recognized the street, down in the old business district which closed in the 1980’s. Warehouses left abandoned, it was one of our best and most profitable areas.

And one of the most dangerous.

“With that level of firepower,” Franky said, giving me a meaningful glance. “There’s only one place.”

I frowned, thinking for a moment, my mind racing through everything near that area before I landed on one, horrifying thought. My breath hitched as I glanced over at Franky tensely.

“They wouldn’t,” I growled, my temper flaring at the thought of what damage they could do.

“They would,” Franky confirmed grimly.

I scrambled out of my chair, grabbing the supplies that I always kept on the ready as I shrugged on a bulletproof vest and holstered my gun at my side. Franky did the same, making calls in the meantime as we prepared for the worst.

I got the call when we were already halfway there but I didn’t answer. I set my jaw as we pulled into the warehouse. Smoke already filled the air as we pulled up, the whole area a disaster.

“Fuck,” I slammed my hand against the wheel before getting out. Many of our men were racing around, trying to do damage control, especially around where our truck had fully implemented itself into the side of the warehouse.

The whole front smashed to bits, debris everywhere. I caught a good look at the back where the door had been ripped open with what looked like a homemade jack still propping it up but everything inside was gone.

I stepped on an empty casing as soon as I got out of the car, scowling as I kicked it away. Franky was right by my side as I stormed up to whoever was supposed to be in charge of the site.

“What the hell happened?” I demanded as I caught sight of him.

Lawrence shrunk as he saw me, his pale face covered in soot and blood as he was being treated off to the side for what looked like a nasty wound to his hand and shoulder.

“Sorry, Boss,” Lawrence said, hanging his head as he pushed away the emergency power, getting to his feet to face me fully. “It was the Angels. We weren’t expecting them. This is a no-combat zone after all.”

Despite how pissed I was, I knew this wasn’t Lawrence’s fault.

He was right.

The wholesale district was supposed to be a no-combat zone, one meant for trading and transfer of products under secretive locations. It was no man’s land but every organization kept to themselves mainly due to the overwhelming patrols of the LA police department in the area.

“I’m aware. Are there any casualties?” I asked Lawrence, eyeing his injury as it dripped blood onto the ground rather worriedly.

“No,” He shook his head. “Not on our side. But we do have three other injuries. All getting treated now.”

“Good. Get stitched up and go home for the day. You won’t be able to work with that injury,” I told him, calmly. “But if you can, send me a report later. If you have to get one of the other guys to do it, then do it. Just get me whatever details you remember.”

“Yes, sir!” Lawrence nodded in relief.

I nodded solemnly then left him to go find Franky. He was already at the truck, examining the damage.

“They’re making their move,” I surmised, turning to Franky angrily. “Why is it that it’s one thing after another? I take out one threat and then another shows up.”

“You can blame your prodigy for this one,” Franky retorted, unsympathetically. “All we have is the surveillance to prove it was them and even that won’t hold up. They’d just clip off those members and we’d have nothing. But what really bothers me is that nobody was supposed to know this was our location.”

Realization dawned on me as I understood what he was implying.

“You think it leaked from the inside?” I demanded, crossing my arms. My fingers were itching to grab my gun. There was nothing worse in my eyes than a betrayer.

“Two occurrences aren’t just a coincidence any longer,” Franky said cryptically, giving me a pointed look.

I ground my teeth together. The only common occurrence between both instances is Darion.

I shut my eyes, breathing out to keep calm.

“We have no proof it was him,” I said, finally. “I don’t see any reason for him to do so. He doesn’t even have access to that information any longer.”

Franky pinched his nose, sighing heavily. “I’ll go to the police. Get this mess cleaned up as fast as possible.”

I nodded absent-mindedly, thinking deeply over how quiet and sullen Darion has been since bailing him out of jail. I don’t know if he’s actually the leak or not but...

“I’ll put a tail on him,” I said firmly, making my mind up. “Make sure he’s staying in the lines we set. And if not, we’ll get rid of him.”