The Joy of Revenge

CHAPTER 122 Cris Murdock is Dead
Joy
“Nope, it’s not Pete,” Xavier said, taking his gun out of the glove compartment and clipping the holster onto his belt. “But he’s here… somewhere. So you know what that means… We need to stay vigilant at all times.” He exited the car, then came to my door to assist me out from the BMW. “Let’s eat first. I told Chef you were coming to HQ and he cooked your favorite. Baked ziti and honey-glazed chicken.”
I squealed happily. This was such a good surprise. Chef was here… in North Dakota.
While the rest of us called him Chef, Sebastian called him Cook. This was because Chef was
Sebastian’s best cook…in his laboratory.
If Chef wasn’t in the kitchen or in a lab cooking, he was usually busy torturing or disemboweling some poor soul at Sebastian’s Meat Shop. He loathed guns, loved knives and his favorite topics of conversation were the ‘Succinct Art of Knives’ and The Exact Science of Torture’. He was a heavyset, bull-necked man, really muscular, whose fashion staple was the muscle shirt… to showcase the tattoo of an image of his mother on his arm.
He looked quite intimidating, but Chef was a big scaredy cat… spiders and co ckroaches
included.
“Oh my gosh! Chef’s here!” I jumped up and down excitedly. “I really miss his cooking!”
“Oh please,” Xavier said, sounding jealous. “You eat his gourmet pizza and croissants all the time. Who do you think cooks all that stuff? Me?”
“Well, I know it isn’t Cristos,” I said, giggling. “No wonder you only serve croissants and gourmet pizza twice a week at the cafe.”
Xavier chuckled. “Chef rides in the back of the delivery truck and comes in early in the
morning to make the croissants just for you.” He pointed to a pair of steel doors and took my hand. “Right this way, my queen.”
From outside, the warehouse looked dilapidated and small, but inside, it was completely
renovated and larger than I pictured.
“This section of the warehouse is the designated parking area,” Xavier said, acting like a tour guide. My eyes quickly surveyed the large assortment of vehicles parked side by side and
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CHAPTER 122 Cris Murdock is Dead
corner. It had a big white X taped on the rear window.
Xavier rushed ahead of me to open the steel doors. I thanked him and found myself standing in a well-lit hallway.
“This section is mainly office space, additional rooms for the men and storage,” Xavier explained briefly. “The makeshift bedrooms are located at the far end of the warehouse to give people their privacy.”
Xavier proceeded down the hallway towards another set of steel doors.
“Is that the last pair of steel doors we need to walk through?” I asked.
“Yes,” Xavier answered. “You must be hungry. Come on. We’re almost there.”
There was one particular room that caught my attention, a room with glass walls, where several Blood Disciples were watching the live feed coming from CCTV cameras
monitors.
on
“This is now a 24/7 operation,” Xavier explained “I have my men watching round the clock.”
Finally, Xavier opened the last set of steel doors revealing a narrow concrete pathway which led to the rundown building I saw as we were driving to the warehouse.
The windows and glass doors were covered with old planks of wood, the building had vines. climbing its walls while the flower beds were either full of weeds or full of murky green

water.
I glanced at Xavier as we stopped in front of the building’s entrance, puzzled we would be eating here. “We’re going to eat in there?”
Before Xavier could answer me, the front doors of the building suddenly flung open.
Cristos had been waiting for us.
“Oh, thank Go d, you’re okay,” Cristos exclaimed, ushering us inside. I was stunned to see that inside was quite the opposite of the outside. Inside, the building looked like a small hotel.
“Why wouldn’t I be?” I asked him.
“Because the person beside you said you’re in danger, Cristos replied dryly. “Sometimes you go too far. Xavier” I quickly assumed this was a safe space since they were using their real2/7
CHAPTER 122 Cris Murdock is Dead
at least called me to tell me she was fine. Xavier scoffed at him.
“You wouldn’t have horrifying visions in your head if you had gone with her like I told you to do, Xavier said, walking to the lounge area. “If I didn’t call, it’s because I wanted you to feel what I felt when you told me you sent her to the commercial complex so she could get some sleep… alone.”
“You
guys do know the person you’re talking about is here with you, right?” I said, trying to dispel the animosity between them. “As you both can see, I’m fine. I followed all of Cristos’ instructions, Xavier. I didn’t turn on the lights in the shop just in case there’s a c rack between the windows and the steel coiling door and I went straight to my office and locked the door… after taking a shower and brushing my teeth. By the way, where’s Sebastian?” I sniffed and caught a whiff of garlic bread. Yummy.
“He’s in the in
infirmary, knocked out by the painkillers Doc gave him after he stitched him up, Cristos answered. He shook his head and waved his hands in the air, not wanting to be distracted from the ensuing argument he and Xavier were having. “What is the problem, anyway, Xavier? If I didn’t-”
“Cristos, if you don’t mind, let Joy eat first, then we can continue this conversation, Xavier
said. “Anyway, I’m hungry.”
Cristos scowled at Xavier for cutting him off, but nodded his head, gesturing towards the dining area.
Chef was all smiles when I took a seat at a small table. He placed a large helping of baked
ziti and a platter of glazed chicken in front of me then poured me a glass of red wine.
“I was wondering when I’d finally get to see you Chef said while we ate. “I’ve constantly asked the three underbosses to bring you for a visit, but Beaufort said it’s too much of a risk. I thought it was just an excuse to keep you from me, but the men watching your old home have said they’ve seen someone frequenting your neighborhood. Unfortunately, they can’t tell if it’s a woman or a man. So, since the old lady living in the house in the middle of your cul de sac is entering a nursing home and selling her house, I’ll be buying it. I’ll be dying my hair white to look like an old geezer, so no one will think I’m a mean mo therf ucker.”
“So we’re gonna be neighbors? Can I come to your house to have dinner? Please?” I asked hopefully.
“You can come every day. I’ll feed you and keep you healthy,” Chef said winking, then left for
the kitchen.
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CHAPTER 122 Cris Murdock is Dead
“At least if I tell Chef to never leave your side, he’ll listen to me, unlike someone else I know,” Xavier mumbled. I rolled my eyes. The clash wasn’t over.
“Excuse me, but I wasn’t the one who came into the pub, all guns blazing, without a mask on!” Cristos exclaimed angrily. “Admit it, Xavier, if I didn’t keep the pub open, you would
cover and this have gone to his house and would have done the same to him… Blowing your whole operation we have going. At least, it happened in my pub without any witnesses!”
“Yep, it happened in your pub without any help coming from you, thank you very much,” Xavier replied curtly.
“Oh yes, I did help you,” Cristos mumbled “I kept him comfortable until you got there. But you’re missing the point. You have to learn to control your emotions, Xavier!”
“Woah! I’m sorry, but I’m confused,” I interrupted. “What happened when I left the pub?” Through the CCTV feed, I remember seeing Cris entering the Buzzed Pub without Lisa, dressed in casual attire with a cap hiding his face. He tried to go incognito, but he was so tall. It wasn’t much of a disguise.
After Cris walked in, Cristos told me to change into coveralls Bo’s delivery men wore and ride with them back to the commercial complex.
“Cris came in and told me he just wanted to drink alone. He ordered a bottle of scotch and asked for a bucket of ice and a small glass. Since the pub was empty because of the vigil Patrick and Beth had the night off, I tended to the bar watching him drink, shot after sh was about to ask him to go home when I got a message from Xavier asking me if I knew where Cris was since Dina mentioned we saw him standing outside. I told Xavier that Cris was a
at the pub, alone, drinking himself into a stupor.
“To cut the story short,” Xavier interjected, “I went to the pub and beat the cr ap out of him. While he was lying on the floor, I aimed my gun at him, about to pull the trigger, when he uttered the name Bo. I was filled with such rage from watching the video of your assault that I forgot to hide my face. As I told you earlier, Joy, I was incredibly st upid and rash. But it’s too late now. He’s seen my face and knows who I am.”
“So you’re telling me the person waiting for me is Cris Murdock?” I asked surprised.
“Yes,” Xavier answered. “We need you to make the decision to kill him or keep him prisoner. Cristos wants to keep him prisoner, so we can use him. I say kill him since he’ll use every opportunity to bury us. Sebastian, on the other hand, said it was in our best interests to ask you to decide… right before he blacked out. Anyway, before you make that decision, I want you to see him. I’ll be right beside you.”
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CHAPTER 122 Cris Murdock is Dead
“Me too,” Cristos uttered.
“No,” Xavier said. “You might stop me from shooting him in the head. By the find anything on his phone that will lead us to Pete?”
“Dina’s working on it,” Cristos replied. “What about his car?”
way, did you
“I have Sam and Lou cleaning the car. They’ve removed all trackers including a tracker that isn’t ours, disabled the GPS system, removed the SD card from the dashcam and have deleted all footage,” Xavier said. “Jack will find Cris’ car somewhere in Bismarck with his clothes and shoes stuffed in the back of the trunk.”
While they discussed where to dump Cris’ body if ever I decide we should kill him, I sat quietly, sipping the rest of my wine, deciding whether or not we should kill him.
“Joy, you ready?” Xavier asked. I nodded my head. “Good. Let’s get you a weapon.”
“No need,” I told him. “I brought my own.” I opened my tote bag, took out my glock 17, and clipped the holster to the waistband of my pants.
“Good enough,” he said. “Let’s go. Cristos, you watch from the monitors.”
We left the rundown building and walked towards the warehouse, but this time, we went down a flight of stairs through a hatch at the side of the building.
“This serves as a basement for when a tornado comes,” Xavier explained, turning the light on. It was a clean open space without furniture. At the end were two doors of two small rooms fronting each other.
He led me to the doors and stopped. “That’s the bathroom while this is the storage room. We had no other place to put him.”
He took his gun from its holster before opening the door and turning the lights on. I saw a bloodied Cris, on the floor naked, cuffed to a set of steel shelves that were screwed on to the floor. He was conscious, with one eye open. The other eye was swollen, with dried blood
around it.