Ash smiled coolly as Jax parked the car down the street from the restaurant. This meet would bring him one step closer to giving his father exactly what he deserved.
“I’m going in radio-silent,” he told them. “This guy is always a little skittish. I don’t want to scare him off. They’ll most likely have a way to scan for bugs.”
Ash opened the car door. “Give me fifteen minutes. If you don’t hear back from me, come in and check things out. Just keep a low profile until you get a visual on me.”
“Sounds good,” Honeycutt said. “Have fun in there.”
Jax gave Ash a firm slap on the shoulder. “No worries, man. We’ve got your back.”
Ash glanced from one side of the street to the other as he crossed. He could already see Orion and his men taking their places, positioned carefully around the perimeter of the building, blending in to the bustle of Los Angeles residents moving about near the exterior of the restaurant.
He scanned the restaurant’s outdoor patio carefully, knowing this was the designated area where he would soon meet his contact, Krupin. It was usually Ash’s father who would meet with this particular man, but Voss did send Ash once before on his behalf, so Ash was familiar with the protocol. He had already done the hard part of going through the process of setting up the meet, now he just needed to request a seat on the patio and place a yellow flower at the edge of the table as a signal to Krupin’s men that Ash was the one waiting to meet him.
After the hostess seated Ash out on the patio, he placed the yellow flower on the table and waited. Within seconds, two large men in suits approached and stood close by Ash’s sides.
“Krupin has requested that you follow us inside,” the first man said in a thick Russian accent.
Ash tensed. This wasn’t the way things played out last time they met. He stood warily, but followed them just the same. Perhaps Krupin was taking extra precautions since Ash wasn’t one of his regular contacts. Ash was on his guard either way.
Ash followed inside as the first man led the way, while the second man followed closely behind him. They made their way to the back part of the restaurant until they came to a table positioned in the far corner of the room, out of range for Orion’s men to keep any sort of watch on him.
There was a man with dark, silver-streaked hair sitting with his back to them, with two more large men positioned by his sides.
The man leading the way held out his hand in front of his boss, motioning for Ash to take the seat facing him.
Ash moved forward carefully and was just about to sit when every muscle in his body went tight.
His jaw clenched. Krupin was nowhere in sight.
“Father!” Ash sneered. He reached out in wild anger and gripped his father’s neck, like his hands were a vise.
The two men on Voss’s sides instantly drew their guns. Ash was unarmed.
He squeezed his father’s neck even harder. He wanted him dead. He wanted him gone, no matter the price.
A hard blow struck Ash’s head as the brunt of a gun hit from the side, forcing his grip to release.
Voss rubbed at his neck for only a second then arranged his neck tie back into place.
“Nice to see you too,” Voss said coolly.
Ash’s lip curled. “I’m taking you in. You’re going to have to pay for what you’ve done.”
Voss leaned back and crossed his legs. “I see you’re letting your emotions rule your actions again. You never were good at controlling your weakness.”
His father’s composure only angered Ash more. “Why don’t you send away your guns,” Ash snarled, “and we can duke this out right here, man to man.”
His father smiled shrewdly. “What would be the point? We already know what the outcome would be.”
Without another thought, Ash lunged forward and punched Voss in the face.
Voss’s men stepped forward, aiming their guns. Voss held up his hand, motioning them to wait.
His father barely blinked. Instead, he reached for the cloth napkin on the table and dabbed at the blood leaking from his nose.
“I’m impressed,” Voss said dryly. “That’s probably the most confidence I’ve ever seen you display. I didn’t think you had it in you.”
“Like you care,” Ash countered. “You never even believed I was really your son.”
“Believe what you like,” Voss said, “but I’m actually here as a courtesy to you.”
“Right,” Ash said with a scoff. “Well maybe I don’t want it.”
His father ignored him and continued. “This is simply a small reminder that you cannot gain the upper hand on me. I will always be two steps ahead.” Voss leaned forward, staring Ash directly in the eyes. “This is a courtesy warning as your father... turn around and go home or your little band of friends are going to get hurt.”
With that, Voss stood from his chair and turned to walk away. His men followed slowly, keeping their guns aimed.
Ash’s anger boiled inside him. “This isn’t over,” he yelled.
His father turned one last time. “Remember,” he said, “I warned you.” Then he lifted a phone to his ear and in a commanding tone said, “Do it.”
In less than a second, the sound of screams came from the dining room patio.
“What did you do?” Ash yelled after his father, but Voss was already out the door and gone.
Ash tore through the restaurant to push his way outside.
Jax was already running towards him. “Are you okay?” he said in a rush.
“Yeah, yeah,” Ash answered. “What happened out here?”
“Snipers,” Jax explained. “They shot down five of our men.”
“It was my father,” Ash said. “He was here.”
Jax nodded in understanding. “Come on,” he urged. “We need to grab our wounded men and get them to some Healing Water.”
Ash agreed and rushed across the street to one of the fallen agents, hoisting him up on his shoulder.
Ash kicked himself all the way as he ran the man to the car. How could he be so stupid? How could he not see this coming? The whole thing was just a trap from the start.
He set the agent down in the back seat and ran out to the street, searching for any other wounded agents.
He would make his father pay for this. Voss deserved to suffer for every vile, malicious thing he had ever done.