Dalliance - Z.M. (An Exquisites Original Story)

66; Shades of Cool

Chapter 66

"Your heart is unbreakable."

(Raine's POV)

I have never seen Zayn like this before.

Following Apollo's injury, he was bound to rest for a week which was too much time for us to postpone the inevitable fallout from our colossal loss. Given the fact that Ana knows every single one of our bases inside and out did pose a huge problem for us, but Ramone is a man who plans for every possible outcome. Once he learned of Ana's betrayal, he ordered Zayn to make immediate changes. Following such a huge loss, the Southwestern operations would be closed until Ana's head was served on a platter in front of Ramone.

Now this was no easy task. Routes, people, dens, operations, weapons, hideouts- everything had been compromised now that Ana was out of our grasp. Nonetheless, Ramone had a backup operation in case something like this had happened which he kept from everyone, even Apollo, until this happened. Operation Sandoval, he called it, was a three-day procedure that disbanded every single base in the southwestern region to separate them along the remaining three regions that were operating in the United States.

Not to mention, we had yet another rat amongst us. It was safe to say that Ana's reign in this operation had acquired a lot of loyal servants which would help her escape anything. Everyone that Apollo doubted even slightly was let go immediately, which was about seventy-five percent of his people. We were left with a few hundred people who were all setting up in different regions. The Southwestern region, a unit that Apollo has been controlling for the past fifteen years, had been shut down until further notice.

The only people left in New Orleans were me, Zayn, Vex, Kai, and a wounded Apollo; everyone else was to be remain in the dark until we killed Moon, Ana, and Ruiz. Forget the trade, the drugs, the negotiations; it was time that we drew blood.

With Apollo down, Zayn was in charge of making sure every single one of Ramone's orders were handled seamlessly. He hadn't been in town for the past three days as he made sure that Operation Sandoval had been completed, but today was the day he was to return. He had been out of sight, but certainly not out of mind. I haven't even seen him since the night we spent together since he had been ordered to fly out to meet Ramone that night.

As for Apollo, I had yet to see him since the accident. Even though he had been ordered to rest, Vex informed me that he was doing everything but that. While Zayn was traveling to make sure the transition was as easy as it could be, Apollo was wrapping up operations here. I don't particularly know the state of his injuries, but I find relief in the fact that they can't be that bad if he has enough energy to be fulfilling his tasks. There is no rest for the wicked, after all.

Three days had passed, but it felt like years. Kai and I had been wound up at his house, waiting for any orders that may give us some sort of direction, yet we heard nothing. So we took the time to visit our mother only to force her to vacate her home immediately. She was devastated given the fact that it was our childhood home, but we had no choice but to keep her safe now that we had made an enemy of the very people who gave her the house in the first place. Kai and I put cash down and bought her a house under someone else's name, cities away from Berwick.

All in all, depression had begun to settle amongst us. It felt like we could not secure a win, no matter how hard we tried. Everyone we regarded as teammates turned out to be suspects and we were left with nobody to trust except one another. Our operation of thousands had boiled down to five people, of which half were enemies.

I had almost given up on expecting any sort of response from the two of them when Zayn texted both Kai and I this morning with an unfamiliar address an hour away in St. Parish, Louisiana. He asked us to pack what we needed and we did so without question, but that didn't mean we didn't have any.