witness || h.s.|| ON HOLD

nine || houston, we have a problem

Harry

I woke up the next morning feeling much more at peace now that I had finally gotten my knife back, and that I had finally confronted Tate about her relation to James Collins. Judging by the absolutely bewildered and terrified expression she had on her face, I think she might have actually been telling the truth, that he was just a neighbor. Quite ironic that she felt safe walking home with one of the second in commands to a large organized crime group, if only she knew.

I had to say, I was momentarily impressed when she began to talk back to me, the explicit words she used sounding so unnatural falling off her lips in that shy sweet voice of hers. I knew it was probably the adrenaline talking, but still, I usually had grown men begging for their lives in that kind of situation, and here was this five foot five girl, practically spitting in my face, fully aware that she could be killed at any moment.

Once I decided that she was probably innocent, I decided to threaten her by telling her that I knew where she lived, in order to avoid any run-ins with the cops. I really didn't need that right now, not with the merging of our organization with Grayson's. I had a feeling that she wouldn't be a problem, and I was relieved to be done with the whole situation.

When I got to the fort, I managed to get through Ralph's patronizing antics quicker than usual this morning, as he was much more interested in getting back to some game he was playing on his phone than antagonizing me. We had a meeting in about twenty minutes, with Grayson and James and some of their team members. Abel and their best tech guys were supposedly going to start working on getting the software up and running today and to run a few tests before we started making any major plans to use it. I'm sure Abel couldn't sleep last night, probably far too excited to start cracking open one of the most powerful software systems the world had ever seen.

I made my way over to the elevator, grateful that I was alone and didn't have to endure Whit's incessant button pressing. Soon enough I was on the fifth floor, strolling down the hallway towards to conference room. The rest of the guys were already there, sat in a row, with one extra seat next to Will saved for me. It was just us so far, and I guessed that Whit was probably still in his office, tweaking some last-minute things for the meeting.

The boys all turned to face me.

"Yes. I got it," I smiled, slipping my hand into my back pocket and pulling out the knife, showing it to them. I finally felt secure again knowing I had it with me so that if I finally had the opportunity to use it for the destiny I had intended for it, I'd be prepared.

"Did you have any issues with the girl?" Niall asked, picking around in a pack of trail mix, pulling all of the chocolate candies out to eat them first.

"Nope. It was a perfectly simple mission. Don't worry about her, she won't be bothering any of us, and if she tries to, I have some...let's say, insurance, to make sure that she doesn't succeed," I smirked.

Just as I finished speaking, the doors to the conference room flung open, revealing Whit, with Grayson and James stood beside him, along with two other men, who I assumed were the tech guys here to assist Abel. We all stood up to greet them, exchanging handshakes and hellos and introducing ourselves, as per Whit's numerous texts to all of us this morning, telling us to be on, "our best fucking behavior," and so, we were.

Once we got all of the formalities out of the way, we all took our seats, James giving Will and I a grateful smile as he sat down, we just nodded our heads knowingly at him. Grayson and Whit sat side by side at the head of the table, both of them pulling out various folders and their laptops, signaling to everyone else to do the same.

"Gentlemen," Grayson suddenly spoke, causing everyone's eyes to drift over to him. "I just want to say a personal thank you to you all, for saving the life of James. Truly, words cannot express how grateful I am for what you have done. I am ready and eager to begin this journey into our alliance with you, and to hopefully take down Quinton Beck, and drain him of everything that son of a bitch is worth."