Jem’s POV

“Alright,” I said the second the door closed behind me; the one word being enough to halt every conversation in the room as their eyes focused on nothing but me. “Let’s get this over with. I’m sure everyone wants to go home.”

The war room was filled to the brim. Every section lead surrounded the table in the middle of the room and the few who had not come fast enough to get a chair were forced to stand between the lucky ones who had. 

“As I’m sure most of you know by now, I left three days ago to start an investigation on a new drug that’s getting past around. It’s called Kerp and the information I got about it didn’t come cheap so let’s use what I got the best we can.” I stood at the head of the table, everyone’s eyes bearing into mine as they waited for what I could share with them. The pressure in my chest grew as I thought of any of the people in this room turning into what I had saw. I shook my head from the thought as my eyes searched for Dev’s; the way they always seemed to do in meetings like these. 

“I received an anonymous call shortly before I left expressing concerns and decided it was worth looking into. When I was able to track down a dealer to ask about it he bought me back to their warehouse where every single one of his men stood there, lifeless, not moving a single step, barely even breathing. When I asked what happened to him he said it was the drug. It shocks the system so much you essentially freeze in time until it begins to wear off. The drug is highly addictive and is to never be bought into my home or my territory. Has this been made perfectly clear to everyone?”

“What’s so bad about it,” Tyler asked a bit skeptically from where he stood in the corner of the room. He was one of my newest section leads and has only been with the gang for about 3 years now but he was a good worker and I trusted him. “I mean addictive and losing track of time seems to be the norm at this point. Why is this one so bad?”

“The hallucinations mostly,” I said as I bit back the urge to snap at him. “From what I witnessed they mostly tend to happen when the drug is wearing off and they seem to be pretty terrifying. One of the men I was watching began screaming for so long that he started choking on his own blood. I’ve been told the more intense ones are worthy of tearing your own eyes out. Apparently, several users have already killed themselves over the hallucinations despite it not being popular yet. And since it’s highly addictive people are upping their doses too soon to get the full effect without having the tolerance built up yet causing them over dose in only a few shoot ups.”

“Did they jump you out or something? Why are you so beat up?” Ramsey stared at the bruises covering my face as if they had personally offended him in some way. “We were told you got stabbed too. How deep was it?”

“I’m fine. It’s true I was stabbed but it was nothing serious. Some people just like over reacting,” I downplayed as I glared at Dev who no doubt told them more than he should have. “I happened to be caught in the cross fire of a hallucination and I will state right now, that information does not leave this room. No one outside these walls needs to be burdened with that information.”

“You mean the cop and Twink outside the door,” Philip asked with a scowl on his face. “What are they doing back here? I thought they weren’t welcomed here anymore.”

“They aren’t,” I said blankly to which he only rolled his eyes. “I passed along information to the cop and the twink budded into the conversation. They found out I was hurt and decided it was best to drive me back. They’ll be leaving shortly.”

None of them looked convinced and I couldn’t say I blamed them. 

“What do you want us to do if we see someone with Kerp? Just because we warn people against it doesn’t mean they’ll be willing to listen.”

“Kill on sight.”

The energy in the room shifted. The carefree atmosphere turned dark in seconds. Most of them tried to hide their distaste at the information behind blank expressions while others simply frowned down at the table. 

“And if we catch our own men with it?”

“What part of kill on sight did you not understand,” I asked a bit too harshly. “This is a direct order and if I found out you didn’t follow it, I’ll finish your job for you then I’ll come after you. I don’t care if it’s your lowest errand boy or favorite fuck partner. If you ever see someone putting that shit in their body you kill them. They are no longer the person you knew, they are a mindless thing just waiting to die. Might as make it as painless as possible for them.”

“You can’t be serious,” Philip scoffed. “These people are family Jem. We can’t kill family.”

“The second they choose that drug over family they are to be considered a traitor and are no longer welcome here. Do I make myself clear?”

I could see the doubt in their eyes but no one had the nerve to publicly disagree. Well, no one but Jospeh. He was older than most of my leads and had a gentle heart, a kind soul, the kind of man you didn’t expect to find in a place like this let alone this high up the command chain. 

“There’s no cure for the addiction? No way to save them? Death seems a little too permeant for something as small as a drug Jem.”

“The process of ridding the body of Kerp is more painful than most cleanses and from what I’ve been told has a 3% success rate. I’ve obviously never experienced it myself but from what I’ve been told going in a day without the drug will slowly shut down your body, no amount of narcan will be able to kick start your body enough to help. That amount of torture is not worth it. The few people who have survived getting clean have reported serious side effects. Kidney failure, blindness, loss of feeling in their hands, inability to move their hands, legs, feet, and many more things that I’m sure they didn’t feel the need to tell me. Not every survivor had all the side effects but I’m not willing to let our men be the first to have all of them. If you see someone actively using Kerp or showing signs of the side effects, they are to be killed on sight. Am I understood?”

It was clear no one wanted to agree yet they knew better than to argue. 

“That being said, you are responsible for your own men. You are responsible for telling them about the drug, about how I refuse to let anyone near them, about the fact they will be put to death if they are caught with it, and what taking the drug entails. I want them too scared to even look at this. Lie to them in you have to, over exaggerate it if you had to, these men will die otherwise and their blood will be on your hands. Don’t let these men die because you were being careless.”

The rest of the meeting was slow, filled with nothing but questions about the drugs, advice on how to scare their men the most, and where to dump bodies if they unfortunately failed. 

As the meeting began to slow down my mind went to the two men who waited outside for me. I knew the meeting couldn’t go on forever but I wish it could. I didn’t want to deal with the aftermath of their leaving. I didn’t want to have to thank them for driving me back home. I very simply wanted them to leave and forget this ever happened yet I knew both of them well enough to know they wouldn’t.

“If anyone doesn’t have any more questions this meeting is over. Call an emergency meeting with your sections the second you leave here. I don’t care how late it is. This can not wait until the morning. If I find out you waited there will be hell to pay. You’re dismissed.”

Everyone fled the room all at once, most with phones in hand not willing to wait a single moment longer to call their meetings. I wait until Dev and I are the last two people in the room before I make my way to the door I’m stopped by Dev’s voice.

“What are you going to tell them?”

“Oh it concerns you now, does it,” I asked with a small scoff. 

“Anything about you concerns me,” he said as he pushed off the wall, coming to stand inches away from my chest. “Before you go out there you need to think about what you want. You loved them Jem. I know you did. You pushed them away and they left, but they also came back. At least give them credit for that.”

“They didn’t come back on their own. If I hadn’t come to warn them they wouldn’t be here and nothing would change.”

“Yet we’ve been in here for two hours already and they’re still here. They’re choosing you. Why can’t that be enough for you?”

“Don’t you have a job to do,” I asked with an eye roll as I stepped around to reach for the door.

“Please just be smart Jem. Don’t ruin this for yourself.”

“When I want unsolicited advice about my nonexistent love life you’ll be the first person I ask.”

I can hear the disappointment in his sigh but I don’t bother addressing it as I open the door to face the two people I had been avoiding all night.