Her clouded thoughts were interrupted as she heard the door open and close. Estelle’s eyes flicked up to see who it was, but to no surprise, it was her deputy, Ghazi. He could already tell that Estelle was stressed out over the situation. His first words to her made her chuckle a little. “Good morning to you too, Ghazi.” She had said. After his next words, Estelle pulled out from her chair and stood up. “When a murderous gang is out there terrorizing and killing people, do most people get a good sleep?” She said with a joking tone. However, part of her was joking while the other part gained flash backs from the night before. She got a good sleep alright. Estelle had crossed her arms before she spoke again. “I had a cup of coffee this morning.” Lie. Estelle made sure to not let her other cops worry about her so much. Even though, from the looks of it, anybody could tell the woman is stressed out, and she’s terrible at hiding it.

Estelle had watched as her deputy attempted to help her with her chaotic mess of a desk. Usually, Estelle’s desk is very organized and cleaned. But as for recent events, it’s been hard to manage. With constant cases popping up and constant calls to her office. She listened as he spoke, crossing her arms. “Look, Ghazi. I know that I seem a little stressed out but you know, better than anyone, that I need to catch these bastards. I’m getting calls by the minute. If something isn’t done soon, I fear that we are going to have a bigger problem.” Estelle said as she walked over to the board behind her. She paused for a minute and watched as he was examining some of the cases that she didn’t get to yet. Though she couldn’t tell how bad these cases were since Ghazi held a straight face. Estelle knew some of those cases were gruesome but her stomach just couldn’t handle it. She had looked up at Ghazi as he suggested more training on the officers. That was probably a good idea. “I agree with the training. I need these cops to be at peak experience before we all go into something like this.” She had said.

Her attention was directed towards voices she heard just outside the station. The voices were fairly familiar to her so she made her way to the door. Opening the door she had saw Amos and Bea standing just outside. “Good morning Officer Amos. Good morning Officer Bea. You two are welcome to come inside. We are just discussing training matters.” She said before letting them in. Estelle made her way back towards Ghazi before sitting down in her chair. She glanced at her computer before looking back up at Ghazi. “Training will need to be done immediately.” The Sheriff said. Her eyes darted up as she heard another one of her cops had entered the station. It was Santos. “Ah, just in time.” She said in almost a surprised tone. His first words made her sarcastically chuckle. “I can handle these cases, thank you.” She said while squinting her eyes. Estelle examined what was in his hand before slowly dropping her jaw. My coffee? The asshole took my coffee? And my mug?! She cleared her throat before looking down at her desk, trying to keep it together so she didn’t look so suspicious.

The Sheriff rolled her eyes as she heard the obnoxious sipping of the coffee that came from Santos. It was almost like he wanted her to say something. Santos’ next words made her look up at him, with almost a condescending expression as he pointed towards his neck. A wild animal, huh? Her gaze traveled to Ghazi then back to Santos. “I’m sorry to hear that Officer Santos. But we need you here today.” Estelle said with a straight look on her face. “We are going over very important matters and discussing training, which you play a very big part in.” She examined as her cops were all slowly making their way in. “As you all know, the problem with the Lone Riders is only getting worse by the day. We’ve decided that we need to start training you guys more. We don’t know what we are dealing with here and I’ll be damned if I lose my cops to these assholes.” She said before pausing. “Officer Santos.” Her eyes glared. “You will be training as a gunman for the others.” Estelle said while crossing her arms. “Officer Amos, you will be helping Officer Santos train Officer Bea. Officer Bea, I don’t mean to put you on the spot but you are a new cop and I need you to be at your best when we decide to take these bastards down. My deputy and I will be around to help and if you have questions, feel free.”

Estelle took one more look at her cops before sitting back down at her desk. She was aware that she had tons of work to do. The cops being trained was a good idea as she was going to focus mainly on where the Lone Riders could be hiding out. She walked to the board behind her and examined it some more. On the board, she had pictures of each Lone Rider member and cases that have involved them. She was aware that each tended to be apart of certain cases. Some members were involved in dismemberment and some were involved in simply poisoning. She traced her fingers along the board before sitting back down at her desk. Her eyes met her deputy’s before she spoke. “Ghazi, you know me better than anyone. You know how much it means to take these assholes down. I can’t let them do what they did to us to anymore people. I just can’t.” She said in almost a hushed tone. Estelle didn’t know what she would do if the other cops found out that she was once apart of this violent gang. I mean, who would suspect that the Sheriff would be?

Ghazi Antara Harib | 24 | M | Deputy | Mentions; Estelle (Ind/Dir), Santos (Ind/Dir), Amos (Ind/Dir), Bea (Ind/Dir), Lueruna (Ind), Riders (Ind), Open.

Outfit; https://postimg.cc/gallery/ScbTHDJ

-

“Good morning to you too, Ghazi.”

--

Ghazi saw as she stood up after his words, saw the way she tried to come across as calmer. As if she weren’t on the verge of a breakdown. Which, given how they knew each, seemed uncalled for to him. Though, even he wasn’t as much of a liar to consider himself good at anything concerning emotions. Let alone comforting people, for that matter. The most he could offer were facts, a lecture, and reminders of others needing her.

--

“When a murderous gang is out there terrorizing and killing people, do most people get a good sleep? I had a cup of coffee this morning.”

--

Ghazi shook his head, rolling his eyes a bit at her joking tone. At the straight-faced lie that while he had no reason to assume she was lying- He knew her, he knew that she probably hadn’t had coffee. Not when she was this worked up. Still, the only response these words got was a simple, “Never said they did.” And then he went right back to trying to organize her desk a little. Went right back to all that he’d been doing before.

--

“Look, Ghazi. I know that I seem a little stressed out but you know, better than anyone, that I need to catch these bastards. I’m getting calls by the minute. If something isn’t done soon, I fear that we are going to have a bigger problem.”

--

He looked away from the case in his hands, towards Estelle, but ultimately decided against saying anything further about all of that. Looking back at the case in his hands. He couldn’t really argue any of that. No matter how much he wanted to. There was too much that he agreed with, too much he carried himself to try and convince her to not carry it. He knew where his hypocrisy had to end. At least for now. Later. When she was more awake, more willing to listen, and hopefully less willing to point out his hypocrisy. He had never been a gambling man, not in the traditional sense at least, but he liked to think that he’d be good at it. What, with how well he did at this most of the time.

--

“I agree with the training. I need these cops to be at peak experience before we all go into something like this.”

--

He nodded, still staring at the file in his hands, choosing to bite his tongue on the matter for now. He knew his limits, where his luck would run out. There was a slight lift in sound, voices speaking on the other side of a wall. He glanced up, towards the door of Stella’s office. Just in time to see Estelle walking over and opening the door, the sibling officers on the other side. Officer Amos and Officer Bea. The Karagiannises… Karagianni? Karagianni. Sure. That would work fine as the plural. Ghazi didn’t really care all that much about that anyways.

--

“Good morning Officer Amos. Good morning Officer Bea. You two are welcome to come inside. We are just discussing training matters.”

--

He kept his eye on the scene as Estelle let the two officers inside her office, up until the sheriff was sitting back in her chair, her eyes on the computer screen in front of her. Then, he allowed his eye to look at Officer Amos and Officer Bea. Still missing two officers. He looked over at Stella as she turned her attention to him again, his eye narrowed in thought as she spoke.

--

“Training will need to be done immediately.”

--

He nodded, and then looked over at the door as it opened and closed. Santos. Great timing. They were just getting started. Where was Officer Lueruna? Sleeping in? When they had a violent, bloodthirsty gang on the loose? He had half a mind to consider investigating her. The thought slowed him down, he turned it over in his mind, mulled over it. He filed it away for later when he realized that Stella was speaking.

--

“Ah, just in time.”

--

Santos didn’t really seem to mind her words, looking at him and the case in his hands. Ghazi fixed him with a stare, trying to convey that the case wasn’t actually all that interesting compared to the other ones the two had read. Santos was just about the only officer here, other than himself, that he could trust to read the gruesome cases without getting bothered. And the only one that Ghazi could actually stand to talk to about… Anything other than work. Estelle was great, no doubt, but he was fairly certain that she held some misguided beliefs about him. He wasn’t crazy or paranoid. He also wasn’t a good person, though he wasn’t sure if she had ever thought that about him.

--

“Sparing her from grey hairs?”

--

He didn’t smile, didn’t nod, didn’t really react at all. Just closed the case in his hands and held the closed file at his side. He took in Santos’ appearance though, eye wandering from the officer’s neck to face to whatever stuck out to him. Santos didn’t look terrible, per se, but something had definitely happened. Nothing that was Ghazi’s business though, he didn’t think, so he let his gaze go to Estelle as she spoke.

--

“I can handle these cases, thank you.”

--

That, that earned an eye roll. He knew how strong her stomach was with the type of cases he usually made sure she didn’t see. And he knew that her stomach was weak with them. It wasn’t a fault of hers, it was more of a strength. Proof that she was a good person. A better person than he could ever be. He almost wished that his own stomach was weaker than it was. Almost. But then who would read these cases? Make sure Estelle didn’t? Santos? He doubted that. It was his own job anyways. And if he couldn’t do that job… Santos speaking broke his mind from his thoughts before he explored that route. He put a pin in it though, a bookmark for later. He didn’t want to leave loose ends.

--

“Boss, I'm battered from last night and desire a day off. As you can see, a wild animal attacked him last night.”

--

He glanced back at Santos then, raising an eyebrow. He looked at the officer’s neck, there was no way that was a wild animal. Either it’d be worse, or Santos would’ve gotten out even less scathed. Especially since Santos was one of the better officers. Did Ghazi need to start going over training with him too? He hoped not, but he couldn’t really have him losing fights to wild animals… He doubted it was a wild animal. He also doubted it was any of his business…

--

Unless Santos was working for the Lone Riders and had just done something for them. Or he’d just escaped them. Which, then, why wouldn’t he tell them? That would be good, important, vital information to have. Santos being a spy seemed more likely than that. And all his hatred for the group could be a cover. And Ghazi might need to investigate him too. He filed the idea away for later, right next to the idea of investigating Officer Lueruna.

--

“I’m sorry to hear that Officer Santos. But we need you here today. We are going over very important matters and discussing training, which you play a very big part in.”

--

Ghazi glanced over at Estelle, shifting more to attention so he could be sure not to miss anything. So he could speak if he needed to. So he could watch for reactions. So he could figure out what all he needed to do himself based on those reactions. Investigation needed or not, if the reactions were worrisome, he couldn’t endanger officers.

--

“As you all know, the problem with the Lone Riders is only getting worse by the day. We’ve decided that we need to start training you guys more. We don’t know what we are dealing with here and I’ll be damned if I lose my cops to these assholes. Officer Santos. You will be training as a gunman for the others. Officer Amos, you will be helping Officer Santos train Officer Bea. Officer Bea, I don’t mean to put you on the spot but you are a new cop and I need you to be at your best when we decide to take these bastards down. My deputy and I will be around to help and if you have questions, feel free.”

--

He nodded along to the information given. Curt, precise. He made sure to at least try and make eye contact with Officer Amos, to try and quell any arguments, any disobedience, any concerns, before they could arise. He knew they probably weren’t happy with it, but the training was necessary. He could talk with Officer Amos later about this if there were any concerns. But, for now, they couldn’t start infighting, couldn’t start questioning their sheriff.

--

He watched Estelle go back to her desk, the board with a picture of each member of the Lone Riders, fingers tracing, and then she sat down again. And then she was looking him in the eye, and practically whispering to him.

--

“Ghazi, you know me better than anyone. You know how much it means to take these assholes down. I can’t let them do what they did to us to any more people. I just can’t.”

--

Ghazi took a small, heavy breath. And nodded, movement quick, firm, decisive. He had a job to do. The day had only just begun and there was a lot he needed to do. He looked over at the other officers, gaze sticking to Officer Amos for a moment before he spoke. “If there are any questions, hold them. I’ll be out there to answer them soon. We have a long day ahead of us, better to get started sooner rather than later. And someone needs to find out where Officer Lueruna is, we need her here too.”

--

He watched them, waited for them all to leave the office, and then turned towards Estelle again. “We’ll take them down, Estelle. We need to be smart about this too though.” He paused, looking at her computer screen, at the maps. “I can oversee the station, the cases and officers, if you want to go searching through these places. If you trust Officer Lueruna enough for it,” He tried to keep the skepticism, the suspicion, out of his voice. He wasn’t sure how well he did, “I would suggest bringing her along. Safety in numbers, and you could search each place quicker too.”

Victoria

━━━━━━ ━━━━━━

Victoria Deiux Desrosiers || 26 Yrs || Female || Gang Leader || Mentions: Selova, Gang [ direct. ] Ryder & Florence [ ind. ]

━━━━━━━━ ━━━━━━━━

As the woman walked, she didn't even have to look to realize that she was missing a few of her members. It was far to quiet and peaceful without Florence or Ryder. But just in case, she scowered the camp in a single look, an irritated expression plastered on her face. With a swift grinding of her jaws, she muttered underneath her breath, "Those fucking two. The only meeting I set up and schedule ahead of time, and those two and fuck off somewhere else." Victoria was clearly irritated, and not quite in the mood for anymore fuck-offs. Stopping, she took a deep breath in and closed her eyes for a second, composing herself and rubbing her forehead aggressively. "Bastards," she spat. Opening her eyes again, she wasn't paying clear attention to the person coming towards her besides the sounds of their footsteps. Thinking it was someone about to bombard her with questions, she shook her head and held her hand up, "I am not in the mood- just... sit down and wait for my-"

Oh.

"Ah, Selova darling," Victoria leaned slightly into Selova, feeling a little relieved to have her girfriend around. As she was pulled in close, the feeling of Selova's soft and cold lips trailing down her skin gave her a chilly feeling. "Good morning," she began but flinched as she felt a nip near her collarbone. Turning her head to face the other woman in surprise, she scoffed quietly with a smirk. "Next time I think I'll take my time," she taunted. "Hm? Oh, not enough trouble toruin my day. Besides," she lifted her hand, showing off the silverring on her finger, "they decided to.. give me a beautiful ring. Lovely addition, don't you think?" Vic was staring at the ring on her own finger as her love twirled and played with her hair. "Hm, thank you," she spoke softly as Selova walked away. Her eyes focused back on the ring. She turned it back and forth with her other finger, her eyes growing more and more solemn with each passing moment. Clearing her throat abrubtly, she blinked a few times before looking up at the camp. Licking her lips gently, she sighed, and ran her fingers throughout her silky, dark hair. "Well, let's get this shit done."

Making her way into the center of the camp, she crossed her arms over her chest, whipping her head around to see who was gathered. Victoria didn't even bother to count who was there, and who wasn't, it didn't matter much, as long some of them were there to pass the message. Clearing her throat, she pushed her hair behind her ear before speaking.

"As most of you know, the authorities are dead-set on nailing our asses," she rolled her eyes, "Sucking at it, but they are more determined than ever as they have an idea of what we are planning to do next. Some how, they figured out we have an idea to move, where? They don't know just yet, but our time is ticking, and we need to make a decision here and now." Shaking her head with hesitation, she continued. "We have two choices here. We can either leave now, head on up North or," Victoria paused, a smile creeping on her lips, "We can ambush them, play with them how we choose, and burn their town in the process." "We can give them a few days, have them pretend that they have a chance at locking us up, and then we'd ambush them," she tucked her hands into her pockets, her eyes gleaming with angst. "Broad daylight. Show them, and their town of sheep that they are no better than the dirt we walk on. Put them on display, force them to endure the pain and suffering- ah.. we'd leave the Sheriff for last, certainly. For that wretch to watch her own officers scream and beg for mercy. Watch them as they take their final breaths," she chuckled. Running her hand throughout her hair once more, she took in a nice breath of fresh air, "As much as I agree with, 'sharing is caring,'" her eyes glowed with crazed intent, "the Sheriff would be mine."

Taking a moment to breath, she began to walk around slowly, "Or, we could skip town, head on North, and leave the cops on a wild goose chase."

"I'd make this decision whole-heartedly myself and my dear brother, but one, my second-in-command has better things to do, and I feel like this would be a big decision, don't you all agree? So," she spoke as she looked around, "I would love your opinions on this. Let's make it.. a unanimous vote, yes?" She took a few steps back, and grabbed a chair from the sidelines, placing it directly in the center before sitting it in, crossing her legs over one another and leaning back, her hands intertwined, held behind her head. "So, are we going to ambush and destroy this disgusting excuse of a town, or are we going to take our advances somewhere else? I'm open to other ideas of course," she finished, an intruiged look on her face.

“Please…please stop…please.”

Cold heterochromatic eyes stared at the victim before her. Seeing him beg like this was fueling every part of her. She watched as he was trying to squirm out of the chair he was tied to. “Bad idea.” Irina said from behind him, whispering in his ear. The mysteriousness in her voice was enough to make the man shake in fear. Irina pulled out her machete from behind her while giving a more merciless look towards the man. “You wanna be let free?” She said in an innocent tone, almost mocking. She laughed as he nodded his head eagerly. “Then beg me.” She said pointing the machete towards his neck with an evil grin. The man was taken aback by her words but fulfilled her request. “P-please..I beg y-you..” Irina placed her hands behind her back and circled the captured man. A few moments of her deciding how to torture the man next, she walked too the back of the dimly lit room and grabbed a glass of water. “You thirsty?” The man was quite hesitant to take anything from her. “Come on.” Irina took a fake sip to gain his trust. She held the cup out to him and he gulped down the supposed water. This situation caused Irina to laugh maniacally. The man spit the water out at her, knowing what she had done.

Irina calmly wiped the water off her face before quickly making a slash at the guy’s face, causing an injury from his chin to the middle of his cheek. He cried out in agony while Irina stood there, staring at him emotionless. Her torturing was quickly interrupted when two men bursted through the door, in shock to see what Irina was doing to their friend. “You crazy bitch!” The one man said before lunging at Irina. She had quickly dodged it and plunged her machete clean through him, feeling him drop to the floor. The second man was quite hesitant but gained courage to attempt to attack Irina. He threw a quick punch in which she blocked it and dropped down to sweep him. Irina got up quickly as the men fell on the floor, looking up at Irina with eyes that are begging her for mercy. Irina could only give him a condescending smile before sticking her machete between his eyes. She gave her victim a crazed look before speaking. “Aww, your friends could’ve joined the fun. That makes me sad.” She said, almost pouting. “Y-you’re a psycho bitch!” She heard the victim say. This made her snap her hues to stare him down before walking over to him.

“Well…” She paused for a moment. “I guess the fun’s over.” And within seconds she plunged her machete in his chest, hearing his screams of pain. She twisted it just to make it worse for him. His screams got louder and louder until it was dead silent. She crossed her arms and examined the now crime scene. It upset her that the guys didn’t want to play any longer. She sighed before deciding she was done here. Irina lit a cigarette and left the crime scene. Luckily for her, it was practically in the middle of nowhere. She knew better than to partake in anything in public places or places that could easily be found. However, her thoughts drifted towards one person she wanted to kill. Ghazi. Not because she hates him. But because of the pain he caused her. She wanted him erased. For good. Irina just had to plan how she was going to do it. She had to be smart about it. Make it look like a suicide? She had a lot of thinking to do but she knew one way or another, it was going to happen.

─•~❉᯽❉~•─ ─•~❉᯽❉~•─

M: Members(ind.), Cops(ind.), Victoria(dir.), Ghazi(ind.), Kiril(ind.)

Opening her eyes, she let out a harsh sigh. She knew the leader was hosting a meeting, but the events that occurred the previous night simply had drained Irina to the core. Irina had decided to get out of bed and get dressed. She made her way to where the meeting was being hosted. “Hey boss, sorry I’m late.” Irina said before leaning on a nearby wall as Victoria spoke. Irina listened as Victoria began talking about possibly locations the gang could move to. Irina twirled her dagger before speaking. “Why don’t we just take out those sons of bitches that call themselves cops? They know they’re outnumbered.” Irina said slyly. Plus, if they were to attempt to attack the cops, it would give her the perfect time to execute the one cop, and her ex, Ghazi. “Burning the town down sounds fun.” Irina said under her breath. She found it hysterical to see the terror painted on the civilians faces. The screams of her victim last night replayed over and over again in her head and she could do nothing but laugh.

Irina couldn’t help but think about Ghazi during the whole meeting. Oh how she loved that man. Some will question as to why she wants to execute him if she loves him so much. She wants him to feel the same pain that she felt, maybe even worse. She wants him to suffer like he did. Irina believes at some point Ghazi had to have loved her. Perhaps he has a little soft spot for Irina. She could only hope. Their relationship was toxic, no doubt. But with what Irina grew up around, she didn’t know what healthy love was. She thought what they did was love. Irina continued to twirl her dagger as she got lost in her thoughts about her ex. She wondered if she could gain any intel from Ghazi’s brother, Kiril. He had to know something. Irina was delusional, to no surprise. She loves Ghazi still. But she wants that fucker to suffer.

She snapped back to reality and tried to pay attention to the meeting. Even if they do relocate, who’s to say they won’t get found? Irina thought of many of the worst case scenarios possible. Plus, she was having too much fun in this little town. Too many vulnerable men that could easily be tortured. However, new faces as victims did sound quite nice. But she couldn’t leave the town until she fulfills her own mission. She just needed to get Ghazi away from the Sheriff. And Irina had no clue how she was going to do that. Those bastard cops won’t know what hit them until they do. Irina knows the cops are outnumbered. They have no chance against the gang. So why not just make it quick and wipe them out?