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I should’ve left her at my father’s place, but she insisted on coming. And we’d been through so much already that I just couldn’t leave her behind.
Besides, this was as much for her as it was for me.
“You ready for this?” I said, my voice soft.
“I’m ready,” Dante said, turning his gaze toward me. “I’m always ready.”
I snorted. “You didn’t seem ready before.”
“You don’t get it, do you?”
I shook my head and leaned forward in my seat, trying to get comfortable.
“I get that I’ve been away,” I said. “But it doesn’t change the fact that one of your own got attacked.”
“We worked hard to set shit up with the Jalisco,” Dante said. “Then you come rolling back into town and start talking about starting a war. We didn’t want to go down that road, not yet at least.”
“I get it,” I said. “Hang me out to dry.”
Dante opened his mouth then shut it again. He let out a breath, wiped at his face.
“All right,” he said. “Look, I fucked up, okay? I never should have pushed back. You’re right.”
I looked at him, trying to suppress my surprise. “Big of you to say now,” I said. “Right before we go hunting.”
“It’s the fucking truth,” Dante said. “I didn’t want to get tangled up in this shit. We just got over our own war, just finished beating up on the Russians. I lost Gino, you know that?”
“I know,” I said. “And I’m sorry about him. I really am.”
“Yeah, well. That’s why I hesitated. It was stupid and selfish, but here we are.”
I watched Dante for a second, trying to read his face, and just shook my head, turning my gaze back to the street in front of us.
“We’ll put it behind us,” I said.
“Good.” He slipped his own Glock from his shoulder holster and checked the magazine. “It’s almost time.”
I nodded and looked down the block. A house sat in the shadows of a broken street light, bathed in darkness. It was just after midnight on a quiet residential neighborhood in North Philly. Half the houses were boarded up and rubble and trash were strewn about the sidewalks. It was one of the worst neighborhoods in the whole city, the section of the city that the world had forgotten about.
And it was where the Jalisco set up their main headquarters.
They thought it was a secret, or at least that was the idea. Set up shop in a place where we’d never find them. But secrets don’t stay secrets for long, and a local gang, just a group of teenage kids that steal cellphones and hack people’s laptops to steal their Twitter accounts, saw a bunch of Hispanic guys rolling around this area. Didn’t take us long to find out which house they were coming and going from and to make the connection.
All across the city, crews were set up and ready. The Jalisco had their fingers all over the place, in businesses and in houses, little rat nests of the bastards. We were going to flush out as many as we could, kill everyone we found, and steal everything we could get our hands on. The idea was to hit them hard, hit them fast, and let them know that the city wasn’t safe for them anymore.
I looked into the back seat. Mona sat up straight, tugging at her long, dark hair. I nodded at her and she managed a little smile that barely touched her eyes, like she wasn’t sure if she was happy or about to scream.
“It’ll be fine,” I said. “You’re going to hear some stuff. Just keep your head down and wait for us to come back.”
“Okay,” she said.
“Keep the engine running,” I said. “We’ll probably need it.”
“Right, I can do that.” She stopped playing with her hair. “You’ll be careful, right?”
“As careful as I can be,” I said.
“It’s time,” Dante said.
She took a sharp breath. I nodded to her, let my gaze linger on her eyes, then stepped out of the car. Dante got out the other side, and together we walked down the block.
Three guys came toward us. They were Dante’s boys, Ryan, Chad, and Cosimo. They looked like solid fighters, the sort of guys I wanted at my back. The target house was silent, the lights all out, and nothing moved in the neighborhood.
It was the kind of place that knew the sound of gunshots, and knew how to keep their mouths shut.
The young guy, Ryan, reached the door first. He gestured at the door with his gun then pressed the barrel just above the knob. He pulled the trigger twice, two loud cracks in the night, then stepped back as I slammed the heel of my boot into the door right where he shot.
The door burst open in a spray of wood. Chad and Cosimo went in first, followed by Dante. I went in next, and Ryan stuck by the door, watching our backs.
