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“Yeah, looks like he’s getting too big for his boots. Jeb’s gonna be pissed.”
Xeno nods. “My best guess is that Frederico has someone backing him. This isn’t something he’d try on his own.”
“Why would someone back him?” I ask.
He shrugs. “We’re not the only ones who dislike Jeb. Besides, it kinda goes with the territory. This ain’t the first time another gang has tried to move in on the Skins’ patch, but this isn’t Frederico’s usual style. He’s too much of a pussy to make a move on his own. Which is exactly why I think someone else is behind it.”
“I see, so what happens to people who try and move in on the Skins’ patch?” I ask, having a pretty good idea what the answer is going to be but ask anyway.
“They’re taken out,” Xeno says, his expression void of any emotion.
“The Skins take them out…?”
Dax shakes his head. “No,wedo it. We’re the Breakers, remember?”
“Fuck,” I whisper.
“Dante’s Crew is based in West London,” Xeno goes on to explain. “They’re small fry, and really no threat to the Skins. Selling knives to street kids really doesn’t affect Jeb’s business plan, but moving in on his patch with drugs…That’san act of defiance that can’t be ignored.”
“Zayn’s going to have to fight, isn’t he?”
“Yeah, he is,” Xeno confirms, sighing.
“Frederico?”
“No, the poor fucker caught selling the drugs. Frederico will be running scared,” Xeno explains.
“And Jeb’s entertaining this? Isn’t he usually a shoot first and ask questions later kind of arsehole?”
Xeno glances back at his phone, another text message coming in. “Normally, yes, but Jeb’s going to make an example of this man whilst making money from the fight. He knows Zayn won’t lose.”
My mouth suddenly goes very dry, and I grab one of the beers, knocking back a mouthful.
“What if Zayn does lose? What then?”
“Losing isn’t an option. Zaynwillwin,” Dax says, watching me carefully.
“And what construes a win in a knife fight, Dax?”
“Whoever falls first from either too much blood loss or a lethal stab wound—”
“What?!”
“Like Dax said, Zaynwillwin.” The darkness in Xeno’s eyes glitters with everything he’s had to bear witness to over the years.
“Jesus,” I whisper.
“It’s what he has to do to survive, Kid. What we’veallhad to do to survive. It is what it is.”
I feel them both watching me as the weight of their words sink in. I know that they’ve hurt people, killed people in the name of the Skins. I’d rationalised the firefight at Tales as self-defense. They wereprotectingme. Besides, not being awake to witness any of it helps, but this is something different altogether. This is premeditated. This is two men fighting to the death,or at least until their opponent is so injured they can no longer fight back. My stomach churns and I suddenly lose my appetite.
“Can’t you stop this? Can’t you do something?” I ask, my voice betraying me.
“This is the world we live in, Kid.”
“... And the world we’re working on being free from,” Xeno adds firmly.
“Is there no other way?”
