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We spend more time like this, talking about nothing and everything, enjoying each other until we eventually fall back asleep.
The first decent night of sleep I’ve had in weeks.
* * *
The Five Families meeting arrives. In the week and a half leading up to it, we’re shut-ins at Salvatore’s secondary compound. Rarely does anyone leave, and security is on alert every moment of every hour.
We’re doing little better in numbers. We’re down to our last handful of men loyal to Salvatore’s cause, and we can’t afford to lose anyone else.
In this final fight against Lucius and the Mancino organization, we’re greatly outnumbered. It’s not even close.
But in its own way, it’s an advantage.
Lucius and his men underestimate us. Even though Salvatore and Volchok took down his compound in Old Northam and me and the others did the same to the Mill, he believes we’re so beaten down we’ll never recover in time for the major event between the Families.
He couldn’t be more wrong—for as broken and scarred as we are, we’re determined.
Every last one of us.
Fabio with his cane and arm in a sling. Stitches, still healing from the gunshot he took during the car chase. My psychological wounds and the trauma of what I went through at the Mill. Salvatore and the monstrous treatment he was subjected to for weeks on end.
And everyone else who has managed to survive alongside us.
Even Brenda, who just seems to want more bloodshed.
Salvatore devises our plan. He’s still healing, many of his wounds preventing him from being in the shape he’s used to being in, but if anyone fights through physical pain, it’s him—more than once I catch him training in the makeshift gym in the basement. Broken hand and all, he refuses to stop pushing himself.
“But how will we know they’ll stay out of it?” I ask of the other Families. I’m huddled with Salvatore and Stitches as we review our plan for the thousandth time in days.
“They’re not loyal to Lucius. They’re obedient. But obedience can quickly be cut short if they think he’s losing his standing. That’s where the tapes and truth about him comes in,” Salvatore explains.
“But the tapes… isn’t it too risky to retrieve them? That’s how they captured you.”
“Except they’re no longer outside our possession.” Stitches aims a proud smirk at Salvatore. “This guy thought ahead.”
“Lucius figuring out what I was up to that day with Stefania’s phone was the final straw. I knew I had to move the tape in the library.”
“You already have them,” I say, and then I gasp as it dawns on me. “Wehad them! At the safehouse. That’s what was also so important. It wasn’t just me being guarded. It was the tapes.”
“That’s halfway right. You had the first one. The second one, I retrieved thanks to Lena. Then I hid it somewhere I hoped they didn’t think to look.”
Before I can make another guess, we’re interrupted. Brenda darts into the room, pushing the doors open wide with an air of impatience and manic energy.
“When are we doing this?! I’m ready to see some more heads roll. Pretty sure that unibrow guy was a sick bastard from my days in the cages. I call dibs.”
Salvatore glances at me, curiosity in his expression. I placate him with a shrug.
“Brenda’s… very angry. She’d like some more revenge.”
“Get in line, sister,” Stitches says. “I’ve been waiting to get my hands on Ray for years. The ass bullied me all the time when I was a rookie soldier.”
“We’re sticking to the plan. Every one of us.”
Salvatore rises from where he’s seated. His authoritative declaration goes unquestioned. The severity of the situation and what’s on the line isn’t lost on any of us.
We need to win this. We can’t fuck this up.
“Get some sleep,” he says. “Tomorrow’s going to be a very…violentday.”
