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“Go do your worst,” she said.
For a brief moment, I considered my own safety, something that was only ever in the background for me. I did what I had to do without much thought about the outcome, but that was before I learned I would be a father.
I thought about all the times my dad had gone out to seek retribution, wondering what life would have been like if he hadn’t returned. I loaded my guns and called up my guys to meet me where Evelina had said the culprits would be. This was my life, not just my job. The only one I knew, and as much as I loved hunkering down in front of my computer, I’d never give it up.
I just had to be more aware of my surroundings. There was no way I was missing out on a chance to do one of the things I did best.
I met up with my men down the block from a seedy hotel where Evelina had hacked into their security cameras. She texted me, letting me know that everyone who’d been part of the attack was currently assembled and we could move whenever we were ready.
“It’s a shame it’s such a shithole,” I said, making the guys snicker. It wasn’t going to be all that satisfying to destroy something that was already halfway dilapidated.
“Are we holding back?” one of them asked.
I shook my head. “We are not.”
The idiots were as complacent as they were stupid for messing with us in the first place. They must have thought we wouldn’t retaliate just because we waited a few hours, and we busted in on them lounging around on broken-down old couches, laughing and drinking like they didn’t have a care in the world.
Evelina had sent me a picture of the guy who put our old friend in the hospital. I made a beeline for him, dragging him out of his seat by his shirt collar and slamming him into the nearest wall. My guys were holding their own just fine. Since we hadn’t wanted to make a huge thing about it, we’d gone prepared, outnumbering them.
“You want to apologize for this morning?” I asked, hitting the Gianni underling in the face with the butt of my gun.
He spit blood and a tooth and shook his head, taking a swipe at me that clipped the side of my jaw. I barely felt it due to the adrenaline pumping through my veins.
“Up to you,” I said, swiveling him to the ground and putting my foot on his neck. I pressed the barrel of my gun against his head and waited. He must have been in a few of these situations before because he sneered at me through the blood pouring out of his nose and mouth.
“You’re all going to die like rats,” he said. “You Russian scum need to leave our city.”
I looked up to see my guys had already taken care of the others, and I increased the pressure on his neck. I did have things to do at home after all.
“I was always taught that America is a melting pot,” I said, watching his face get redder as I stepped down harder. “Everyone is welcome here.”
“Fuck you,” he spat, along with more blood.
He knew he was done for, as well as I did, and I gave him one more chance to apologize. “Busting up a bar is one thing, but hurting an old man?”
“Did I just hurt him?” he asked, hardly able to speak now. “That’s a shame but don’t worry, I’ll get the job done next time.”
“Come on, Boss,” one of my guys said, heading out the door. “Finish him so we can get a drink.”
I leaned down so he’d have to see the face of the man who killed him. “There won’t be a next time,” I told him, promptly putting a bullet in his skull.
We slipped away into the night as quickly as we came, meeting back up where we’d parked the cars. I didn’t want to go celebrate with my wild men. As much as I craved justice for my own, I didn’t feel any exuberance after taking someone out, no matter how much their loss might improve the world. I knew the same could be said about me from any of our enemy’s points of view.
“This isn’t over,” I said. None of the people in that hideout had been the head of the Giannis, just men he’d sacrificed in his war against us.
“Yeah, we should be on alert for retaliation,” they agreed.
“Stay safe,” I said. “Don’t have too much fun.”
I waited until they dispersed before slowly winding my way back through the eternal traffic to my apartment. I’d lived through another battle, but there was no reason to celebrate yet, as the war was only just beginning.
Chapter 7 - Samantha
Telling my grandma about the pregnancy didn’t go anything like I had planned. I imagined her getting outraged, telling me I’d made a foolish decision in her blunt way, but I never pictured what actually happened.
She put her head down on the kitchen table and cried as if her heart was breaking, making my own twist in my chest. The day before had been a roller coaster. Finding out the news, seeing men with guns blazing at my boss’s place, then getting sick all over his floor. I’d dragged myself home, mortified and nibbling on crackers so it wouldn’t happen again on the bus, and then chickened out of telling Gran until that morning after Annie left for school.
Now I wished I had put it off even longer, watching her cry so pitifully. “My first grandchild,” she sobbed. “It’ll go to a stranger to be raised, and I’ll never get to hold it.”
