18. Brooks
ONE DAY LATER
Islid my head around the corner of the brownstone and stared at the street in front of me. The street itself was deserted of normal citizens. Anyone with any sense must have seen what was going to happen before it started and run for their lives.
And they were smart.
Because it had become a battleground. Bodies littered the asphalt and concrete, most of them dead, and the cars on either side were full of bullet holes. Guns were blazing as the two sides continued to fire at each other and I could barely see through the smoke of it. Voices screeching, car engines roaring, guns firing...
And then a flash of blond hair as Dante Rossi finally popped her head up and looked around. Thank fucking God. I’d tracked her phone to this intersection and had guessed pretty quickly at what happened. My tracking app told me that neither Sloane nor Penny was here and that Joseph and Michael were both en route, which meant one of two things. Either someone had kidnapped Dante and brought her here—totally possible—or she’d come on her own to try to work out some sort of deal.
Given the girl’s inability to respect her own mortality, I wasn’t discounting it. After all, this was the girl who’d walked right into Dax Romano’s mansion and demanded that he team up with the Rossi family to defend themselves against the Massimos.
The Massimos. My eyes swiveled back to the other side of the street and I squinted against the smoke. Was that who had Dante? It made sense, and if the suits and ties and sunglasses were any indication, then those were indeed Massimos. That was Anthony’s family.
I wondered if he was over there, too.
My heart lurched at the thought, telling me to run and find him, but I put it down. Anthony could take care of himself. I was here for Dante and her brothers. My friends.
My family.
I jerked my gaze back to Dante to find her standing on the street, now, aiming her gun at someone. She straightened her shoulders, took a breath, and pulled the trigger, and not far from her, a man’s head exploded.
“Good girl,” I breathed.
Then I noticed a crowd of men coming around the corner two blocks down. I didn’t recognize these ones. Fuck, I didn’t even understand how they were dressed. They didn’t look like New Yorkers. Their clothes didn’t make sense, and they definitely weren’t wearing the uniform of any of the New York families.
I knew we had Massimos, Rossis, and Brennans here. It didn’t take a fucking genius to figure that out. But who the fuck were the new guys?
The crowd suddenly parted and I realized that they weren’t just walking. They were surrounding something that looked like a fist fight. What the fuck was going on here? Was this some sort of traveling circus?
“I know I’m not an expert, but who the fuck gets into a fist fight in the middle of a battle like this?” Lucien muttered from my right.
“Very good question.”
I brought my own gun up in front of me and hit the safety, ready to get started. I still wasn’t sure what was going on here or who exactly was involved, but I didn’t like it. And Dante was out there on her own.
When Joseph suddenly appeared and went running for her—and then caught the attention of Ercole Massimo, I knew the time had come.
Ercole jerked his own gun up and aimed it right for Joseph, and I saw the moment Dante realized that none of this was going to turn out well. She jumped and started running for Joseph, like she was going to shield him with her own body or something, and I started around the corner.
That was my family out there. Those were my best friends, and there was no fucking way I was going to stand here and watch them die in the street. I’d brought an army, and it was time I used it.
I aimed quickly and pulled the trigger, sending Ercole Massimo to the ground.
Good. One bad guy down. Hundreds to go.
“You ready?” I asked quickly. “Because I just blew our cover.”
I looked over in time to see Lucien’s cocky grin and quirked eyebrow as he looked at me. “Ready to take on the gangs of New York? I was born ready, darling. Let’s go.”