Chapter 20 Mass
MASS
Kaan and his men meet me and my strike team on the outskirts of Iskenderun, away from the ports, out toward the mountains. This area is littered with strip malls, factories, warehouses, and office parks. Trucks and cars roll down the wide streets, but there aren’t many pedestrians.
It’s late. Night hangs thick. A fog rolled in from the water an hour ago, delaying some of our plans.
We’re gathered near an old structure in the Ottoman style with many arched windows. The walls are cracked from earthquakes.
Kaan lights a cigarette and blows out the smoke. His Turkish is rough and colloquial, but I understand him well enough. “The fuckers are inside. I have good reason to think half their leadership is getting shitfaced right now.”
I watch the building carefully. My scouts have drones in the air scanning every inch of the place. Reports are piped directly into my earpiece. Enzo is running this operation himself with Lucy in support.
“And you’re positive Emir is among them?”
Kaan shrugs and waves his cigarette. “As sure as I can be.”
I stare at him. Years ago, he never would have been so flippant with me. But now, after so long as head of his clan, after the deaths and the struggle, he’s drifting away. Medved’s attacks have been far more successful than I ever realized.
But tonight, we hamstring his efforts in the region. “Make sure the place is surrounded. No survivors.”
Kaan halfheartedly salutes. “Whatever you want, Dragon.”
I watch him walk off. Enzo’s voice filters into my ear. “Place definitely has people inside,” he confirms. “Can’t tell if it’s Emir or not.”
“We’re heading in shortly. Everyone in position?”
“Roger that, all good. How much do we trust our compatriots?”
“Not in the slightest. Expect surprises.”
“Understood.”
I lean back against my truck, staring into the night. Emir is Medved’s pawn in the region. He’s basically Kaan’s counterpart. Killing him won’t stop Medved, but it’ll be a setback, and hopefully, it’ll give me enough breathing room to reassert dominance in the region.
But there are too many spinning plates. They’re all floating in the air wildly, and only time will tell which ones land and which shatter.
I’ve been doing this my whole life. I may be the youngest and most recent Dragon to take the throne, but struggle is in my veins. I’ve been fighting and outsmarting dangerous, violent men since the day I came screaming into this world. I’ll do it until the day I’m taken screaming out of it.
“Hit it with the drone first,” I order into my earpiece when everyone is prepared. “Kaan and his team enter through the rear.”
“Roger that. On my mark.” Enzo counts down from five as I shoulder my automatic rifle and begin walking toward the building.
The drones flare to life. They’re not large enough to carry massive payloads like what the US military uses, but those aren’t necessary tonight.
Instead, the drones fire little rockets into the top story window, their payloads sparking, some exploding, others spurting massive amounts of teargas.
Smoke pours into the night sky as screams and confused shouts echo from inside.
“Kaan’s pushing in,” Enzo confirms over comms. “My team breached the front.” Gunfire echoes back through the night. “Resistance is stiff but manageable.”
“Stiff, my fucking dick,” Kaan snarls through my earpiece. “These cock-lickers are pathetic fucking dogs!”
I hear him laughing as more gunfire crackles.
I pick up my pace, a thrill running through my chest. A man in my position should never purposefully put himself into a rolling battle.
Anything can happen in a fight. No matter how skilled you are, how good you are with a gun, there’s always chance at play.
All it takes is one unlucky bullet to end everything.
And I’m too valuable to risk.
But god, I hunger for it. This is what I used to live for. I earned my reputation through blood and burning back in the day, and now I’m forced to sit behind a desk and act like a fucking politician most of the time.
I can’t help but indulge myself.
The front door is hanging on its hinges.
A corpse lies in the front hall riddled with bullets.
There’s shouting and screaming and shooting from up ahead.
I check the rooms on the first floor to make sure they’re clear.
Enzo left a part of his team behind to hold the entrances, and they nod at me respectfully as I move past them and toward the stairs.
“Found the motherfucking dogs!” Kaan screams, and this time I can’t tell if it’s over comms or through the air. Not like it really matters. I pick up my pace and reach the next floor, heart hammering with excitement and joy.
I find a slaughterhouse. Blood’s everywhere. One of Enzo’s men is pinned to the floor by a huge knife in his chest. Corpses of Kaan’s men are scattered around him. More bodies, most likely Emir’s boys, look like they were sliced to ribbons.
I find the fighting at the back of the house. A group of Emir’s soldiers is pinned down in a huge library. They must’ve been meeting here. Half the tables are set up for poker, though now there’s more blood than chips on the felt. Cards are scattered everywhere.
“Not a good time, sir!” Enzo’s voice crackles in my ear. I spot him and his most trusted men near the entrance. Kaan is inside, firing at a set of overturned shelves like a psychopath, his face demonically lit up from the muzzle flash, a smile plastered across his lips.
I push past my men and approach Kaan from behind. Nobody seems to notice when I raise my rifle, press it against Kaan’s head, and pull the trigger.
His skull explodes. His gun stops firing as he falls at my feet, corpse twitching. His brains paint the far wall and likely splatter over the few remaining combatants holed up there.
Silence falls over the room. Kaan’s men are likely stunned. Enzo’s too smart to hesitate. He steers his people into position, covering both Kaan’s remaining soldiers and Emir’s disastrous position.
I casually lean my rifle against my shoulder. “I know you’re over there. You can either come speak to me like a man or you can die like a mouse. Your decision.”
Nobody moves.
Kaan’s corpse smells like shit, piss, and blood.
I nudge it with my toe and feel nothing.
Slowly, a middle-aged man appears. He’s got a thick beard, dark hair, and a steady scowl. Blood smears his clothes. His hands raise into the air to show that he’s not armed. “Dragon Cardone,” he says, staying partially hidden behind the bookshelves. “I didn’t expect you in person.”
“Tell your men to surrender. You have a new boss now.”
Emir’s eyes flit to the body at my feet. “I’m not sure I like this new boss if that’s how he treats his employees.”
I frown slightly and nudge Kaan again. His head flops to the side, his ruined jaw unable to contain his swollen tongue. “I wouldn’t worry about this one. He decided he didn’t love me anymore. But you’re not that stupid, are you, Emir?”
“No, Dragon. I’m definitely not.”
I duck as Emir brings up a weapon. He doesn’t even have time to pull the trigger before Enzo’s men blow his brains to pieces.
The few soldiers left with Emir try one last desperate rush, but they’re gunned down.
I join in the fun, slaughtering them until there’s not a single man left alive. It’s a massacre, and it feels amazing.
“Place is clear,” Enzo confirms. He gestures at Kaan’s soldiers. They’re watching me warily. “What should we do with them?”
“Offer double pay. We’re going to need a new man in the region. Life’s about to get very busy in Turkey.”
Enzo nods briskly. “Cleanup?”
“Burn the building.” I approach Kaan’s people. They stare back, not moving. Six of them, two fairly young, four much older and likely the veterans of the family. “You all have a choice. Stay here with your former boss or pledge loyalty and follow me into a new age of prosperity.”
“You killed my cousin,” one of the young men says. He gets elbowed by a gnarled-looking veteran, and he shrinks back slightly. “I’m just saying, Dragon. Kaan was kin.”
“Kaan was an idiot. I reward those who work for me handsomely. I punish those who defy me with brutality. What’s your decision?”
“We pledge our lives to the Dragon.” The grizzled veteran drops to one knee. He tugs the young man down beside him.
“We pledge our lives,” the young man mutters.
The others follow suit.
“Good enough.” I turn and leave the room as Enzo and his men begin to set explosive charges that will bring the place down. The authorities will have to dig for weeks before they get at all the bodies. I suspect they won’t even bother.
The night smells fresh. Smoke and blood are in the air. I breathe deep and smile to myself. With Emir gone, Medved’s attempt to muscle into my territory is finished.
It’s a fresh start.
I strip off my clothes in the darkness of the apartment. My body is tired from the long night. There’s a wound on my thigh I don’t even remember getting. It’s just a long gash. It took six stitches to close up. Nothing too bad.
I limp into the bedroom and find Allie asleep with Rosie. The pair of them are snuggled together. I stop cold, struck by the sight.
My daughter looks angelic. My wife looks like a goddess.
I can’t bring myself to move even though I should get some rest. I’ve never seen anything so precious in my entire life.
Allie is sin and Rosie is salvation. The sudden urge to stay right here, to watch them all night just to make sure nothing ever gets anywhere near them, is sudden and hard to deny.
I’ve avoided relationships all my life. They’re a liability in my line of work. Women have been disposable. I enjoy their bodies, but I never, ever let myself get emotionally attached.
That’s for their protection too.
The moment a woman becomes important to me is the moment she has a target on her chest.
Allie was a mistake. She’s the one error I’ve made in my personal life. And it’s not just Rosie that was wrong.