18. Caspian
CASPIAN
“God, he’s like a tumor,” Ryuji complained from the middle seat of the SUV. He glared at Max in the back row, sitting next to me. “Can’t leave him behind. Can’t stand him with us.”
We were on our way to steal Greco’s guns. Ciel had stayed at home to work on rebuilding his systems, leaving behind one of the very necessary, level-headed voices from our group. Who knew how this shit was going to go?
Max’s jaw flexed, but he said nothing to Ryu’s barb.
I let out a breath to loosen the tension already tightening my shoulders. Max was either spiraling into a pit of despair, or he was finally growing thicker skin so he didn’t react to Ryuji’s taunts. Not that long ago, I was in the same spot that he was—at least as far as Ryuji was concerned.
Even though I had found my peace with him, I wasn’t certain they ever would.
“Can’t even kiss her right,” Ryuji added snidely. The entire car tensed while Ryuji threw his hands up with a scoff—a mixture of disbelief and accusation. “Could have had it all. Fucked it all up.”
Beside me, Max’s hand clenched where it rested on his knee.
“Why is everyone so interested in my business?” Max shot back with a glare. “None of you give a fuck about me, so just leave me alone.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but then closed it. Did I give a fuck about him?
Unfortunately, yes. The more I heard the truth, the more I did. He was my best friend, and the urge to defend him was as natural as breathing.
“We don’t keep secrets in this family,” Ryu sassed. “We see and hear everything. If you’re in our house, messing with our woman, it is definitely our business.”
If I had my guess, Ryu had been watching that video on repeat. He’d been fucking twitchy all day.
Leona sat on Ryu’s other side. Her hand moved shortly before Ryu’s whiny “Ow!” filled the car.
“We’re about to pick a fucking huge fight right now,” she scolded. “Stop goading.”
“You’re defending him?”
“No. I’m saying if you get shot and killed because you’re too worried about fucking with Max, I will find a way to bring you back to life just so I can murder you again myself.”
He pouted for a second before he muttered, “Fine.”
She rolled her eyes, casting a glance over her shoulder at me with a knowing smile and a wink. “It’s like I’m having déjà vu or something.”
I grinned, then caught a whiff of Obi’s smile in the rearview mirror. We were used to this from Ryuji, but Max wasn’t yet. He was more bark than bite.
“Ryuji has one setting,” I said in partial explanation to Max. “It’s—”
“Asshole.”
“Dickwad.”
“Douchebag.”
“Prick.”
I snorted. “Yeah, that about sums it up.”
“I am a complex and multi-layered person,” Ryu said with narrowed eyes at Leona. “How dare you reduce me to such bland insults? You all could do much better than that, you know.”
“Fuckwad?” she asked. “Limp dick? A horse’s ass? Hmm, I don’t love those either. I’ll try to get more creative.”
“We’re here,” Obi said, cutting Ryuji off before he could respond.
Obi pulled down a shadowed road, the streetlights dead. He pulled the SUV into a side street and parked in the dark.
He pressed a finger to his ear. “Did you have access to any nearby cameras, Ciel?”
The hacker responded in our team comms. “There aren’t any cameras nearby. I can search—”
Max shook his head. “No, the Camorra would have cut them all or removed them. This was our active drop zone, and they were well aware of the risks. They’d bring their shipments here, and my men would take over from the drop site. We’d bring them into our fold after that.”
“Giulio said they tracked the shipment from the port to the warehouse,” I said.
With the internet out and unsure how Lucia had gotten access to our systems, we hadn’t felt safe texting or calling, so Ryu and I had met up with him an hour ago.
“He’s got his men on standby a few blocks away. They’re waiting for our signal.”
“Give it,” Obi commanded. “We’re ready to converge.”
“Copy.”
“Tell him the entrance to the North is usually the least occupied,” Max said. “My men usually came from the South side. It has better access to the street for our box trucks.”
Using the new-and-improved secure text messaging system Ciel had installed on everyone’s devices before we left, I sent Giulio the message. He texted back almost immediately.
“They’re making their way there now,” I relayed.
That meant we were converging on the South side, where we could expect the largest number of Greco’s men.
This was about to be a gunfight. I glanced at Leona, watching her double-check all of her weapons and ammo at the same time as everyone else.
My gut screamed protect her, but I knew every single one of us would put our lives on the line for her.
If there was one unspoken agreement between my brothers and me, it was that she would always make it out alive—even if one of us didn’t.
Obi caught my eye in the rearview and gave me a solemn nod. He must be thinking the same thing.
“Ready?” he asked.
“Affirmative,” she confirmed.
With Obi’s orders, we slipped out of the SUV and stuck to the shadows.
Max walked with me, side by side, and that feeling of brotherhood practically smacked me in the chest. He gave me a sideways glance—like he knew exactly what was going on inside my head.
I tightened my grip on my gun and kept walking.
Obi and Ryu led the pack while we snuck from shadow to shadow, avoiding what few streetlights there were. Wynn and Leona were next. She kept casting glances backward at us until Wynn nudged her to pay attention.
When we got to the chain-link fence surrounding the drop zone, Obi paused and crouched in a patch of darkness.
“Stay alert,” he whispered. “Stay active on the comms. Find the guns, kill anyone in our—”
Gunshots ripped through the air. My head snapped toward the sound. It was coming from the North—the opposite side of the building.
“Fuck,” I hissed. “Giulio’s men.”
More gunshots exploded through the night sky.
“We have to go,” Leona said tightly before standing. “Come on.”
“Stay behind me,” Obi said as he pulled on her arm.
The two of them sprinted forward, side by side, while the rest of us followed. Max’s heavy breaths wheezed through the night, and I slightly slowed my pace.
“Duck!” Wynn shouted, just in time to yank Leona down to the ground.
Shadows moved in front of us, light sparking from the muzzles of their guns.
The rest of us darted for cover. Wynn and Obi pulled Leona behind a wall of corrugated metal.
Ryu dove behind a pallet of stacked wooden boxes. Max and I hid behind a box truck.
More flashes, more gunshots, right before the bullets slammed into the wall of corrugated metal, ripped through it, and continued flying. Fuck. Obi and Wynn covered Leona’s body with their own, just barely ducking below the trail of carnage.
“There!” I whispered, glancing at Max.
Max’s eyesight followed mine, and we locked onto the shadows at the same time. With our position behind the truck, we could see them crouching beside a forklift right in front of the warehouse’s bay doors. Max gave me a quick nod, and together we lined up our shots.
“I’ll take the one on the right,” he murmured.
“Left.”
We each fired two bullets into our targets. The shadows collapsed beside the forklift.
“Follow me,” I murmured.
We crept forward in perfect lockstep, searching for any other movement or threat. A flash came from the right. Max shoved me down and returned fire. A body thunked to the ground near a door, splayed half-inside and half-outside the building.
One breath.
Two breaths.
Three breaths.
Quiet.
My heart thudded wildly as I exchanged a glance with Max. He took the first steps toward the bay doors, ducking down slightly to look inside the small opening at the bottom. After about ten seconds, he straightened.
“Clear,” he said over his shoulder. “It’s clear.”
Slowly, everyone came out from their cover. My grip on my gun relaxed just a hair when I saw Leona was fine. Her eyes locked on mine, and her body released its tension. I gave her a half-smile. So far, so good.
“Fuckers,” Ryuji scoffed as he stood beside me and looked at the body in the doorway. He nudged my shoulder. “You all right?”
“Yeah, I’m good.” I wiped my mouth with the back of my arm. I glanced down the hallway past the door’s opening. All I could see was a large void of shadowed darkness. The lights were off. “Think Giulio’s men—”
Before I could finish, another round of gunfire echoed within the building.
I cursed before stepping inside, quickly bracing the flashlight in my free hand beneath my weapon.
Obi and Ryuji followed right behind me, fanning out to my sides as soon as there was room.
Their flashlights and mine scanned the warehouse bay, but our lights only illuminated rows and rows of wooden crates.
“Our men are on the North side. We have to make our way there,” I said quietly. The flashlight revealed another door to the West, which had to lead to more warehouse bays. Ryuji’s light pointed toward a metal staircase which seemed to lead to offices of some kind.
Pops of more gunfire echoed through the metal building, but I couldn’t tell from which direction—upstairs or through the other bays.
“We’ll clear downstairs first,” Obi said while he and Wynn gravitated toward the West. “We’ll head upstairs after.”
We moved as a group. I stayed two steps in front of Leona, ready to shield her with my body if I had to.
“Ryuji, please keep an eye on Max,” Leona said quietly, just as Wynn and Obi breached the west door and crouched forward. The other bay was just as large as the first, and it had the same wooden crates organized in rows.
“I’m not fucking babysitting again.”
“You are.”
Ryu leaned into Max, but he eyed the rows of crates. “I really hope we don’t get into a situation where friendly fire happens. That would suck, wouldn’t it?”
Max looked Ryu directly in the eye. “Yeah. You go ahead first. I’ll watch your back. Hopefully, my finger doesn’t squeeze the trigger by accident.”