Page 102 of Never Say Never

Enzo was quiet but that was no surprise. A sudden move to a new place wasn't going to go over well in his head. I just hoped his partner, Tex, could handle Enzo while he adjusted.

"Do we know which one attacked? Acetos or Triads?" I asked.

"Does it matter if they're all dead?" Gin growled.

I couldn't even argue with him. How I was feeling, they needed to all go. York wanted to put them in jail so they could pay for their crimes like any normal citizen. We wanted to wipe them off the face of the Earth. There would be a new family or gang ready to take their spot, but they'd know the ones before them were annihilated by the Vitales. We'd make sure everyone knew.

"We can't make the wrong move, Gin. We miss a step and the war could get out of hand," Enzo said as he fidgeted next to me. I handed over a knife and he instantly started playing with it, just like when we were kids.

Sometimes, I worried I didn't know my brothers anymore. I'd been gone for so long and played as Paul for too many years that being back felt like a fever dream. But those small moments where we connected? They meant the world to me.

"They don't care, so why are we busy giving a damn?" Gin argued. He moved in front of Benito. "Say the word and we go bomb every single one of their places."

Our older brother was oddly quiet, still staring at the pile of rubble and dead bodies that were buried underneath it. I couldn't fathom what was going through his head. Gin looked at me, and for a second, I could picture us before I went away. Before there was a rift between us.

"How are we handling this, Benito?" I asked as I turned my attention back to him.

"I say we burn their fucking houses down," Gin suggested.

"If we knew their addresses, don't you think we would have done that?" Enzo stepped forward, still twirling his knife. "Homes are the hardest to get to. We could storm them but we'd lose a lot of men doing it. The Triads have a lock on Chinatown but that doesn't mean we take out the entire place. There will be too many casualties, too many eyes. At that point, it won’t matter who we have on the inside, we would all go down." A serious look came over his face as he glared at each of us. "And I’m not leaving Tex. Ever."

Gin grunted. "Ash would die without me, and we're in the middle of trying to have a baby."

My brows nearly kissed my hair line. "You have a surrogate?"

"A what now?" Gin asked.

Enzo shook his head "Don't get him started, he's an idiot who refuses to understand he cannot carry a baby."

"It's worth a damn try."

I didn't even know what to say to my twin. I turned to Benito as he finally put the cigarettes away. York and the girls came to mind. I couldn't leave them after only just finding them.

"We each have something to lose now." He met each of our gazes, even mine. There was a heavy pause between us before he spoke again. "But it doesn't mean we're letting this shit slide. Get our men to clean this up. I’ll make sure the police report only gets the main facts and nothing else. Gin, work on the proposal to have it rebuilt. I want Silver Dreams double the size it was before."

"Tonight?" I asked.

Benito let a crooked smile show. "Yeah. We're going to show them why they feared us in the first place."

"Let me grab Silvy." Gin whooped. "I'll send some guys to go pick Ash and Molly up."

Enzo looked torn, but he nodded at Benito, confirming he understood.

The real war was just beginning.

We were two warehouses down and had amassed more than enough dead bodies to fill a morgue. My ears rung from the multitude of screams, gun shots, and chaos. Thursday night was turning out to be more of a Saturday. Sweat, blood, and grime clung to me like a second skin. I'd switched out two bats already. I was currently on Jennifer. She was a maplewood bat, a little on the hefty side, but the sound she made when she cracked against a head was perfection. Like putting a nut in a nutcracker just right and getting that seamless crack.

I rolled my shoulders, feeling the tightness that came with swinging so much. I was out of practice. Drugs spilled out of a nearby bin. We were in the middle of one of the Acetos’ warehouses. They didn't have nearly as big of a place as the Triads but it would still hit them where it hurt. They should have stayed under us licking up the crumbs that were tossed their way. Then they might have lived but they doomed their entire families to a fate worse than hell.

"Coming in!" Gin's voice echoed down the hall, and I plastered myself to the wall, bat raised, and ready. A steady breath eased between my clenched teeth as I twisted my grip on the bat. The moment I saw the flash of metal, I swung.

Bang.

My ears pulsed as everything around me went quiet. I smiled as the gun fell from the guy's hand and he crashed onto his ass, clutching his throat. Damn, that had to be worth something.

"Thirty points over here!" I laughed at the guy on the floor as he scrambled for air. His face turned an angry red that shifted to a purplish blue color. His eyes bulged out as he literally clawed at his flesh.

Enzo came around the corner, wiping his glasses off with the only clean piece of his shirt. He gave the man on the floor a cursory glance before stepping over him.