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I wanted Brooks. I wanted us to be on the same team, keeping each other safe from whatever came next.
But neither of us could desert our families. Not right now.
Even when we were going to find ourselves on opposite sides of the line once again.
“I’ll get dressed,” I said. “You better do the same. I have a feeling we’re going to need to move quickly once we get back to shore.”
I sat up and pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead, hating that this was over… and knowing that we couldn’t do anything to stop the way this was going to go.
She was with the Rossis and I was with the Massimos. We both had family to take care of. And I didn’t think either of those families was going to listen if we told them there was a way to be allies rather than enemies. The truth was, we’d probably be killed for saying so.
14
BROOKS
The minute we docked, I knew something was wrong. The dock and all the buildings around it seemed to be completely deserted, and that made no sense. It was 6 in the morning. On the docks. The place should have been teeming with people coming and going from different boats. Making deals. Fighting over their shipments.
Selling fucking fish or something.
Instead, it was like the inside of a tomb out there. If a tomb included a bunch of people who were about to start murdering each other. No, I couldn’t see them, but people with guns always managed to color the air around them, and I’d been around that sort of thing often enough to know when something was about to go down.
Right now, the air was fucking dripping with the menace of a war about to start.
“Shit,” I breathed.
“My thoughts exactly.”
I didn’t know when Anthony had arrived—moments ago he’d been steering the ship—but I looked over to find him standing next to me, his shoulder against mine and his gaze on the dock. He’d seen this sort of thing too, then.
He knew what was coming.
I didn’t know why they’d chosen the dock or if they’d known we were here. It could be that the Rossis had come after Anthony and the Massimos were here to stop them, or vice versa. Either way, we were both targets.
“You ready?” I asked, slipping my favorite Glock out of the holster on my thigh.
“No,” he breathed. “But that never stopped a fight from happening.” He pulled a gun out as well—a Sig—-and held it up in front of him. “How are we going to play this?”
“You mean are we going to get on shore, remember where our allegiances lie, and turn and shoot each other?” I asked, a grim smile on my lips. “I don’t like that idea much.”
His smile answered mine. “Me, either. I’ve got your back, Brooks. Thick or thin.”
“Thick or thin,” I agreed, remembering all the times we’d said that to each other when we were kids. “Don’t do anything stupid.”
I felt the brush of his lips against my temple. “I think I may have fallen in love with the enemy,” he whispered. “Compared to that, a gunfight between our families looks completely safe.”
I was going to answer. I had no idea what I was going to say, but I was definitely going to answer.
Only whoever was on shore started firing at us before I could open my mouth.
We ducked at the same time, both of us rolling toward the opening in the rail where the boat’s gangplank led to the dock, and moments later we were running down the gangplank, hitting the dock, and sprinting for the first building we could find. Gunfire rang out from the buildings ahead of us and I realized that this was even bigger than us. Whoever was here hadn’t sent one or two shooters to take us out. They’d sent whole gangs.
And they might not only be after us.
In the alley ahead, I could see people I recognized as Rossi soldiers running from one building to another, their guns up and their trigger fingers quick as they squeezed off round after round in the other direction. Beyond them, another group of men were huddled in doorways, returning fire for all they were worth. Two men in the other group went down, and Anthony grunted.
Massimos, then. Rossis and Massimos, and I was guessing there were Brennans and Carusos here as well. Fuck only knew why they were here, but it didn’t seem to be about us.
They were here for each other.
