“So, we’re gonna kill these guys, right?” Nico asked.
It was much quieter in the living room with the kids asleep. Jericho sat on one side of the L-shaped sofa, Freckles perched on the arm beside him. Levi and Shiloh had taken over the recliner, Shiloh sitting between Levi’s open legs. They’d had their blanket privileges revoked by Jericho after the handjob incident, a topic that still made Shiloh turn purple with mortification.
Nico sat on the other side of the couch with Mal laid out beside him, head on his thigh and feet in Seven’s lap.
“Look, I’m usually all for revenge, but this isn’t some local gang. These are triad members,” Levi said, looking a little pale.
“So, what?” Nico snapped, adrenaline surging through him. “We just let them get away with it? Then we look weak and we never find out what happened to Amy. Casey can’t live with Calliope and Lola forever, you know.”
“That’s not what I’m saying,” Levi said. “I’m just saying, we need to think carefully before we go to war with the triad.”
Levi was right. Of course, he was. But that didn’t mean Nico had to like it. They’d beaten up Mal. They’d just walked right into his dance studio and tased him. What if they’d had a gun? What if they’d stabbed him? If they didn’t do something, they would look weak. And Casey deserved to know what happened to her mother.
“Levi’s right,” Mal said. “They said the Dai Lo knows about us. That means this goes way beyond the local syndicate. Right, Jericho?”
Jericho nodded. “They could be bluffing. But we have to go on the assumption they’re not. If we take out the two guys who beat up Mal, they’ll retaliate and they’ll make sure they hit back ten times harder to send a message. They’ll start dropping bodies in the most gruesome way possible.”
“What I don’t get,” Mal said, “is why they think we’re hiding her. We asked about her at the market place. Wouldn’t that mean we didn’t know either?”
Nico shrugged. “Maybe they didn’t ask? Or maybe Lisa lied to them. Or maybe they just didn’t believe her?”
“Then where the fuck is Amy?” Mal asked, frustration leaching into his tone. “We know she wouldn’t leave Casey. But the triad can’t find her either. Are we supposed to believe there’s a third person at play here?”
“Well, what do we know for sure?” Atticus asked. “When you spoke to the girl at the diner, whatexactlydid she tell you about the locals?”
Nico froze, his brain grinding to a halt. What had she said? He could barely remember a word of that conversation. He had the worst fucking memory. He should have recorded the meeting.
“The local crew is the GTB or Ghost Talon Brotherhood—” Mal started.
“Shit, that’s a really cool name,” Seven muttered.
Nico bit back a grin but Mal didn’t skip a beat. “They’re a smaller faction of a much larger gang out of Hong Kong. The Red Lotus Clan. The GTB are out here trying to prove to their elders that they can make something of themselves here.”
“Your memory is crazy,” Nico said, staring down at Mal in awe.
Mal beamed at him, then winced, tapping on the cut on his lip. “The guy in charge is the son of the Dai Lo, Liang Wei, aka Leo. Lisa said he’s dumb and mean.”
“What’s a Dai Lo again?” Shiloh asked.
“The boss,” Nico said. “Supposedly, he’s real scary.”
Mal nodded. “Leo apparently fucked up back in Hong Kong and was sent here to prove himself. His daddy clearly didn’t trust him with something as big-ticket as drugs or trafficking, so they’re dealing counterfeit goods at the marketplace. But, apparently, he isn’t doing much better here. Lisa said he fucked up by trying to ‘expand’ too fast and is now in over his head. He has the twins in charge.”
“The twins?” Shiloh asked.
“They’re brothers,” Nico explained, “but not actually twins. People call them that so they can shit talk them without getting in trouble.”
“Gangsters, they’re just like us,” Seven mocked, shaking his head.
Mal brought the conversation back around. His eyes were closed. “The Zhao brothers. Over here, they go by Jason and Frankie. Supposedly, they look similar enough to be mistaken for twins but, like Nico said, are not actually twins. Leo brought in Jason to try to fix his mistakes because, apparently, the Dai Lo has a hard-on for him in particular and he thought that might earn him some grace with daddy.”
Nico was shocked by Mal’s level of recall. Did having his eyes closed help with that? But then, he was always a walkingencyclopedia. He recalled the most obscure information with startling accuracy, almost like he was reading it from a book. Nico wasn’t sure if it could be called an eidetic memory like August’s but it had to be close.
“Okay, so, Leo is the son of this Dai Lo guy and he’s in charge. Jason and Frankie are his minions, and the Dai Lo likes Jason,” Seven said. “Do I have it right?”
Mal nodded. “Yeah, Lisa said Jason is smart but Frankie is a psychopath, who is currently running his own crew of mini-psychopaths, including the guy who Casey killed trying to defend herself.”
“She also said that the rumor was that Amy had killed Eric and run away with Casey because Leo was planning to kidnap her to keep Amy compliant,” Nico added.
