“That...would be a mistake,” he said, and though it was only there for a second, I spotted frustration flash over his face.
“Really?” I asked with a laugh. “And why’s that?”
“Because I, along with several other people, have witnessed what happens when you are put into danger,” he said, the crease in his brow growing thicker and heavier.
I squinted at him. “What do you mean?”
“I take it you haven’t been kept abreast of recent events in the city?” he asked, tilting his head.
“No, my family hasn’t told me. They think I shouldn’t know until I won’t break something trying to get out of this bed,” I said. There was no point in keeping the truth from him. He probably had a good idea how I felt. At least this way, he knew I was aware that I was being kept in the dark and accepted I was a stubborn asshole who wasn’t always going to make the ‘smart’ choice.
“Hmm, a rather insightful choice on their part,” he said with a grunt, getting up and opening the blinds to look out. “You wouldn’t know it from here, but this city is practically burning at the moment.”
“It’s...what?” I asked, confused, pushing myself into an upright position. It hurt like hell, my entire body still ached from almost being murdered by a van, but I had the strength to sit up on my own.
“You have been recovering for the better part of about ten days,” he said. “And since the first day, Levi has been?—”
“Is he okay?” I asked, not caring if the bastard saw my worry. Someone needed to be worried about Levi; my family was too pissed off at him to care, and Augustine was too much of a monster to understand how to care, so it was up to me.
“It’s not him you should be worried about,” Augustine said in a wry voice.
“Can we stop speaking in riddles?” I growled.
Augustine reached into his pocket, pulled out his phone, opened it, tapped a few times, and handed it over. “Here, I had someone compile a relevant list of videos. Don’t worry, they’re short form, so you should get the sense of what’s going on quickly.”
It wasn’t exactly what I asked for, but I took his phone, tapped the first item in the playlist, and after getting the basic information, moved on to the next one.
“Eight people dead in an explosion that rocked a neighborhood, revealed to be a hidden lab for manufacturing?—”
“An inside source from the police states that while the number of members in the Twelfth Street Gang was only a couple of dozen, all but one in police custody have been found dead, other sources?—”
“The ‘epidemic’ of fires that have plagued the city has continued to grow as three more warehouses at the edge of town, and the Leo Light manufacturing plant, were all burned down. No official statement has been given, but a source states that there is reason to believe arson is at play.”
“Nine gunned down while?—”
“Three car bombs in two hours have left the police stumped and?—”
“I don’t think people are paying attention as they should, or they’re just thinking it’s normal, but it’s not. The violence level in Cresson Point in the past week alone is three times whatit should be, and everyone’s treating it like it’s just regular old street violence and accidents. Wake the fuck up, people, something is going down, and no one is?—”
“Okay,” I said, handing the phone back, still thinking enough to make sure I didn’t even so much as brush his fingers. “That’s...the whole city is going to hell. That’s what...that’s what they were talking about before.”
“Yes,” Augustine said stiffly. “To put it plainly, Levi has launched a full-on war with Los Muertos.”
I stared. “So he just...declared war and started blowing shit up?”
Augustine scoffed. “For someone who says they knew Levi well, you aren’t thinking. No, he did not ‘declare’ war. Helauncheda war. As far as I can tell, he has been gathering information on Los Muertos for weeks—their habits, their holdings, and who in this city has been willing to work with them. I can only guess what his original plan was, but he has taken that information and used it to staggering, if brutal effect. He gave no warning, no hint of what was to come. Within forty-eight hours of you being hospitalized, he began lashing out at Los Muertos and their allies.”
“Jesus,” I said, trying to wrap my head around the idea.
“Oh, I’m sure plenty of prayers have been thrown the messiah’s way over the past week,” Augustine said dryly. “And not one prayer has been answered.”
“How bad is it?” I asked, and I heard a whisper at the back of my head, faintly remembered from the haze I had been in.
I promise you this, those who would hurt you or your family...they will die screaming.
“Again, speaking plainly, it’s a fucking disaster,” Augustine said with a sigh. “As I said, it may not look like it, but this city is burning. What you saw was just a slice of what has been going on. Every large city has its share of smaller gangs. They’re likepests in a building; so long as they don’t get out of hand, then you can ignore them. And if they do start to spread more than they should, well, there are ways to take care of pests.”
“Okay.”
