I wound through streets I used to know, streets that shouldn’t look familiar anymore if the area had seen an inch of progress. But everything was the same. The same rundown storefronts. The same busted windows, some of which I’d beenthe one to toss rocks through. The same collapsing houses and abandoned storefronts.
It wouldn’t be long.
The area was building out too fast. Developers would make their way over here eventually. Tear down the old shit. Build new. Price the current residents out of the area.
But for now, it worked in my favor that the area was much like I’d left it.
There was an old bagel shop that had been closed down as long as I’d been alive that was set out on the outskirts of town.
We’d liked it because there was no reason for anyone to pester us so far out of town. And so long as we didn’t get too rowdy, the cops didn’t know we were there.
It seemed like those rules still applied.
The place was ghostly quiet as I paused for just a few seconds to catch my breath and figure out my best way in.
The night was my friend, casting long shadows it was easy to hide in. Because he had to be expecting a confrontation eventually.
Placing my best bet on the side door, I tightened my hold on the gun and ran.
I wanted to barge right in, to kick down the door, run in, and put an end to this once and for all.
But I forced myself to pause outside the door, to reach for the knob and see if it would turn, to listen.
And that’s when I heard it.
Him.
The sniveling little fuck making some grandiose speech like some cheesy-ass movie villain.
“But, no. He couldn’t just stay away. After all these years, he had to come back. Had to fuck around onmyturf.”
He was ranting and raving.
I could hear his footsteps as he paced.
“I’m pretty sure there are about a dozen organizations that would object to you thinking this is your turf. And now about half of them are going to want you dead.”
If I hadn’t heard the vitriol in her voice myself, I never would have thought Gracie was capable of it.
That said, I mostly got to see her soft and sweet. But I knew from stories I’d heard that Gracie had a well of anger inside her that only seemed to come out when she was up at Hailstorm or the self-defense gym training.
Suddenly, now I could see it.
And I bet if he didn’t have her tied up in some way, she’d have been beating his measly ass right about now.
“Shut the fuck up,” Cameron snarled, footsteps moving away from me.
Then I heard it.
The strike.
The cry.
There had already been gasoline in my veins.
That sound lit the match.
I kicked down the fucking door.
