A figure materializes through the smoke. It’s Elio, with a gash above his eye leaking red, his face twisted with fury.
“What the fuck just happened?” he demands.
I shake my head. “We need to pull out now.” I cup my hands around my mouth. “Fall back! Everyone to the vehicles!”
Elio echoes the order, his voice carrying across the pier.
Our people break from cover, running for the access road. The Ghosts let them go, not pursuing, methodically loading product from the cargo ship onto their speedboats.
Duffel bags of heroin, millions worth, transferred while we retreat like beaten dogs.
The gunfire stops as suddenly as it started. It’s quiet now except for the groans of the wounded and the lap of water against pilings.
The whir of helicopter rotors breaks through the silence and a spotlight hits the pier. I raise my weapon, then catch the markings. The chopper’s ours.
The bird sets down and Dem jumps out, his face murderous as he runs toward us. “They hacked everything. All the feeds went dark, drones stopped responding, the whole system crashed out. Our tech guys tried to fight back but we hit a wall.”
We were played. The Ghost used our trap against us.
“Get everyone who can walk into vehicles,” I order. “We’re done here.”
I count bodies as our people limp toward the road. A glint near one of the fallen stops me. A coin, placed deliberately beside the body like a calling card. I pick it up and shove it in my pocket.
A fucking disaster on every level.
The moment we touch down at the private airstrip in Jersey, I know what’s coming. Elio was quiet the whole trip. We all were, digesting the fact that we got our asses handed to us by someone we can’t see, can’t track, and apparently can’t outsmart.
The second we’re boots on the ground, Elio rounds on me, face dark.
“What the fuck just happened? I thought we went in with a plan.”
“We did. No one could’ve seen that coming.”
“Bullshit. You said this would be clean and simple. We’d capture a Ghost soldier, interrogate them, figure out who’s behind the attacks. That’s what you fucking sold me.”
Fury boils inside me. “I don’t have a fucking crystal ball, Elio. I had a plan, that’s it. You were in those meetings. We all agreed the bait was good, the trap would work if the Ghost took it. How was I supposed to know they’d hijack the ship and crack our encrypted comms?”
His laugh is bitter. “My men are spooked, questioning whether I know what the hell I’m doing. And you know what? They’re right to. Because I took your word for it, and now we’re worse off than before.”
Matvey shifts beside me, but I wave him off. This is between me and Elio.
“Your family didn’t want this alliance in the first place,” I say carefully. “But you agreed because you don’t want to marry my sister any more than I want her marrying you. We both have skin in this game. Listen, you’re spooked. I get it. But this isn’t the time to freak out. We need to see this through.”
He shakes his head and presses his palms into his eyes. “This Ghost, whatever it is, plays by rules we don’t understand. We walked into that fight thinking we had the advantage and crawled out with our teeth kicked in. I’m not doing that again.”
I laugh. “So you’re just going to walk away? Roll over and let them keep hitting us until there’s nothing left?”
He drags a hand through his hair, and for the first time since I’ve known him, Elio Valenti looks rattled. “Unless every crime family in this city bands together, we don’t have the numbers or the resources to take this on. And you know as well as I do that kind of alliance is never happening.”
He straightens his jacket, composing himself. “You want to keep fighting a war you can’t win, that’s your business. But I’m not dragging my family down with you.”
He walks away without another word, leaving me standing on the tarmac with my brothers.
Dem exhales slowly. “Well. Fuck. He didn’t take that well.”
“Yeah,” I mutter, watching Elio’s car disappear into the night. “Fuck is right.”
“So what now?”
