I swallowed. Hard.
I squared my shoulders, keeping my gaze trained ahead. “We’re almost nearing the location; we should turn on our comms—”
“Was everything staged, Zahra?”
I turned to look at him. “I love Street, okay? I love each and every one of you. You guys are like the family I never got to have, and while it didn’t start like that, it doesn’t mean that everything we’ve been through together doesn’t mean shit to me.”
“Will you tell them?”
My heart and nervousness went a bit wild. “I will. When I get everything I want.”
Another tense silence passed, and he broke it again. “You were my last job.”
“What?”
“You. I was paid to kill Zahra Faizan. I only got your name, which I recognized from when you were my client. I didn’t take the job or any other information about you. Shortly after, I found you, and you made Street. I left that life behind and became Devil.”
“Who sent you to kill me?” I asked.
“Ignazio Conti.”
I rolled my eyes. “Of course,” I muttered. “What other way to get the seat than to kill me off so Vitale wouldn’t have standing? He’s going to be a problem.”
“You’re a problem,” Devil muttered angrily under his breath.
I faced the road, clenching my jaw. “Only to those who are a problem to me,” I responded, looking his way. “Are you going to be?”
He went quiet, jaw clenching. He didn’t reply.
I nodded, looking away from him with a frown. “Turn on your comm; we have work to do.”
We pulled over at a lone dirt road, and I looked left and right, seeing nothing for miles, just dried-up weeds, sand, and withering farmland outside.
We got out of the car, and Dog walked toward us from the car he had been in. He looked around, eyes taking in our surroundings. “You sure we’re at the right place?”
“Yes,”Upper said in our ears.“You’re standing where the coordinates led.”
“Maybe we need to be looking for something unusual,”Milk offered.“We might not see what we’re supposed to see because the whole area is disguised to look like nothing but a dirt road.”
“Yeah…” My eyes zeroed in on a lone healthy apple tree a few meters from the woods.
Looking to either side of me, I saw Dog and Devil staring at the tree too.
“I have a very crude Adam and Eve joke that would be so inappropriate to say right now,” Dog said.
“Keep it to yourself,” Devil ordered, surveying the area.
“Admit you’re dying to hear it. You’re legit on the edge of your seat to hear it.”
“I’m not sitting.”
I stepped forward. “We should—”
The revving of multiple engines halted my statement as I spotted numerous cars driving toward us from afar with blinding speed; Marino’s men were quick to get into position.
A biker group was arriving from our left side, the roar of engines filling the area.
“Shit,” Dog said, pulling out his gun at the same time I pulled mine out.
