Page 68 of Princes of Carnage

They have guilty expressions on their faces, like they already know what’s coming. Most of them have bloody noses or bruises on their faces, and some of them seem to be sporting worse injuries, holding their sides and breathing hard.

“What the fuck happened?” I demand. At first, no one speaks up, and I fold my arms, pinning them with a glare. “Someone better say something. What. Happened?”

Finally, someone steps forward. “Carnage started it,” Fabian says, glaring across the way at where the Carnage members are still being corralled by their leaders.

“Oh, fuck you,” someone from that side spits.

“Shut the fuck up,” Nico snaps, cold and pissed off. “You’ll get your fucking chance to speak, and it’s not right now.”

He nods for a stunned looking Fabian to keep going.

“Right. So some of us were here drinking, just shooting the shit, you know? We came out to the lot to head out, and Carnage was here. They keyed the shit out of Cabby’s car, and fucked with his tires. Probably did more, but that’s all we saw.”

Cabby is one of the older members of Enigma. Someone who knew my father well and has been around since I was a kid. He also drives for rideshares when he’s not doing gang shit, hence the name, and his car helps him make money. Which explains why Carnage would target it.

“Why?” I ask shortly.

“Cabby fucked the wrong bitch,” someone else says under their breath.

“If he didn’t want his shit fucked up, he should’ve kept it in his fucking pants,” someone from Carnage snarls.

“When did this happen?” I glance back at Fabian. “Before we joined up together?”

Fabian nods. “About eight months ago, I guess.”

“So it’s old bullshit that’s being dragged out, even though we told all of you that all that shit was in the past?”

I’m even more pissed off now, angry that all this was over some petty shit. Nothing life or death, nothing that serious, and they’re all out here brawling in the street about it.

I open my mouth to go off on them, but surprisingly, Nico speaks up first.

“I told you to drop that shit,” he snarls. “I told you we were done with the old grudges and that we were working together now. Did some of you manage not to hear me? We’re on the same fucking side now, and this isn’t how allies act.”

“But they—” a scruffy looking man with a cut over his eye cuts in.

Nico rounds on him so fast that he has to stumble back a step. “I didn’t fucking ask what they did. I don’t care that you were retaliating for something or that you thought it was your turn to get a lick in. That was shit from before, and it doesn’t apply now. It’s supposed to be a blank fucking slate.”

I blink in surprise at how Nico is handling this. He’s all command, not letting his people get away with disobeying orders. He’s not overly harsh, not looking to demoralize them, but calling them out for their shit.

Killian and Atlas have moved to have his back, the two of them flanking him the way they usually do, presenting a united front. And it’s clear that it has the effect they want. Everyone on the Carnage side looks like they regret throwing hands, even the ones who still seem like they’re spoiling for a fight.

They’re not stupid enough to pop off in front of their leaders.

“Who fucked with the car?” Nico asks, looking around at all of them. “I want to know who it was.”

There’s silence for a moment, and then two people step forward. Nico looks them up and down, like he’s considering something.

“Was it just you two?” he asks.

“It was our plan,” one of them responds. “Some others helped.”

“But you started it. Fine. Since you can’t handle your shit the way you’re supposed to, you’re on toilet duty.”

There’s a groan from the shorter man. “Come on, Nico. Not toilet duty,” he practically whines. “You know we hate that shit.”

“Yeah, I thought we made new people do the toilet shit,” the other man adds in.

Nico just shrugs. “You should’ve thought about that before you fucked up so bad. For the next two weeks, you two will be handling it. Suck it up and don’t let this shit happen again.”

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