Page 16 of Romeo
“My brother’s absolute favorite game,” Liv said as she rolled her eyes and raised her hands up to exclaim, “You sunk my battleship!”
Talon’s serious look actually slipped and he chuckled. “Yeah, guilty.”
“Spiegare la corazzata,” my father said in Italian.Explain this battleship.
Julianna stared at him and then she explained, “It’s played on this plastic suitcase game board that you stand upright between you and your opponent. It sits where you can only see the pegs or what is supposed to be a ship on your side. You guess where a peg or ship is on the other side. Each player deploys his ships of lengths varying from 2 to 5 squares secretly on the square grid. Then each player shoots at the other's grid by calling out a location. The defender responds by calling back, ‘Hit!’ or ‘Miss!’ You try to deduce where the enemy ships are and sink them.”
“Well, this is not a battleship game,” Legend interjected. “Jarret is not a peg on a board.”
We all looked over at him.
He crossed his arms over his chest. “I don’t want to ruin your plans, but Jarret is too important. Damn it, he’s important to me. I don’t understand why you don’t just trade over like this V requested.”
Glory looked concerned about him so she grabbed his hand to hold it. “Baby, they know that. We need to explore all the ideas though, ok?”
He nodded but released a frustrated breath.
I knew why. Jarret had been his surrogate father all these years, I assumed. So it made sense that he would be upset about all of this.
My father’s cell pinged and he raised it up to stare at it. After a minute, he swung it over to Legend. “Look at this Gio and you will see why.”
Leaning in, Legend studied his father’s phone.
I stepped over to look as well.
On the screen, I saw a man with a rifle. He stood at a window of a large plantation house.
“This is across the street from the Metairie,” my father explained. “My men also tell me there are 2 more of these stronzos in two more spots.” He sniffed arrogantly and added, “So we have to play, Giovanni. Deacon’s sister is already doing it.”
“Looks like an ambush,” I noted.
“Looks like?” our father repeated sarcastically.
“She is already there,” Talon stated from next to me as he peered at the cell screen, then he glanced up at me. “Just like your girl said. V is gonna play games.”
“Well, of course she is,” Julianna jumped in while ignoring the ‘your girl’part. “Setting this whole thing up in a public place at night in front of a tomb of a famous gambler? That’s already a game.”
“She’s O’s daughter. She was raised…” Liv paused. “Badly, I am sure. The woman tortured people. She did things that would make even the mafia cringe.”
We all had some idea, because we all had watched that video at the truckstop. Talon had listed many crimes and heinous acts done by this infamous Ophelia. Crime syndicates were bad enough without a bloodthirsty monster for a leader.
Talon nodded and stared at my father. “So, we set up a strike team.”
“Yes, to take these snipers out at the right moment,” Liv added.
Our father looked over at them. He gave them a nod as he did look a little impressed. They knew strategy and takedowns. Talon was military and Liv was CIA or something.
Still, I felt surprised because no one ever seemed to impress him.
“Set the strike for when it all goes down.”
I looked over at Julianna again to ask, “What?”
“When we have Jarret,” she said.
“We toss say…Kevlar over him,” Liv suggested.
Talon nodded. “Then we do the same with Redemption.”
