Page 15 of Once Upon a Villain

“Yeah, the Feds are bound to take notice. Come knocking. Ask Tyler for favors.”

That was exactly the problem here. The Irish, with their greed and thirst for power and territory, had created a huge problem for my family. If the pigs came looking for Tyler, they would have no qualms exposing him to get what they wanted. They’d done it before. And it ended with Tyler almost dying from a shot to the chest.Not this time.

“There’s only one way to keep the FBI away.” I checked my AK-15, a model I’d outfitted myself. A little something I had to do to appease the Mexican cartel last year.

“We handle this business ourselves,” Vic finished my thought.

“Let’s go.”

With my heart thrashing in my ears, I darted out onto the street. The cacophony of guns shooting from every direction had died down. Either we were all out of bullets or both sides had decided to take a reprieve to strategize and advance. I used the small window of time to try and find Tyler in the cloud of smoke.

Instead, I found one of my men, Manny. “Where’s Chase?”

“He’s trying something.” He stood at attention.

“I told you to stay with him.”

“I know. But he ordered me to stay put.” He dropped his backpack to the ground and pulled out a laptop. Manny and his brother, Tom, were my hackers. They were good. I could only hope Tyler’s plan was as good.

“What did he ask you for?”

“Simple hacking job. Security cameras, and then he said to cut the lights.” Manny punched a few codes into his screen. “Their boss is here, too. Why would he show up?”

“Because he thought this was it. He thought we would concede tonight.” I lifted my head toward the end of the street and the warehouse where most of the shooting was happening. “That’s not one of our sites.”

“It’s theirs. Fully operational distribution center. Mostly nose candy.” Manny switched to another screen to show me.

The assholes had settled in. They knew Hell’s Kitchen was Italian territory. “They have some balls.”

“Not for long, boss.”

“Jesus. Tell me he’s not planning to blow up the place.”

“Um. He’s not planning to blow up the place.” Manny rubbed the back of his head. “But he is. He sent everyone home. I stayed behind to be his eyes. Tom and me, we flipped for it. I won.”

“This is a suicide mission. God, I’m going to kill him.” I moved Manny’s screen to face me. My gaze darted from one dark image to the next. Now it made sense why the blaring of the guns had gone silent. Tyler had ordered our crew to retreat. “Which way did he go?”

“The alley to the right. It has a door with a code.”

“A code you disabled?”

“Yes, boss.” He beamed at me. “Just like old times, huh?”

“Yeah. I guess a year of peace was too much to ask for.” I tapped him on the shoulder and bolted for the dark alley he had indicated. Without having to ask, Vic covered me, following close by.

When I reached the entrance, I tripped over a body. As I scanned the dark corridor, extending to the street over, I counted five more bodies. I scrambled to my feet and faced the door.

“Don’t hesitate. That’ll get you killed.” Vic stood behind me. His words were an echo of my own thoughts.

Ever since I had a baby, I’d had this compulsion to overanalyze everything; every angle, every possible outcome, every stray bullet. I didn’t want our baby to grow up without parents, like I did. But Tyler was on the other side of this door. I had to do it.

I turned the doorknob, peeked inside, and immediately spotted Tyler in a standoff against the Irish. I counted a dozen men on the opposite end of the warehouse. Had they not yet figured out Tyler was alone? Of course not. Who in their right mind would face a bunch of angry Irishmen alone?

Vic tapped my shoulder, pointed two fingers at his own eyes then gestured toward three different spots along the wall. Homemade explosives. When my gaze settled back on Tyler, I realized his plan wasn’t entirely done. He still had two more pipe bombs on either side of him. Without missing a beat, Vic started shooting at the Irish. I used the distraction to make my way to Tyler.

“We’ll talk about this later.” I picked up one of the bundles. Up close, I could tell the thing was poorly assembled, which wasn’t surprising, since Tyler only had about half an hour to come up with this plan and then execute it. I had to admit, his criminal methods were improving. “Where do you want it?”

“I told you to go home.” He gritted his teeth.

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