* * *
“What was that?”
Emily is sitting upright in bed. The noise outside woke me up too, so I go over to the window to investigate.
There’s a fire at the gatehouse and men are running from all directions.
“Stay here!” I tell Emily before I pull on my pants and a sweater and slip into the loafers alongside the bed.
“What is it, Lucas?”
Emily’s eyes are filled with terror. This is not what I need right now.
“I’ll be back in a bit. Stay here, my love. Lock the door behind me and don;t open it for anyone but me. Okay?”
She nods.
“It’s going to be fine, baby,” I say and kiss her before I leave the room.
I wait until I hear the key turning in the lock before I storm down the hall and downstairs. I run into Andreas. He’s carrying two machine guns and hands me one.
“I was just coming to find you,” he says over the noise.
“What the hell is going on?”
“Gallo’s men are attacking us.”
“That fucker! I’m so done with that man. Tonight is the night I rid the world of one more waste of space. Come on.”
Together we run toward the entrance hall where a group of men are already gathered with weapons. Andreas and I assign them to teams.
“Is Gallo with them?” I ask Andreas.
“Are you kidding? And risk getting his hands dirty? I doubt it. He’s probably at home torturing small animals.”
“Well, not tonight. I have an idea.”
“I don’t know if I like the sound of that,” Andreas says with a look of concern.
“Come on, Andreas. Where;s your sense of adventure? You’ve been living too cushie a life, I see.”
“You’re not calling me chicken are you?” he grins.
“Come on. Let’s go. We’re going to need more ammo.”
Twenty minutes later, Andreas and I pull up outside Gallo’s place.
“He’ll never expect me to come here in person to kick his ass,” I say as we watch the guard house from a distance.
“It is a crazy move, so no, probably not. Are you sure you want to do this?”
“Oh, yeah. It’s long overdue.”
“Alright, you crazy son of a bitch. Let’s go kick his ass.”
“That’s the spirit. How many guards have you counted?”
“Four.”