Page 18 of A Game of Survival

“But who's going to take care of Max?” She questions, like she's the one doing the interrogating now. God I love this woman.

“We have a doctor who owes us a favor. He will watch over Max until he’s fit enough to leave, don’t worry.” She frowns but nods, accepting my honest answer.

My phone begins to ring before we leave the room. I look down at the screen and frown.

“Hello?” I answer firmly, why the hell is Benji calling me?

“Boss, we need backup at the restaurant. I couldn't get hold of Enzo, some of the Costello gang have shown up.” Benji sputters desperately before being interrupted by gunshots in the background. The line immediately goes dead.

“FUCK!” I shout, gripping the phone so tight I fear I’ll crack the screen. The restaurant is where we keep our drug shipments just before they are transported to the distributors. Lincoln looks at me, he's ready for me to direct him on how to proceed. Lucille can't be involved in this. I need her somewhere safe, in case Cole comes back for whatever it is he's looking for.

“Lucille, you need to go to a safe house. The doctor and Dario will stay here and look after Max. Sully will accompany you,” I order.

Lucille tuts at me. “No, I’m not going to run and hide Silas.” She protests. This really isn't the time for her to argue with me, we need to move. “I’ll go to Katrinas. Whoever Sully is, he can stand guard if he must but I need to be with someone familiar to me right now, please.” Lucille sighs, her eyes softening around the edges. I can’t deny her that request. She's being reasonable at least.

“Fine, but don’t leave her apartment unless Sully tells you too. If you want updates on Max, Sully will call Dario to feed back, do you understand?” I relay to her as I stroke her cheek, hovering my thumb over her bottom lip. Her eyes meet mine and she nods. I capture her lips with mine and kiss her like a wild animal. My tongue fights against hers, I want to devour her. This woman has me wrapped around her little finger and isn’t even aware of it.

Lincoln coughs in the background which makes me pull away leaving Lucille panting for breath, but before she can recover Lincoln spins her around and pulls her into his embrace, whispering that he’s sorry before seizing her lips as well. His kiss is short and sweet, tender but affirmative, and once more she’s left panting as she brings her fingers to trace the lines of her lips that are deliciously swollen from us.

“Inform Sully of his duties Lincoln,” I instruct him. Lincoln leaves the room to inform his head of security, and all things brutal, of the duties he needs to fulfill.

“Silas, please keep Lincoln safe, I might be mad at him but I need him back whole.” Lucille admits..

“Always mi luce, anything else you wish for me to do?” I grin at her, a fool in love type of grin and she blushes. I like that color in her cheeks, a delicate pink for my feisty woman. I like her being bratty, bossy and all things sassy.

“No, no I think that's all,” she says as Lincoln returns with Sully following close behind.

“Keep her safe.” Lincoln practically growls at Sully as he moves to stand behind Lucille. My glare at him should be enough for him to understand, without my words, that he is to keep her from harm at all costs.

Just as Lucille gets to the door, she stops and turns to face me. “Actually there is one last thing. Silas, make sure you come back in one piece, too. I’d miss arguing with you.” Without another glance she is out the door with Sully in her shadow and hopefully out of harm's way.

Lincoln turns eagerly to face me, knowing the news isn’t good. “We need to get to the restaurant ASAP. Ronan's men have ambushed Benji and his guys.” Lincoln's face drops as he realizes what this means and I hear the murmur of profanities under his breath as he rakes his fingers through his hair. “Also, where the fuck is Enzo?” I snap making my way through the house to the armory.

“He took a run up town to settle a dispute over some dodgy handguns. He rang me not long after his own interrogation but I didn’t think much of it. He said he’d left Benji in charge. Figured he just wanted to let me know what was happening considering he’s leading them now so this was his first task he wanted to deal with himself.” Linc divulges, shrugging his shoulders. I guess it makes sense that he wanted to go himself to sort the problem. It also accounts for why Benji couldn’t get hold of him when he tried to ring. Though, I don’t think Enzo being there would have made much of a difference from the way that phone call sounded.

We grab as much ammunition as we can before we race across town to Salvatore’s Cucina to head off Ronan and his men. I have a total of five firearms concealed in my suit, not to mention the knives I have strapped to me. I will relish using them to cut the hearts out of those that have chosen the wrong side of this war. Lincoln is no different, he grabbed as many weapons as he could tuck away. We are anticipating a fight on our hands and many casualties. I only hope Benji and the rest of the men are holding on until we arrive.

“I don't think I’ve seen you drive this fast before, Linc.” I remark as he speeds toward the restaurant. He doesn't get a chance to respond to me because of what is awaiting us. The sight before us is shocking and I feel devastatingly angry, too angry to form a sentence. Thick black smog seeps out of the building, the raging flames visible from our vantage point, they are wild and uncontrollable. Lincoln doesn't waste any time parking, he hand brake turns the car into the lot, and we jump out of the car as fast as we can to assess the damage. I evaluate the area as we move closer to the building, the air is unbreathable as we approach, both myself and Lincoln cover our faces with our jackets. The closer to the building we get, we can hear voices, Lincoln runs off ahead. Benji and two others are trying to salvage some of our supplies.

“What the fuck happened?” Lincoln barks at them, snapping their attention to our arrival.

“Boss… He… Cole… We…” Benji stutters and coughs trying to explain what the fuck has gone on. How has our inventory burnt to a fucking crisp? Just as I am about to say as much, a familiar voice cackles through the chaos.

“Welcome Brothers, to my reign of fire.” Cole grins maliciously. I’m not sure if I am ready for what happens next.

Chapter 13

Cole

Seeing her, feeling mio topolino’s lips against mine, I almost gave in to it. My resolve wavered, I couldn’t leave my brother’s strip club fast enough, but I had to get my hands on the shipment details. Lucille was just a complication at that point. One that I craved beyond anything. Now standing outside of the place that I had made my own, my safe haven until her. I'm grieving as I know that I must now destroy it. I need to do this or I’ll never find him. My phone buzzes from my pocket. Glancing at the number, it's him, I have to take it even though he is the last person I want to talk to right now.Taking a deep breath I put the phone to my ear.

“Cole, have you got the details Ronan has asked for? he asks.

“Yes, there was a complication but I dealt with it.” I explain truthfully.

“Well it will be your head on the chopping block if they find out what you are doing,” he taunts me. I have more to lose than anyone who is in on this operation.

“It's fine, it's sorted. I’m about to put the nail in the coffin so to speak. So as riveting as this conversation is, I have to get the dirty work done, unlike some.” I sneer back at him. He's really pissing me off with his orders. My temper can only withstand so much bullshit from him.

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