Betrayal.
Loss.
Death.
Death.
Motherfucking death!
Roaring my rage out loud, I launched my glass across the room. It shattered as it ploughed into the two-hundred-year-old walls. I had to kill them. I had to kill the Russians responsible. All of them. All of the betraying fucks and their families and anyone else who had any fucking part in this massacre.
Lifting my head, I faced my brothers and sisters. “Gather the fucking soldiers,” I said to Charlie. “Every single one of them.”
“Artie?” Charlie said.
“We kill them.” Adrenaline rushed through my veins at the thought of ending our enemies. “We kill them all. Now. Tonight. Not one fucker will survive.”
Eric pushed off the wall he’d been leaning against. He nodded, life sparking in his dead eyes. His hands rolled into fists, and a sadistic grin spread on his face. He was in.
“Yeah, we’ll kill them,” Vinnie said, rubbing his hands together. “We’ll fucking kill them all, Artie. All of them. We’ll avenge our dads. They’ll be happy about this. I know they’ll tell me so when we’re done.”
I looked at Vera, Ronnie and Betsy. “You lot too.” The girls looked at each other, questions and shock on their faces. “You wanted in to the fucking firm?” I held out my arms. “Then welcome to the motherfucking firm.” Vera and Ronnie smiled cold and bloodthirsty grins. Betsy moved beside them, her chin in the air, and intent in her eyes. “Get all the fucking guns. We’re paying the Russians a fucking visit.”
I pushed through the door and walked to my father’s room. I stopped in the entrance. Grandma was standing in the way, watching the doctor try to save my old man. “They have to die,” she said casually, like she was talking about the weather. I heard the sound of a metal hitting metal as the doctor pulled a bullet from my old man and placed it in a metal bowl.
Grandma turned to me and, despite the blood covering me, straightened the collar on my jacket and tightened my tie. “The leadership of this firm has now fallen to you, son.” She placed her hand on my cheeks. “You must avenge your father and uncles.” I felt the righteousness of those words hit me with total agreement. “We can’t be seen as weak.” Grandma pushed back some of my hair that was soaked with blood. She’d had blood on her hands for years. It didn’t bother her one bit. “The knowledge that the elders of the Adley firm have been killed will already be circulating. That means the wolves will soon be at the door.”
“I’ll fucking destroy them,” I snarled, earning a small, proud smile from my grandma. “No one is taking us out. They will fucking die by my hands if they even dare try.”
“They will try, Arthur. I’m afraid we are about to turn onto a rocky path. The biggest, most powerful firm in all of London has just been torn down—”
“No, it hasn’t,” I interrupted, conviction in my voice. “They have no idea what the fuck they’ve just started. They’ve opened the gates of hell, and the fucking devil and his demons are now leading the charge.”
“Artie?” Charlie called from down the hallway. “The soldiers are here. We’re ready.” Grandma kissed my forehead, and when she pulled away there was blood staining her cheek. She went back to silently watching my father. I walked down the hall. My family—both men and women—were waiting. I clicked my fingers, and we all left the house, blood and flesh still sticking to our skin and clothes.
We were about to add some more.
As our convoy of cars and vans pulled out of the church and toward the docks and the building that held the Russians, I felt the urge to kill take me over, possess me.
And I let it fucking consume me.
When the vehicles stopped, my brothers and sisters looked to me. We were all in the van that still had the blood of our fathers on the wooden floor. I only had one order for them: “Don’t leave any of these cunts alive.” I jumped out of the van and saw the Adley soldiers ready and waiting, dressed in suits, all holding semi-automatics and knives.
When I reached the first building that I knew the fucking rats hid out in, I kicked the door open and started fucking firing. The next thirty minutes were a hazy vortex of blood and flesh and bones. Of screams, of killing, of people begging for their lives. No mercy was given. Not to a single one. Their pleas for their lives bounced off my Teflon skin.
Breathless and tasting the blood of my enemies coating my teeth, I walked outside the Russian buildings. The sun was starting to rise over the Big Smoke. I pulled out a cig and sparked up the bloodstained stick. I took in a long drag and turned to the soldiers and my family, who were exhausted but buzzing like electrical wires from their kills. I looked at my sisters; their first kills had given meaning to their usually boring lives. No more shelter for them. They were in this shit now too.
“This isn’t over. This is far from fucking over.” I paced in front of them. “They’ll be coming for our docks. They’ll be coming for our routes. They’ll be coming for our territory.” I stopped and pointed at each member of my family. “They’ll be coming for our throats.” I smiled coldly, knowing that Russian blood stained my teeth, and shouted, “LET THEM FUCKING COME!” I closed my eyes and took in another drag, then with a fucking grin on my face said, “Let them try and take us Adleys down. We’ll see who dies first.”
Police sirens wailed in the background. “Go,” I said and walked to the van. My family followed me inside. We were silent all the way back, the stench of gunpowder and wet blood clogging the air.
When we stopped outside the church, I walked inside and went straight to my father’s room. I stopped dead when I entered. He was lying in his bed, tubes and wires sticking out of him, machines creating a fucked-up halo around his head. He was covered by a white sheet. He already looked dead.
“Coma,” my grandma said from behind me. I stared at my dad’s sleeping face. He was grey and already had one foot in the grave. Grandma stood beside Dad and brushed his hair back from his face like my mum used to do to me. “The doctor doesn’t think he’ll ever come out of it. He saved him. But he has no life left in his brain. His body may be alive, but his soul is already below ground.”
I let those words wash over me, but I didn’t let them strike me. I didn’t let them cause me any fucking pain. Nothing would ever cause me fucking pain again. I wouldn’t let it.
“Is it done?” Grandma asked. I nodded. She ran a cold flannel over Dad’s forehead. “That was one battle in what will be a heavily fought war, Artie,” she said, and I knew it to be true. All of London and beyond would be trying to take my father’s place in the crime underworld now.
I wasn’t going to let that happen. There was a new fucking king in the castle.
I went into the shower, ignoring the blood washing from my skin. When I got out, my fucking skin was itching, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep. I threw on some clothes and grabbed my phone and wallet. As I passed by the living room, I saw my brothers and sisters inside.
“Where are you going?” Eric asked.
“Out,” I said. Their eyes latched on to me.
Just as I was about to go, Charlie said, “She won’t understand what’s going to happen.” I stopped dead. My muscles tensed, and my anger built so high I thought it would incinerate me on the spot. I turned to my cousin. He was smoking his pipe, but his eyes were glued on me.