Part 3 Ch. 12

"That's tomorrow?" "Yes, how could you forget? You're the one who came up with it. We've been planning this for weeks." Paxton frowns. "Is everything good? You've been off lately." I blink, trying to forget my brother. "Yes. Actually no. There's something I need to say." He makes a go-on gesture and I lean against the kitchen counter. We're back in our old house outside of the city; it's here where we usually meet up to talk. He's the only one I actually trust, and I'm not about to violate that by staying silent. That's our thing, no matter how trivial, we never lie to each other; not when everyone else is already lying to us. "I've been speaking with Carson, the police officer. I think he's beginning to trust me." I raise my hand to stop him from speaking. "But we're not getting anywhere, he barely even mentions the OCIU. You were there when Romero mentioned my family, do you remember?" "Yeah, but what does this have to do-" "Carson was close to them too, back when we knew each other. I made him take them somewhere away from the city, it's too dangerous for what we're about to do here." "What we're about to do?" He repeats, leaning forward. "I hope that whatever this thing is, you've included me." I shake my head. "I've made a deal with Carson, we don't include anyone else. I don't trust his people and he doesn't trust mine. I have to go alone. Besides, we can't risk both of us, someone has to stay alive to control the Yellow Thorns." He takes his glasses off and starts cleaning them with the bottom of his shirt. "So you're going in alone with the person who's been actively hunting you?" I scowl. "I know. I don't like it either. But it's the only way." He asks the question I've been expecting. "And what exactly are you going to do?" "Kill Romero. And his higher-ups." He stops cleaning. "Then we'll take over." "You can't be serious. They will kill you. And after that, they'll attack our city." "Wait. You haven't heard everything." I tell him. "You and I have a knack for taking over things that don't belong to us. How is this different than when we killed Marcus and his people?" "But they're the fucking mafia." He waves his arms exasperated. Paxton snaps his glasses up and stands up. "So what? We're better. We're stronger because we choose who we trust, not just because they're family.  As soon as I finish with Romero, I need you, Valentina, Nathaniel, hell, even Andrea to hunt for his officials. We have a list of them already, I've asked Cosmo to get us one since before meeting with Romero." "And when were you planning on telling me this?" He snaps. "When I was sure that I had a  plan that wouldn't get us all killed. As soon as I did, I came here." I stand up and put a hand on his shoulder and squeeze. "And there's the fact that I came up with this literally a few hours ago. Everything suddenly fell into place and I knew what we had to do. But I need your help, Paxton. We can't have the Ravagers taking over, you've seen how power hungry he is. Romero is going to want more and more and we're going to have no choice but to give it to him. Unless..." "Unless we attack first." He finishes. He's starting to understand. "Exactly." "Okay," He starts pacing as he thinks. "Let me get this straight. You and Carson kill Romero-how is he even okay with that? He's a police officer." "It'll be too late by the time he realizes." I say and he nods. "Fine. From there, you tell us that the job is done and we hunt Romero's men down. How are we going to manage both cities after that?" I grin. "There are two of us for a reason. Which city do you want?" "I can't believe we're doing this." He laughs and shakes his head. "I don't know, we'll decide when we get there. First we have to survive. When is all this happening?" "Two nights from now." He stops walking and after a moment sits down. "That's not enough time." "The sooner the Ravagers fall the better." "And what? Once we take over we're going to call ourselves the Yellow Ravagers? No, that's a terrible name, forget I said that. How are we going to absorb their men into our people? People don't just forget loyalty." "They don't. But they're not loyal, they're afraid of him. There's a difference. We've dealt with this once with Marcus, we can do it again." "I know. We have to call an emergency meeting with the rest tonight. They must have time to prepare too." He says. "Yeah, good idea." I say distractedly. "But they can't know about Carson. They're not you, they'll think I've betrayed them." "Not everyone is Avan." He mutters but I can tell he agrees. "Any more questions?" I ask. "Not a question. I just want to say that this is an insanely stupid idea." He grins. "I'm glad I'm part of it."