Chapter 44: 44

For a very long moment, none of them said anything. The silence between them wasn't an awkward one. It was heavy and full of the things that didn't need to be said.

Gratitude.

Regret.

A strange sense of understanding. That's when Dom's phone buzzed in his pocket, breaking the silence between them.

He pulled it out and saw the name on the screen. It was Gabriel. He let out a sharp exhale, already knowing what this was about. He answered anyway.

"Yeah." Gabriel's voice came through, calm but direct. "Dom, we need to talk. There was a meeting at five. It's about what happened between you and Blaze."

Dom didn't say anything at first. He looked out the window at the sun that was starting to dip lower, casting a long orange glow over the hospital parking lot.

His jaw clenched. He wasn't ready for that talk. Not yet.

"I'll deal with it later," he muttered. "Dom-"

Gabriel started, but he hung up before he could finish.

He slid the phone back into his pocket and turned to the two women again.

The room smelled like stale smoke and cheap coffee. A long table was sitting in the middle of a small back room over a bar and the blinds were pulled right. The city outside moved on, unaware of the calibre of men and women that had gathered and what they were planning. They all sat there in a ring, faces hard and tired.

Every single one of them were putting on plain clothes and that was part of the plan. To make sure that nobody discovered, suspected or even guessed who they were or what they were up to.

The meeting was a very confidential one, which was why they had booked out the place. The oldest man tapped his fingers on the wood and then spoke in that booming voice of his mat made people listen immediately.

"We failed," he said. "We wasted men. We have burned time and it's not getting funny anymore. They are actually getting away with this and I hate it. I thought we had people who could take care of these bastards. But every time we have a groundbreaking idea, they thwart it like it's nothing. I don't even want to talk about what happened recently because it's gut-wrenching.”

One of the young men among them tapped his fingers on the table, itching to say his mind because he'd felt the same way since the last hit had been thwarted like it was an amateur plan.

"They hit us hard because they were ready. They are always ready. That's something we should expect from a family this big. We can't expect to just go in and be victorious unless we have a load of luck on our side. And so far I can't say that we have been lucky. Things have always ended up messily for us. But I'm sure they make mistakes. And one day they will. We just gotta learn and adapt and plan really well before the next attack."

A woman who was sipping on a glass of vodka folded her arms across her flat, withered chest and said.

"Learning doesn't fix dead men," she said. "These are lives. These people had families and we should be aware of that. The less people who die on this mission the better for us. We lost momentum because we rushed. We lost because we trusted the wrong channels and now we are one step back."

They had maps names on paper. But the paper didn't matter. The anger in the room did. It was tight and very low.

Their leader stood up and slowly paced the length between the table where the five of them had gathered and the counter.

When he walked back, he tapped his fingers on the table and stroked his jaw pensively.

"The Stones are strong," he said. "They always have a backup system, and that's why we keep losing. They learn, they structure and make it so that getting to them will be very difficult next time. So anytime we are going to attack them, we need to come up with a better plan. They run clean. They strike first when they discover who you are. But like any gang they have soft points. Everybody has them.”

Then he turned and his eyes landed on a list on the table. He'd brought it with him but hadn't told anybody yet." One of them who was named Victor inched himself closer to the list when he saw their leader staring at it.

"They also have a lot of men under their command. And they also have a wide reach. We hit at the wrong time and we paid for it. We can't out-gun them but we can out-plan them. We just need to be very smart about it."

Ursula leaned forward. Her voice was quiet but it cut. "We had a lead. We lost it because of our own leaks. We need a new plan and it has to be fast before they can come out with theirs. It also has to be smarter than whatever they are going to come up with."

Their leader swallowed and said what everyone wanted to hear. "They took a woman out of the second Stones mansion and I think it's something about reuniting her with her daughter. Domenico has been particularly interested in the girl. Her name is Lucy. And she's a maid. The one who ended up at the hospital. She's a weak point and I don't care how you all think Domenico is but I think she ties to him in a way we can lose. She also ties to Blaze because he hates her so much. If we hit her where they can't keep, one of them will come after us. They might even fight themselves."

His eyes met each face. "That's the only way we can get to them. We can't win this war if we try to wage a violent, bloody war. We just have to lead them out and take care of them using these weak points."

They all stared at him as if he'd said something simple but terribly at once. Victor closed his eyes and let out a long breath. It was still a mystery how they'd lost the last war, especially to someone who was half-blind. He remembered the way he'd walked into the fight and took command. But that was about to end and he couldn't wait.