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“Well, he’s not going to get what he wants,” Ze snapped.

Jimmy turned around. “And what are you going to fucking do? Go in there, guns blazing, and get yourself fucking killed and maybe even Zindel?”

“You expect me to not do anything? You might as well fucking kill me now,” Ze said.

“Do you think you can take on the Castiello family? Fuck, if that were the case, we wouldn’t have bothered trying to save you from that Shadow Fox motherfucker if Zaire Esai could take on all fucking comers,” Jimmy said as he shook his head. “You fucking Esai brothers can’t ever stay out of trouble.”

“That’s not fair, Jimmy. I messed up once,” Ze said.

“Yeah, and we helped clean it up. But Zindel isn’t club. You can’t expect me to order my men to take on the fucking mafia to try to save him. And then we have this shit going on with the fucking Devil’s Regrets. It’s just twenty members in this chapter. Even if we were to call in help from other chapters, who’s to say they’ll want to help to that fucking extent?” Jimmy said.

“I agree with Jimmy,” HD said.

“He’s your father, of course, you would,” Ze snapped.

HD frowned and stepped up to Ze. “You listen to me, you little bastard. I’ve been taking care of you and your fucking brother since you were sixteen and ten years old. You don’t think I want to save Zindel? I do. But I also know that he ignored all of our warnings to leave that motherfucker alone. Like always, Zindel did what he wanted to do, damn the consequences. This time, he fucked with the wrong target. Sometimes, being a man means laying in the bed you made,” he said.

Ze swallowed hard as he tried to fight back tears of frustration. He looked at Tiger. “What about you, you gonna abandon him too. Me?”

Tiger sighed. “I go where you go. You want to take on the mafia, I’ll do it. But you need to understand, it will just be us and there’s no guarantee we’ll win. You need to realize something, cub. The Castiello Family isn’t your typical mafia family. They have billions of dollars, lawyers in their pockets, politicians, royalty, diplomats, and a huge network of soldiers and associates who are all highly trained. Then they have assassins who are a different breed working for them. Shadow Fox is just one. The Twins are another.”

“The Twins?” Jimmy asked.

Tiger nodded. “They always remain at the side of the boss, Rico Castiello. Right now, what’s going on won’t concern Rico, but if you start killing off his men… well, that will concern him. And he won’t stop at one chapter of the Lords, he’ll go for all of them. He doesn’t show mercy to his enemies. Like I said, he’s never needed my family’s services, because he has his own.”

“God, I feel sick,” Ze said, then he walked away, stepping outside.

Tiger followed behind him and found him puking against the wall. He rubbed his back. “I’m not telling you this to seem like I’m siding with Jimmy. I’m telling you this because it’s what I know.”

Ze spit the last of his bile in the puddle and Tiger gave him his handkerchief to wipe his mouth and he did. “This can’t be happening.”

Tiger sighed. “Right now, Zindel is alive. We can certainly go in there and probably kill them, you and me together. And if we’re lucky enough to pull it off, we have to leave the country. Go on the run and even then, Rico will still take his rage out on your club and my family. He can’t let an attack of that magnitude go unanswered. I just want you to know everything that is at stake so you can make the decision that you can live with.”

Ze spit again in the pile of vomit, then stepped away from it. “I can’t save him, can I?” he asked after five minutes had passed.

“Even if we do, what would we be saving him for? A life where we’ll always have to look over our shoulders? Or maybe one day, we’ll just catch a bullet we never see coming?” Tiger asked, putting everything into perspective.

This time, Ze didn’t fight the tears and Tiger walked over to him, taking him into his arms. He understood why his cub was crying. The situation was hopeless, as sometimes situations can be. He didn’t say anything and when Ze was composed and ready to go back inside, he followed him.

More members were there now, sitting around waiting to see how Ze was handling it.

“I just want to see my brother,” Ze said in a soft voice because he couldn’t help but feel defeated.

“We’re not going to take on the Castiello mafia, Ze. I want to make that clear,” Jimmy said.

Ze nodded. “Yeah, I know. I just want to see him.”

“I’ll call him back and make arrangements,” Tiger said.

“He seems to respect you the most, so yeah,” HD said.

Tiger called Vincent back and the man answered.

“I told you that you didn’t need to call me back,” Vincent said.

“I want to arrange for his brother to see him,” Tiger said.

“Are we going to have a problem if I allow it?”