Page 13 of The Wicked

“Guys, stop—”

“Just like we belong to them, thanks to you!” Dog yelled back. “I don’t give a fuck if he could have killed us all—I’d die happy knowing that I didn’t have to live my life committing crimes for anyone again.”

“Me too; you also kind of did bring the idea to go for Marino, so…” Milk added.

I let out a humorless laugh. “Oh, you guys are ungrateful pieces of shit. I really should have just let every single one of us die because I can’t believe I brought down my fucking pride, begging for our lives, only to survive this shit to see how fucking terrible the people I consider family are!”

Dog glared. “Don’t you fucking pull the family card because that doesn’t have shit to do with—”

“It haseverythingto do with—”

“I can’t believe we made a mistake—”

“It was supposed to be our vacation time—”

“Time-out! Time-fucking-out!” Devil yelled, and I almost jumped out of my skin. “We have bigger fish to fry, okay? The last thing we should be worried about is the mistake we made, or the stupid vacation, or the life sentence, or our fucking pride.We’re here, and that’s done. We should be thinking about how to keep our heads above water.”

Dog shook his head, returning to stand behind the counter, rubbing his palm down his face as the quietness seeped in.

“I don’t care what any of you think you know, but E—Marino—is not a merciful man. Do you think he would just send someone to shoot you if he wanted to kill you? No, he would send people to do it slowly and painfully until you beg for death. Zahra saved us from that shit—”

“I don’t need you to—”

“Would you keep quiet?”

I glared.

“No matter how angry we are right now, I have no doubt we would have done the same thing if we were put in that position. It’s who we are. We are family. We do our best to make sure we survive to see another day. Just because we’re here now doesn’t mean our life is done. We’re smart; we’re fuckingStreet.There’s no way we aren’t going to wiggle out of this. I can’t guarantee our freedom if we turn our backs on each other now, if we point fingers, fight, and hold grudges. We need to trust each other now more than ever.”

He was right, and I felt the anger that had been boiling in my blood dissipate. The solemn looks on everyone’s faces also said Devil’s word had hit home.

“So, what’s next?” Upper asked from where he stood.

“We wait,” Devil said.

I nodded. “Observe and listen.”

“And after we’ve observed and waited?” Dog asked me.

“Then we do what we do best,” I said, looking over at Devil.

Jaw locked, he said, “We scheme.”

CHAPTER FIVE

Zahra

It was one thing to jump into danger when you were the one putting yourself in it, and it was another thing to be running—or in my current situation—walking towards the danger when you have no control of the situation.

Angelo—the guy The Wicked had called into the torture oven—had arrived a few minutes before at the quarters where we were kept. He led us to another building in the compound, and now we were walking down a very long hallway. Men were everywhere, coming in and out of rooms you would never have guessed were rooms.

“Just how big is this place?” Upper asked, breaking the tense silence.

“It’s never-ending,” Milk added, but her voice was small.

“We’re almost there,” Angelo said.

We had passed through a large hall to get here, and it was littered with soldiers walking around, all distracted with individual tasks. My eyes quickly scanned the layout of the space, mapping out every possible corner that could be used as an escape or a hiding spot.