IV
1210 Words
By dawn, the city looked washed out.
The streets were quieter now, but Kai Bennett knew better than to mistake silence for peace.
Silence usually meant somebody was waiting.
He kept his hood low as he moved through the backstreets, one hand pressed tightly against his ribs beneath his jacket. Every step still hurt, but the bleeding had slowed enough for him to stay upright.
Barely.
The burner phone in his pocket remained silent.
That worried him more than if it had been ringing.
No news meant people were moving carefully.
And careful men were dangerous.
Kai slipped through an abandoned auto shop tucked behind a chain-link fence on the east side of the city. From the outside, the building looked dead. Rusted shutters, broken windows, graffiti layered over old paint.
Exactly how they wanted it.
But inside?
Inside was territory.
The gang house.
Their sanctuary.
Their war room.
Their graveyard waiting to happen.
Kai knocked twice against the steel side door, paused, then knocked once more.
Locks shifted immediately.
The door opened.
And froze.
“Yo—”
The guy standing there nearly stumbled backward.
“Six?”
Kai stepped inside before answering. “Good morning to you too, Dre.”
Dre stared at him like he’d seen a corpse walk in.
Which, honestly, wasn’t far from the truth.
The noise inside the warehouse gradually died down as heads turned.
Smoke lingered in the air.
Music played low somewhere in the background.
Gun parts and cash bundles covered one of the tables.
Then came the voices.
“No damn way.”
“They said you got hit.”
“Thought you were dead.”
“Nah… this man’s immortal.”
Kai ignored them, pulling his hood down slowly.
The movement exposed the bloodstains still smeared across his shirt.
That shut everyone up again.
From the back office, a tall man stepped forward.
Malik.
Second-in-command of the crew and Kai’s closest friend since they were teenagers.
Malik’s expression hardened instantly when he saw the wound.
“Who stitched you?”
Kai shrugged once. “ER nurse.”
“The hell you mean ER nurse?” Malik snapped, striding toward him. “You went to a hospital?”
Kai dropped into the nearest chair with a grimace. “Didn’t have a choice.”
“That’s suicide.”
“Would’ve been suicide not to.”
Malik cursed under his breath and crouched slightly to inspect the bandage around Kai’s ribs.
“You’re lucky they didn’t cuff your ass to the bed.”
“They tried.”
“And?”
Kai leaned back tiredly. “I fled.”
A few of the guys nearby laughed quietly.
Malik didn’t.
His jaw stayed tight.
“You were seen?”
“Probably.”
“Damn it, Six.”
Kai rubbed a hand over his face slowly, exhaustion dragging at him harder now that adrenaline was fading.
“It’s not over,” he muttered.
The room quieted instantly.
That got everyone’s attention.
Malik straightened. “Talk.”
Kai leaned forward, elbows resting on his knees carefully.
“The Black Vultures are still moving,” he said grimly. “I saw two SUVs outside the hospital.”
A ripple of tension spread through the room.
The Black Vultures.
Their rivals.
Violent.
Patient.
Merciless.
The war between both crews had been simmering for months, but last night had turned it into something uglier.
Kai had been the target.
And the fact that they’d followed him all the way to St. Ellis meant they were escalating.
“They know you survived?” Dre asked.
Kai nodded once.
“Then they’ll come harder next time,” somebody muttered.
“No,” Kai corrected quietly. “Next time they won’t come for me first.”
Malik’s eyes narrowed.
“What does that mean?”
Kai’s jaw tightened.
The nurse’s face flashed through his head again instantly.
“The nurse that treated me,” he said finally. “If they traced me to the hospital, they’ll start asking questions.”
Dre scoffed. “So? Hospitals see gunshots every night.”
Kai’s stare turned sharp. “Not like this.”
Malik watched him carefully now.
Something in Kai’s tone had shifted.
“You think they noticed her?”
“I know they noticed her.”
The room fell silent again.
Kai remembered the SUVs sitting outside the hospital parking lot.
Watching.
Waiting.
At the time, he’d assumed they were focused on him.
Now he wasn’t so sure.
One of the younger guys leaned against the wall with crossed arms. “Then the nurse is collateral damage.”
Kai’s gaze snapped toward him so fast the man immediately straightened.
“Watch your mouth.”
The warning in Kai’s voice was deadly quiet.
Nobody spoke after that.
Malik folded his arms slowly.
“You know her?”
“No.”
“Then why the hell do you care?”
Because she saved my life.
Because she looked at me like I wasn’t already dead.
Because Marcus’s name was written on her skin.
Kai swallowed those thoughts whole.
“She patched me up,” he said instead. “That puts her in the middle.”
Malik shook his head sharply.
“No. You put her in the middle the second you walked through those doors.”
Kai didn’t argue.
Because Malik was right.
The guilt sat heavy in his chest already.
He hadn’t meant to drag anybody else into this.
Especially not her.
An hour later, Kai sat shirtless at the long table while Malik rewrapped his wound properly.
“You tore half the stitches moving around,” Malik muttered.
Kai hissed quietly as antiseptic hit raw skin.
“Careful.”
“Careful?” Malik scoffed. “You’re lucky your lung isn’t collapsed.”
Kai stayed silent.
Around them, the warehouse buzzed with movement. Men checked weapons. Phones rang. Maps and names were spread across tables.
Retaliation planning had already started.
That was how this life worked.
You got hit.
You hit back harder.
No mourning.
No hesitation.
Only survival.
“You need to focus,” Malik said after a moment.
“I am focused.”
“Not enough.”
Kai looked up.
Malik tied off the fresh bandage tightly before continuing.
“You’re thinking about the nurse.”
Kai’s expression darkened immediately. “Drop it.”
“I’m serious.”
“So am I.”
Malik leaned back in the chair across from him.
“You know what happens when guys like us start caring about civilians.”
Kai’s voice turned cold. “She’s more than just a civilian now.”
The words slipped out before he could stop them.
And the second they did, regret hit him.
Because saying it out loud made it real.
Malik noticed too.
“That’s exactly the problem.”
Kai looked away toward the warehouse windows.
He could still see her in his head.
Standing over him in blue scrubs.
Telling him to either cooperate or die.
Most people feared him immediately.
She challenged him while he was bleeding out.
That kind of woman didn’t come around often.
And women like that definitely didn’t survive long around men like him.
“She doesn’t belong in this world,” Malik said quietly.
Kai’s jaw tightened.
“She’s already in it.”
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