RAIN, GUNS AND BETRAYAL

CHAPTER FOUR - ASHES OF BLOOD

Lucas pov

The city didn't feel clean even when the rain finally stopped. Morning slowly came, dragging faded light across streets still sleek with waters and secrets but at the harbor, the warehouse stood silent, as if nothing had happened. As if blood was not spilled just hours before.

Inside, the stains remained as Liam DeLucas body was gone, but his absence still crawled like a spirit and spirits always had a way of haunting the living.

The Monretti penthouse felt colder than usual and it wasn't because of the weather but something had shifted and was irreversible. I stood alone again at the same spot leaning to the window looking at the same view of the city but this time the silence pressed strongly against its chest. I know that family has always been complicated but now it has been broken.

I looked beside me and saw a glass untouched on top of the table. Then I poured whiskey and drank but never got drunk but the sharp and bitter scent filled the room like everything else.

Suddenly the door opened quietly and it was Natasha walking inside but her movement was slower this time and more cautious. I could see that the fire in her eyes hadn't disappeared but changed, it was deviance anymore but was an understanding.

“You murdered him”,she said softly but the words didn't sound like an accusation because they simply existed but I didn't turn.

“Yes I did”, I said and there was a pause that followed immediately.

“Your blood”,she added.

“Yes I am aware”I said as silence stretched further between us but this time it was heavier than before. Natasha walked closer into the room with her gaze fixed on mine.

“Tell me, how does it feel like, oops let me guess, does it feel like victory?”, she said and that made me turn.

“No it doesn't” I said and for a moment I looked like I was going to say something but couldn't find the perfect words to use because there weren't any. Victory implied satisfaction and closure but this was neither.

“Is this what your world is all about, it turns everything into survival, even family also”she said quietly.

“You saw what happened, it was either him or me”.

“But there's always another way”.

“No, there isn't,” I said firmly.

Natasha didn't argue this time, she only tightened her jaws because she has already seen it now and it's not something she heard about but something she has witnessed with her eyes which made the truth no longer a story that is brutal and real.

Somewhere in the city, there was storm beginning that was far from the quietness of the pent house.

Ethan william stood in a faded lit room with the glow of a single lantern casting long shadows across his face with a glow of whisky rested in his hands untouched and across from him stood one of his men shifted nervously.

“Liam delucas has been murdered “the man said but Ethan didn't react immediately he just smiled

“Of course he is, he was always too impatient “he said calmly.

“Sir, you don't seem surprised at all”.

“Well am not because Ethan was never meant to win, he was only meant to weaken Lucas"Ethan replied.

“And now?” the man hesitatingly said, which made Ethan's smile darkened.

“Now, we finish what we have started,"Ethan said, sitting the glass down.

Back at the penthouse, Marcel entered without knocking with urgency written across his face as there was tension moving around like smoke after a fire.

“Boss we’ve got a problem”he said but there was no need for me to ask because problem were constant.

“Tell me, what is it?”

“Three shipments hit different locations and same precision”, he said and my expression hardened.

“Ethan,” I said.

“He is escalating”, Marcel nodded and of course he was and this is neither one attack but a war.

“Get all the men ready, I want every route lockdown and no movement without my permission”i ordered.

“What about the families?”, Marcel asked and there was a pause for a moment.

“They choose their side or I choose for them” I said coldly, Marcel nodded and left quickly and there was silence again in the room but it didn't stay that way for too long.

“Are you really going to burn everything down”,Natasha said and I looked at her.

“Cant you see it's already burning “.

“And you are making it worst by adding fuel to it”.

“I am simply ending it”.

“No, you are becoming exactly what you are fighting for”, she said as she shook her head. Her words struck deeper than expected but that didn't change anything.

“But it's the only way”i said

“Because thats what you believe in,only for you”she replied.

There was another silence but this one was very different , not just tension but something else, something neither of us wanted to name because making it would make it so real and nothing called real survives in my world.

As the night fell faster again this time, the city didn't wait for anyone to catch their breath this time as light flickered, shadows returning and siren wailing somewhere in the distance meaning the war has just begun.

Chaos unfolded at the dock with gunfire echoing sharp and relentless across the water with grates exploding into splinters and men shouting orders over the noise but I moved through it all like a storm on my own, focused, deadly with every shot precise and every movement being calculated.

This wasn't rage,it was strategy. Enemies fall but it wasn't enough and it will never be enough because for every enemy who falls, another waits in the shadows watching and waiting.

Natasha stood alone by the window back at the penthouse as the city stretched before her beautiful and broken at same time. She knew she could leave, walk away, forget everything or pretend that all this never happened but her feet couldn't move because something had changed not just in me but her as well, she had stepped into my world and now she wasn't sure to move.

I returned hours later with blood stains on my shirt but not all of it was mine, my expression was unreadable but my eyes told a different story.

War. Loss. Something very deeper.

“Why are you still here?” I said.

“I told you that I am not leaving “natasha replied and there was a pause for a moment then I stepped closer.

“And why is that?”, I asked as the question was quieter than expected and more dangerous than any command but she met my gaze unflinchingly.

“Someone needs to remind you there's still a line and if there isn't any, I will draw on” she said and for a moment neither of us moved and the space between us felt smaller, closer, dangerous in different ways because this wasn't all about guns, power or revenge, this was just something else entirely and neither of us could control it.

Thunder rolled

again outside but this time it was softer but no less certain, the storm wasn't over, it had just begun.