Page 31 of Run

“You still bitching about that? Buddy, you need to let it go. That was well over a decade ago.”

“It still aches when it rains.”

“That’s ’cause you’re old,” Harvard muttered as they rounded the cars and came to a halt in front of a group of three gangster wannabes.

A tall black kid broke away from his friends, showing all the swagger of a B-grade rap star. “You buying?” he asked.

“We’re taking,” Harvard replied.

“Business is over,boys.” David assessed each threat level with clinical precision as he spoke to their leader. “The James Syndicate owns this street now.”

“The fuck?” Mr. Swagger held out his hands. “You got any idea who you dealing with,boy? Nobody fucks with MC20. This is our turf, and we ain’t moving over for nobody.”

“Sounds like you think you have a choice in the matter,” Harvard said. “You’d be wrong.”

The two guys behind the leader and the two in the alley came to stand beside their brother. All but Mr. Swagger held a knife in their hand. David casually glanced over his shoulder and noted that the duo on the other side of the street were heading their way too.

“We gonna slice you two up good,” the leader sneered. “Teach you who rules these streets.”

David caught Harvard’s eye and nodded once. As though synchronized, they each pulled a silenced gun from their person—Harvard from his shoulder holster and David from the back of his jeans.

They didn’t hesitate. They were outnumbered, and they’d seen what the gang was capable of. MC20 liked to make people bleed. It was a matter of pride to them.

Harvard spun around and fired, hitting the two gang members running toward them in the leg. They went down loudly. The rest of their friends didn’t have time to react because David shot four of them in the leg before Harvard did the same to the last guy.

While Harvard went around disarming each of the moaning gang members and relieving them of their stash and cash, David crouched beside Mr. Swagger.

“Never bring a knife to a gunfight,” he said. “Now, repeat after me, this territory doesn’t belong to MC20. It belongs to the James Family.”

“Fuck you!” Mr. Swagger spat at him.

David shot him in the other leg.

“Repeat after me,” he said when the guy had stopped screaming, “this territory doesn’t belong to MC20. It belongs to the James Family.”

With pure hatred burning in his eyes, Mr. Swagger forced out the words.

David stood and surveyed the mess. The wannabe gangbangers writhed on the dirty ground, clutching their wounds while cursing and whining.

“These are only flesh wounds,” David told their leader. “Next time, we aim for the head. Make sure there isn’t a next time.”

With that, Harvard and David turned and strode back down the street.

“I’ve got a whacked-out assortment of highs here,” Harvard said as they walked away, careful to keep an eye on their surroundings for further threats. “We’ve got everything from coke to oxy. Who the hell is supplying these guys?”

“We don’t know for sure yet, although Julia has some ideas she’s following up.” David pulled out his phone and called Elle. “Gamma Team moving on to next target. You might want to send a couple of buses to this location. We had to expend some bullets.”

“Anybody dead?” Elle said. “By buses, you mean ambulances, don’t you? You’re just too cool to say the word, right?”

“Way too cool,” David answered. “And no fatalities.”

“Tell her we’ve got half a dozen cell phones for her to hack,” Harvard said.

“You hear that?” David climbed into their car.

“Yep, I get presents.”

He hung up on the smile in her voice.