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Men Like Us Don’t Get to Break

Author: Missy Smith
last update Last Updated: 2025-11-18 12:41:38

– Joey –

Luca woke up choking on his own breath. I knew the sound before he even opened his eyes. It was the wet drag of a man trying to come back when his body isn't ready. Machines beeped faster. The medic muttered curses. Tony moved toward the bed like he expected Luca to rip everything out and start swinging.

I stayed where I was, one hand on the bed rail, the other clenched so tight I could feel the bones grind. I had been counting his breaths for hours. I counted them now, too.

Luca's eyes opened slowly, heavy, unfocused. Then sharper. Then furious. He looked at me like he wanted answers and blood in the same breath. "Where are we?" he rasped. "Clinic," I told him. "Santo's people. Quiet place. Nobody's name on paper."

His gaze wandered. He saw Frankie's body on the right bed. Saw the dark bruises. The busted ribs were wrapped tightly. Then Santo on the left, skin pale and gray around the mouth. His chest barely rising, barely falling.

Luca's jaw tightened. "They're alive, right
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  • The Cost of Saving Him   A Bad Decision

    -Mina-I didn’t tell anyone where I was going. Not Luca. Not Frankie. Not Tony. I let the lie sit by omission, heavy and deliberate. Sometimes silence is the only way to move without being stopped.Rafael didn’t ask questions when I told him to come with me. He never did. He checked his weapon, adjusted his jacket, and nodded once. Cartel loyalty wasn’t loud. It was precise.We took a car that didn’t belong to the family. No Gambino plates. No recognizable routes. I made Rafael take three turns. We didn’t need to; I just wanted to make sure we weren’t followed. Paranoia was a habit now, not a reaction.The city looked different when I wasn’t moving through it under Gambino protection. Every corner felt sharper. Every stoplight felt like a mistake. I watched storefronts blur past and wondered how many people had no idea how close they lived to men who decided whether they breathed tomorrow.Alaric chose a location that felt intentional. A half-abandoned commercial space near the river,

  • The Cost of Saving Him   What We Should Have Been

    -Mina-Frankie found me in the break room off the operations floor, as if he’d been circling the place until he worked up the nerve. The air smelled like burnt coffee and gun oil, which felt fitting. He leaned against the doorframe, arms crossed, eyes tired yet alert. When he saw me, something eased in his face, and he didn’t bother hiding it.“You okay?” he asked. “I’m breathing,” I replied sarcastically. “That’s where I’m setting the bar today.” I slid a stale granola bar across the table toward him. He snorted and ignored it.“Fair,” he smiled slightly. We let the silence sit. Radios crackled down the hall, boots passed, metal shifted. War wasn’t approaching. It was already inside the building, living in the walls.“You’ve been avoiding me,” I finally spoke again.He gave a short laugh. “You’ve met my brother.” He stepped inside and shut the door. The click sounded final, like we were sealing something in. “I didn’t want to say the wrong thing.”“You’re saying something now,” I re

  • The Cost of Saving Him   What He Leaves Behind

    -Mina-Weeks passed before the city finally stopped holding its breath. The noise never completely disappeared, but it eased into something darker and quieter. The kind of calm that only happens when everyone knows blood is about to spill. I learned how to read that silence quickly.We met in a warehouse that officially belonged to no one. It sat between Gambino territory and what used to be Moretti land, neutral in the way only temporary alliances are. Concrete floors, steel tables, armed men lining the walls like furniture. This was not a peace meeting; it was a planning room for murder.Luciano stood at the head of the table, calm and precise. He wore black, as he always did when working, no jacket, and his sleeves rolled up just enough to remind everyone who he was. The Don never raised his voice.Frankie sat to his right, with perfect posture and a composed expression. He issued orders when asked and kept his eyes on the maps. In public, he was reliable. In private, he still avoi

  • The Cost of Saving Him   What Love Cost Us All

    – Luciano –Frankie didn’t wait for permission. He stood in the yard with his keys already in his hand, jaw tight, eyes dark. The warehouse hummed behind us, generators and radios filling the silence no one wanted to acknowledge. Men kept their heads down, but everyone felt it. Something had shifted, and it wasn’t coming back the same.“I’m running the routes near the house,” he said. “South fence. Creek road. Anywhere that phone could’ve come from.” His gaze flicked past me toward the doors. “After that, I’m picking up Mina’s things. Clothes. Art supplies. She shouldn’t feel like she’s borrowing a life.”“You don’t have to do it yourself,” I said. “I’ve got men.”He shook his head once. “She trusts me.” His voice dropped. “Right now, she doesn’t trust you.”The words landed exactly where he meant them to. He walked past me and opened the SUV door. Gravel popped under the tires when he pulled out, the gate sliding open and slamming shut behind him. The sound echoed longer than it shou

  • The Cost of Saving Him   The Last Thread

    -Luciano-Frankie entered at dawn, boots scraping across the concrete as if he'd walked through every ghost in the city. His jacket was half unzipped, and his shirt was damp with sweat. He closed the warehouse door with a soft thud that sounded louder than a gunshot. I watched him cross the floor without looking my way, which felt worse than if he had shouted.The reports from the raids were stacked on the table. Mina had fallen asleep two hours earlier with the files open in her lap. Rafael carried her upstairs without waking her, and the sight of it scraped something raw inside me. Frankie wiped a hand down his face and finally looked at me. There was no anger left in his eyes. Just exhaustion and something colder.“You got what you needed tonight,” he said. His voice was low but steady. “Three hits. Three routes cut. You won.” I didn’t answer. He took one step closer. “So tell me this. How long are you going to pretend this is about Alaric and not about her.”The warehouse was stil

  • The Cost of Saving Him   The Week of Wolves

    - Luciano -The warehouse never slept, only pretended. As Mina’s breathing steadied, the rest stayed alert. Radios crackled, boots echoed, and below, a generator hummed like a threat. I sat on the couch, gazing at the ceiling until my eyes burned.I could feel her behind me, her presence pressing against the air. She understood my silence, which was a weapon that hurt both sides when I swung it.At three, I got up, making the couch squeak. Mina shifted but stayed asleep. I considered crossing to her but decided to leave.The hallway outside my door was cold and dim. Tony sat in a metal chair at the end, rifle across his knees, eyes half alert, half exhausted. He straightened when he saw me. “Everything alright?” he asked. His gaze suggested he already knew the answer.“She’s asleep,” I said. “That’s enough for tonight.” It wasn’t actually enough, but it was all I could manage. I gestured toward the stairwell. “We still have Ruiz.”Tony’s jaw clenched. “He’s requesting water and a lawy

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