⊰ 16.5 ⊱ Gathering Clouds

⊰ Marcel ⊱

The house is quiet, the kind of quiet that settles like a heavy blanket—smothering and unsettling.

Too damn quiet.

It’s been weeks since Luciano took the reins of his brother’s cartel, weeks since he vowed vengeance against me for killing Rafael. Weeks… and not a single threat, not a bullet fired in our direction. It’s the stillness before the storm, the type of calm that makes my men jumpy and my own skin itch with an uneasiness.

They’re planning something, I can feel it in my bones. The question is: what? And more importantly, how do I keep my family safe?

“We can’t let them have the advantage,” Levi mutters, his eyes narrowing as he studies the maps spread across the pool table of the parlor.

“I know,” I grunt lowly, tracing a line along the border of our territory with my finger. “We tighten up security, deploy more men—”

“No good,” Rick, ever the cautious strategist,