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BANG BANG BANG Chapter 132. Veins of Smoke
The storm rolled in quietly over the city, a thick fog curling around buildings like a serpent claiming its prey. By nightfall, the streets shimmered in a haze of lamp-lit mist, concealing shapes that moved with purpose and malice. Something had shifted in the war...an intangible undercurrent that made even seasoned killers hesitate at the corners.In the Gale estate's war room, Carrick stood over a new map. His eyes were bloodshot, jaw clenched. He hadn’t slept in thirty-six hours. Pins marked fresh hits on their network...two safehouses raided, three convoys intercepted, one informant gutted and dumped outside a nightclub.Victor leaned over the table. “Alessia’s not just retaliating. She’s dismantling us. Bit by bit.”“She’s bleeding us,” Carrick muttered. “Not for the kill. For the message.”“It’s working.”Carrick looked up. His stare was ice. “Then it’s time we send a message back.”Victor hesitated. “How far do you want to go?”“Farther than she thinks I will.”Meanwhile, in a
BANG BANG BANG CHAPTER 133. THE BLOOD LEDGER
The Gale Estate stood like a sleeping beast under the velvet night. Rain had begun to fall again, soft at first, then heavier, pounding against the slate roof tiles and washing the blood from earlier battles into the gutters. Inside the war room, Carrick Gale sat alone with only the soft ticking of the grandfather clock and the crackle of the fireplace for company. The city was at war. And he, its king, was losing pieces every day.The door creaked open."You're early," Carrick murmured without looking.Victor stepped in, soaked from the downpour. He shook the rain from his coat and tossed a folder onto the table. "That was the last of them. Lucien's enforcers wiped out the East End warehouse. We lost three men."Carrick opened the folder. Inside were photos...gruesome images of his men laid out in a pool of their own lifeblood, bodies twisted, eyes wide. He closed the folder slowly. "He moves like a ghost."Victor sat down. "And the city's turning against us. More of our allies are g
BANG BANG BANG CHAPTER 134. SMOKE WITHOUT FIRE
The city was tense, drawn taut like a bowstring just waiting to snap. Streets once alive with restless commerce and whispered deals now thrummed with uneasy silence. Word of the explosion at the Midway safehouse had spread faster than fire in a paper mill.Carrick Gale stood at the edge of the crater where the building had once stood. The smoke had settled, but the scent of burnt wood, metal, and flesh still lingered. He wore no coat, despite the cold. The wind tugged at his shirt, but he barely noticed. His eyes were on the blackened ruin.Behind him, Victor approached slowly. "We've got five confirmed dead. Two of ours, three runners who worked with Lucien's people. No sign of Alessia."Carrick didn’t respond immediately. He knelt beside a charred section of floorboard, fingers brushing ash. "She wants me off balance."Victor nodded. "And she’s succeeding. Every move we make, she’s already two steps ahead. We lost half our east-side connections this morning."Carrick stood, finally
BANG BANG BANG CHAPTER 135: GATE
The rain fell like needles, sharp and relentless, as if the sky itself was trying to wash the city clean. But no amount of water could scrub the blood from its bones.Inside the old stone chapel Carrick had converted into a temporary command center, the air was thick with smoke and tension. Maps were pinned to the walls, marked with circles and Xs. Weapons lay stacked in corners. Men moved like ghosts, speaking in hushed tones. They all knew something was coming.Carrick stood near the altar, staring at a photo of Elena De Luca. Not out of remorse...he had none left...but because even dead, she was haunting him.Victor entered, shaking the rain from his coat. “We’ve confirmed it. Alessia’s forces have taken Pier Forty-Six. That cuts off our southside route.”Carrick’s jaw tightened. “Who led the hit?”“Lucien. With about two dozen men. They didn’t leave survivors.”Carrick turned from the photo, eyes burning. “She’s not playing politics anymore. She’s coming for my throat.”Victor nod
BANG BANG BANG CHAPTER 136: THE BLADE BENEATH
The night air shimmered with an uneasy silence.Inside an abandoned cathedral in the South End...once a sanctuary, now a hushed war room...Alessia De Luca sat beneath a shattered stained-glass window, the fractured image of a saint casting kaleidoscopic shadows over her face. She looked serene. But anyone who had been watching closely would have seen the tremble in her fingertips as she lit her cigarette.Lucien stood across from her, arms folded, coat still dusted with ash from the fire they set earlier that evening."Twenty-five men dead," he said. "Carrick's warehouse is nothing but molten steel and bone."Alessia exhaled smoke slowly. "And yet he's still breathing.""You want him gone?" Lucien’s voice was soft. "We can strike the estate. Now."She shook her head. "No. Not yet. I want him to feel it. Feel everything he built rot from the inside."A door creaked open behind them. Matteo stepped in, dragging a bruised man by the collar...one of Carrick’s minor lieutenants. Blood drip
BANG BANG BANG CHAPTER 137: THE BARGAIN OF SHADOWS
The rain came down like needles on glass, sharp and relentless, painting the city in a sheen of steel and sorrow. Atop a rooftop overlooking the Eastway Bridge, Alessia De Luca stood beneath a dark umbrella, flanked by Lucien and two of her most trusted enforcers. Her coat flared behind her in the wind, and her eyes were locked on the approaching black SUV that cut through the mist like a blade."He's early," Lucien murmured, his hand resting inside his coat."Good," Alessia replied. "Let him wait on me for once."The SUV stopped ten feet from them. The driver's door opened first—a gesture of deference—and then Arturo Salvi emerged, his silhouette bulky beneath a tailored raincoat. A man followed behind, younger, unfamiliar. A messenger? A backup?Arturo raised a hand. "I assume you're not going to shoot me on arrival.""Depends on what you have to say," Alessia answered flatly. Her voice cut through the rain like broken glass.Arturo moved closer, his steps slow but deliberate. Lucie
BANG BANG BANG CHAPTER 138: THE DEVIL AT THE DOOR
The rain had returned to the city like a slow, creeping rot. It fell in sheets against the windows of Arturo Salvi's mansion, veiling the outside world in a gauzy curtain of gray. Inside the grand study, the old wolf sat in a leather armchair, swirling a glass of brandy as the fire crackled low in the hearth.Alessia De Luca stood at the center of the room, her coat dripping onto the floor, her eyes locked on Arturo."He's taken the south piers," she said. "We lost Gallo and Mirren. Lucien's still missing."Arturo's grip tightened around his glass. "Carrick moves faster than I expected.""You underestimated him."He looked up sharply. "No. I knew what he was. I just thought he’d bleed more before showing his teeth again."Alessia approached the fireplace, the flames casting her shadow tall against the walls. "He's not just bleeding us, Arturo. He's gutting us. Piece by piece. And if we wait any longer, there won't be anything left.""Then strike.""We tried. We hit his depot last week
BANG BANG BANG CHAPTER 139: BLOOD AND PROMISE
The sky over the city was iron gray, the kind of color that warned of a storm long before the first drop fell. The wind had teeth that bit through coats and skin alike, and the streets were whispering with a nervous kind of energy...as if they knew something was coming. Something inevitable.Inside the old church turned safehouse in the East District, Carrick Gale stood at the pulpit, the stained glass shattered behind him, letting in slivers of light like fractured truth. Around him, his lieutenants gathered, each one worn, bloodied, but alive. Barely."We lost two more trucks last night," Victor said, his voice taut with fury. "Same pattern. Hit at the border, burned, and the survivors left with their tongues cut out."Carrick didn’t flinch. He simply nodded. "Alessia.""It’s not just her," Marco said, leaning against a pillar with a fresh bruise darkening his jaw. "She’s got new muscle. Lucien’s pulling ghosts out of the damn ground.""Salvi too," Enzo added. "Word is, he’s putting
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CHAPTER 156: SALT IN THE VEIN
The rain came down in ragged sheets, slicing the dark city like a surgeon’s scalpel. Steam roiled from grates as if the underworld itself were exhaling. Inside an armored car weaving through the back alleys of East Parish, Luka Vuković sat silently between Marco and Alessia.Neither had spoken in ten minutes.Finally, Luka broke the silence. “You all talk about him like he’s a god.”“He thinks he is,” Marco muttered. “But gods bleed. I’ve seen it.”Alessia didn’t smile. “Not easily, though.”Luka’s gaze drifted to the window. “You’re hoping I’ll help you kill him.”“No,” Alessia said softly. “We’re hoping you’ll understand why he needs to die.”“And then kill him,” Marco added, blunt as stone.Luka looked down at his hands. His knuckles still bruised, his palms trembling slightly. “What if I said no?”Marco didn’t even blink. “Then you become a liability. To him and to us.”Alessia shot him a sharp glance. “What he means is...we’d find another way. But you’d never be safe again.”The
CHAPTER 155: BORROWED BLOOD
The safehouse above the old garment district was a crumbling relic—three floors of rusted stairwells, boarded windows, and the distant sound of trains howling like ghosts beneath the streets. Alessia stood at the cracked window, watching steam rise from the sewers. The city was moving again. Grinding. Shifting. Ready to break.Marco was downstairs, hunched over maps and documents. He hadn’t slept since the Continental burned.“Marco,” Alessia said, descending the stairs, “you need to rest.”He didn’t look up. “We’re too close. If we stop now, he’ll disappear.”“We’ve shaken him. Maybe even scared him.”“Not enough,” he said, voice hollow. “Carrick doesn’t feel fear like we do. He files it away, weaponizes it, then sells it back to you with interest.”She crossed the room and slapped the table, scattering blueprints. “You’re becoming him.”Marco blinked.She leaned in, voice quieter now. “I watched you torture that man at the docks. I saw your eyes when you cut Silvano’s throat. You’re
CHAPTER 154: THE DEVIL'S DEBT
The smoke from the Continental Club still hung low in the city’s lungs when the next move was set into motion.In a decrepit warehouse along the waterfront...abandoned since the union strikes of ’94...Marco stood before a long wooden table stained with oil, blood, and something darker. Alessia leaned against the far wall, arm wrapped in gauze, her eyes vacant. Silas knelt in the shadows, checking blueprints spread out on a crate beside a small black case of syringes and tools.Viktor Strain arrived without a word, stepping in from the alleyway, rain hissing off his coat like steam from a kettle.“We rattled Carrick,” Marco said, voice hoarse. “But he didn’t fall.”“He won’t,” Viktor replied. “Not unless you cut his spine, not just his skin.”Silas glanced up. “We’ll need to go deeper. Into his personal network. His past.”Marco frowned. “What past? The man was born in fire. Raised in war.”“No,” Silas said, pulling a photo from a dossier and tossing it on the table. “Everyone has root
CHAPTER 153: VEINS OF FIRE
The storm broke over the city at midnight.Rain fell like ash, heavy and constant, drumming against glass and stone as if the heavens themselves were mourning what was to come. Lightning arced across the sky, casting jagged shadows over the decaying skyline. Beneath the storm, in the blood-slick streets and alleyways, the game moved again.In the basement of an abandoned church near the Eastside slums, Marco stood beside his new ally—a man known only as Viktor Strain."You brought the girl?" Viktor asked, his voice an icy drawl, laced with a foreign accent that hinted at Eastern Europe.Marco nodded. "She'll be here soon."Viktor studied him, eyes pale as frost, skin stretched tight over sharp bones. He had the look of a man who'd seen too much death and made peace with it. On his belt hung twin pistols custom-machined for him in Prague, and every inch of his long coat seemed stitched with menace."Carrick won't go down easy," Viktor said."He shouldn't. The bastard has claws. But if
CHAPTER 152: THE BLACK LEDGER
Rain hammered the rooftop like war drums. The night was soaked in shadows, the kind that made men forget their names and remember their sins.Carrick stood inside a derelict warehouse on the waterfront, the metal walls creaking with every gust of wind. Maps and surveillance photos were pinned to rusted boards. Red lines connected hideouts, cash routes, weapons caches. They all led to one place...Lucien’s last known fortress: an underground vault hidden beneath the facade of a wine cellar in Oldtown.Logan adjusted the strap of his rifle as he studied the layout."You really think he’s there?" he asked.Carrick nodded once. "Intel came from someone inside. Anonymous, encrypted. Could be a trap."Marco strode in behind him, rainwater dripping from his trench coat. "If it’s a trap, we spring it on our terms. I’m tired of playing defense."Victor, bruised and stitched, leaned against a crate with his arms crossed. "And what happens if Delilah’s there?"Carrick's eyes darkened. "Then we fi
CHAPTER 151: TERMS OF WAR
The morning after the ambush, the city felt like a carcass picked clean by vultures. Smoke clung to the skyline, and the streets buzzed with a violence that no longer tried to hide itself. In the ruined conference room of what once was the Montrose Hotel, Carrick Gale leaned over a scarred table, maps and dossiers spread out like a battlefield. Marco arrived late, limping slightly, Victor and Silas flanking him like angry hounds. The air between the two leaders crackled. "You called for this meeting," Marco said, voice like gravel. "You better have something worth my time, Carrick." Carrick didn't look up right away. He tapped a folder at the center of the table. "Lucien," Carrick said. "And his pet ghost, Delilah Blackthorn. They're not just gunning for you anymore." Marco snorted, stepping closer. "No shit." Carrick finally met his gaze. His eyes were sharp, glacial. "They're coming for all of us." Silence stretched. Victor shifted, resting his hand on the butt of his p
CHAPTER 150 BLOOD IN THE STREETS
The first firebomb hit just after midnight.Carrick Gale stood on the balcony of the north wing of his estate, cigarette dangling from his lips, when the sky bloomed into angry red in the distance.Another explosion rumbled seconds later, closer this time.He ground the cigarette under his boot and turned on his heel, face hardening.Marco’s war had just escalated ... and it was bleeding into Carrick’s world.A knock rattled the door."Come," Carrick barked.Logan stepped in, breathless. His shirt was stained with soot and blood, his left sleeve shredded."They hit the Yarrow warehouse," Logan said. "Took out two guards. Set the whole place ablaze."Carrick’s eyes narrowed."And the DeSantis armory?"Logan hesitated."Gone," he said quietly. "Blew it sky-high twenty minutes ago. They're targeting every asset we have in the west sector."Carrick paced the room, the polished wood floors creaking under his boots."Marco’s desperation stinks like a dying dog," he muttered. "But this... th
CHAPTER 149: SMOKE AND MIRRORS
The smoke hadn’t even cleared from the ambush site when Marco slammed his fist onto the table back at the safehouse."Goddamn it!" he roared, sending a stack of blueprints flying.Victor stood nearby, a fresh gash bleeding across his brow, jaw set tight with anger.Silas limped in, clutching his side. "It was a setup," he rasped. "He knew every move we made."Marco’s face was carved from stone."He’s inside our circle," he said. "Somebody’s talking."Victor cursed low. "I’ll start running checks. Every man, every comm line.""No," Marco said, voice colder than steel. "I'll do it myself."He turned to Silas."Get patched up. You're no good to me bleeding out."Silas opened his mouth, thought better of it, and nodded, leaving the room.Only Victor stayed."You really think one of ours flipped?"Marco didn't answer right away. He poured himself a glass of whiskey, hands steady even though his gut boiled."Not just flipped," he said finally. "They sold their soul."Victor’s mouth tightene
CHAPTER 148: BLOOD IN THE SHADOWS
The first sign that something was wrong came with the silence.The war room was usually a hive ... phones ringing, men shouting, maps shifting. But tonight, there was nothing. Just an eerie, unnatural stillness.Marco paced the edge of the table, feeling the weight of it press down on his chest."Where’s Jax?" he snapped, glancing at Victor.Victor, frowning, checked his watch. "He should’ve reported in an hour ago."Silas lit a cigarette with trembling fingers. "Maybe he ran into heat. Cops, Carrick’s leftovers..."Marco shook his head. "Jax doesn’t miss check-ins. Not unless he’s dead."The word hung heavy in the air.A phone rang ... sharp and shrill.Everyone jolted.Victor grabbed it."Yeah?" His face paled almost instantly. "Boss... you need to hear this."Marco snatched the phone from him."Marco," a voice rasped. Jax’s voice ... barely recognizable, slurred and broken."It’s... a trap... he knew... he knew we were coming..."Gunshots crackled in the background. Screaming. Then
