They stepped out of the warehouse together and the afternoon light hit them both at once, warm and flat across the open ground in front of the building.

The people who had been cleared out were spread across the area, some sitting on the low concrete barrier that ran along the side of the building, some standing in loose groups and some leaning against the fence.

They had been waiting without being told to wait, which said something about the kind of operation Shay had been building.

Liam stopped a few steps outside the door and looked at the faces in front of him.

"Gather up," he said. Not loud. Just clear. "And get word to whoever isn’t here. This is for everyone."

People moved.

Some took out phones and sent messages without asking why. Others came in from the edges of the space and closed the distance.

Within a few minutes the area in front of the warehouse entrance had filled up, bodies pressed together loosely, faces turned toward Liam.

He waited until the movement stopped.

Then he looked out at all of them and took a breath.

"There’s a battle coming," he said. He said it the same way he’d said gather up.

Not loud. Just clear. "I’m not going to dress it up or make it sound like something it isn’t. You all deserve to know exactly what’s in front of us before it arrives." He paused. "What I need to know is whether you’re going to stand with me when it gets here."

The crowd in front of him was quiet for a second.

Then voices started coming from different directions, overlapping, pulling at each other.

"What kind of battle?"

"Who are we talking about?"

"Where did this come from?"

"Is this about the base?"

Liam let it run for a moment. Let people get the initial reaction out. Then he raised his voice just enough to cut through it.

"It’s with a gang called the Elite," he said.

The reaction was different this time.

Not the general noise of people asking questions. Something more specific moved through the crowd.

A few people went still in a way that was different from the stillness around them. A few others looked at each other with expressions that said they recognized the name and wished they didn’t.

Someone near the back said it out loud before anyone else did.

"The Elite Gang?"

"Yeah," Liam said.

The murmuring that followed was lower than the first round but heavier. The kind of sound a crowd makes when the information has weight to it. 𝚏𝕣𝐞𝗲𝐰𝕖𝐛𝐧𝕠𝕧𝚎𝚕.𝐜𝚘𝗺

"We’re finished," someone said. Not dramatic. Just quiet. Like a fact.

"The Elite Gang," another voice repeated. Like saying it a second time might change what it meant. It didn’t.

"How did we even get on their list. We barely started."

"We’re dead. That’s just what this is."

"How did we get mixed up with the Elite?" someone called out from the middle of the group. "That’s not a small thing. That’s not a regular beef."

"No," Liam said. "It’s not."

"So how did it happen?" Same voice. "We’re not exactly on their level. No offense. We’re new. We don’t have the numbers or the—"

"Do you remember who we fought to take this base?" Liam said.

The voice stopped.

A different one answered from somewhere on the left side of the crowd. "The crew that was running it before us."

"Right," Liam said. "What happened to them after we cleared them out?"

Silence.

"Someone else killed them," Liam said. "All of them. Over a hundred people. The Elite cleaned house on their own associates because those people lost this location to us." He let that land. "Which means the Elite knows we exist because they made a move on me personally last night to send a message." He looked out across the faces in front of him. "So we didn’t go looking for this. It came to us because of something we already did. Because we won."

The crowd was quiet.

Then someone near the front said slowly, "So we beefing with the Elite Gang because we actually won something."

"Yeah," Liam said.

A beat.

"That’s kind of cold actually," the same person said.

"It is," Liam said.

More voices started up again, this time the quality of them was different from the first round. Still unsettled but moving. People processing rather than just reacting.

"When is this coming?" someone asked.

"I don’t know exactly," Liam said. "But I’ll tell you this. The people we’re dealing with don’t move slow. They’ve got resources and they’ve got reach and they already know where we are. So don’t think we’ve got months. We might have weeks. We might have less."

That settled over the crowd like weather coming in.

Someone near the back, younger, his voice coming out with more edge than nerves in it, called out, "So what, we’re supposed to just wait for them to come at us?"

"No," Liam said. "We prepare. We tighten everything up. We know what’s coming and that’s already an advantage."

Silence.

He looked out across all of them. "So I’m going to ask you one more time. Are we doing this together as one. Or are you walking away and spending the rest of your life keeping your head down hoping they never come for you anyway."

The same younger voice again, louder this time. "I’m not going to lie, they’re built different from anything we’ve gone up against. But I’m not about to run from anyone either." A pause. "I don’t know about everyone else but I’m not built like that."

A sound moved through the crowd. Not organized. Not a chant yet. Just agreement finding itself, people on either side of the speaker making sounds that meant the same thing.

Then it got louder.

Someone else picked it up. "We ride no matter what." Then another voice joining it. Then three more. Then it wasn’t individual voices anymore but the whole group finding the same note at the same time, the sound bouncing off the warehouse wall behind Liam and filling the open space around them.

It went on for half a minute. Liam stood in front of it and let it go until it found its own end.

When the noise settled he looked out at all of them.

"Good," he said. Simply. "That’s all I needed to hear."

He held their attention for another second and then stepped back slightly, signaling that the address was done.

The crowd didn’t break immediately, people turning to each other, conversations starting up, the energy that had built still moving through the group looking for somewhere to go.

Shay came up beside him quietly. Close enough that only Liam would hear him.

"Alright," Shay said. His voice was low and even. "Everyone knows. So what now? You heading out?"

"Yeah," Liam said. "I’m going to take Kelvin and go."

Shay sighed. "Before you do. You thought about just having one of the guys put a proper scare in him? Not hurt him. Just enough to make him want to stay out of this whole thing. For his own good."

Liam thought about it for exactly one second.

"That would work on anyone else," he said.

"But not him?"

"Not him." Liam looked across the open ground toward the door where Kelvin would be waiting for him. "You saw what he did in there. He walked directly into a warehouse full of people he’d never seen before because he thought I might need help." He paused. "You put a scare into him and he’s going to decide the threat came from someone external and try to protect me from it."

Shay was quiet for a moment. Then he scratched the back of his head slowly. "Yeah alright. You’ve got a point."

"He’s not a problem to manage," Liam said. "He’s just Kelvin."

Shay looked at him.

Then he made a sound that wasn’t quite a laugh and wasn’t quite a sigh and turned and walked away without another word.

Liam watched him go for a second. Then he turned and crossed the open ground toward Kelvin.

Kelvin was standing exactly where he had been. Arms folded. Back against the passenger side of the Range Rover.

He watched Liam come toward him the whole way without changing his expression and then when Liam got close enough he pointed at him.

"What was all that about?"

"Yeah, Shay was just sharing some information with the gang." Liam shrugged, keeping his voice casual.

"I cannot believe you joined a gang," Kelvin said.

"I know."

"An actual gang."

"I know."

"With a cool ass mascot though," Kelvin said.

Liam laughed quietly. "That’s not a mascot. I don’t think it works like that."

"I’m just saying. The reaper is smiling. That’s a choice someone made."

Liam stopped in front of him. "I know it’s a lot to process."

Kelvin opened his mouth. Then he closed it. He looked at the warehouse for a second and then back at Liam. "Actually you know what. I don’t even need to know why. You had your reasons and they’re probably good reasons. I’m not asking about any of that." He unfolded his arms. "What I’m mad about is the fact that you didn’t tell me. Not that you did it. That you kept it from me." He pointed at Liam again. "We could have been facing this together from the start. Instead I’m finding out by climbing a fence and getting grabbed by people who looked like they were genuinely about to make a permanent decision about me."

Liam looked at him. "I’m sorry."

"Apology not accepted."

"Really?."

"I said what I said."

Liam looked at him for a moment. "What if I make it up to you."

Kelvin’s arms slowly unfolded the rest of the way. "How."

"You’ll see."

Kelvin studied him.

The pointed expression held for another two seconds, and then something behind it softened slightly. Not all the way. Just enough. He pushed off the side of the Range Rover and stood up straight.

"That’s a very vague answer. That’s what I do," he said, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah. Now you know how it feels." Liam said, grinning.

"Fair enough, I’m choosing to accept it for now."

"Good."

"But only for now."

"Noted."

Kelvin looked at him for one more second and then jerked his head toward the car. "Come on then. Let’s go."

They walked around to either side of the Range Rover, doors opening at the same time, both of them getting in, the doors closing with that solid expensive sound that Kelvin’s car always made. The engine turned over and the interior settled into its familiar quiet.

Kelvin put the car in drive.

They rolled away from the warehouse, through the approach path and out onto the street, the building getting smaller behind them in the mirror.

Kelvin drove in silence for thirty seconds.

Then without looking away from the road he said, "The reaper was really smiling though."

Liam looked out the window.

"Yeah," he said. "He was."