ALEXIS

Everything was fine.

Amara and Sage's marriage was being planned, about which neither of them seemed sad or angry. Amara's restaurant business with Jake was doing really well. Ace was slowly healing. All of us were closer than ever. It was all good.

Until of course, Ace had to go through an emergency operation because his wound got infected.

We were currently sitting outside the operation theatre, waiting for the surgery to end. The doctors said the success rates were ninety-eight percent, but I was still worried. We all were. There was still that two percent nagging me. My thoughts were just a fried mush as I held and squeezed Carina's hand tightly.

We had been there for almost two hours now. I checked the time. It was 1:36 a.m. Everyone was tired, but were trying their best not to fall asleep. Rubbing their eyes, yawning, stretching, checking their phones, basically doing anything to stay awake.

I was tapping my foot anxiously. "You guys should go home, I'll stay here." Gen said.

"No, it's fine, we'll stay." Carina said.

I nodded in agreement. Genevieve frowned. "I feel like we'll have to stay here for a long time, are you all you want to stay?" And us, like the stubborn kids we were, nodded.

"How about, half go, half stay?" Carter suggested. "And I'll come with you all."

"Alright, let's do it that way. Who is going?" Gen asked, looking around at us. I don't know what she expected, but no one said anything.

Then she chose to do the teacher tactic. "If you guys won't volunteer, I'll pick myself. Alex."

"No." I protested.

"Layla and Lucas."

"What about Liam?" Lucas asked.

"No, he's not going. And Romeo." Genevieve stated.

Romeo just nodded. Carter got up. "Let's go then."

She turned to Gen. "Don't forget to call us when anything happens."

"I won't."

"See you guys later then." Layla said as everyone waved bye.

I got in the car after the others in the back seat, Romeo in the driver's seat and Carter in the passenger's seat. I stared outside the window the whole ride, letting my thoughts wander off. New York City was a lit up blur in front of me. All my thoughts started coming up and collecting at the same point. I couldn't shake the feeling that something was about to happen. Good? Bad? I didn't know. But I knew it was something big.

We were home in no time. Or at least I thought it was in no time, I wasn't really paying attention. We got out of the car and went inside. I decided to head to the living room, since I wasn't sure I would get any sleep. But the moment I stepped in our house, it didn't feel right.

Something was wrong. I knew it wasn't just me because everyone else was looking around the room as well. With silent glances at each other, we went to different areas of the house. I was in the kitchen when I heard Lucas yelling for us to come into the living room.

There was black box on the coffee table. And it didn't belong to us. There was a piece of paper on top of it. Romeo went over and picked it up. He took one look at it and frowned.

"What is it?" Carter asked, concern clear in her voice.

"It's a note." He replied.

"What does it say?" Layla asked. I went over and looked at the note as Romeo read it out loud.

'You have one hour. This is just the beginning. ~D'

I stared at the note for so long, the letters started looking funny. "Any idea who sent that?" Carter asked. We shook our heads.

"It could be anyone, it's just signed 'D'." Romeo said. "Carter, can you call Genevieve and ask her to come over as fast as possible?" Carter nodded and went on to call Gen.

"How much time do we really have?" Layla asked.

"Less than one hour, I'm assuming." Lucas said.

Romeo went to ask the guards when the box came. If the situation was different, I would laugh at how calm we were about a live bomb just sitting in our living, which could explode at any moment.

"It came here about fifteen minutes ago." Romeo said, coming back.

Carter came back at the same time. "Ace is alright. The operation was successful, he's currently under the care of the doctors."

Those words sounded like heaven to me. At least there was some good news. "Gen and the others are on their way here as we speak." Even though now I knew that the feeling I had was real, I still didn't know if it was good or bad.

"How long until the bomb goes off?" She added.

"Roughly forty-five minutes." Lucas replied. No words were exchanged after that. We all sat in the living room surrounding the box, the letter still in Romeo's hand, waiting for our siblings to arrive, hoping they would be on time.

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Ten minutes later, they enter the living room. Romeo hands the note to Genieve. "You think it's a bluff?" Amara asked.

"I don't think anyone would joke about a nuclear bomb exploding, and even if it is, we can't take any risk." Gen replied. The next thing I know, we are all in two different cars, heading to the extreme south of the town to a large, empty field at full speed. I could see anxiety on Cat's face, so I reached out and gave her hand a light squeeze.

Fifteen minutes later, we were at our location. The place was deserted, almost the size of a football field, probably bigger, which was good, but also weird, considering New York.

"Twenty minutes." Liam said. He, Lucas and Romeo went someplace far in the field and came back ten minutes later.

"Now, we wait." Genieve said. All of us set a timer for ten minutes on our phones, assuming we were at a safe distance.

I was thinking about all the possible outcomes.

"Fifteen seconds." Luca commented.

I looked at my phone. 11. 10. 9.- We all looked in the direction of the bomb. - 4. 3. 2. 1. All the timers went off. Nothing happened. We looked at each other. Ten more seconds passed. Still nothing. We still waited. A minute passed by. We stood there, staring at a distance.

"Maybe it was a bluff?" Lucas said. "Or maybe we estimated the time incorrectly?" Liam added. As if on cue, a great amount of force and heat, with unbearable noise, knocked us all down. Smoke filled the air. My eyes started to water. We got up, dusting off our clothes as the smoke started to clear up. Luckily the place was uncivilized.

"You guys wait here, I'll go check." Genevieve said.

"No, I'll come too." I said.

"And me." Luca jumped in. That went on until everyone was going to check out the spot. It was very far away, so I thought it must've been powerful, considering the impact it had on us from miles away.Once we reached the spot on the field, it wasn't a field anymore.

There was a huge crater, deep enough that we couldn't see the bottom of it. Maybe it was the dark. Whoever made it, did not make it as a joke.

"If all the other weapons are more powerful than this, then they shouldn't reach the wrong hands. We need to find out who is making these and handing them out to all the Mafia's. One wrong move with these and the result would not be good for anyone." Genevieve remarked. We all knew what that meant.

It meant war.

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We were back home, currently discussing what to do. We had to act quick, or someone else might get hold of it. Since we didn't have Ace to figure anything out, Amara suggested forming an alliance. "The more trustworthy people on our side the better?" She asked. Romeo nodded in agreement. Gen was lost in thought. Everyone was looking at her to hear what she had to say.

Finally, she said, "It's getting really late. We should all probably go to bed. Ace is going to stay in the hospital for a couple more days, but we can visit him and discuss what to do tomorrow. Alright, off to sleep everyone." All of us reluctantly went to our rooms after saying our 'good nights'.

An hour or so passed, and I still wasn't asleep. Something was nagging me in the back of my head. I didn't know what it was, but it was something to be acted upon at that exact moment. I played the discussion we had over and over in my mind. I knew it was something there.

Then it hit me. Alliances. If we had thought of forming groups, everyone else might've too. And not just with the large Mafias, but smaller gangs for advantage. The more people gathered, the better chance of finding the creator for them. I knew what I had to do, what was nagging me.

Sneaking out for the second time for a piece of cake. Once I made sure I had left the garden gate slightly open to sneak back in, I removed the safety of my gun, put on my mask and headed for my targets.

It was time for Dawn to show up.