A/N if you can see the gif^ i totally imagine the one on the left who falls...as Dante LOL. sorry random. Anyways.....

"Look out!" I warn Jacob as some guy is thrown towards us. The two of us duck and watch him soar through the air before crashing into walls. I wince as his weight makes another huge hole in the wall.

The damage is going to be so expensive. I look sadly at what is left of the house. It really looks like a war or tornado ravaged the entire place.

"Whoops!" Jacob yanks my collar toward him as a knife is thrown a few millimeters in front of my nose.

"Yikes," my eyes widen at the glint of metal whooshing closely by.

"Gotta pay attention Shay-girl," he taps his nose and winks.

"Shay girl?" I raise an eyebrow at him as we continue to fight back to back against the other men. My body is definitely starting to throb, but i try to pay it no heed.

"I'm still thinking of better names," he admits. I momentarily become distracted at his fighting skills with his smooth but deadly techniques. He does it so effortlessly as he attacks with accuracy.

As I expect, someone seizes the opportunity to knife me. There is small ringing noise as I bring my knives up to parry the jab. The guy seems to be around Dante's height, but he's lean. He seems fast. There is soot covering his skin, but making his blue eyes almost glow. I grit my teeth as the guy's strength is more than I expected. We stay locked in position as neither of us gives the other any room. I glance at my wavering arms before breaking the lock. It catches him in surprise but not much. He recovers before starting to attack me with a knife in each hand. It's been a while since I've went against someone who uses two knives so well. With another year or two of training, he might have been better than me.

I block each thrust and match his pace. He does have greater force than me with each hit, but he has yet to hit me. I've nicked him a couple times, slicing at his thighs and arms. He doesn't have that many weak spots. They're protected nicely.

"So how long have you been training?" I casually ask him as our faces come within a few inches of each other with the next clash of knives. His face doesn't quite show any emotion at my words, but I can still tell from his body language it made him skip a beat.

Of course, the guy is rude and ignores me completely. Shucks and here I thought I could have a new training buddy.

I decide the fight has been dragging, so I try to increase my pace. The bastard actually keeps pace with me. It must be his long legs. Curse him.

I have a special move, but I don't know if my leg can handle it as it requires a lot of fast, strong leg movement. I choose not to do it, saving it for Alfredo.

I keep increasing my pace and finally the dude messes up: he fumbles and trips over himself slightly.

I bring around my elbow and jab at his head. The blow knocks him unconscious instantly. He slumps to his knees before falling to the ground.

It was a good match.

I still feel saddened each time I either deal a death blow if the situation requires it. I try to do a painless, quick death or blow to subdue the opponent. I also try not to think about this and focus on my fights.

"How close are we even to him? Did he move? Have you lost sight of him?" I yell over the noise to Jacob.

Jacob glances around quickly before replying, "He's still at the front. There are people trying to reach him, but nobody is getting close. We still need to cross the room; we're halfway there. He's rather secured with all those bodyguards around him. Somebody needs to take them all out."

I turn my head towards Alfredo's direction for a millisecond. He is just standing there watching the fight. I wonder if he's that type of boss then: the one who lets all his henchmen do his work. I feel like he is from all the past experiences, but I've never seen him actually fight. I ponder if I can even match him by myself, or if Jacob and I can even compare to him.

"Did we really not move much?" I yell once more.

"The people are getting more violent as we approach the Acerbi bastard." Jacob grunts.

"They are also increasing in number and skill," I agree with him. I feel like the fights are dragging longer and longer. I may have been training to increase my stamina and physique, but I did not have sufficient time to get where I intended to be.

After I knock one guy down, another quickly comes and takes his place. I get a rhythm going.

I feel a familiar presence join Jacob and I as we continue to fight.

"Need backup?" Dante and Leo ask.

"Sure," I wipe away the sweat running down my forehead, but it is accumulating pretty much everywhere. Gross, I am so looking forward to taking a nice, long shower in my bathroom. Well, if it isn't destroyed already.

"Are you guys just skipping around all over the place?" I roll my eyes as they keep popping in and out.

"It looked like you needed help." Leo replies. "From above, you do know the two of you are right in the center of this crowd. They're all aiming at you."

"You haven't lost the Key right?" Dante asks.

"Nope," I say immediately. I can feel the imprint of the key. It's resting nicely inside the lining of my bra. It took me a while to learn, but I finally learned how to make a secret pocket inside my damn bra.

"Great. We need to get you to the vault." Dante nods.

"It's faster if we just take out Alfredo first." I start to get annoyed.

"The dude is protected more heavily than Fort Knox," Leo argues.

"But I trust that Jacob, me, Dante, and you can are all competent enough to get to him."

"Fine, but this crowd is pretty much trying to keep you away from him and tiring you out," Leo notices.

"Yes, we know," Jacob replies a bit wearily.

"That's why we are here," Dante flashes a huge grin. He must have some fabulous plan again.

"What is it now?" Leo rolls his eyes.

"So, Tony and I were discussing-" he begins.

"Stop right there." Leo interrupts him.

"No, it's a good plan. I swear. Scout's honor." He pledges.

"You're not even a scout," I point out as I throw away another one of my precious knives. It flings right into someone's torso. I don't hesitate to keep moving forward.

"Well, anyways when I count to three I want you guys to all duck, cover, and roll the fuck away from here!" Dante tells us.

"Any specific area?" Jacob genuinely looks at him with a bit of worry.

"Just not around here." Dante says.

"How quickly do we need to move out?" Jacob asks.

"God, you have so much questions." Dante's smile disappears. "You have a second or two."

Jacob keeps quiet.

Dante raises his hand and holds up one finger. "one, two,...three!" He raises three fingers before the four of us flee for our lives.

I end up propelling straight into the wall and land on my back. I flatten myself to my tummy as I glance up.

"HELLO MOTHERFUCKERS!" Tony comes down from upstairs. He is tied by his waist to a rope on the ceiling. He's pretty much zip-gliding, but imagine two huge-ass machine guns in each arm.

I stand corrected. Now, it looks like the place has gone through a hurricane. Bullets are strewn everywhere as Tony yells along the ruckus he makes. I watch in horror as the bullets show mercy on anyone in its path.

Everyone collapses instantly. Bodies lie strewn over the places. I scramble behind another person lying on the ground and use his body for cover.

As soon as Tony stops firing, I finally get up and gasp at the holes all over the place. Nobody is standing anymore besides Jacob and my brothers.

"Before you say anything, let me explain." Tony holds up his hands.

"That was your genius plan?" Leo's voice comes out in a deadly, low whisper. Goosebumps come out of my skin. Uh-oh.

"H-hold on." Tony stops him. "Look closely at these babies." He holds up his guns. There's something off about them.

"They aren't filled with real bullets man." He continues. "Nobody died. They are just...severely injured? I filled them with... balls?" He shifts uncomfortably.

"Okay, they might be badly injured but no friendly fire. I made sure that Dante got everyone else cleared out of the way?" He looks at Dante, who whistles innocently the other way. "I'm assuming he did." He narrows his eyes at him.

"We don't have time for this. Alfredo got away." Jacob shakes his head. How sympathetic. Cruel, but true. The five of us go around and rearm ourselves with the weapons on the ground. I stick to a handgun and restock with knives.

When we finish, I whistle admirably at all of us. We look badass. Well, if we don't look at the weary faces, dirty clothes, and sweaty bodies.

"Let's go." Jacob takes the lead as he approaches the front carefully. The rest of us follow behind just as cautiously.

"Clear." Jacob announces before heading outside.

The way that the place is built is that there is a paved pathway leading from the gateway to the front of the house. It's a curvy, hilly pathway. The five of us travel off the pathway and on the sides which provides plenty of coverage. There are a lot of trees, bushes, and plants.

All of us pause behind a bush that shows us the front gate entrance. As we expect, the gate is broken through. There's nobody here. If they aren't in the front, then they must be in the back.

"This is going to be fucking fun," Dante says miserably.

Our backyard, if you can even call it a backyard, is pretty much a forest. No, it actually is a forest.

"Dante...?" I smile sweetly. "Will you do the honors of tracking them?"

"Why me?" He whines, though he already knows. He's our best tracker.

"Fine. Follow me." He trudges back.

*****

It doesn't take him long to find the little camp area. The five of us are camped from a high vantage point.

We stare in silence.

"That's their backup, huh?" I murmur.

They nod.

"Where's our backup?" Jacob glances behind his shoulder.

"You're looking at them." Dante gives a sad smile."

"What about Andrea, dad, mom..." I begin to list as many names as possible.

"You're looking at our parents." Leo passes me his binoculars. I put them closer to my eyes and spot my parents. They are zip-tied around their wrists and ankles and surrounded by a group of men. The two of them look defiant still.

"And there is the rest of the Ricca Family." Leo moves my head in the opposite direction, tilting my head slightly up. I see at least a dozen or more sitting in a clump behind more of Alfredo's men. I spot Andrea and other familiar faces. It makes me feel slightly better.

"Guess we get to be the heroes and save the day?" Dante takes the binoculars and scopes the place out some more.

Jacob takes the big sack on his back and puts it on the ground. The sack unfolds and reveals a shit ton of weapons and other odds and ends.

"I scavenged and grabbed as much as I could." Jacob explains. We organize and lay out all of our weapons to see what we have. The five of us don't have much and things aren't looking great.

"We need a plan." I blurt out.

All of us unintentionally look straight a Leo without fully meaning to. It's kind of habit. Dante makes the stupidest and craziest plans. Tony follows Dante's plan, but he's not all muscle. He just prefers to leave the planning to other people. Leo, on the other hand, is the one who makes the serious plans that always turn out brilliant. Quite frankly, Leo is the most cunning one, which may add to why he's going to take over the business. Well, whatever is left of it. I'm sure Leo will be able to restore our power quickly with that brain of his.

Leo has his thinking face on currently. We watch patiently as he mulls over the current situation and tries to think of something.

"V," Leo snaps back to attention and calls me. "How are your injuries?

"I'm fine enough." I reply. The effects of the drug on my arm has long faded away, but my arm currently is functional. My leg could be better, though it might cap my strength and speed a bit.

"Good enough to climb?" He asks.

"Yes, I can." I nod.

"Good. You and Jacob will scope out the area and do surveillance." He says. "You know the drill."

Jacob makes a small face. He probably doesn't like being stuck on surveillance duty.

Leo then turns to Tony, "weapons. Get us ready." Oh yeah, Tony is quite a talented engineer/mechanic. He can make anything with his brain.

"Dante, you'll stay with me." Leo says afterward.

"Ugh, of course I get stuck with the old grump." Dante grumbles.

Leo just looks at him.

"Kidding. Take a joke." Dante grins.

"Now is not the time to joke." Leo sighs. He turns to the rest of us, "Get back an hour after sundown. GO."

Jacob and I start towards the small camp.

"You know, I used to get lost so many times here." I tell Jacob as we climb up the trees. "I would climb up the trees, but forget where I was. It's pretty much a forest here."

"We need to go closer." Jacob nods at me.

"This is the closest we can get without their guards spotting us." I mention.

Jacob goes silent for a few seconds before he leaps onto another branch. I follow after him carefully. By now, the sun has almost completely set so we are hidden well.

I scan the camp and count the number of people and hostages. Jacob and I surveillance the scene to the best of our abilities.

"I see 26 hostages. That's a lot more than I expected. There are three groups of hostages. One is my parents. The other ten are people who are more "higher ranked." The third I am still not sure of their purpose there." I comment.

"The third mostly consists of women and children." Jacob lets the statement sink in. "So your parents are the most heavily guarded of the three. However, all three groups have at least five men stationed around them. You see that tent there?" He nods towards the tent that is in the center. The hostages surround the tent.

"I'm assuming that's Alfredo and his closer men are at. I've seen similar defenses to this one. However, this is well defended."

I search the entire camp. I don't see many openings since the circular formation the camp is set up in protects from the inside and outside.

"We must resort to attacking from that corner." Jacob and I say at the same time.

"You're thinking what I'm thinking?" Jacob gives a small smile.

"Yep. I think Tony might love this. We will need some bigger guns." I nod.

We leap between the tree branches, using the thick leaves and foliage to cover ourselves. Eventually, we get back to my brothers quickly.

It's quiet and dark as we approach them.

"What took you so long?" Leo snaps at me as he glances up.

"Chill bro," I say. "We are only a few minutes late."

He merely sighs before gathering all of us together. We sit in a circle and begin collaborating. Jacob and I discuss what we saw. Tony enthusiastically flashes us with his new weapons with stupid names but incredible functions. Leo and Dante discuss their plan, which is edited to adjust to Jacob and my new information.

The plan decided is to storm the camp of course. However, Dante is in charge of getting all the hostages out. Tony is in charge of taking out the first line of defense so that we can have easier access. Leo has made some calls and stretched his connections to see who is nearby. He has some small families that haven't been wiped out who are willing to put up a fight. They are already on their way here. Jacob and I are supposed to sit back. However, we immediately argued against it. Now, Jacob and I are going to be fighting to get to Alfredo.

Pretty much: get Alfredo sauce and rescue the hostages. The details don't really need to be known. I have selective hearing anyways. I'm sure Leo's plan was brilliant but I tuned out after he told me I had a shot at getting Alfredo.

"Leo!" A group of people wave and head our ways. The five of us instinctively stand up and point all our weapons at the people. As we see their faces, we put down our guns and grin. My brothers and I almost run towards the men who approach us.

"Niccolo!" I beam as I see him with his twin brother. I grew up with the two of them but I haven't seen them in such a long time.

"What about me?" Lorenzo rubs my hair affectionately.

"Thank god the two of you are alive!" I hug them together, but the two of them are so buff I cannot wrap my arms around them.

"How rude," Niccolo frowns. "We aren't that easy to get killed off."

"Well, when I heard about your family, they said there were no survivors." I state sadly.

"We are the only two to make it out. We hid that fact." Lorenzo nods solemnly.

"But we are here to fight against this bastard who has attacked us and the entire family." Niccolo and Lorenzo stand up rigidly and show a serious expression.

The two of them greet Leo with hugs before sitting next to the rest of the people. The circle grows as more people either find fallen tree trunks or rocks to sit on. Most end up standing. I stand in awe as I see almost forty people stand here. I didn't know there were so many people who didn't get killed by Alfredo. I mean all i heard was that Alfredo tried to wipe out all the Riccas' connections and nearly did.

By the time the joyous reunions end, we grow silent as Leo stands in the middle. The moonlight shines upon him and makes him seem eery.

"First of all, I would like to thank you all for coming. It was short notice, I know. I apologize." Leo begins. "But we all came for the same cause and similar reasons. We are here to protect our family and avenge their deaths. We are here to avenge our loved ones and our lost ones. I would go on, but we must get started if we are to have the chance of catching them by surprise."

He takes a deep breath. "Despite the significant amount of people we have gathered here, it is still not enough. Each and every one of you are skilled and cunning. However, our opponents are also as skilled. They have twice our numbers. Yet, we have a plan..." he trails off as Dante takes over. The two of them take turn as they discuss the plans.

Then, i feel Jacob tap my shoulder. "Wake up."

I blink and realize I dozed off a little. "How long was I out?"

" A couple minutes."He responds. "Let's go. We are heading out. Here," he passes me a black hoodie as he sees me shiver. I grab it and pull it on; i feel warm instantly.

"Thanks," I smile at him.

He nods curtly before grabbing some weapons. I watch as he checks his guns and reload them. Then, he grabs a worn knife I've never seen before from his back. It must have been tucked there hidden from sight. He takes the knife out of its sheeth and it glints in the night. I admire his fluidness as he warms up his wrists with the knife. I can't lie but say his deadly expression makes him look hot, but I toss the thought aside.

I take out my set of knives and check their conditions. I always make sure they are cleaned and sharpened after I use them. I also do some warm-up exercises. I glance at Jacob once more and see him staring at me.

"What?" I look at him.

"Nothing," he shakes his head with an unreadable expression.

"Let's go." He squeezes my shoulder. We walk to my brothers.

"Don't die." All of us say to each other at the same time.

"I call dibs on your car if you do. " Dante says to Leo.

"Shut up you idiot." Leo punches his shoulder.

"Fine, whoever has the least amount of injuries does laundry." Dante grins evilly.

"Really?" I roll my eyes. "How about whoever has the least injuries is stuck with repairment duties?"

"Deal." Dante agrees wholeheartedly.

"Sometimes you guys..." Leo grumbles under his breath.

"Deal." Tony agrees.

We stare at Leo, who mutters, "There's no point in betting. I'm going to win, so let's add in laundry too."

We can't help but laugh. After the laughter dies down, we stick our hands in a circle and do our Ricca handshake. It's just a couple steps we do before something serious happens.

"Alright. Let's do this." I crack my knuckles and roll out my kinks. I look to Jacob and grimace.

_________

A/N

I got a new computer :D I saved up my money and bought a Mac lol. It's so beautiful and convenient to use.

Thanks for all the comments :P and support!

hope you enjoyed

comment!

critique!

vote if you liked :D

suggestions?

ahhhhh title change is still TBA and TBD.

Finals next week. i'm going to go study. I have so many finals because they are for AP exams, which I also need to study.

I'll probably be invisible and MIA and just missing in general because of the amount of studying i gotta do lol

QUESTION!!!!!!!! who do you imagine to be Shay? actress, model, etc.,