— “So far, yeah.”
Then it happened. One evening, as Andrew was walking home from work, a car started following him. A black SUV with tinted windows. Andrew noticed it immediately. He turned into an alley, and the car followed. Another turn—still there. Andrew stopped near an old garage, got out, and made a show of checking his phone. The SUV stopped twenty yards away. The doors opened, and two men got out. Large men in athletic gear, hands in their pockets. Hired muscle.
Andrew put his phone away and looked at them. One of them approached and said:
— “Sullivan, we have a message. The deal is off; you know too much. You need to leave town. Voluntarily or otherwise.” His voice was flat and emotionless.
Andrew smirked:
— “Who sent you? Bennett?”
The man nodded:
— “Doesn’t matter who. What matters is what. You have three days. Leave town—you live. Stay—you don’t.”
The second man stayed by the car, his hand inside his jacket. Clearly armed.
Andrew took a step forward:
— “Tell whoever sent you: I’m not going anywhere. This is my home. My mother is here. If they want a war, they’ll get one. But there won’t be any mercy. Not for them, not for their families. Got it?”
The man smirked:
— “Brave, but stupid. We aren’t the kids you’re used to fighting. We’re professionals.”
Andrew looked him in the eye:
— “So am I.”
The man shrugged, turned, and walked back to the car. He got in, and the SUV drove off.
Andrew pulled out his phone and dialed Gray:
— “We have a problem. Meeting. Now.”
An hour later, they were all at the shop: Andrew, Gray, Gus, and Lee. Andrew told them about the encounter. Gray lit a cigarette and exhaled slowly:
— “So they decided not to keep their word. Probably Bennett. He’s the angriest; his son is a cripple now.”
Gus nodded:
— “What’s the move?”
Andrew looked at them:
— “If we back down, they won’t stop. They’ll find a way to get to me, to my mother. If we keep going, it’s a real war. We won’t just be teaching kids a lesson; we’ll be dealing with serious people. Hired guns, weapons, maybe even a hit.”
Lee asked:
— “Are you ready for that?”
Andrew nodded:
— “I am. Но I don’t want to drag you into it. You’ve helped me enough, and I’m grateful. But this is my fight now. You can walk away.”
Gray smirked:
— “Forget it, we’re already in deep. If they get you, they’ll come for us too. We’re in this together.”
Gus and Lee nodded. Andrew exhaled:
— “Alright. Then we change tactics. Before, we only touched the kids. Now we have to hit the fathers. Hard. So they know we aren’t playing.”
Gray stubbed out his cigarette:
— “What do you have in mind?”
Andrew pulled out a notepad and started writing.
— “Bennett is the leader. He broke the deal first. So we start with him. He’s got a major construction site on the edge of town—a new luxury development. There’s equipment and materials there. If something happens to that site, he loses millions.”
Gus understood:
— “Burn it?”
Andrew nodded:
— “Not just burn it. Make sure it’s a total loss. Burn the heavy machinery. Blow the supply warehouse. Let him know we can destroy everything he’s built.”
Lee asked:
— “What about security?”
Andrew smiled coldly:
— “We’ll handle it. The key is to be fast and leave no trace.”
They began to prepare. Tomorrow night, the next phase would begin. This wasn’t just about revenge for his mother anymore. This was a fight for survival.
Bennett’s construction site was on the outskirts of town, right off the main highway. A massive project—a planned 300-unit luxury complex. Cranes, cement mixers, warehouses for materials, and worker trailers. During the day, it was a hive of activity. At night, it was silent. Security consisted of two men in a guard shack at the entrance, drinking coffee and staying warm.
Lee scouted the site during the day. That evening, he reported:
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