Wicked

1

Fifteen Years Later....

"Bro, come on. You promised," Ian whined. Alex ran his hand through his jet-black hair and sighed. "I'm sorry, man. My father wants to see me."

At the mention of Mr. Antonelli, Ian's expression dimmed. "Go, then. I'm not picking a fight with your dad." Alex smirked. "Scared of him?"

His childhood friend rolled his eyes, mussing up his light brown hair. "To be honest, yeah. He really scares me. Plus, I can tell that he doesn't like me. You're the only thing that keeps him from murdering me in my sleep."

Alex gave Ian a crooked smile. "See, where would you be without me?"

"I'm seventeen, and so are you, which means that we can both handle ourselves in a fight," Ian informed him acidly.

Alex opened his mouth to reply when the comms unit in his ear crackled and he heard his father. "Alex, come NOW! It's urgent!"

"Gotta go," Alex threw over his shoulder. He set off at a full sprint towards his dad's office. The hallways were full of the Rattlesnake gang members, who inclined their heads in respect for the gang boss's son.

"Qué pasa, amigo?" Raúl, one of the younger men, waved. Alex, who didn't know much Spanish, waved and replied, "Emergency for my dad. Gotta go!"

He sprinted down the hall until he reached the office. There was a four-digit password required for entry, and Alex punched in 1-9-7-2. The keypad lit up green, and there was a click as the heavy steel door unlocked itself.

As soon as he entered, albeit quietly, his father swiveled around in his chair. "Alex! Come here, we have an emergency mission." He turned a laptop to face his son.

Alex peered at the laptop screen. "What building is this blueprint for?" James Antonelli pursed his lips. "Purvis Building." Alex frowned. Purvis Building was where a law office was located, nothing more. "Why is this an emergency mission?"

"Because one of Black Veil's members are in trouble, so they're going to break into the office and remove all evidence that implicates their boy," Alex's father explained. Black Veil was a rival gang, the equivalent of Rattlesnake's archenemy. Alex had been raised to hate their very being, to ferret out ways he could plague their existence.

Alex's father had been best friends with the leader of Black Veil once, as teenagers. They'd broken their friendship as they journeyed into adulthood, however, and had completely nullified the relationship. As far as either of them were concerned, the leader of the rival gamg was a stranger, and they were determined to keep things that way.

He realized his father was waiting for him to answer. "But why does that involve us?"

"Because there is evidence from our last case in that office, and we are going to destroy it before they get their hands on it. They could do dangerous things to bring us down," his father warned. Alex studied him. God, since when had he gotten so old-looking? White hairs sprouted from his head of curly brown hair, and Alex frowned. When had that happened?

As usual, Mr. Antonelli's training as a naval captain hadn't left him; his posture was ramrod straight in his chair and his strong jaw was tensed.

"So you're going to lead a team there, burn the evidence, and get the hell out of there fast. Got it, boy?"

Alex smiled. "I'm on it." His father smiled back affectionately. "Good boy. Everything you need is in the cars and the men are waiting for you. Murphy has the file, you can read it on the way there."

Alex nodded and jogged out of the office. On his way to the door of the base, he was stopped by Ian. "Dude, so everything okay?" Alex shrugged. "As okay as it should be. Just another mission. I'll catch you later."