Note: Writing Nicholas from Wife by choice name as Sr. Nicholas because of the confusion we might get from him and his son's name (Nicholas and Nicholson)

"Are you okay?" Gabby asks Ricardo as he walks towards the bed and lies down with a pain of groan.

"My legs are killing me" he replies and she puts the file away making her way towards him.

"Why don't we go to the hospital get you some pain killers?" she asks and he puts his hand away from his forehead to stare at her.

"No, it will be fine. Sometimes pain is good" he points and she sits beside him.

"How many more weeks?" she asks touching the back of his hand.

"One more week" he answers.

"Any news on Rich?" she asks and he shakes his head no.

"I have asked Nicholson to see if he can something and Damien has been trying to track him down"

"I am sure he is fine" she points and he sighs as he gets up.

"He better be, mom has been worried sick, we all are, I don't even know how to get hold of him" he sighs rubbing his head and Gabby puts her arm around him.

"I am sure we get hold of him. Naomi is with him"

"That is what worries me even more, he should have contacted me or anyone by now"

"Let's be hopeful for now" she states and he nods as he turns his face to stare at her before their lips meet silently.

"How's work?" he asks her and she rubs his back before letting him walk towards the drawer to pull out fresh clothes.

"Going on"

"I heard you met few of the investors, how was it?" he asks and she makes her way towards the file she had, she shakes it showing him.

"Researching on them" she groans making him chuckle.

"Ryman being any help?" he asks her and she groans.

"Yes, but I like your help more" she points.

"Is he giving you hard time?" he asks and Gabby sits down on the chair.

"Hard time, he is very strict with work, it's so different seeing him here at home, all playful but back at work he is so very strict" she sighs.

"We cannot always be playful and too friendly at work place, Precious" he points as he grabs the towel.

"Want to join?" he asks and she shakes her head no.

"I need to submit a report to Ry, by the end of the day" she points and he nods his head as he hops towards the bathroom.

*********

Drying his hair Ricardo makes his way towards the bed when his phone rings, grabbing it he sees an unknown number so he hurries to take it.

"What the hell, Rich?" Ricardo shouts as soon as he receives the call.

"I did not know it would be this messy, Rick" Richard sighs and Ricardo stays quiet through the phone.

"The man was already dead when I reached the room, and the one who killed him had come back, we both saw each other, I had no choice, I was outnumbered"

"Are you hurt?" Ricardo asks worried.

"I am good"

"Naomi Storm?" Ricardo asks.

"She was in the same hotel; it was an accident. Before I knew she got dragged, could not leave her behind"

"Yeah, saw the news"

"Mom?" Richard asks and Ricardo rubs his face.

"Could not cover your ass on that part, she has been pacing and shouting at dad"

"Shit"

"Wherever you are, just get out of there, I am sure our lines are been tracked. But even so, back up is on the way. You just stay alive until it reaches you. About the news, don't worry, I will deal with it" Ricardo assures.

"I did not kill him" Richard points.

"I know, we don't do messy, Rich. Now, stay put and hidden also, don't let the girl kill you" Ricardo jokes making Richard smiles.

"I have no idea how she got mixed"

"Well, seeing how she had your back, I am glad she got mixed. Stay safe" Ricardo states as he feels better knowing Richard was safe.

*********

"Dad?" Ricardo calls his father as soon as the phone got connected.

"How's mom?" he asks first.

"She is asleep, worried" Richie sighs.

"Rich called" he informs and waits for his father's word when it does not come he continues.

"We need a team to cover him" Ricardo asks.

"He is somewhere where our team cannot reach Rick" Richie states.

"Cannot reach or won't reach?" Ricardo asks his father.

"He is in Lucero's territory"

"And he is alone dad, they are going to get him and kill him, you know, I know, we all know" Ricardo argues.

"I know, this is why...let me make some calls" Richie sighs.

********

Ricardo paces around the room thinking what he can do, he stops pacing when Gabby walks in the room with a plate of food.

"What do you want for dinner?" she asks as she grabs a piece of apple and puts near his mouth so he opens and have it.

"Anything is fine" he states.

"I have work, you are injured and pizza will have to do" she points as she goes to the desk she set and gets to her work.

"Fine, by me" he mumbles.

Stepping out of the room, he closes the door behind as he calls Nicholson talking to him, he send the number for Videl to track it.

After a moment, he gets a call from his father.

"Damien wants to meet us" Richie points and Ricardo sighs.

"When?" he asks.

"As soon as we can" he replies.

"How about now?" Ricardo asks.

"It's late and..."

"We can meet them at Nick's I am sure whatever it is, they want Nick in"

"What about Gabby?" Richie asks.

"Ry, he will keep her occupied" he points before he cuts the line and turns to find Gabby standing behind.

"I need to go out, Ry will be here" he points without a blink knowing she heard him.

"Yeah, need to be occupied, Rare" she states and he just walks back towards their room, not wanting to have the discussion as his mind was already spinning.

"Because it's Richard's life on line, I will let it slip, but know it won't be forgotten" Gabby informs as he walks near her and he raises his hand to touch the back of her head as he drops a kiss.

"I know" he whispers as he gets in the room to get ready.

********

Walking inside of Nicholson's house, Ricardo finds almost all of the men inside, he greets them before taking the seat.

"How's the leg?" Nicholson asks.

"Better, how are things at your part?" Ricardo asks.

"Good" he points before Nonna walks in with Tyson and Videl with some refreshments.

"Nonna" Ricardo smiles greeting the woman who smiles at him.

"You all make sure you eat even if the conversation is hot, don't let the food be cold" she points as she wishes them goodnight and leaves them all to have their discussion.

Videl grabs a glass and makes her way to sit beside Nicholson.

"Okay, now that everyone is here, Videl can you connect us to Rolfe and Arson?" Damien asks and the girl nods as she connects the two men.

"Can you hear us?" Videl asks the men.

"Yeah, is everyone in?" Arson asks.

"Rolfe and I, we are together" Arson replies.

"Did you get the location stat, Videl sent you all?" Senior Nicholas asks.

"Yes" Arson replies.

"Okay, send some men there, Arson" Sr. Nicholas orders.

"Within an hour, the men will be dispatched" Arson states.

"Rolfe, it's a surprise to us too that your daughter got involved" Damien speaks.

"As long as no harm comes their way, it is okay" Rolfe speaks.

"Richard is trained, he will not let any harm come her way" Richie assures.

"Naomi can take care of herself if need arises, until they are outnumbered, hope they are not" Rolfe sighs.

*********

"The get together is more about the truth the kids need to know rather than damage control" Damien starts as he looks around the room specifically towards Ricardo, Nicholson and Tyson.

"Truth?" Nicholson frowns as he eyes his father who has his eyes set on the screen towards Arson and Rolfe rather than him.

"Is it time?" Arson asks and Sr. Nicholas nods his head.

"Okay" Arson nods before Nicholas eyes his son.

"Few decades ago, when not even you were born, we had set out a plan" Sr. Nicholas starts and both Nicholson as well as Ricardo moves to the edge of the chair.

"You all must know about how Arson and his brother as well as Rolfe and his wife, they all left our territory" Sr. Nicholas points out and pauses to check the boys in the room.

"Arson has always been the only trusted men in the family, he and Kyle both have been total stranger who are not a part of our family. When he married my sister, Nicole, we did not know we would be saying our goodbye to her as well, because she was to not be part of this plan...

You all must be aware of the long silent feud between our family and others, right now namely Lucero. But this feud is not just with them. Our family, as you all know we were not always on the right track, our hands are stained with blood...

Ever since we tried to get out of this illegal business, it has been a tiring motion. We lost our fathers in this fight and we lost one of our brother Sr. Damon. I almost lost my wife, Kathleen tried to kill Pop and well things were not so different for Gabe and Amelia, illegal business was done in name of Amelia by her twin, who was partnered to the man named Salvatore...

Pop's death has shocked us all, it was as if we did not know where we should head to. But what we knew was where ever it was it won't be against law. By then we had our own new generation blooming. There were few men who tried to trick us out and we let them walk freely because we wanted to grab the leader of the circus...

So, it was a plan set by Pop and leaded by us. Rolfe was to join hands with Lia, work with her to help us shut the system down. We have already set Kyle out of our family before Arson followed him...

Unfortunately, on doing so the women in their lives got dragged too. Richie was supposed to be part of the plan but it did not go well for him. When Nicole found, she refused to let Arson walk away alone and that is why she left, we had to cut ties with her and to make it believable we had to kept our distance...

The security company running under Arson's watch is being financed by Price, Richie is a silent partner in it. Rolfe has set his roots but even after all this time, all these efforts we have yet to get Lucero's trust, who right now sits at the throne commanding the troops...

After the death of Salvatore Lucero himself took command, the death of Salvatore is still very suspicious and unknown but from what we learned, his only daughter Flora, she did not even mourn for him. She was the one who came and took away Lilac, Richie's daughter...

Leah, Lia's daughter who was adopted by Rolfe has been married to the elder son Leon Lucero, he is right now running all the finance backing up the Lucero family. Their second son Liam Lucero, he is a well-known artist, he has shown no interest in the family business, their third son, Lance Lucero is handling the business but their fourth son is the problem...

Lucas Lucero, he handles the dirty business of the family, he is clever, foul-mouthed and downright a dirty player. Among these the other remaining sons have yet to come out to play in the real world...

Good thing Flora Lucero had a guilty conscience. We will take full advantage of it and I am not even guilty about that" Sr. Nicholas finishes.

*********

"I had set Richard in a certain department which I knew was under us but worked for Lucero. And now that his cover is blown him getting attack is least of our worries. Too much time invested, too much players out...

Once we get hold of Richard, he will be pulled out, not just from this but from his work" Damien finalizes.

"Why did you all not say anything about this to us?" Nicholson asks his father.

"Because you kids can only digest food not this shit" Gabriel speaks for the first time.

"This is ridiculous, you knew we would have been of help" Nicholson argues.

"And we need all of your focus in our territory not theirs!" Sr. Nicholas snaps at his son.

"But..."

"You walked in there like you know what you all were walking into; we have been busting our asses off for decades to know their system and we have not cracked a fucking shit. We had to rush things and call this meeting because of your stupid moves! You did not even think to consult about this once" Sr. Nicholas scolds his son.

*********

"It's my fault" Ricardo speaks.

"You bet your ass it was" Sr. Nicholas scoffs.

"Then why did you let us do what we wanted if you were going to lecture us?" Nicholson asks his father.

"Fool's errand" Damien speaks making them stare at him.

"You cannot call it fool's errand when we did something none of you could, we got a business agreement" Ricardo points.

"You think we are not business partners because we could not get one? That's where you are wrong, Price has hold of the best weapons in the goddamn world...

Just because we are not in the streets does not mean we don't know" Sr. Nicholas scoffs.

"Fine, we made a fool decision, but if we were that much of a fool, why did you not stop us?"

"Because we were part of their ploy, right?" Nicholson asks as he eyes his father.

"Maybe a business deal with them won't harm" Sr. Nicholas states with a shrug of his shoulder and Nicholson moves back on the seat.

"Lucero have drugs, sex traffickers but they lack weapons, they may not use it but their goons need it" Nicholson points with as the upper lip of his mouth moves.

"Because Price's weapon is easily tracked down, each bullet counts" Sr. Nicholas nods.

"But why would they need their bullet count?" Tyson speaks interested.

"Easy, because Lucero's throne is being shaking, they are dealing with betrayals from their own"

"The first attack on Ricardo was a proof enough, it took them, days to track the attacker and if it was a bullet from ours, they would have the attacker within their grasp in less than an hour...

Do you know what always fascinated me when I was handling business?" Sr. Nicholas asks as he looks around the room.

"Now, he is showing off" Gabriel grins.

"I knew each bullet that was drawn out. When you have such control on the weapons your men use, you know exactly when and where the outsider bullet was fired. When you control the entire weaponry of your place, it's easier to track down the one bullet that was not fired from your gun...

It gets easier to know who smuggled the guns and bullets inside of the town when there is just one manufacturer and distributor, but when you have many of them it's get difficult to track it down" Sr. Nicholas explains.

"So, that is why they were eager with the deal" Nicholson frowns.

"And that is why Price never does business with just anyone no matter how much the offer is mouthwatering" Sr. Nicholas points and Videl claps her hands cheering.

"Goosebumps everywhere. I am so excited this is way better than sitting in HP and waiting for action" she cheers making the men chuckle.

**********

"What now?" Ricardo asks.

"Arson will send a group following Richard and he will not be informed about it, we need him to play his game so they focus on him"

"What will we do about Lucero?"

"Let them be, once Lilac is back, we will make a move" Damien points.

"Don't we have Paige with them, she is Arson's daughter right?" Ricardo asks raising a brow in suspicion.

"Let's just say, she is our Ace, no one sees her, no one bothers her, no one touches her and she won't do shit until the need arises. Paige asks you to back off, you do without a word, she asks you to jump off the cliff and you won't even blink" Damien orders.

"And if she asks you to fart, we all hide our nose" Gabriel adds.

"What the fuck Gabe?" everyone groans.

"What, you all were being too damn serious for my liking, I am too old to be this miserable" Gabriel counters.

"Now that it's all out, none of you even breathe near a Lucero until we say. Richie the next meeting with Flora you make sure we got Lilac back. Once she is back home, our plan sets in motion" Damien asks before he eyes each of the men.

"Any questions or confusion, DM me" Damien winks at the group before he cuts the line with Arson and Rolfe.

"Videl, good job girl. Now, you peep a word about tonight to any of our missus, we will wrap you up and courier you to your father's doorsteps" Damien threatens the girl.

"That's mean and anyways I know my Cole, he will never let me go" she pokes her tongue out.

"Aww cute, then we will kick his ass to your father's house, I am sure he will love some wolves company" Damien grins and Videl wraps her arms around Nicholson.

"Meanie Mean" she shouts at Damien who laughs.