“If you don’t do it now or soon, they’ll keep coming at you.”

“Yeah, probably.”

“Then you know what you have to do.”

“Right.” I took a seat on the other side of the bed, as far away from him as possible. “I wish we could attack them with all we’ve got, but we’re not ready for such a big move. All we can do is give them a little swat on the hand. Maybe attack one of their stash houses or steal one of their shipments to replace the one that was taken from us.”

“It would have to be a small but powerful attack. Hit them where it hurts them most, or go after Romeo Desalti and his closest men. Without Romeo, it won’t be easy for the Desaltis to continue their business.”

“Why do you think that? Romeo’s in charge, but he isn’t the only member of the Desalti family.” I’d forgotten what the Desaltis’ family tree looked like, but I believed Romeo had a large family.

“They’re not all as involved in his business as he is,” James said. “They might not even be interested to continue it if he dies, but even if they do, his brothers aren’t that capable at business and it’ll be much easier to defeat them than Romeo. They don’t have the connections their brother has, and people won’t instantly trust them just because they’re Desaltis.”

I ran my hand through my hair. “It would be great if we could get rid of Romeo, but he’s well-protected and hard to get to. He sticks to his area, and he’s safe there. If we go into the Desaltis’ zone, they’ll see us coming and they’ll be ready. We can’t fight them in their own territory. It’s too risky.”

“Then catch them out of their territory.”

“Do you really think that’ll be easy?”

“No, but when you get the opportunity, seize it.” He closed the book on his lap and placed it on the nightstand.

“Am I distracting you too much?” I asked.

A smile stretched across his lips. “Not at all.”

“Great. Then come with me so we can plot the Desaltis’ demise.” I got to my feet and curled my finger at him in an invitation. He rose from the bed and followed me to the door. I took him to one of the smaller rooms that had a big table in the middle of it with a huge map of the city on it.

“What’s this?” James asked as he circled around the table, curiosity filling his eyes.

“What do you think it is?” I stopped next to him.

“A game.” He grinned as he lifted one of the board game figures that were all over the map.