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Donovan Burke has work to do. The Giambattista Crime Family has a shipment of weapons coming in in four hours and he plans to be there to stop it. He arms himself with his two Glocks, a shotgun, six knives, his favorite Desert Eagle and extra clips for everything. He's got more weapons in the van, but this is what he leaves home with nightly.

He steps outside his apartment, checking the hallway left and right, and finds a young boy, not more than ten, looking up at him from two doors down as he locks his door. The boy looks at him pitifully, before turning his head in the other direction.

Burke does not miss the large purple bruise on the side of the boy's face as he does so. He's seen the guy that come to this kid's apartment every other day. Heavy set Filipino guy with courage that comes simply from being bigger and stronger than everyone he meets.

For a moment, Donovan tells himself he's not going to get involved. This isn't worth exposing himself.

But he hates people who hurt kids.

"Hey, man. You okay?" Donovan asks, walking down the hall toward him. The boy instinctively cringes, expecting an attack. That settled it.

"The big guy who comes to your house...did he do this to you? Is he your dad?" Burke asks.

The boy doesn't say anything, looking down at the floor.

"Look, buddy. I don't like people who hurt kids or their mothers. If you tell me what happened, I'll make it stop." Burke says. The boy doesn't say anything for a long, long time, but finally, he speaks up.

"He hits us when we don't do what he says and he lets his friends hit my mom. He's not my dad. I hate him." the boy says.

"What's your name?"

"Alfredo." the boy says.

"What's his name?"

"Big Cesar." Alfred says. Donovan nods.

"All right, Alfredo. Call me Burke. Look, I want you to take this money and go down to the corner store. Get some milk and eggs, then get yourself as much junk-food as you want. The only thing I want you to do is wait about ten or twenty minutes before coming home." Donovan says, pulling a sixty-dollars out of a pocket of his cargo pants.

"And I want you spend every cent of this money, Alfredo. Is that clear?" Burke asks.

Alfredo nods briskly, his expression unsure of what's going on here. But he takes the cash and gets up to go. He's not even down the stairs when the door opens and Big Cesar is looking around the hallway.

"ALFREDO! GET YOUR LITTLE ASS IN HERE!" Cesar yells, slurring his speech as he looks around the hall.

Donovan punches him in the throat before the man even looks over toward him. Then he kicks him in the groin, earning a high-pitched groan as Cesar doubles over. Burke walks over him, into the apartment, then pulls the man back inside the house.

Between moans, Ceasar groans asks who he is and why he's doing this, but Burke ignores him. He goes to the window sill across the room, flips the latch, and pushes the window upward.

Then walks over, grabs Cesar by the hair and pulls him to the window, putting his head under the sill.

A woman comes out of the back room to see what's happening and Burke looks at her, recognizing her as Alfredo's mother.

"Miss, is this man hurting you or your son?" Burke asks.