Kill.
Maim.
Torture.
Nope. That’s not the right order and my head is throbbing as I feel the grip of hands pulling me out of a wrecked car. Gun shots ring out from somewhere in the distance as I stare up at a familiar face.
‘Hey Scarface. What are you doing here?’ I ask Alessandro as my mind battles delirium.
‘Here to stop a war. Come on. You’re okay.’ Alessandro grunts and grimaces as he drags my body away from the wreckage. ‘Ren! Jinx! I need it. He needs it! Hurry up.’
‘What do I need?’ I barely get the question out before I see Lorenzo, consigliere of the De Luca family pull out a knife. Alessandro grins as he takes it and slices the fabric of my pants. The sharpness of the pinch when he pierces my thigh with a shot of adrenaline opens my eyes wider than they’ve ever been.
I feel like a new man as the synthetic chemical surges through me.
‘Armande!’ I shout to him.
Alessandro grips me by the shoulder. ‘He’s not dead, but he’s not going anywhere either.’
‘What are you doing here?’ I ask him.
‘Damage control. I should have listened to you weeks ago. Ever since we sanctioned the revenge hit, Saul’s been pulling out of our joint ventures. From all of La Familia. He’s gone rogue and we’re here to help in any way you need,’ Alessandro answers.
I nod and grab the back of my head.
‘I need a phone,’ I tell him, and one is handed to me immediately. I call Lia’s phone first. Frankie picks up and I feel sick. ‘Where is she?’
‘Saul has them. He said he wants twenty million in his account by the end of the day and to call Dimitri for his account information,’ Frankie rambles out. ‘I’m sorry, Val. I tried to get them to safety.’
‘Not now Frankie. Look, Armande is hurt bad. I just want him to have a friendly face at the hospital when he wakes up. I’m going to have him airlifted to the private wing at Cedar Bailey. You’ll be put on the all-access list, okay? I need you to go there and stay there. I need you safe in case Saul decides to double back and take you for collateral.’
‘Okay, I’m leaving now.’
‘Good. Text me at this number when you get there,’ I command and hang up.
I turn to Alessandro and two others whose faces are blurring as my vision comes in and out of focus.
‘He probably has a concussion,’ Lorenzo says.
‘Probably?’ the other guy replies. ‘That shit looks like a crushed tuna can. He probably has eight.’
‘That’s not how concussions work, Jenkins,’ Lorenzo says.
‘Where would Saul take them? Where would he take my family?’ I ask no one.
The phone rings, and it’s Lia’s number calling back. I answer it. ‘Yeah.’
‘Val, they took a lot of the baby’s stuff, like enough to last a few days. They took the baby monitor too. I don’t know if that helps,’ Frankie says quietly.
‘It does. Thanks. Get to the hospital,’ I tell him.
I start fumbling through the phone and call Cecilia. She’s not picking up and I remember she’s in the fucking courthouse. I call a few of my soldiers and one member of my staff that I trust almost as much as Armande. I don’t want to call him because he’s been out on a job for nearly a year and desperately needs the time off, but if I can’t have Armande, I have to call him in.
‘Anything else we can do for you, Val?’ Alessandro asks. We both know that time is of the essence.
I hold up a finger to hush them, hoping that he picks up. The grouchiness in his voice tells me he was asleep. It’s definitely akin to waking a bear.
‘Go for Kane.’ The burly voice sounds like he chews rocks for breakfast.
I run down a recap and commands. ‘Armande is down, getting medevaced to Cedar Bailey. My wife and daughter have been taken. I need someone to get to my office. There’s an emergency code, Alpha Sigma Sigma Echo Torture. Track their locations and log into the baby monitor app.’
‘Baby monitor? App?’ He questions, sleep still in his voice.
‘I need you mobile right now, Kane. Move your ass. There’s a record option on the monitor, back up the last 24 hours and record the next 72 hours to my private server, just in case. The app also shows the point of origin and gets you location pings if you can’t pinpoint the bracelets. I swear to God she better have that shit on,’ I growl to myself.
‘I’m on it. I’ll be in your office in ten minutes.’
‘Did you sleep at HQ? You know what? It doesn’t matter. Thank you. As soon as you get the coordinates, text them to me at this number and then put boots on the ground directly to whatever location they’re at. Everyone in there dies but my wife and daughter. Copy?’
‘Copy that, boss.’ Kane hangs up as paramedics work on the victims at the scene. I give Alessandro’s men the update, with one staying behind to ensure Armande gets airlifted to the hospital and the other going into his trunk for a bag of tools. We’re able to free my own wet work bag from the wreckage.
I stare into the car that rammed into us from behind. The driver’s through the windshield. Eyes turned up with death and blood spilling from his mouth. I truthfully don’t feel anything for him.
I trot over to Armande. He’s moaning and trying to move against the orders of the people working on him.
‘Bro, calm down,’ I tell him.
‘Hey, no fair, you get to walk,’ he says deliriously.
‘Your leg is broken and so is your arm. I can see the bones, Armande.’
He groans. ‘This shit fucking hurts like a bitch. I can’t believe you enjoy feeling this way.’
‘Shh. I woke up Kane for this. You go get your bones put back into your body. I’m going to go get Lia and Ava.’
‘Kill that asshole. Fuck a war—’
‘Hey, buddy, we’re outside,’ I tell him, warning him to watch what he says with civilians around. I tap the paramedic on the shoulder and start changing my clothes. A pair of black pants, canvas and padded along with some boots and every holster I can imagine. Alessandro tosses the keys of his car to Lorenzo and says he’s going to hang back to answer questions regarding the accident and the people in it who belong to La Familia.
Inside the car, Lorenzo drives us away from the scene so I can finish gearing up.
‘Were you there when his wife was taken?’ I ask him.
Lorenzo nods. ‘It wasn’t a good time for him, but Evelyn? She’s good for him. She was worth saving.’
It doesn’t take us long to get to the coordinates that come through the phone from Kane. He has eyes in the sky with drones overhead and a tactical vehicle on the way. We’re in a secluded neighborhood, which is fine for witnesses, but it would take law enforcement or any other kind of first responders too long to get here. We have to be in and out.
We hang back to see if anyone’s watching for us. He’d be stupid not to have scouts, and sure enough, the messages come through the phone that I’ve put on silent for now.
Four lookout points. Two teams on the perimeter. Heat signal counts six bodies inside, one is tiny.
Heat is good. Heat means life. It doesn’t mean that they’re not hurt, but I can take this one step at a time. I text back.
Gonna call in for delivery confirmation and stall. We wait until nightfall if we can.
Kane sends a text message back.
Copy.
There’s nothing that’s going to stop me from killing Saul Caputo. I can’t wait to put a bullet through his brain because this shit is unforgivable.
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