Sniping Her Mafia King
Chapter 20

At one in the morning, Arwen heard her phone's alarm and grimaced. She pulled her laptop and took it into the bathroom and set it on the counter. She logged into the Bellona site, found her instructions, and fought the giddy rush of excitement. She immediately accepted her assignment with a smug grin. They had known she would take it. Her team had already landed in Boston. She needed to make it to rendezvous. A car would be waiting in six minutes.

She went to her suitcase and pulled it into the bathroom and slid into all black gear. Her team would have everything she needed.

"Arwen?" Deidre sat up in her bed. "What are you doing?"

"Can't sleep. Cavallaro pissed me off. I need to go burn off energy." She lies with ease.

"It's one in the morning," she groaned and pulled the pillow over her face.

"Go to sleep. I'll be back for breakfast."

"Where are you going?"

"Gym up the street. It's a twenty-four-hour gym. I need to kick the s**t out of something." She shoved a black ball cap on her head

"You have it bad." Deidre groaned as she complained when Arwen insisted, she get up and lock the deadbolts to the room when she left

Nobody would ever enter the room because it was Bellona owned and with Arwen leaving, an agent would be stationed across the hall in case Deidre needed any kind of help but as part of the show, she made Deidre go through the motions.

She raced down the stairs and then jogged quietly down the street in the direction of the gym. It felt strange to go with nothing on her. No gear. No rifle. Plain clothes. She stepped into the gym and noted the woman working behind the counter. She gave a wave and made her way to the changing rooms.

She had done more than one mission in Boston, and she stepped into the shower stall and pressed the specific tiles in the specific order required and the wall slid sideways to let her through to a secret room behind the women's locker room. The door closed behind her, and she was met by a woman she didn't know who passed her a bag and motioned for her to use the stairs at the back of the room.

Arwen took the stairs and followed the corridor to the basement of a building across the street and five doors down. When she emerged, she came out the alley to meet her waiting car. She jumped into the back seat and nodded at Cat. "Sup." Jesse was behind the wheel as the car pulled out and down the street. "Six hours ago, local PD had a report of a pair of teenage girls who were meeting boys at the mall. Girls never showed. Boys called the girls parents to report them missing."

"Our team called bullshit," Isabella spoke from the passenger seat. "The online activities of these two idiots tell us they picked the girls up at school to take them to the mall. They dropped the girls off at a residence in a new but failed subdivision and then the boys went to the mall to make it look good."

"Girls aren't runaways?"

"One of the boys took a video of tying one of the girls up in a bedroom and talking about taking turns."

Arwen was confused. "I don't get it. They kidnap the girls and then take them to their house. Didn't PD search their house?"

"Not their house. The father of one of the boys is a real estate agent. They took the girls to a vacant listing. PD interrogated them for three hours but one of the guys is techy and he changed his phone tracking software to show he went home after school, picked up his friend and then went to the mall. They planned this."

Cat spoke up, "the entire neighborhood is vacant. Those girls could scream their heads off and nobody would hear them. Brand new subdivision but the investors pulled out and it's abandoned. Dogs for security. No nightwatchmen. These little bastards found the perfect spot to begin their careers as rapists."

"How old?"

"Boys are twenty. Girls both sixteen."

"They must have thought they were so cool having the older boys interested in them," Arwen sighed.

"They won't make the mistake again," Cat grunted angrily.

"Where are the boys now?"

"They were released to their parents two hours ago. Clara's been tracking their social media interactions. They're using a lesser-known chat app and they're supposed to sneak off around now to come get the girls. They put the girls in the house furthest from the rest." Isabella grinned suddenly at Arwen, "which is why we need you and your equipment and scope. A little distance will give us perspective."

The way she said the last phrase made Arwen tense up, "what is that supposed to mean?"

Jesse chuckled, "my cousin told me this afternoon he was glad you were out of town because a bit of distance might put things into perspective for you."

Arwen rolled her eyes hard, "bitches. I miss Naomi as my Alpha."

"She's in the office with Clara."

"Really? Arwen was surprised, "how come? Are we all being supervised for our first mission out?"

"Nah, she and Bliss tried to talk." Cat laughed at her joke. "I guess Bliss threatened to shoot her."

"Why?"

"Seems Alpha-two is a little jealous of Lolita," Jesse grinned over her shoulder at Arwen's hiss of surprise. "Right? Accused Bliss of wanting to take a sister-wife."

"No freaking way!" Arwen leaned forward. "Is Lolita gay?"

"No. Straight. Very straight. According to Naomi though, Bliss is very much, Lolita this and Lolita that."

"Poor Naomi." Arwen shook her head sadly

"Why poor Naomi? If a guy did this to me, I'd be on Bliss' side. Shoot him in the a*s. No room for jealousy." Isabella grunted.

Arwen and Jesse exchanged a look. "Naomi has always thought she wasn't good enough for Bliss." Arwen started digging through her bag and checking out her gear which had been assembled for her. "She's feeling vulnerable, and Bliss is a sniper. She's used to working alone and doing her own thing and just getting the job done. Naomi is jealous because suddenly Bliss wants to work with someone else instead of perched up in a nest all alone."

"I don't get it."

"Bliss went from enjoying working all alone to working with someone in an office. Naomi is jealous but not because she thinks Bliss wants Lolita. It's because Bliss never invited Naomi to her nest. Bliss isn't getting it."

"Oh," Cat made a face, "Bliss isn't receiving what Naomi is putting out."

"Exactly. Naomi isn't thinking Bliss wants a sister-wife, no matter what she said. Naomi's wishing her wife wanted to work with her instead of Lolita. She misses having her at her six, even if she denies it. They were a good team. Now her girl is on a team with another person. Bliss has probably already been through all of this when they split the team. Bliss went through the feelings of her wife working with someone else when Bliss retired. Naomi never had to deal with it because Bliss was home with the baby and not working with another woman. Not so much now."

"You've been spending too much time in Psych-One's office." Isabella commented.

"Can't even deny it." She grinned. "I almost shot Alpha-Three. Got my knuckles rapped."

"Still have the earache from the whistle of the bullet." Jesse flipped her off.

"After the past couple of weeks, I'm really wishing I had shot him." Arwen grimaced.

"That bad?" Cat asked with a smirk.

"He wants me to agree to rules of dating a mafia king."

"Seriously? What kind of rules?" Isabella turned almost fully in the seat now.

"No talking to the press. Making sure if the feds approach, I let him know." The women nodded, "never speaking back to him in public or in front of his men."

"Wait, what?" Isabella hissed incredulously as Cat and Jesse chortled with glee, both already having heard the story. "He did not tell you that."

"Oh, not only did he say it, but it's also the hill he wants to die on."

"Shoot him on the hill," Isabella grunted angrily.

"I told him if he respects me in public there will be no need for me to shoot my mouth off at him but if he thinks he's going to be disrespectful and I'm going to stand there like a doormat and take it, he's nuts. No deal. I walked." "Actually, she jumped," Jesse cackled excitedly. "Leapt from his balcony to the one two floors down to get away from him."

"What was wrong with the door?"

"He wouldn't let her through it unless she agreed he could drive her home after insulting her as he had," Jesse was still ecstatic with the outcome of the story.

"What is with these men who think they can just do whatever they want?"

"You all need a Tuva," Cat grinned. "She never asks questions, takes care of my every need, and tells me every day about how lucky she is to have found me. I am a gift to her."

They all made gagging noises at Cat's grin.

"You going to marry her?" Jesse asked.

Cat held up a finger for Jesse to see in the rear view, while the other women laughed.

They pulled up to a street and Jesse held out her palm with four earpieces. "HQ will direct each of us to our locations. Arwen, you pony up and get us intel. I want to know everything from heat signatures to body counts. I don't know if these guys are just starting with these two girls or if they've done this before."

Arwen slipped out of the back seat of the sedan and raced through the darkened street towards the house she was going to use as her nest. She made her way to the back the house and shimmied open a pair of patio doors. She raced up the stairs and found an attic access. She threw her bag on the floor and knocked out the two vents overlooking the street below.

"Alpha, I am in position." She whispered into her communication device.

"What do you see?" Jesse's voice was curt.

Arwen flipped to the goggles designed by Draxton Enterprises Innovation lab and looked into the house across the street from where she was positioned. "There are only two people in the house, Alpha. Separate rooms third floor. Both alive but laying flat on the floor." Headlights caught her eyes. "Vehicle coming down the street. Is it our target?" "Affirmative," Cat stated bluntly.

"I can take them out right now," Arwen grunted as she adjusted her rifle over her shoulder.

"No." Jesse denied her request. "Let them into the house. Beta, Gamma. Get into position. Neither of them gets to reach the girls on the second floor. Disable them and restrict their movement. Then we get the girls out and then it's playtime." Her words were as dark and deadly as she intended them to be.

Arwen c****d her head, "fly in the ointment."

Artemis' voice back in HQ cut in, "why is it Delta you are always raining on my parade?"

Arwen chuckled, "I'm an angel in the clouds. Rain is the environment from where I see everything. Right now, I'm seeing two twenty-year-old men accompanied by who I assume is a parental figure. Groomed by daddy or is he going to help them get rid of evidence?" The curse of the women on their team plus the voices of the women back in HQ reverberated by in her ear and she gave a heartless laugh.

She sat staring through her equipment and monitors at the men as they entered the house.

"Beta, make your way to the second floor and get status updates on our targets. Gamma, you're with me on the first floor. Think you can handle two little boys Gamma? I want the big one," Alpha's voice was bitter.

"Delta," Artemis' spoke brusquely, "there's a special little treat in your go bag from Lolita. When this wraps up, we need you to test it. You game?"

Arwen shivered with excitement, "oh please tell me it's something to go boom?"

"Boom and then disintegrate everything in its wake. No bones. No DNA. The house will implode on itself."

"I think I just came," Arwen was gleeful as she dug through her bag. "How volatile is this?"

"So long as it's in the package it is stable. The minute you load it into your chamber, you need to pull your trigger. You have ten seconds."

"If I wore panties, they'd be wet," she laughed as the other girls groaned at her comments.

"Delta, you will be the last to leave the site. We need to ensure the rest of the team are away from site before you deploy. You should be a decent distance but if you need to relocate, do it."

"Understood Artemis," she listened as Isabella confirmed both women were alive but unconscious. The words 'horse tranquilizer needles' burned her brain. "Please let me shoot a p***s off. Please?"

The noise of yelling and grunting made her sigh. Occasionally being so far away from the immediate action was annoying. Just for once she'd like to punch a perv in the face. Cat and Jesse beat the three men, subduing them and then using zip ties to restrain them, they sat them, so they were facing Arwen's direction through a patio door.

"Thank you," she grinned as Cat gave her thumbs up. "I love having front row seats. I wish I had popcorn."

"Delta, keep a bead on these fuckers while we get the girls out to medic team. If they twitch, shoot them." Jesse waved and then raced up the stairs with Cat to check on the status of the women. Cat and Isabella each came down the stairs carrying a girl and Jesse moved back in front of the window. She slapped the older man awake and immediately began questioning him. As he sputtered and argued over telling her anything, Jesse lifted a single finger into the air.

Arwen pulled her trigger and shot the man in the shoulder. As he screeched the other two men woke up and began panicking and yelling. Jesse shouted at them to shut up lest she have them all shot. She wanted to know the full details of the plot. Who else, if anyone, was involved? Was it a first time? Did they ever do this before?

Jesse quickly learned for the team it had been an activity the father and son had done once before, and this time brought the boy's best friend in on for kicks. The other girl they'd buried in the backyard of another house three doors down. Arwen felt her heart sink at the revelation. A family's teenager was never going home.

"I want to kill them," Arwen whispered furiously.

Jesse was twirling a knife in her hand and then without warning, sliced the throat of the eldest member of the little trio while the other two men screamed in horror. "Delta, take the shots. I can't even f*****g breathe right now. Kids killing kids for f**k's sake." Arwen fired two shots and put a bullet in each of their foreheads and they slumped in on each other. Artemis spoke in their ears for Jesse to join the other two women at the medic evac site and then leave for rendezvous. Her heart ached for the woman they hadn't saved.

She pulled the tiny black padded container from the kit and studied it. "Hey Artemis, are we sure I'm not going to blow up here?"

"If you'd rather wait and let someone else trial it..." Artemis' voice trailed off.

Arwen knew the old bag was smirking from where she observed in HQ. She knew there was no way Arwen would ever walk away from such an assignment.

Arwen quickly read the instructions on the monitor of her watch and then shrugged. "How bad can it be?"

She waited for Artemis to declare all team off site and then she loaded the cartridge into her rifle. She had ten seconds and she only needed four to take her shot. The capsule landed in the chest of the older of the three men and then Arwen gasped as she tore her goggles off her eyes from the blaze in front of her. The three men melted in a weird grotesque pile and then whatever the chemical concoction was, it spread in a blaze of white-blue flame throughout the space. Arwen couldn't tear her eyes away as she watched and videoed the scene from her perch in the attic space. She could feel the heat in the house she was in and wondered if the current building wouldn't have damage. Suddenly, the flames arced up high, racing fast and furious, sucking in on itself.

"What the f**k?" Arwen was enraptured by the vision in front of her. Not only were the bodies of the men completely gone from visual inspection, but the house was, per Artemis' words, folding it on itself. It was if whatever the chemical fire in the space was sucking the building inward. "This is the coolest s**t I've ever seen."

She stayed until Artemis told her they'd gotten enough footage and clean up crew would handle the rest. She had orders to get out and replace her team at rendezvous.

As she was making her way back, Artemis was in her ear again. "Delta, I know you're not coming home for debrief. When you reach the gym, you'll do a virtual call with Psych-One. Considering how much you two have been chatting lately, I'm assuming it won't take long." "Sounds good. I have a favor anyway."

"A favor? Sounds intriguing."

"My cousin has a new admirer. I want a file on him. I want to make sure he's not just f*****g with her." Arwen walked ducked into an alley. She gave them the name and Artemis assured her a secure file would be on her device by dawn.

As she approached her waiting vehicle, she debated whether or not she was doing the right thing. Other guardians of their family wouldn't be so overprotective, and she was taking helicopter parenting to a new high, but this was Deidre. The woman already had a ton of self-esteem issues. The last thing she needed was a player destroying any semblance of the woman's self worth.

She slid into the car and was met with the inquisitive stares of three women. "What?"

"You asked for a file on Mathis Lafarge because he hit on your cousin, but you still haven't asked for one on Adrianu Cavallaro?" Cat asked incredulously. "Also, damn Deidre! Way to pick up the hot hockey player."

"He whispered something about her eyes as he tottered away from her today and," she shrugged, "you all forget, I had a packet on Cavallaro a couple weeks back when I had to snipe his father."

"A packet is not the same as a full file and you know it." Isabella taunted her.

"Fine, I don't want to know how many women he's f****d. I just don't want to know. He resides in Sin City. It's triple digits at least, maybe more." She was partly lying but nobody called her out on it.

"She doesn't need to know who is in his past so long as she's the only one in his future," Isabella cackled with glee as Arwen smacked at her from the back seat.

"There is no future. Like I said, he lives in Sin City. I'll never relocate. He might be good for a romp or two, but he doesn't like me being mouthy and I don't think he's the kind of guy I want to raise chickens and goats with." "You are so weird," Cat shook her head. "Really weird."

"Those words mean nothing coming from the woman who for thirty years thought she was straight," Arwen mocked her friend.

Jesse cackled at the comment. "We kept telling her."

They were all quiet for a moment and then Arwen spoke up, "Can I ask the three of you something? Since you're all now in committed relationships?"

The silence continued and Arwen almost changed her mind at asking the question. Instead, she pressed on, "how did you know the difference between a hook-up and the one? Like Jesse, when did Torben go from just being a f**k to being the only man you want to f**k? Isabella, Cat? Is there something I should look out for in the next guy I date? I mean, I know it's not going to be Cavallaro because he's out of my league but with Deidre grown up it won't be long before she spreads her wings and I'll be all alone in my house. Did you have to change types?"

"I did," Cat cackled, and Arwen couldn't help the responding giggle erupting from her chest. "Had to change it all. She took one look at me and I felt like a mouse cornered by a lioness, and I wanted to let her eat me." The dirty innuendo wasn't lost on the other three women, and they roared with laughter.

Jesse spoke up, "I knew I was f****d when a guy put a gun to Torben's head, and I hated it more than when someone hurts a kid. It was the moment I knew I would burn the world to the ground to protect him I knew I'd never be able to leave him alone." She grinned over her shoulder, "At first I thought I'd just have to stalk him though because no f*****g way was, I was telling the giant oaf I wanted him forever, but he was never going to be out of my life." She gave a laugh, "well it and the multiple ten second o*****s. I mean, multiple, ladies, multiple!" They all giggled.

"Isabella?" Arwen asked directly, "Cam's more in line with the guys I date. How'd you know?"

Isabella made a face, "this is so humiliating and far worse than what either of these two bitches have said but," she took a deep breath, "I swear if any of you ever says a word to anyone, I'll slice your throats." She grimaced, "after a fight one night, he came over to sleep. Just to sleep. Said he had the best sleep of his life when he held me. It freaked me the f**k out, but I was a goner. There was no going back."

"I'm jealous of you all," she admitted suddenly aware she'd rendered them all speechless. "I keep dating guys who tell me the right things, making me believe maybe this guy will be the one who wants to help me clean out chicken coops and won't be threatened by Deidre. Instead, they give me enough bullshit I should be running a cattle farm."

"Maybe instead of dating the guys who are telling you all the right things, you replace a guy who just is stupidly and brutally honest. Find one who hates chickens but says he'll still help you anyway because it's what you do for someone you love. Find the guy who actually just does s**t instead of talking shit." Isabella offered, "it's the complete opposite of what you've done up until now. Stop going for the perfect guy who says the perfect thing. Perfect is overrated."

Arwen closed her eyes and leaned back in the seat as the girls continued ribbing each other all the way back to the gym. As the car barely slowed down to let her out, she sighed and made her way back through the system of hidden passageways which would eventually take her to debrief and then back to her hotel. Maybe the girls were right. She spent too much time trying to replace Mr. Perfect when what she needed was just the right guy.