Sniping Her Mafia King
Chapter 41

Arwen sat at the kitchen table in the safehouse and grimaced at Jesse, Cat, and Isabella. Zoya was in the shower and Corry was taking a much-needed sleep as she'd been one of the girls on the overnight shift. Bliss, Naomi, and Lolita had all left as soon as Jesse's team had arrived site to take over. Her emotions were raw, but she was ignoring the questioning glances of Cat and Jesse and instead was focused on reviewing the intel Isabella had brought to them to go through.

It was nine in the morning. She'd been up since five. She'd done a workout. Had met with Clara at the women's shelter and had sparred for an hour and even still her nerves were frayed. She needed to engage in target practice, preferably on nasty rich men who stole girls. She reviewed the information for what felt like the hundredth time and then looked up. "Why aren't we just going in and killing them all?"

"Because we can't just go in and kill an entire division of the bratva," Isabella mumbled furiously. "If we take them all out at the same time we rescue the women in the house, it will appear, and accurately so, the events are related."

"But we can't get the girls out without killing off Zoya's brother and his posse," Arwen clenched her fist on the table. "I really want to put a bullet right in his third eye." She smacked the phone on the table reminding everyone the man had claimed he had a psychic sixth sense and had visions of being as powerful as Rasputin. "The guy is a pancake short of a full stack."

"He's screwy, I can't argue the fact. He's a target and we'll get him. Pavel is still evading us. He went underground. Which tells us he has support here in New York." Jesse was frustrated and it was evident in her tone.

Arwen looked to Isabella, "can't Clara get Mikhail to replace out where he is?"

Clara's connection to the Russian mobster was known in their circles and Isabella had dated the son of the mobster before his own mother had offed him for being a creepy son of a b***h. "She's exhausting leads," Isabella didn't elaborate. "We're using facial recognition software but he's not in Manhattan or any of the other boroughs."

Arwen had a thought and looked to Jesse, "what about our newest asset?"

"What about him?"

"Well," she didn't want to tattle on Addy, but he had said he knew where his leak was. "He was the one with the leak allowing Zoya to be found. He's not one to have an unplugged leak." "Do you know something?" Jesse asked her with a tilt to her head.

"Nothing definitive but I will say he left my house before midnight last night and I haven't heard a peep from him. Considering how pissed off he was yesterday he couldn't help Zoya," she trailed off her words and let the group come to their own conclusions. "If he was pissed yesterday about being out of the loop, he should still be pissed today. He was texting you like a madman for most of the afternoon." Jesse easily followed where Arwen led her leaning back in her chair.

Arwen couldn't refute the statement. It was factual.

"Why the radio silence then?" Cat questioned angrily. "What's he hiding? And why is he a f*****g asset?"

"I don't know but maybe his cousin could ask him since she did assert her dominance yesterday by punching him in the face." Isabella grinned at her as she and Arwen fist-pumped across the table.

"Or Arwen can just balls-up and ask her lover what gives." Cat said again, with annoyance. "You can't just call him?" She was staring furiously at Arwen.

"Dude, did I do something to piss you off?" Arwen called out Cat's glare head on.

"Nope." Cat flexed her fingers on the table. She pushed away suddenly and walked from the kitchen into one of the spare rooms and slammed a door behind her.

"What the hell?" Arwen looked at Isabella and Jesse. "Did I shoot her dog or steal her girl?"

"It's Tuva." Jesse whispered quietly looking over her shoulder to make sure her friend wasn't listening. "You, me, Isabella. We all had our partners debriefed. Tuva will never get a debrief and Cat is feeling stuck in the middle. Torben tried to call his sister but she's not answering and even their parents haven't heard from her. They know she's in Oslo. She's in her apartment and went to her clinic to see patients this morning but she's not talking to her family or to Cat. Cat's heart is breaking, I think."

"And of course, Addy being made some kind of weird third-party asset, which per his description, Artemis can use and abuse, makes her feel Tuva was unworthy." Arwen sighed. "Should I talk to her?"

"No," Isabella shook her head. "She needs to sort her s**t out. This is on her. Not you. It's not your fault she has a girlfriend pure as the driven snow and you have a boyfriend running the mob. One is useful, the other isn't."

Jesse gave a nod, "she's not understanding why Artemis is making the exception for a sniper."

"Addy told me last night, he met Artemis before." Arwen spoke quietly.

Jesse and Isabella's jaws dropped open incredulously. Jesse lifted a hand to her face and then back to the table, "those bitches said nothing."

"He figured as much. He took the same maths class as Torben. Had dinner at a certain maths professor's house over fifteen years ago."

"No." Jesse closed her eyes as if trying to control her anger.

"Your grandfather was brought up at the dinner. Addy reported it in like a good Baby Don should have. Your grandfather did some digging and concluded she must have been MI6 because they couldn't replace anything on her. Addy steered clear of the professor after. Can't have MI6 involved in mafia stuff." Arwen shrugged.

"Holy s**t," Jesse grumbled. "Why didn't they tell me?"

"Who knows why either of them do what they do?" Isabella grunted. "Two weeks ago, they sent Cam a video of another one of our missions, mocking him for almost losing a guy during one of his last trips."

The girls giggled at her revelation.

Arwen looked to Jesse, "you're the Alpha of our team, Jesse. What do you want to do? We can call it in and ask Artemis to question Addy or you can do it. I'm not doing it. We had s*x last night. I'm not f*****g him at night and asking him for intel in the morning. It feels too much like trading secrets for s*x."

"Fair," Jesse complained and then sent a quick text message to Addy. "I've asked him to give me a call when he has a minute." Immediately her phone rang. She looked to the girls, "that was fast."

"Addy, you're on speaker. I have myself, my Delta and Beta with me."

"I don't know what this means. Is my girlfriend with you?"

Arwen wrinkled her nose as Isabella pointed and silently laughed.

"My Delta is here, yes," Jesse kept her lips in a straight line as she considered throttling her cousin.

"My Delta is here, yes," Jesse kept her lips in a straight line as she considered throttling her cousin.

"So, my girlfriend is your Delta. How cute you give yourselves code names. Do you braid each other's hair when you're not trying to be manly with your funny little code names?" "Don't be rude," Jesse chastised.

He laughed, "What can I do for Jesse, her Beta and Delta?"

"We have a situation where one of a trio of men who had arrived in the USA together to bring Zoya home has gone missing. We've reached out to several contacts but he's nowhere to be found." "Why call me?"

"Because yesterday you were pissed off at being left out of the loop yet today my Delta's cell phone is strangely quiet, and she assures me you aren't fighting again. I'm wondering if perhaps you're not busy plugging leaks and if in doing so whether you gained any intel you might be able to share on the whereabouts of the man we need."

Addy was quiet for a moment and then sighed, "big Russian guy. Six three. Blonde. Blue eyes. Bleeding from multiple places?"

"He wasn't bleeding when he was last seen."

"He is now," Addy spoke dryly.

"You have him," Jesse gritted her teeth. "Why do you have him?"

"Because I had a lead on a couple of leaks, and it led to who might have been tipping off the Russians about the shipment I intercepted. When my men paid a visit to the home of the individual, a Russian named Pavel was hiding from my guy in a basement behind a false wall." He mock-whispered, "Santino also found hundreds of thousands of dollars of my money which had been skimmed behind the false wall along with some other surprises. My leak was also a thief. It's not a good day for him but it's a great day to be me." Arwen looked to Jesse and shook her head. Addy was having fun. He genuinely seemed to be in good spirits. The man was as twisted as they were.

"We will let you handle your leak, but we would very much like to interrogate Pavel."

"No."

Jesse drew her head back as if slapped and Arwen looked to her fingers immediately squeezing her lips between her teeth. Isabella pushed away from the table as if she were going to throw punches. "Why not?"

"Because I cannot have your investigation throwing my investigation off. I need him."

"Give me thirty minutes with him." Jesse asked. "You can keep him. I just want to ask him some questions."

"I don't think so, Principessa," Addy denied her request.

"Addy, I am asking nicely. We could just come take him."

"From where? You do not know where I am. You can talk s**t all you want about all the ways you replace things, but my location is secure, and I do not fancy having Bellona know the location of one of my interrogation rooms." "Blindfold me."

"You all wear trackers. I called Torben this morning to inquire on a recent kidnapping you'd been part of, and he told me you had literally injected yourself with a tracking beacon."

Jesse glared at Arwen who shrugged. "Addy. I need to talk to him.

"No. It's bad enough the hag wants to use my ships. She's not learning all my secrets. Pavel is mine."

"She's not a hag." Jesse argued.

"She punched me in the nuts wearing knuckle dusters. We're not exactly best friends," he retorted. "Principessa, I have an interrogation to finish out, a few more moles to permanently put back in their holes and then I am having dinner with your brother and his new wife." "Why are you having dinner with Dylan?"

"I have no f*****g idea," Addy said dryly. "His wife called me earlier in the week and invited me to dinner. I spent three minutes with her at the wedding reception and couldn't figure out for the life of me how Dylan got hard enough to impregnate her vacuous minded body."

"Hey!" Isabella grunted. "That's my husband's daughter you're insulting."

"Sorry Beta," he mocked her, "but your stepchild is an airhead. I believe she is under the impression she needs to kiss the ring in order for me to not bring her child into the Famiglia. Jesse, the distance accorded to you and Dylan extends to any offspring you have. I have no need to taint pure blood." He grunted, "with luck the boy has Dylan's brain and not hers."

"Addy, there's no need to be rude." Arwen cut in angrily. "She's a good person with a beautiful heart."

"Which is why every guard who has ever had to be assigned to her calls her the a*****e," Addy spoke mockingly. "I'm sure she is lovely, and Dylan is quite in love with her. She is simply not to my taste. I prefer women with high intellect and the ability to hold conversation. Tell me at least one of you have had scintillating conversation with the blonde bombshell. I'll wait while you come up with something." He waited for them to defend her abilities and then gave a snort of laughter at their silence, "and there you have

it."

"Addy, please reconsider allowing me to interrogate Pavel." Jesse returned to the purpose of her call.

"I will compromise. Send me a list of questions and I will pose them for you."

"You're a dick." Jesse hissed at him furiously.

"Principessa, you border on needing to be reminded of some rules."

Arwen swallowed at the cold fury of his tone and looked to Isabella who had sat back down and blinked at the words. Jesse clenched and unclenched her fists on the table.

"Stuff you and your rules," Jesse finally gritted out. "I want him."

"You can't have him and if you continue to act in such a disrespectful manner, there will be a price to pay. Do not make me remind you of your place."

"My place?" she threw her chair back furiously. "You son of a -"

Arwen reached out and ended the call. "Don't Jesse. He's winding you up. He's the only person in the entire universe who can wind you up like this and you know it. He knows your buttons. He thrives on getting under someone's skin and he's under yours." "How do you f**k him and not kill him?" Jesse punched the refrigerator.

She waved to the phone, "he doesn't speak to me like he just did to you."

"Let me guess. There's no talking, just s*x."

"No. We talk a lot," Arwen shrugged. "We talk about everything. He's even told me about when his mom died."

"Wait, what?" Jesse spun on her heel to look at Arwen in amazement. "No way."

"Yeah. We talk all the time. He never raises his voice. He never baits me like he just did you. He does occasionally say things to get a reaction out of me but not for the reason he just did to you."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, when he's trying to get me to react to him, it's because he wants the argument. He wants the verbal sparring and wants to," she rubbed her face in embarrassment as she realized what she was about to say. She was about to say he liked to bend her feisty behaviour to his will. "Let's just say, he likes to take my sass and curb it in other ways."

"He likes to sexually dominate the strong-willed person you are," Isabella nodded pursing her lips. "Okay. I get its your thing."

"For you Jesse, its completely different."

"What? What could it be?" Jesse's tone was mocking, "other than he's a total dick."

"You're la Principessa. He called you the name multiple times in the call. He loves you, as much as you two fight like enemies, he loves you and cares for you deeply and he's scared for you. He was raised to protect you, and not only does he know you get into fights all the time but now he knows you're Juno and Alpha. He's pissed off he's fought so hard to keep you safe and out of danger all of your lives and you are front and center in the middle of it. He can't stop you from being who you are, but he can remind you from time to time he doesn't like knowing you're in danger." Arwen twisted her lips, "it's in him to protect his family. You don't need his protection but he's giving it to you whether you like it or not. I could feel the anger in him in talking to you. He doesn't want you around the violence even though deep down, he knows you are the violence."

"You really have been spending too much time in psych eval," Isabella nodded with a grin and then pointed at Jesse, "but I think she's right."

Arwen grunted as she stretched her hands over her head and sighed, "he also might still be very much pissed off you lied to him, ambushed him, punched him in the face, watched as he got punched in the face and the balls and, did it all in the house where we murdered my ex." She grinned at Jesse. "I mean, I could absolutely be overanalyzing things and he's just pissed off for yesterday." She met Isabella's gaze naughtily, "he did say last night he had the need to dominate the hell out of something after being accosted by five women in debrief."

"Were you that something?"

"I was." Arwen had no shame. "If he wants to hogtie me and spank me before having his wicked dirty way with me, I'm in. I'm too far gone now to deny it."

Isabella hooted with laughter and Jesse pretended to gag but she was smiling too.

The trio looked up as the door to the room Cat was in opened up and the woman came out, appearing far more composed than when she'd gone in. She moved to stand behind Arwen and leaned over her and hugged her tight. "Sorry Delta. I'm a f*****g mess." Arwen kissed the hand on her shoulder and grinned, "we can move the furniture around in the living room and spar if you have energy to burn."

Cat groaned and straightened, "no. I just miss her. I don't understand why she just up and left and I don't know why she is ghosting me." She reached for the coffee cup she'd abandoned when she'd stomped off. "Being in love with anyone is hard for me. I've spent the last twenty-four hours analyzing every single conversation, act, touch to figure out what I did wrong. Maybe I'm just not a good lesbian."

"Did you insist on wearing the strap-on?" Isabella teased her and was rewarded with a punch to the arm.

"Funny, Ruiz." Cat spun her chair backwards and straddled it. "Did you get intel from the King?"

"The King is pissed off at la Principessa," Arwen couldn't help but the grin as Jesse's hands tightened on the table. "He has Pavel and refuses to turn him over to us." "Why does he have him and why is he pissed?"

"He was hiding in the basement of the King's leak," Arwen was smug as she sipped her coffee and eyed her friends. "He's pissed for a multitude of reasons."

"Including getting punched in the d**k with knuckle dusters," Isabella's smile was too wide, and she looked at Arwen, "did it affect performance?" Arwen should have seen the question coming and knew she was blushing at it. "No comment."

"Please tell me it did. It's given him a dysfunction. Bent d**k?" Jesse begged. "I need to know the bastard is suffering since he won't let me have Pavel." Arwen made a face as she considered the evening before. "There is no dysfunction."

"Not even a bit? Tell me it has bruises."

"Does he strike you the kind of man who would allow me to investigate his junk for bruises?"

"He might ask you to kiss them better," Cat offered her thought.

"No, he would not," Arwen corrected. "It would be a sign of weakness to admit to the bruise." She considered for the millionth time she had kissed his scars last night while she cried and he hadn't stopped her, hadn't gotten angry with her over it and had let her finish what she had set out to do. She gave another sigh as she considered she admitted she'd killed Luca.

"What the big sigh?" Jesse eyed her curiously.

"I may have admitted I shot his father."

The three women around the table sat back in disbelief.

Isabella's wide smile was now pulled almost to her ears. "And he still called you his girlfriend on the phone." "Girlfriend?" Cat piped up. "He calls her his girlfriend?"

"He likes the word better than lover," Arwen admitted with a slow smile, "and yeah. He did, didn't he?"

"You were still too close to my ear with your third shot," Jesse grumbled but she was smiling too.

Arwen was smug, "he said the same thing. Said he'd heard the whistling all through Dylan's wedding."

The scream of terror from Zoya in the bathroom had the casual conversation come to a standstill as they bolted down the hall and kicked the bathroom door open. They stood incredulously as the woman stood on the edge of the bathtub, clutching a towel around her, and pointing at the toilet. A rat was casually sitting on the toilet seat looking back at Zoya as if questioning why she was screaming.

Arwen stepped into the room faster than the rat could comprehend, grabbed the rodent by its rounded belly and flung it through the open window. She slammed the window shut and pointed at Zoya. "You were told to keep the window shut. It's why there is an air extractor fan. It was a baby. You're lucky it wasn't a big one. Some of them in this neighborhood can be the size of raccoons."

As her team roared with laughter at her quick handling of the situation, Arwen moved to the sink and washed her hands and couldn't stop the grin spreading on her face. Addy was still calling her his girlfriend.