Sniping Her Mafia King
Chapter 45

She was exhausted. She couldn't remember a time she was this tired. Two days of watching Zoya and two missions in the same night and she was dead tired. She had shut her phone down before crawling into her bed and after checking on Deidre. She had smiled to herself when she'd entered the house at seven in the morning to replace Mathis sleeping on her sofa and Deidre in her bed. When she'd knocked on Deidre's door the look of pure panic on her face thinking it was Mathis had made Arwen giggle at her. Deidre had been freaked to think he'd see her with bedhead. She'd gotten out of bed and brushed her teeth, her hair, washed her face and then insisted she had to crawl back into her bed to play on her phone until he got up.

Arwen had told her she should just go crawl on the sofa and cuddle the boy who had been a perfect gentleman to her the night before. Deidre had flushed a shade of red Arwen associated with high blood pressure but before Arwen had closed her own bedroom door, she'd heard Deidre's soft footsteps going down the stairs to the main level of the house.

It hadn't taken Arwen long to fall asleep after a hot shower. She'd pulled her pillow Addy had slept on earlier in the week to her face, inhaling the scent of him before falling asleep.

"Arwen," she was dreaming of him again, she considered as she heard his name warm against her cheek.

"Mm," she snuggled deeper into her pillow. "Addy," she whispered his name and leaned into the feel of him in her dreams.

"Mia cara."

The soft stroke of his fingertips on her cheek made her wonder how real her dreams could be. She was too tired for physical dreams. She slapped his hand off her face and heard the chuckle of his low laugh. She opened one eye and tried to focus on the face of the man knelt beside her bed. "What are you doing here?"

"Checking on you. It's unlike you to not have your phone on," he chastised quietly and held up her phone and watch sitting on her nightstand. "I called Deidre, and she said you looked like death warmed over when you'd come in and were still sleeping. I was concerned."

She sat up and scowled, "you're not supposed to be here. You said you were busy with things."

"I was and I am busy with things but you didn't answer a single text or call and so I thought I'd check in."

She sleepily brushed her hair off her face and scowled, "what time is it?"

"After four," he cupped her cheek softly.

She moaned and flung herself back into the pillows. "Addy, I had one more hour. I was going to sleep until five."

He chuckled, "you planned the hours of your sleep?"

"Addy, I earned a Sunday of sleep." She whimpered and pulled a pillow over her face. She peeked out the side, "is Dee still home?"

"Yes. She's got Miley downstairs with her. She strongly encouraged me not to come into your room uninvited and mentioned something about getting shot but I felt it was worth the risk. As I said, you usually answer a text, even if only to tell me to go f**k myself." "Did two missions last night," she rolled onto her side and looked at him. With all the sleep deprivation from this week, I needed the rest. I have overnight duty with Zoya tonight."

"You eliminated the threat of the brother?"

"We did, but the guy who bought her virginity for a million dollars is in the country having dinner with my," she waved at him, "whatever you are. Which means, she's still at risk. We can't release her until we know he's dealt with."

"And were you assigned to deal with him?"

"Did you not call Artemis?"

"Why would I call her? I have no need to call her. You can tell me what I need to know."

"Addy, you said you had plans for him. Do what you want. She isn't bothered but if he's not dealt with before he goes back to Russia, his plane is going down."

"You would take down a plane?"

"Well yeah," she wrinkled her nose. "I mean it's not my favorite way to do it, but the plane will need to travel over uninhabited areas so it can be done." Posted by Narugi.com; visit us for more free novels.

"He won't be getting on a flight." Addy moved to sit on the edge of the bed. "He has something I want. I'll get the details from him one way or the other and then he will be no more."

"Great."

"You mentioned two missions. What was the other? The brother and what?"

"The brother was a team mission. I had a solo mission immediately following it. It was offered to me. I couldn't refuse it."

"But not a Russian bratva leader?"

"No," she growled at him. "Stop it. I told you; she's told me you can handle it while he's on American soil. The minute he steps off, he's ours. I'm still pissed off by the way. You asked me to deny Artemis. I won't do it. Get it through your head. Don't you ever ask me to do such a thing again, It's a new rule and it's not up for discussion."

"Fine." He didn't appear to be too annoyed over her new rule. "The second mission then was not Gavrikov?"

"This was another mission. A bit more personal."

"Okay." He motioned for her to move over.

"What?"

"Move over. I am here. I want to hold you for a few minutes before I have to leave again. I'm having dinner at seven with Radomir Gavrikov."

"It's nearly two and half hours without stops to drive."

"It's twenty in my chopper." He chuckled at her frown, kicking off his shoes to climb on the bed. He shoved his arm under her pillow and stole it, tucking it behind his head and curling her onto his chest. "You have a chopper?"

"Doesn't everyone nowadays?" His words were arrogantly smug. "You don't?" he laughed as she kicked her foot at him. He pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "I have time before I have to rush off."

She snuggled against his chest. "I didn't think I'd see you today."

"Same but you didn't answer, and I knew you and the girls were going after the brother last night. I was worried."

She closed her eyes at the quiet words he uttered against her hair. His words were not what she had been expecting. The entire time he'd been in her room she had assumed he was just pissed off she was ignoring him. It hadn't dawned on her he was concerned because he knew she'd been on a mission. Artemis had told her she'd let him know the team including his cousin and girlfriend were out doing fieldwork as an update on Zoya's case file. "I'm sorry, Addy. I should have sent you a message I was home. It never occurred to me you would be worried about me. I'm so used to just doing what I want and only checking on Deidre. I'll remember for next time."

"Thank you," his words were hushed in the quiet of her room. "I did call Deidre around noon, and she said you were still sleeping, and I asked her to have you call me when you got up."

"Was Mathis still here when you came in?"

"Still here? Why would he still be here?" Addy lifted his head off the pillow to look down on her.

"I came in after seven to replace him sleeping on my sofa. Deidre said they were up until three talking."

"Talking my a*s," Addy grunted with annoyance and dropped his head back to the pillow ignoring Arwen's chuckle. "He better respect our girl or he's getting my foot up his a*s." "Our girl?"

"Damn right," he squeezed his arms around her shoulders tightly. "You and Deidre are my girls. My family!"

She pursed her lips trying to stop the wide smile she knew was trying to take over her face at his words. "Addy," she spoke his name softly, "you know we've only been together a short while."

"All great stories have a beginning. Beginnings don't need to take years, Arwen." He was stroking her bare arms gently. There was nothing s****l in his touch and she felt his smile against her hair as she snuggled closer to him.

"I like having you here," she admitted to him. "It feels good to me."

"There is nowhere I would rather be than with you," he adjusted the pillow behind his head. "Do you have a busy week this week?"

"I do," she gave a nod. "I mean, I'm always busy but with the extra work I took on over the weekend, it's put me behind in my day job. I'll get through it but it's part of the reason I'm resting today."

"Where do you tell Deidre you are going when you're out all night?"

"Out with the girls or a special project at the women's shelter or out of town for an early morning client."

"And you'll be gone all night tonight?"

"Yeah. Team two split their team last night so two girls did overnight, and two girls did day shift, one of the girls from Team-One also helped out with overnight on Friday night. Two of us will be on with Zoya tonight. They were going to tell her this morning about her buyer being in the country so I can only imagine how freaked out she is."

"She had asked me last week if I meant it when I said I would pay for schooling. She said she wanted to be a doctor and she would work hard. I hope she still wants to carry on those dreams."

"She does, she really does. She is smart, Addy. She's so smart."

"I hope -"

A knock on the door interrupted whatever it was Addy was going to say and Arwen sat up in the bed and reached for her robe at the foot of it. Shrugging into it she called for Deidre to come in. "Arwen, I didn't want to interrupt," she wiped her face as if she were crying.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

"He's dead."

"Who is dead?" Arwen asked as Deidre moved into the room followed by Miley who also appeared distraught.

"Warrick." Her limp was more pronounced as she stumbled in Arwen's direction, her face red and contorted with emotion.

"Oh no, baby, what happened?"

Arwen held her arms out and Deidre moved into them on the bed as Addy moved out of the way.

"He killed himself. He apparently shot himself right in the face." Deidre's sob tore through the room. "Why would he do that? On Friday night he was in such a good mood talking about completing his degree program and then getting his masters and his doctorate. He said he'd had to take time off college before and was just so glad to get back into it. I had no idea he was depressed."

Arwen rubbed her back gently and rocked her in her arms. "I'm so sorry for your loss Deidre. I'm so sorry." Even to her ears the words sounded hollow as she kept her eyes focused on a spot on the far end of the room.

She held Deidre while sobs racked her body. "Shh," she gave Miley a tight smile as the girl sat on the other side of Deidre and rubbed her shoulder, occasionally wiping her own tears. They sat for nearly ten minutes while Deidre cried her heart out over the death of the boy she'd been crushing on for months.

"Why would he ask me out and then kill himself?" Deidre moaned between sniffles.

"Who knows what happens in the mind of someone battling mental illness," Arwen whispered to her.

Addy crouched down with a box of tissues in his hands, "Deidre, I'm so sorry for the loss of your friend."

"I don't know why I'm so sad. I mean, I barely knew him. I wasn't going to go on a second date with him or anything, not like he'd asked but he just seemed so excited for his life and to kill himself seems unlike what I would have expected."

"Shooting himself sounds like he really didn't want to live," Miley said bluntly and at Arwen's raised eyebrow she shrugged, "I'm not wrong."

"No, you're not," Arwen sighed. "How did you replace out?"

"His mother went to the house he was renting because he missed brunch. She found him. He lives right across the street from a couple of the girls in my literature class and they just texted me." Deidre took the tissues Addy offered. "I just don't understand. He seemed to have it all figured out on Friday."

"I'm sure he did but nobody knows what goes on in the mind of someone who is sick," Arwen whispered sadly to Deidre.

"Addy," Deidre asked quietly.

"What piccola?" he stroked her hair gently.

"You mentioned Enrico's family owns a flower shop in the city. Do you think we could send flowers? Would they know what would be best to send someone who died by suicide?"

"I will handle it personally," he leaned forward and kissed her forehead gently. "Is there anything else I can do? Would you like a cup of tea?"

"Yes," she nodded leaning against Arwen's shoulder. "I think I'm going to go take a shower though. I didn't shower yet today."

Miley stood up, "come on Deidre. Let's get you cleaned up. Do you want me to call Portia and tell her we aren't coming?"

"You were going to Portia's?" Addy asked curiously.

"Yes. I'm still going."

"Do not eat anything she offers as leftovers from dinner last night. Dylan and I took turns hiding each other's plates of food. When her back was turned, I shoved everything on my plate onto his and he dumped it into a drawer of a sideboard cabinet. I'm sure he was dumping the drawer out at three in the morning so she wouldn't catch him." He gave a mock shudder as Deidre gave a little giggle, "eggplant parmesan should not be chewy and crunchy, nor should it be black on the top."

"It couldn't have been that bad."

"I considered for a moment whether it was an assassination attempt." He winked playfully as he pulled her to her feet. "Go get cleaned up. I have to drive towards Queen's. I can drop you off at the house on the way through." She wrapped her arms around him, "thanks Addy. I'm glad you're here."

"Me too, piccola." He hugged her tight and then released her so Miley could take her to her bedroom.

When the door closed behind her, he leaned against the door and narrowed his eyes on Arwen who adjusted her pillows on her bed. "What do you know?"

She frowned at him. "What are you talking about Addy?"

"You weren't surprised when she said Warrick's name. Why?"

Arwen considered Adrianu Cavallaro was too astute for her own good. She got off the bed and headed in the direction of the walk-in closet. "I don't know what you mean?"

He followed her and stared at her. "Did you already know he killed himself?"

She looked at him, "lock the door."

"What?"

"Lock the bedroom door. I don't want either girl walking back in here."

She rifled through her clothing and found a pair of jeans and was shimmying into them when he came back into the closet. "I had Artemis run a file on the guy after Deidre finally gave me his name on Friday and he went from being a guy she watched from afar to someone who asked her out. She found interesting information which made her not want him alive therefore he is no longer alive." She flicked a glance to him to note he had no change to his controlled facial expression.

He waved his hand impatiently at her, "elaborate."

"He had attended a more prestigious university than the community college he is currently attending but was asked to leave after a series of date rape allegations. He had a lawyer who argued because he was quiet and anti-social the popular kids were targeting him to teach the rest of the nerds a lesson. Stated he'd been bullied by them, and this was simply the next level of bullying and there was no DNA evidence to corroborate the allegations. Everything was going off two girls who felt it was the same voice they heard while heavily sedated."

"He was cleared?"

"Sure, he was. Most college rapists are." She made a face as she got into a bra with her back to him.

"Your team killed him based on this?"

"No, based on this, we broadened our investigation. Did the things the police in these situations don't do."

"Such as?"

"Put Clara Draxton on him. If he sneezed in nineteen ninety-five, she'll replace it. She found the evidence and so much more."

"Such as?"

"While running her deep dive into him she found he had a proclivity for porn of the under eighteen version." At Addy's look of disgust, she elaborated, "with many of the videos of his own making."

"How many videos?"

"Does it matter? Even one video of him abusing a teenager is enough, is it not?"

He tilted his head in acknowledgment with a twist to his lips, "true."

"He also has a post office box in Jersey where he gets deliveries of a certain kind of medication. The box belonged to his dead grandfather. The family appeared to have forgotten grandpa didn't need to get mail and the kid kept it open and it's where he got his drugs delivered. Not oxy or fentanyl." She made a face at him. "More in line with sedatives and tranquilizers."

"Date rape drugs?"

"Yes. Saturday morning one of our girls watched him collect from the post office." She yanked a t-shirt over her head, "our girl followed him and," she made a face, "he drove past my house."

Addy went still. "He did what?"

"Drove past my house. He had done a stint at the college working in the admissions office and he still has his credentials. Clara confirmed he logged into the system Friday after their coffee date and pulled her address. I've never been so glad to know a hockey player was at my house. I mean my house would have lit up like a Christmas tree if he would have shown up here uninvited. Six of my neighbors on this street are Bellona assets so she's always safe but she doesn't know." Arwen grabbed a hair tie from a drawer and pulled her hair into a ponytail. "Now, my girl who supervised Deidre's coffee date Friday night, said Deidre had used her refillable mug with the screwed-on cap for her coffee, so maybe he missed an opportunity. Who knows?"

She finally looked back to Addy and saw the cold fury on his face and knew her own face had been the same. "At five this morning, I was given the packet of the investigation's conclusions. I concluded I agreed with Artemis, and I wanted him dead and by my own hand. The man had been held in his own home since Saturday afternoon until I was free to deal with him because Artemis knew I'd want to do it myself. He told me," Arwen slipped into her sneakers, "he hadn't even considered looking at her before because she's too fat but when she showed up at school wearing make-up on her birthday acting like she was too good for him, meaning she didn't get all bashful like she had before, he changed his mind. She showed an ounce of self-confidence on Friday, and he felt it was his to tear apart." She shook her head, "I can't have that s**t happening on my watch. I won't let any body do it to her."

"You let her have Mathis here."

"I have everything on Mathis including his kindergarten grades, how old he was when he went potty and what kind of porn he likes, which, in case you were curious, is none. He doesn't like it. Looked at porn once when he was in high school and hasn't since. He's had girlfriends and dates but nothing like his teammates and the reason his girlfriend from high school cheated on him was because he had said he wasn't ready to have s*x." She met his gaze full on, "and it appears he hasn't been ready at all as of yet." "He's a virgin?" Addy's lips receded to his gumline. "Really?"

She grinned at the way he was smiling as if torn between happiness and ready to mock the young man, "yup. As innocent as Deidre is. Unheard of in this day and age of NHL superstars but there you have it. I trust him because he wears his jockstrap like a chastity belt. Deidre's going to be super cranky for the next little while because he's not going to be putting out."

"Holy f**k." Addy put his hand over his mouth in surprise as he considered her words. "Unreal."

"So, I let stay the virgin boy who flew to see my little girl just so he could tell her he believed she was the one for him and while he wanted to take it slow for both of their sakes, he wanted very much to be her boyfriend." She could still hear the collective aww of her friends when Deidre had called her last night to ask if he could stay. "Then I went and murdered the son of a b***h who raped girls at his last college, possibly two at his current college, had a video of him assaulting two unnamed girls who were clearly incapacitated and had drugs in his possession I am convinced he would have used on my cousin."

"Did you torture him?"

"No." She shook her head. "I held my gun to his head while I made him type out his email. I interrogated him and it was sent via live feed to HQ. Torture was not part of the plan because it had to look like a suicide. Doesn't look much like a suicide when the d**k is cut off or they're full of puncture wounds."

"Fair," he agreed.

"Regardless, he's dead. I will pretend for Deidre's sake I am sad for her loss, but he deserved what he had done to him."

"Come," he held his arms open. When she frowned and hesitated, he wiggled his fingers, "come. I want to hold you before we go put on a united front of phony sadness for Deidre."

She smiled and stepped into his embrace, "any other questions?" She rested her head on his chest as he hugged her tight.

"Two and then I want to kiss you."

"Okay."

"One, don't snipers usually do most of their work from a distance?"

"Yes. I've had a couple of up-close jobs lately but for the most part, I'm eyes, ears, and back-up or long-distance." She chuckled as he cupped her cheek, staring down at her.

"Two, how is it you and Deidre attract such dangerous shitty men? Trace first and now Warrick?"

"We've screwed someone over in another life. Yet," she leaned back and looked at him teasingly, "I seem to have you in my bedroom. Are you dangerous?"

He chuckled. "Mia cara, I am the most dangerous of them all"

"Why?" she saw his playful smirk.

"I'm the one you won't be able to let go," he promised just before his lips claimed hers in a possessive kiss.