Chapter Twenty-Eight
Austin
It’s been two weeks and whatever hole Fernandez is living in is keeping him alive. Moon has the same opinion. He’s underground and we need to bide our time. Usually I’m patient when it comes to killing. That’s not holding true right now.
The only positive is my team. Andreas is my official enforcer and I’ve moved others around and increased security at the house. Melina will be living here and what happened to Cindy will not happen to her. The house needs to be a fortress and that’s exactly what I’m going for. The repairs are finished from where Fernandez’s men blasted through the wall, and I’ve added a little extra to the mix in case anyone tries again. I’ve been in contact with a dog handler and he’s purchasing top K9s for me. I’ve also talked to Moon in depth about his security measures for Mak. Andreas is in charge of finding Melina a team of bodyguards. If she wants to leave the house, they’ll accompany her everywhere. If she doesn’t agree, there’s always the basement. I would laugh, but I’m too apprehensive after sending her the box.
What does she think of me now? I wanted to give her time to absorb who I really am. She knows I’m a killer, but she needs to understand what’s behind it. I have no doubt if Victor hadn’t rescued me from juvenile, I would be dead. Melina needs to understand the life I live in order to be part of it.
Not calling her has been hard. Hell, not sneaking into her window again, harder. I lift my cell and hit Andreas’ number. “Spar with me. You need work.”
“Sure, boss, kicking my ass yesterday wasn’t enough for you?”
I manage a grunt and he hangs up laughing. Andreas can fight and with a knife, he’s deadly. With a little work, the outcome of our sparring will be a toss-up. Victor hired good men, it just took me a while to see it. Andreas has a read on them and he’ll be hiring more. Andreas is also moving into the house. He stayed in the guesthouse where I lived up until now, but we’re turning that into the security center. I want to keep additional men out of my home so Melina feels comfortable. I’m putting a lot of faith in Andreas and I would hate to kill him, so I hope he doesn’t disappoint me.
With Fernandez on the run it also leaves a huge hole in the northern California territory. I need someone there I can work with or I need to take it over myself. Victor talked about sending me up there often. He never liked Fernandez and I still have no idea why Fernandez came after Victor.
“You ready for an ass whoopin’, boss?”
There’s a three-inch mat under us, but it doesn’t feel soft when your ass lands on it and I plan to make Andreas’ very sore. “Call me boss again and yesterday’s ass whoopin’ will feel like child’s play.”
“You got it, boss.”
It shouldn’t feel this way to work out with someone. It never has before and for that reason, I kept my distance from all Victor’s men. Andreas could be my first “friend” and that’s a dangerous way to think. Problem is…Melina is so much more and I don’t know what I’d do if something happened to her.
I take a hard kick to the side of my head because I’m not paying attention. “Told you it was my day, boss.”
A minute later my foot connects with his inner thigh and he goes straight to his ass. I give him the “come and get me sign” and things get really interesting. Andreas is young—twenty-six, his file says. I’m thirty-one, but I’ve lived dangerously since the day I was born to a drugged out mother and her abusive child molesting lovers. Andreas came from a good family and would most likely be sitting behind a desk somewhere if his baby sister hadn’t been kidnapped by the cartel. Victor helped get his sister back and Andreas came to the dark side against his parents’ wishes.
He throws a roundhouse out of frustration and I move away and follow it with one of my own. His grunt of pain lets me know I caused some damage. We go at it for another hour before we move to Victor’s underground firing range. Here Andreas shines. He’s better than me even.
Yeah, he’ll do.
∞∞∞
The next morning I receive word from Moon that his men spotted Fernandez in Phoenix. I’m on a plane with my sidekick within the hour. Fernandez will regret coming out of his hole. We land in one-hundred-and-eighteen-degree heat, which is two degrees cooler than my last visit. Like two degrees makes a difference when it’s too hot to even touch the car door handle.
I’m meeting Moon at his warehouse and we’re going over the plan. If Fernandez is still here, I’ll find him. The warehouse district is similar to ours. I think Victor’s tutelage of Moon gave him the idea. It’s easy to get away with a hell of a lot of shit in an area like this and after hours, it’s not a place to hang around if you want to stay alive.
Andreas steers the rental vehicle expertly. He’s been here once before, but his sense of direction is uncanny. “I lived here when I was young,” he answers my unasked question.
Small talk isn’t something I’m good at, but I’m trying. “How old were you when you headed farther west?”
His eyes quickly glance in the rearview and then back to the road. I’m sure he’s startled that I actually asked him a question unrelated to working for me. “Around twelve,” he answers. “My dad would let me drive back here. There weren’t as many metal warehouses then, and it didn’t get much traffic so Dad made me feel much older than I actually was. Those were the days.”
I never had days like that. Victor kept a close eye on me the first few years. After I gained his trust, things changed, but he wasn’t the type of man to take me driving. One of his guards taught me when Victor thought I was ready. The guard wasn’t happy about it because I was a scary ass teenager.
We arrive at Moon’s warehouse a few minutes later. I step from the car without waiting for Andreas to open my door. I lean in to shut the door and a bullet wizzes past my head, taking Andreas in the shoulder. We both duck low behind the vehicle trying to figure out where the shot came from. The warehouse door opens and Gomez peers out with a gun in his hand.
“Stay inside,” I yell. He’s shooting from high up.
Gomez barks commands to his men and I check on Andreas. “Are you going to live?” I ask. It would really suck to hire a new right hand.
“It’s only a scratch. It went through. A Band-Aid and I’ll be fine.”
It’s a little worse than he’s letting on because there’s a good amount of blood dripping down his arm and collecting in a pool beneath him. My cell chirps and I pull it out and read Moon’s message.
Will cover you. Get your ass in here.
“We’re making a run for the building. You up for that?”
Pain pinches his features. “Nothing wrong with my legs. Tell me when.”
A volley of shots rings out and I jerk Andreas to his feet using his good arm. “Run,” I tell him as I peer around the car to see if Moon draws fire and I can pinpoint this douche. For once Andreas doesn’t lip my command and takes off running for the door. It’s bright and hot as fuck, but I still see a flash in a shadowed window across the street to the left of Moon’s building.
I shout out the location. Doesn’t mean there isn’t more than one shooter but I wait for Moon’s men to open fire in that direction before I make a run for the door. I charge into the waiting darkness. Not pitch black but shadowed.
Andreas is in the corner with a man examining his shoulder. It’s his left arm, so he’s still capable of defending himself with his dominant hand. “Will the cops show up?” I ask Moon when he steps slightly away from the wall.
“They might. Attacking during the day was stupid, so I have no doubt it’s Fernandez. My question is what the hell is he thinking?”
“He’s desperate. Our men are looking for him everywhere and he’s tired of hiding.”
Moon’s phone rings and he answers the call. “Stay put and head into the safe room if you need to.” Moon ends the call and looks at me with fury in his eyes. “The man I wanted from Fernandez just tried to get up to the escort office. He’s trapped in the elevator. This means Fernandez is working with him and they’re going after Melina too. She’s safe,” he says before I explode. “I have men on the building all the time and there’s a safe room for them. I also have men circling the back of the other building across from us. We’ll be out of here in ten minutes and pick up the women.”
It’s another few minutes before Gomez’s radio chirps. “Clear, the shooter’s gone.” Gomez runs out and across the parking lot to the other building before Moon can stop him. We wait until he returns. “Fucker’s long gone,” he states no happier than me or Moon.
“Check on Celina at the house. We’ll head to the service first and get Madison and Melina home.”
Gomez calls Celina and from what I can hear, it sounds like there’s been no trouble. “See you in an hour, baby,” Gomez says. It just sounds wrong coming from his lips, though. Maybe a good woman takes part of the animal out of us. Melina’s done something to me and I can’t begin to decipher what the hell it is.
Heat literally blasts from the pavement when we leave the building. While being shot at, I hadn’t noticed. Moon has a doctor on the way to repair Andreas’ shoulder. He’s not happy I’m leaving him behind but our plans are to get the women to Moon’s house and then bring the man trapped in the elevator back here.
“He’s armed,” a man tells Moon when we reach the building. “He’s taken a few shots at the control panel, which won’t get him anywhere.”
Moon runs his fingers through his short hair. “Threaten to toss a flash bang inside. He knows he’s a dead man, so he won’t want to come out without a fight. If that doesn’t work, toss the damn thing in. I don’t need his eardrums to get the information I want.” Moon’s control is better than mine. I want to tear this guy apart with my hands right now.
Moon leads me to a closet around the corner. He unlocks the door and there’s an elevator behind it. “This leads straight to Madison’s office. She’s waiting there for us.”
We take the elevator up and find Mak leaning against her desk with a handgun at her side. I glance to the left and see Melina in a nearly identical pose. Mak moves into Moon’s arms and I walk toward Melina.
“Hi,” she says shyly with a slight blush.
I don’t return the greeting because I pull her into my arms and smash my lips to hers. Not the most elegant welcome, but I fucking need her mouth. If we don’t get Fernandez today, she’s coming back with me anyway. I’m not waiting another day to fuck her and I’ll be damned if I’m doing it quietly.
She tastes incredible. I slip her skirt up the back of her ass and pull her against my growing erection. Funny, until now I never felt horny until I had a belt in my hand. Melina just needs to look at me and I’m hard as iron. “Did you miss me?” I breathe against her lips when I’m finally willing to release her mouth.
“I did. I don’t appreciate the box, though. You should have waited until we could look through it together.”
As far as chastisement goes, this isn’t a bad one. “I wanted you to have a chance to run,” I tell her truthfully. I knew I couldn’t let her go and I’d hunt her down and eventually have her anyway, but I had to give her a chance.
“Silly man.” She kisses the side of my neck. “I’m not running. I don’t plan to be a stay at home wife, though. I’m learning to defend myself and I’m improving my shooting score every day. I can now shoot your ass at twenty-five yards if you piss me off.”
I smile. “I’ll try to remember that.” What I’ll never forget is the look in her eyes. This amazing woman will be part of my life and I know I don’t deserve her.
“Gomez says we need to get out now,” Moon says from behind us. “They’re going to flash bang the elevator. It will cause a commotion and we need to be gone before it happens.”
The four of us squeeze into the small elevator and descend to the parking garage, where Mak’s driver waits. He lays rubber and gets us away before we even lock in our seatbelts. The drive to the house is uneventful. Moon receives word that the man in the elevator is in bad shape, but he’s alive. My palms itch to get my hands on him. I’m sure Gomez feels the same way.
The driver heads straight to the front door of Moon’s home and several more men join him to create a wall of men between the women and the house as we hustle Mak and Melina inside. Gomez’s woman is waiting impatiently and throws her arms around Melina when we’re through the door. Funny that she knows to stay away from her man and let him work. Hopefully Melina has taken notes.
Mak is in full cop mode with her gun still in her hand. Melina put her gun in her waist holster after we got in the car. I approve. She’s been in this life long enough to know sometimes you need to handle shit yourself.
“The house is on lockdown and we need to get to the warehouse,” Moon tells me.
Melina’s eyes well but I pinch her hip above her skirt. “None of that,” I whisper. “You’re returning with me. I’m done with this bullshit. My home is as secure as this one. Pack your things and be ready. Worst case scenario, I’ll spend the night here.”
She exhales slowly and gives me a quick kiss before I turn and walk away. I like that she doesn’t cling. When it’s time to work, she understands the score.
It’s nearly impossible to stay still on our ride to the warehouse. My fingers itch for blood.
The man’s hands are tied to a hook in the wet room at the back of the warehouse. I swear Moon’s eyes practically glow when he sees him. For someone who always appears calm and in perfect control, this is the closest I’ve come to see Moon lose it. His fist connects with the man’s nose and blood flies. Moon removes a handkerchief from his pocket and wipes his hand and face after the hit.
“Do me a favor and take as long as possible to talk. I will enjoy every second you’re still alive.”
The man spits blood but Moon’s backed off and doesn’t take a hit. His smile would send chills down anyone’s spine. “Alex, he’s yours. I’d like to pull the trigger, so go carefully. I want to know where Fernandez is hiding and how many men he has.”
Gomez steps forward shirtless. I’ve seen him work before. He has a way with non-words like no one else I’ve seen. The man is the psychopath to my sociopath. As much as I want blood, it’s a pleasure to watch Gomez do his thing with glove covered fists. Moon and I stand by as he starts striking the man in his chest and gut. Gomez checks him periodically by lifting his head by his hair. He mouths the questions directly into his face because of the blood coming from his ears. “Give me a location, Ramos, and a bullet will be your reward.”
I give Ramos credit, he holds out for an hour. I started worrying his crunched ribs would be a problem, but Gomez knows exactly what he’s doing. Ramos finally gives information in a blubbering voice that’s hard to understand.
Fernandez has two men and he’s moving constantly. He promised Ramos Moon’s territory if he helped. Fernandez is having trouble finding men who will go up against Moon or me. He’s pretty much on his own.
I like the odds.