“No matter what goes down this afternoon, Sabrina’s your priority, got it?” I tell Axe and nod over to the prospect. I breathe in a huge hit from my cigarette and look around at all the faces of my tribe. My executive members, our officers, and the Texas charter stand together with me about a half-mile away from the warehouse for this meeting with Rizzo and Giovanni.

“Got it, boss.”

“Keep her safe and out of Giovanni’s hands at all costs.”

Axe squeezes my shoulder as he clears his throat. “Sounds like it’s official between the two of you, Pres.”

I shrug him off. “Nothing’s changed. Stay focused.”

“Excuse me as I remind you that you weren’t fucking interested in hearing me out about the reward for Bain. You wouldn’t give me the time of day, yet you stopped to let her tell you about it. I’m not saying that I’m mad, bro. I’m not.” His eyes are on me as I take the last pull from my cig and drop the butt on the ground, stamping it out. “You just need to accept that women can be influential in other ways.”

“The only reason I listened to her is because you warmed me up to the idea first.”

“That’s fucking noble of you,” Axe chuckles. “Her old man will want an explanation.”

“And he’ll have one.” I nod over at Cole. “Let’s go. Everyone else, you have your orders.”

“What? No hands-in huddle?” Tate asks, half-joking.

“It’s not that kind of meeting, kid. This is serious shit that’s about to go down.”

“We’re all set, boss,” he replies. “You know I was born for this shit. I’m just making sure the member morale is high.”

“Get your head out of your ass,” Cole tells him, turnig to follow me as I walk back toward the group of parked bikes.

Sabrina’s waiting beside mine. “I hope this doesn’t get us all killed.”

“If they’re willing to talk, it won’t,” Cole answers. He slides a Glock into his waistband under his cut, pats the sheathed Bowie knife already looped into his belt buckle, lifts the hem of his jeans to look at the Ruger LCRx .38 Special at his ankle, and hops on his bike. “If not, I’m ready to go down fighting.”

“I am too,” she says, resolute. “Are we going in now?”

“Yeah, dollface,” I tell her, getting on my ride.

Sabrina climbs on behind me. “Try not to get too comfortable calling me that. Then again, I may not see your face again after today.”

“You like it that much, huh?”

“Maybe now’s not the time to talk about what I like,” she whispers against the tip of my ear.

She’s lucky there’s no time. If things were different, I’d have my way with her every fucking chance I get. With a smile, I turn over the engine and take off alongside Cole as we drive across the short stretch to the warehouse.

“I’ll do the talking when we’re inside,” I tell her after parking the bike. I crack my neck and help her down once I’m off. “Got it?”

Sabrina tilts her head to the side, running her hands down my chest and abs, completely ignoring that Cole’s within spitting distance.

“What do you think?” she asks seductively. It’s exactly the look she had on her face last night as she got on her knees.

“Now ain’t the time to have me thinking with that head.”

“My father will listen to me,” she says, her expression turning stern.

“That may be so, but he understands and respects a show of strength. I won’t be able to send that message if his daughter’s trying to speak for me.”

“Fine.” She huffs out a frustrated breath. “Let’s do this.”

Cole steps up ahead of us as we walk toward the warehouse door. We come face to face with Rizzo inside. He’s with Giovanni, and it’s no surprise to me that more than a dozen bodyguards are spread out behind him.

“Sabrina,” Rizzo calls out to his daughter. “Thank God you’re fine.”

“How is this going to go down, Rizzo?” I ask, not wasting any time with formalities.

“As usual, you’re all business. I can respect that from a Corrigan.” He takes a step forward, buttoning the jacket of his dark gray designer three-piece suit. “Now, if you’ll kindly give me back my daughter, we can wrap this up quickly… no one has to get hurt.”

“I wasn’t kidnapped, Dad,” Sabrina shouts. “Please don’t—”

She only stops as her father’s deadly gaze snaps over to her, shutting her down.

“Stop,” he barks at her. “You’re safe, princess. You don’t have to say anything they forced you to tell me.”

“They didn’t force me to do or say anything. Dad, I’m fine. This isn’t what you think. I don’t need to go anywhere.”

“These people took you from your condo and have had you for almost four days.”

“No! You’re wrong. They stopped the kidnapping attempt. Twice. And they kept me safe. This is all a big misunderstanding.”

“You were with them voluntarily?”

“Not at first, but yes. Someone else tried to take me. Silas was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or maybe it was the right time. I got into trouble leaving the condo. Someone darted me. I don’t know who, but the point is Silas was there and he helped me get away from them. He’s kept me safe since then. I know you appreciate that.” Sabrina swallows hard, blinking back tears as she points to Giovanni. “Lorenzo Giovanni is not the upstanding person you believe him to be.”

“You’re confused… traumatized,” Giovanni explodes. His face goes beet red. “That must be it, because you’d never dare to disrespect me that way in front of these goons. They’re worthless street rats. They don’t deserve to look at you, and yet you’re defending them? You’re mine. You will respect me. You’re promised to me and no one else, do you understand me?”

The pompous asshole grabs Sabrina by the hand and I have to bite back my urge to ram my fist down the motherfucker’s throat. Or the double barrel of my sawed-off. But Sabrina shoots me a glance as if to tell me to follow her lead. She goes willingly, and stops beside her father. His eyes remain fixed on Giovanni’s hand on his daughter until the fucker lets her go.

“I have no doubt that Lorenzo’s behind both kidnappings, Dad.”

“That’s ridiculous,” Giovanni protests.

“It’s not! He’s been holding Jordan prisoner to make sure I follow through and marry him, Dad. You have to believe me. And he put a hit on Silas’s mother last night. She wasn’t hurt badly, but he had her shot!”

“I hope she’s doing fine,” Rizzo says calmly. “This is disappointing. All of it. But I’m much more discouraged to know you think so little of me, Sabrina. Yes, I’ve been busy, but not too busy to find out some of these things myself.” He looks at me again. “Corrigan, do you really believe I’d let Giovanni lay a hand on my daughter?”

“That’s a tough question to answer when I hear you pushed for their engagement and made her move in next door to him. We’re the ones who spent the last four days watching her back, and protecting our club and my members from attacks he ordered.”

“Whatever I did, I did it to protect, Sabrina,” Giovanni insists.

Thank fuck Rizzo isn’t drinking the Kool-Aid. “Lorenzo, your father and I were friends and allies for more than half a century before he died. He was a man of honor through and through, which is why I gave you countless opportunities to rise to the occasion and work toward being more like him. I see now that’s not in the cards for you. You’re still willing to look me in the eye and lie to my face as you stab me in the back.”

Giovanni goes pale as Rizzo’s words sink in. “What?”

“I gave you my blessing to marry Sabrina out of respect for an agreement I made with your father. That would not have happened had I known you’re the one behind the kidnapping of Governor Bain’s boy.”

“But, no… You can’t do this,” Giovanni pleads to Rizzo.

Rizzo ignores him and turns to me again. “Thank you for keeping her safe. I can’t tell you how much that means to me. You’ve also saved my organization from potential blowback by returning Governor Bain’s son to him. I’ve repeatedly announced that no one associated with my organization would ever betray Governor Bain, that we had no part in his son’s kidnapping. I was wrong to put any faith in Giovanni.”

No shit.

“I’ve had enough of this charade,” Giovanni shouts all of a sudden. “Get in position, men.”

Half of the men they brought along step around him. One of them drags Sabrina out of the way while the others face me, Cole, and Rizzo, and start reaching for their weapons. Rizzo’s the only one in shock. He’s not unprepared, though, pulling out a handgun at the same time that Cole and I get ours out.

Except, he’s pointing his back at Giovanni too.

As our allies.

“Sabrina’s mine, old man,” Giovanni snarls. “The wedding’s on. And after it’s all said and done, you can fade into the background when I take over. Or maybe you’ll have an unfortunate accident right now. “

“You’re out of your mind if you believe that,” Rizzo breathes out confidently.

“Watch me. Corrigan and his MC will be next, for putting his hands on what’s mine.”

“I just have one question, Lorenzo,” Sabrina says. “Why did you have your men dart me that night? It doesn’t make sense that you’d try to have me kidnapped when you were already in control.”

“One can never really have complete control,” he says calmly. “Besides, look how well it worked out thanks to Mr. Corrigan.”

“Do you understand how fucked up that sounds?” I shout. “You staged the kidnapping of your own fiancée and dragged me into it? For what?”

“You just dug your own grave, you idiot!” Sabrina screams. “You’re an insane fool for thinking you can defy my father.”

Giovanni rears his hand back and slaps Sabrina so hard across her face that it echoes throughout the warehouse. She staggers backward, but recovers quickly, covering that side of her face.

That does it.

The fucker crossed the line. Not just with me, but also with Rizzo, who looks like he’s about to go nuclear.

Time seems to stop and speed up all at once as Giovanni triggers a chain reaction around the room. Someone’s gun goes off. As Cole is closest to Rizzo, he launches himself toward the mob boss, pushing him to the ground to protect him. One of Rizzo’s men does the same for Sabrina, using his own body to shield her. Everyone else, including me, drop down for anything around that provides enough cover. Thank fuck most of the men in here must be professionally trained. Either that, or they know better than to start a war with one of the most powerful mobsters in the room.

As I look around the sprawling space, two more gunshots ring out through the thick tension. My gaze flick across my body toward Cole and Rizzo. It’s not them, but a few feet away, Giovanni has his gun pointed in the air. He shoots one more round in the air, and with a stone cold, satisfied expression on his face, aims the gun down toward Sabrina’s head.

“If you want your daughter alive, you’ll let us leave here with her now.”

Everyone freezes.

“You know that’s not happening,” Rizzo tells him. “I’ll give you one more chance to walk away from this.”

“I have a gun trained on your daughter’s head and you still want to make demands? You just don’t know how—”

Giovanni doesn’t get to say another word because while he’s mid-speech, Rizzo pushes out from under Cole, and from his side, fires off a round that hits Giovanni in his right shoulder.

“That was your third strike, Lorenzo. Consider this an early retirement, due to injury. And I’ll give your men twenty seconds to get you out of here alive. After that, I won’t be so generous.”

Giovanni’s bodyguards lower their guns, pulls themselves to their feet, and back away slowly. Not one of them sticks around to back up their employer.

“Boys, take out the garbage. And you,” he says to Giovanni. “Make sure I never run into you again.” Three of the Padrino’s men snatch up a writhing Giovanni from the floor, dragging him out of the warehouse. “Sabrina, are you all right?”

She gets to her feet. “I’m fine. Thank you…for that.”

“I’m so relieved. Will you give a me a minute to speak privately with Corrigan?”

“Sure.”

Rizzo nods at his remaining guard beside her, and they lead Sabrina off to a small enclosed office at one corner of the warehouse. Cole follows them into the office.

“The apple didn’t fall far from the tree,” he tells me when we’re alone. “Your father would be proud. Now, let’s talk about how we go forward from this incident. I’d like to continue working with you. I’m sure you understand I’m fair, and a man of my word.”

“Yes. That’s been clear from the start.”

“Of course. But, Corrigan? I can’t say I’m confident our prior business relationship can continue as is…not with my daughter in the mix.”

“I’m not sure what you’re getting at,” I say, although I’m pretty sure he’s suggesting I can’t be with his daughter if I want to keep our deal going.

“Our partnership can flourish into greater opportunities, but I’m going to have to ask you to end all contact with Sabrina.”