For a moment, I wondered if this was what Kieran felt like. Waiting in the shadows, watching people go about their lives, completely unaware to your presence. But then I saw him tense. Only the slightest change in the way he was holding himself, his hand slowly creeping toward his pocket as his eyes scoured the room. And then I wondered how a human being could be so damn silent.
His murderous eyes passed over me, the only indication he saw me was the pent-up breath he slowly released as he slipped the knife from his pocket, his head dipping in the slightest nod.
“Go get the men who were supposed to pick up Finn’s whore,” Mickey muttered as he sat at his desk and logged onto his computer. “They talked to someone, and I want to know who. I want to know where that girl is, and I want to make sure this colossal fuck-up won’t happen again.”
Kieran’s gaze snapped in my direction—the only warning he could give me—a second before he threw the knife at me, the blade imbedding in the wall just inches from where I stood.
I might’ve cursed if Mickey wasn’t already up and looking my way, his eyes cold and his lips twisted into a sneer.
“It won’t,” I assured him. When he reached for the gun at his hip, I raised mine higher. “I wouldn’t.”
I waited as Libby, Einstein, the twins, and a few of the older members stepped out from their places within Mickey’s office to surround him and Kieran, enjoying his growing frustration as our numbers grew.
“You have a lot of places to hide in here,” I said with a grin.
Mickey’s office building located in Raleigh seemed to fit him. It was loud, overstated, and dripped with dirty money. His office was even worse. It was like his own personal shrine for how amazing he thought he was.
But for a mob boss, it had been all too easy for his enemy to slip into the building and into his office.
“Security isn’t that great,” I added.
“You all have some pretty big balls showing up in costumes, kid,” he said with a laugh.
My grin widened. He and I both knew the bandana was a Borello tradition, just as he knew exactly who was standing in front of him.
Still, I lowered the piece of fabric so it hung around my neck. Shrugging when I did.
“Computer,” I muttered to Einstein, never taking my attention from Mickey. I took a step closer to him when she hurried to sit in the chair he’d just been occupying, her fingers flying over the keyboard. “Like I was saying . . . that colossal fuck-up won’t happen again, because your warped dream of selling and buying stolen women is over.”
Although his animalistic sneer didn’t fade, panic slowly rose in his eyes.
Einstein kicked away from the desk, rolling back in the chair and leaving the computer open for view.
I walked forward until I was standing on the opposite side of his desk, behind the computer, forcing Mickey to face the screen and giving me a clear view of his expression.
“That feed on the left? That’s your shipping container. You know, the one you bought to hold the kidnapped women until the auctions.” I leaned forward to whisper, “I don’t think you’re getting a shipment of girls anytime soon, Mickey.”
Every one of the men Mickey hired to find and kidnap women was rotting in that container.
Johnny, Kieran, and I had been slowly picking them off over the last six months—made easy because Mickey only kept in contact with them over texts. And we had all their phones. The men tasked with taking Teagan had been the last hired and the last to go.
“That still on the right? It’s a few of the men leaving the police station after spilling about your little plan since you tried to blackmail them into going in on it with you. At least, that’s what they said . . . and I destroyed all copies of their contracts.”
“I will end you,” he seethed. “I will murder everyone you’ve ever loved while you’re forced to watch, and then I will tear your heart from your chest and shove it down your throat.”
I waited a few seconds then muttered, “That was dramatic. Did you get that?”
Einstein nodded as she lowered her phone. “Yep.”
“Christ, Mickey. Now I have you on video threatening my life. And I bet the computer hid my gun. Funny how that works.”
“Police in eight,” Maverick called out from where he stood behind Einstein.
I tilted my head and sucked in a breath. “Funny.”
“What do you want?” Mickey demanded, wrath burning in his eyes.
“A few things. For starters, don’t be a sick fuck. I’ve visited every person who signed a contract with you for this trafficking ring. Not one of them will go to bat for you. Every contract, bill, and statement has been wiped from your servers, and the physical copies are now in my possession. If I hear you’re trying to start this up again, I’ll take you down with a smile on my face.”
He ground his teeth, the muscles in his jaw flexing. “And?”
“Our feud is over. If you ever come after a Borello member or a Borello, I will kill you, and it won’t be quick. That includes anyone you hire or any Holloway.”
“What else?” he spat.
“Do you agree?”
“Yes, I agree, you piece of shit.”
“Then you’re about to be arrested,” I said with a shrug. “You’re smart, and you have a lot of money that was supposed to go toward your psychotic plan. I’m not dumb enough to think you don’t still have people in your pocket that can get you out on bail and sweep all this under the rug as a bad case of envy and false accusations. But that doesn’t change what’s happening right now.”
“I underestimated you.”
With my gun still aimed at his chest, I stuck out my hand. “We have a deal?”
Mickey grit his teeth and forced himself to stand tall, straightening his suit as he did. With a hard nod, he muttered, “Deal.”
I released his hand and nodded toward his office door. Once my crew started that way, I turned to head toward the door, smirking at Kieran. He was barely concealing his rage.
“We’re even. He’s your problem now,” I whispered as I passed by him.
His breaths grew more pronounced, his chest heaving, but I didn’t care.
He’d fucked me over, and this was my last retaliation.
The plan for six years had always been to stop Mickey. Four years ago the plan had changed to end his life as well.
The only apology Kieran would ever get from me for taking Lily was the warning on Mickey, and for taking all the blame—or credit, depending on how you looked at it—in stopping the trafficking ring. Now Mickey’s suspicions of Kieran would end, and Kieran’s life wasn’t in danger.
But unless Kieran planned to kill Mickey before the cops showed up, he was stuck with him—stuck being Mickey’s assassin. And that was the worst kind of retribution because Kieran didn’t know how to stop working.
I’d trapped him the way they’d all trapped Lily.
With my back pressed to the door, I grabbed the bandana and looked at the only two men left in the room. “Lily Borello . . . it fits her, don’t you think?”
I lifted the bandana over my face and slipped out the door, my smirk widening into an uncontrollable smile as chaos erupted behind me.