CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR

Dante

CHASE DIDN’T HAVE to tell me what was going on for me to know, I saw the anguish in his eyes first — second I saw the determination, the fierce loyalty that was torn between blood.

And his wife.

“Dante get Nixon now, call Sergio, Phoenix, Frank, Tex — get them all — they have El.”

I don’t remember speaking to Nixon, my vision was red, my body felt heavy with rage as I strapped another gun to my leg and pulled out my Glock and made sure I had enough ammo.

It took the guys three minutes to make it to the house.

Frank was in a suit. Completely unarmed. Or so I thought, until he opened his suit jacket and I saw a glimpse of at least three guns and what looked like a grenade.

I felt both ready to puke and ready to bomb the entire world in order to find her, in order to kill Mil for taking her.

I paced while Chase gave everyone a rundown of the conversation with Mil, and with each word from his mouth the anger took over more and more until I didn’t even recognize the thoughts running through my head or the way my blood pulsed through my body.

“Dante pulls the trigger,” Nixon said. “If it comes to that, he’s agreed for all our sakes—”

“No.” Chase licked his lips, giving each and every one of the men a look, “This is on me. She’s my wife. I said in sickness and in death — and I meant it.”

I wasn’t sure if I respected him more in that moment.

Or less.

Because his job was to protect her.

And yet, part of me knew that maybe the only way to protect her from them — was to be the first one to kill her.

Sergio grabbed his iPad from the front seat of his brand new Tesla and swore. “They’re on campus.”

“Where?” Chase grabbed the iPad.

“The Spot.” I gritted my teeth. “They said something big was going down this week, tomorrow night actually. If she’s on campus, she’s with them.”

We all fell silent.

Our enemy had been in our own house.

Working with the Russians.

“Looks like I get to shoot him first after all.” I got into Sergio’s car with Chase, while the guys got in Tex’s.

The drive was silent.

My nerves were shot.

My blood pulsed, pounded. Please God let her be alive.

I couldn’t think past the need to shed every ounce of blood from every single bastard who’d touched her.

And Mil? My fingers itched to make her feel pain the way I was feeling pain.

“I’m sorry,” Chase said hoarsely from the back seat. “I’m so damn sorry, Dante.”

“Not your fault.” I clamped my jaw. “You get that right?”

“I should have pushed harder,” he rasped. “And now—”

“Shut the hell up,” Sergio interjected. “Both of you.” He turned off the music that was playing lightly in the background. “This is our fucking job all right? We walk in without emotion. We kill without emotion. We bleed without emotion. For a few moments in time, we stop being human and get the job done. Any questions?”

Any other day and I’d question what kind of sick bastard my sister married.

Any other day where the love of my life wasn’t with the enemy.

“Nope, no questions,” I finally said.

Chase was quiet in the back seat.

Sergio must have known he needed more than that, because he veered off the side of the road, put the car in park and turned around, grabbed Chase by the shirt and jerked him close to his face. “You do what needs to be done. You mourn tomorrow, got me? You’re the best shot we have, you’re an assassin for shits sake. Act like it.”

He put his seat belt back on, tires screeched as we got back on the road to the University.

And in the rearview mirror I saw Chase go from terror.

To purpose.

A cool mask replaced his normal cheerful demeanor.

He didn’t look human.

He looked how I felt.

Like he’d kill anyone who stood in his way and shoot them again just in case.

We pulled up to the University.

Sergio shut off the car and turned to me. “You’re the Alfero Boss — they have your wife — don’t hesitate, you won’t get the luxury of time.”

I gave him a curt nod and opened my door.

Tex normally joked.

He looked angry.

Pissed as hell.

None of the guys looked happy to be there.

Like we knew we had to do the hard thing.

But nobody wanted to step up and do it.

Dark circles rimmed Phoenix’s eyes as he walked over to Chase and put his hand on his shoulder and whispered something in his ear before slapping him on the back and grabbing his gun.

A week ago I would have charged ahead.

A week ago I wasn’t their equal. I’d still been trying to prove myself.

Today, I walked with them, toward a building that held El, toward an uncertain future.

Tex sighed and made a cross over his heart.

Frank kissed a necklace and shoved it back under his shirt, while Nixon bent down and touched the grass, it seemed everyone had their weird quirks before battle.

The red haze in front of my face lifted just briefly as Tex jerked the door open to the spot. I walked in first the rest followed.

We went in exactly how we were instructed by Mil.

Rapid gunshots went off.

I wasn’t sure if they were ours or theirs.

By the time we all made it in, with Chase close behind us, Nixon was on the ground with a gun to his head and Frank was firing shots into Maksim’s face.

El’s hands were tied, Mil was behind her, a gun pointed at her temple.

“Whoa!” Andrei grinned. “Well done, Mil, you really got every last one of them in here for me. Impressive. When we started this working relationship I thought you were full of shit! And now, every single boss comes to the meeting.”

Nixon’s eyes burned with rage at Mil. He was holding his leg as it bled all over the concrete.

“Now,” Andrei grinned wider. “Shall we discuss terms?”

“Terms?” Tex laughed, “I’m sorry we don’t negotiate with shitty little terrorists in school uniforms, I think you’ve got the wrong family for that, say your dad enjoying prison? I heard he drops the soap on purpose… just because he likes the feel of—” Andrei shot near Tex’s head, Tex jerked away and glared. “Careful, you know who I am, little one, one snap of my fingers and there won’t be anywhere you can go where my family won’t find you.”

“Perhaps.” Andrei shrugged, “It was a warning shot, I’m not stupid, in fact, I want to propose a business arrangement.”

“I’m listening.” Tex crossed his arms.

“Thanks to the lovely Mil,” Andrei licked his lips like he’d tasted her, kissed her. Chase tensed next to me, I held him back with my hand. “The De Lange family has become quite rich, she’s been helping us open shipping channels for our new little drug ring and we’ve been giving her a cut, but sadly it’s not enough cash flow. We want all of Seattle, San Francisco, New York—”

“Yeah, I’m going to stop you right there.” Tex chuckled. “Nikolai Blazik owns Seattle, no way in hell is he going for that.”

“He will if you tell him to.” Andrei shrugged. “Get him to agree? Why do I care? I don’t want war. I want money. Money speaks more than war. Don’t you think, Mil? After all,” he walked over to her and patted her face. “I promised you money and look what you were willing to do for me?”

Chase growled next to me.

“What’s in it for us?” Tex asked casually.

“I won’t kill Mil and I get El.”

I lunged forward. “The hell you will!”

“And you,” Andrei pointed his gun at me. “I still can’t figure you out — tell you what, you stay good on your promise to help me, I give you everything you need and you get to keep El, but you have to tie up every loose end here.”

Either kill all of them and I live with El.

Or El dies and they walk away with Mil.

My eyes fell to Nixon.

The only way out was in.

The only way out was to make it look like I believed every ounce of shit he was throwing at us.

So I grabbed my gun and nodded. “What would you prefer? Head shots? Body shots? We don’t want things to get too messy, now do we?”

Andrei grinned. Like he knew I would make that choice.

Like he had me right where he wanted me.

And I inwardly grinned knowing — I was going to take everything from him and do it with a smile on my face.