That was what last night had been about. That was what had brought Claudius to the house at that late hour. He was talking about giving me normal and Luc staying by my side.
This was why.
Alex backed away and left us. Walking out the door.
I looked at Luc, feeling lightheaded.
Adrenaline took over, and I moved to go, to run to wherever I needed to, to find Claudius. But Luc caught me.
“Ava, no.”
“Something could happen to him.” I winced, drawing more attention to our little circle.
Luc put his arm around me and ushered me down to the corridor. There was no one there.
“Ava, you can’t just run out to wherever. There’s nothing you can do.”
“You… you have to go. Please. He needs you.”
Luc gave me a pained look. “Ava, my brother and I take promises very seriously. Our word is our word. That’s why we know that we can trust each other. I gave him my word that I would take care of the most important thing in this world to him. So, I’m here.”
Heat rushed to my cheeks, making my skin tingle. I didn’t know why it should surprise me.
Why would it?
“Me?” I wasn’t being big headed in thinking that the most important thing in this world to Claudius was me. I knew it.
He nodded and gave my shoulder a reassuring squeeze.
I tried to swallow, but cold fingers of fear gripped me, and I couldn’t get past the lump in my throat.
What if Claudius got himself killed?
It could happen.
Chapter 28
Claudius
* * *
This was it.
Déjà vu.
The same day all over again, only seven years later. Same story, same motives.
Cora had called us in this morning, and I’d heard it all.
Goliath’s plan.
The envoy had left from the military base in Lake County an hour ago. According to my eyes in the air, the truck carrying the nukes was going to pass by here in two minutes.
I was stationed on the bridge overlooking the flow of traffic below me. At the intersection was a van with the gas company logo on it. Two men dressed in black and orange suits had the road dug up. It had been like that already when we got here. All plans were set out to look like the everyday occurrence.
Little did anyone know that those men weren’t from the gas company. They were Antonella grunts who’d been stationed there with Goliath lying in wait with the dupe nukes they were going to swap the real things for.
That was what I’d heard live and in living color on Cora’s recording. They were going to take the nukes, and since plans fell through for the shipping company, they were going to find some other way of smuggling the nukes out of the country.
They planned to do that and deal with me and mine later.
Deal with me, as if I was some kind of disobedient child.
The setup was similar to seven years ago.
Below me were three guys on bikes who were going to decoy the envoy truck. Guys like me seven years ago. Ahead on the road adjacent were three more bikers. They were the lookouts.
I had Dante down below, ready to take on the decoy bikers, and Gio several roads ahead, ready for the other guys. Pa was my eyes and ears. He was with Cora back at the office watching and listening from the setup she’d done. The secret squad and my other men would be ready for action on my word.
The plan was this: Goliath was after the nukes, and we were after him.
To get him, to draw him out, we’d piss him off the best way I knew how.
Mess up this little plan of his.
That’s how.
Right now, he was in the sewer waiting for the truck to come by. The bikers were supposed to stop it, and he’d get to do whatever it was he was supposed to do.
Like hell.
That fucking bastard was about to get a rude awakening.
I tightened my grip on the handles of my bike when the military truck came into view on my left. It was right on schedule.
“It’s on the way, son,” Pa said.
His voice sounded raspy on the little device in my ear that allowed us to communicate with each other. We each had one.
“I see it.” I pulled in a breath. “Dante, Gio, you ready?”
“Ready, boss,” they both chimed.
It was time.
The truck rumbled down the street, and the bikers geared up to go. The truck proceeded on its way, and there, just as it was about to turn, the bikers made their move.
The three of them pulled out at once with the type of skill I’d only seen on extreme biker shows. But they were no match for my guys.
The bikers thought they had the truck where they wanted it when it stopped, and the bewildered driver looked like he was about to shit himself. There was a beefy-looking guy next to him who would have gotten out but stopped when Dante charged out of nowhere like a demon from hell. I couldn’t resist the urge to smile.
With a steady hand on his bike, he maneuvered his way out and pulled out a machine gun and fired it. He didn’t have to aim at anyone to show he meant business. He just held it up and fired into the air, making the men scatter like mice.
There were another two trucks behind the truck carrying the nukes. Trucks with soldiers, possibly guards. Our little action had just alerted them to the trouble that could have happened.
The three bikers on Gio’s path tried to intervene, but he had them before they could even pull out.
I smiled when the envoy passed on by with the nukes.
Dante and Gio wreaked havoc, and the bikers scattered. That left Goliath and the two idiots dressed in the gas company suits, who’d cowered when they saw shit going down.
It was my turn now.
I rode down there, hopped off my bike, and made my way to the manhole.
“Hey, you!” One of the idiots cried and fired a shot at me.
I dodged it and whipped out my gun, shooting them both.
I spared no time. Goliath was down in the sewer, and I’d be damned if I was going to allow him to escape.
“Go to the left, Claudius,” Cora cried, making my ear piece buzz from the hurriedness in her tone. “He just made a run for it. If you go left, you’ll meet him at the bend. Quickly!”
I ran, doing exactly as she said.
“There!” she cried, and oh yes, he was there. The bastard ran straight into my awaiting fist that connected with his stupid shocked face as I jumped up and whacked him.
The asshole wet down and dropped his bag. I didn’t let him recover. I was on him like the plague. Fists flying in his face as I allowed the anger to take me.
That was my mistake. I should have shot him and blown his head right off his miserable body.
My anger blindsided me, and I underestimated his strength. They didn’t call him Goliath for nothing.
He flipped me over, and I knocked my head on the concrete floor. The dirty green and brown sewer water that flowed around us splashed all around me.
Goliath growled and landed a powerful fist in my face.
“Fucking mobster, it’s you again. Wow. I thought the message we sent you was loud and clear, but no, the greedy mobster came after me,” he taunted, eyes wild and feral.
The punch made me see stars, and I couldn’t see straight.
“You’re dead, motherfucker.” Anger might have been my downfall, but it was also my strength. It gave me the force to get him off me with a headbutt that sent him reeling backwards. Blood spurted from his nose.
Didn’t stop him from coming after me. This time, I reached for my gun, whipped it out, and shot him. But damn it, I only got him in his shoulder. His fucking shoulder. And… that only slowed him down.
I fired another shot in his chest as he came for me, but it didn’t stop him. That should have stopped him. That should have got him. I aimed for his heart.
Why the fuck didn’t it stop him?
He stumbled but regained his footing and
laughed, pulling back his shirt to show what I knew in an instant to be a fucking bulletproof vest.
“Cheater,” I snarled.
“Didn’t you wear one?” he spat. “Anyone with common sense would.” His bulbous eyes bulged, and the vein at his temple popped as he laughed.
I had to aim for the head. It was always the head with these guys. I’d cut Victor Pertrinkov’s head right off his miserable body. With this guy, I was going to blow it off.
I held the gun up high, ready to pull back the trigger, then something hit me hard in my head.
Felt like a damn baseball bat. Right to the back of my head. Fuck. Another blow to my back sent me down, and another flat on my face.
“Aren’t you going to kill him?” a voice said from behind.
That voice… who was it?
It sounded like Alex, but it could have been Jude. Sometimes they sounded the same. It was weird.
Fuck…
“Not yet. I have a better idea. Let’s play a game,” Goliath snarled and sent a kick straight to my face.
My head snapped backwards, and I instantly blacked out.
* * *
Ava
* * *
“Are you okay?” Amelia asked.
She’d joined me out in the sun room. I’d been out here since we got back.
Sitting around, watching.
She sat in front of me and brought her hands together, placing them in her lap.
She looked worried for me. Her hair was down today, and it gave her a younger appearance.
“I’m not okay, Amelia. I wish I could say I was, but I’m not. I can’t just sit here being babysat by you guys. No offence.”
“None taken. I know how you feel, and believe me, you’re in the right place. We don’t know what’s happening.”
“Is that we as in a collective we, or just us as in you and me?”
Her shoulders slumped. “All of us. Luc is trying to reach Claudius.”
“Wait… so, he hasn’t heard from him? Amelia, this man… Goliath, he’s crazy. He kidnapped me and killed my sister. I’m sure you know the story.”
“I heard it, and it’s awful. It’s truly awful and heartbreaking.”
“It was the most terrifying experience of my life. His men grabbed me in broad daylight from outside my house. Took me and my sister to the docks and put a bomb on her. That is the man Claudius has gone after. This crazy person. I understand why he’s doing it, but damn the—” My heart jumped into my throat when I lifted my head higher to continue my tirade and saw a man standing in the garden. A man in a black suit with a scar running down the side of his face. He held a machine gun. “Amelia, get down!”
“What?”
I didn’t repeat the warning. I just leapt onto her, knocking her to the floor when the man raised the gun and started firing.
Bullets sprayed through the floor-to-ceiling glass windows, sending shards everywhere.
Amelia and I screamed, keeping low and close to the floor.
There were voices, voices from inside and outside the house.
Something dug into my skin. It was glass. It was all over my hair and my shoulders.
Amelia shuffled from underneath me, trying to help me to move to the corner where the door was, but I was shaking so much I couldn’t find my feet.
Then in came the men.
Chapter 29
Ava
* * *
They seemed to be everywhere and came in all at the same time.
Amelia managed to get me over to the corner, and I cowered behind the vase, fearing for my life, wanting desperately to do something, anything, but I didn’t know how.
Amelia, on the other hand, whipped out a gun and went into what I would assume was her cop mode, from her previous life. She took down three guys without blinking, then sent some kicks and punches to two others.
By then, Luc and Maurice were at her side.
Saul grabbed me and heaved me over his shoulder, but someone shot him in the leg and sent him down.
“Fuck!” he growled and moved with me to the other corner and shielded me as he fired back at the guys who were coming after us. “Doll, stay down,” he yelled.
I wished I could have kept my head down. Upstairs, I heard Raphael crying.
“The baby,” I wailed.
“Donny and Louis have him. Keep. Down.”
I stayed down. I did, but I kept watch, feeling completely useless.
Two men came at us, but then I saw Jude. He came out of nowhere and took them out before they could take another step.
Jesus. There were so many bodies on the ground. And blood everywhere.
“Come on, Doll.” Saul grabbed my arm but kept his shield up on me with his body. We made it to the corridor near the grand staircase, but there were three guys there.
Guns were pointed at us.
“Give us the girl,” one of them said.
“How about I give you my ass instead?” Saul smiled, revealing his frightful gold teeth. He shot one in the head but in return got another bullet. I didn’t see where it hit him, but he dropped to his knees. I bent down, crying and screaming, trying to help him, but I couldn’t.
I couldn’t do anything.
One of the guys came at me and backhanded me across my face. Pain shot through my body, and my head felt broken, my vision blurred, and sparks of white light rippled behind my eyelids. I fell right next to Saul, who tried to help me, but another bullet took him out.
“Gone through a lot of trouble to get you, Angel Doll,” the guy sneered.
He raised his hand again, but a bullet smacked right between his eyes. I looked to see where it came from. It was Donny.
The other guy was just about to shoot back, but the front door burst open, and all I heard was bullets. They pierced the guy, messing him up like a rag doll. One to his head, a couple to the chest and stomach.
He dropped dead before me.
I looked to the door and saw Claudius standing there looking like the angel of death in his black clothes and hair whipping out against the gust of wind that blew around him from outside.
Numbness took me, although there was a tingling in my chest that made my heart hurt. Dizziness shook my brain from where I’d been struck, and the pressure that built in my chest made me forget to breathe.
Through all that, I was just so happy to see him.
He was at my side in a flash.
* * *
Claudius and I sat up in the bedroom. He’d cleaned me up, and I’d lost count of how many times he’d checked me over to make sure I was okay. Even after a doctor came to look at me. The same doctor who’d come with the paramedics to take Saul away.
Saul didn’t die.
Thank God, he didn’t die. I didn’t know how I would live with myself if he’d died trying to save me.
Claudius and I had sat up here in silence the whole time. Me allowing him to do what he thought he needed to do to see that I was okay.
Emotionally, I was drained, freaked out, and wiped out. Physically, I was the same, and I had a black eye. No one had ever hit me before.
Claudius moved to the bowl of cold water and soaked the cloth in it again. He came back and placed the cloth over my eye. Not quite looking at me. Guilt was all over him. It rolled off him in waves so strong it was stifling.
We sat like that for five minutes before he moved to get up again, but I caught his wrists and tugged him back.
“I’m okay,” I said breathlessly. My voice held a shudder to it that I couldn’t control.
It was the first words I’d said in just over an hour.
His gaze locked onto mine, and he sat back down. His hair drifted over his eye and hung past his chin. He had wounds too. Bruises all over his face. A gash on his cheek and a big blue mark on his right temple.
I took the cloth from him and got up this time, making my way over to the bowl.
I dipped the cloth in and went back to him, placing it on the worst mark on his face. The brui
se on his right temple, which I could feel a lump under.
He closed his eyes and pressed his face against the palm of my hand, lingering there like I offered him some comfort.
“I need to get you far away from here.” He spoke on the edge of a ragged breath, opened his eyes, and lifted his head. “Far, far away from me.”
“Luc told me I was the most important thing in your world.” I looked at him, really looked at him so he could see how serious I was.
“You are,” he said with complete conviction.
“Then you’ll know how I feel when I tell you I won’t be going anywhere without you, because you are the most important thing in my world too.”
He stood up just as I was about to reach for him.
“It’s not the same thing, Ava. It’s not. Look what happened today. You were lucky. We were lucky. Saul could be dead, and my family could have been killed. Raphael’s three years old, and because of me, mobsters broke in and shot up his house. They came for you. They came for you again because of me. My plan went to hell.” He shook his head. “I need you far from here.”
“Claudius. Do you seriously expect me to just sit around and do as I’m told?” I stood up too, balling my fists.
“It’s not about that.”
“Like fuck it isn’t. You think I should feel what you tell me to feel and do what you tell me to do. Then you shut me out and shut me down. What actually happened today? Tell me! I deserve to know. Tell me exactly how your plan went to hell. I’d love to know because it’s not like you’re some kind of amateur out for revenge. Did you even see him? Goliath? And yes, I know he’s here.”
His shoulders stiffened, and he tensed his jaw.
“I nearly had him. I had that bastard right where I wanted him, and someone sucker-punched me with a fucking bat.” He laughed off key with cold sarcasm. “The thing is, I swore the person who hit me was Alex or Jude. I don’t know. And Jude’s downstairs. He helped you all. So, it’s Alex?”
He let out a ragged sigh and grabbed the sides of his head in frustration.
Dirty Hearts: A Bad Bod Mafia Romance Page 23