“I need to know you’re with us Xander. That means you kill anybody who stands in your way. Anybody.”
“I will do what I need to do,” Xander answered and a gasp slipped from my lips.
My heart…
My heart that had stopped beating only started up again to leap into my throat. It squeezed and my soul shivered, shrieking away from what I’d just heard. Not wanting to believe it.
It couldn’t be true. What Xander said couldn’t be what I’d heard.
Yet… I did.
I’d heard him loud and clear.
Xander said he’d do what he needed to do. That was in response to being asked if he’d kill anyone who stood in his way. Anybody.
There was no mistake about that.
He meant it.
So he’d kill me…
He’d kill me.
I shouldn’t have come out. I should have stayed. Stayed away. Stayed away completely.
From him.
I needed to get out of here. I was in danger this whole time and never realized I was sleeping with the devil.
I left as quickly and quietly as I’d come in. My heart now a shattered mess.
Sleeping with the devil was a big mistake.
Falling for him was another.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Xander
My blood boiled in my veins as I watched Ethan go through the door leading to the back exit of the warehouse.
Even as he left he had the same air of authority he showed when he chewed me out for casting my duties aside.
I didn’t like being called out on anything. Even when I was clearly in the wrong.
It rubbed me the wrong way and left me fuming.
Fuming and furious because I didn’t have a plan.
I thought I could split my focus on the mission and protecting Jia but seeing her earlier and knowing her father planned to kill me if she kept seeing me through me out of sync.
Ethan was one of those people who could hold their own as a leader, but damn did that guy ever piss me off, and at the worst fucking times too.
“Hey bro, you okay?” Wes asked.
I’d almost forgot he was here. It was just us left in the room but I’d had one of those moments when everything just zoomed in on me and I felt like I was alone. Like I’d been swallowed up into a black hole and I was alone.
I turned my attention to Wes.
He could see how worked up I was. As my best friend he knew how worked up I would be just from looking at me.
Honestly, the restraint I’d had to show over the last few weeks with everyone was getting to me, getting to that stage where I could pop.
Pop, like the cork on a wine bottle and go ape shit on everyone. It was like being an inch away from insanity.
“Wes, I don’t know if there’s any point answering that question,” I answered, gritting my teeth.
Wes sighed and shuffled his weight from one foot to the other. “Talk to me bro.”
“God.” I ran a hand through my ruffled hair.
Where did I begin?
“Everything and everyone is getting to me.” That was the short succinct answer.
Being told I had to remember my mission, I couldn’t allow anyone to stand in my way, and I’d have to kill did not help.
That was what Ethan said. He gave me the reminder, but he was also telling me I might have to kill Jia. As if I could.
Jia…
The woman I’d wanted to protect. Jia, the mafia king’s daughter who’d unlocked the door to my heart that had been closed for business for the last five years.
Jia who I’d left at my apartment, sleeping in my bed.
She’d come to me in her distress. It was the first time she’d ever come to me and it was to say goodbye.
Goodbye, and to end this affair we’d had.
Affair was the best label I could place on it because except for when I outright kissed her in public and didn’t give a flying fuck, we were supposed to be a secret.
Me the secret agent seeing the mafia king’s daughter.
Me disturbing the hornet’s nest, rocking the foundation, waiting for it to come and get me.
Even so, I knew who I was and who she was.
I knew who she was to me.
Killing her was out of the question.
I didn’t know what in the hell kind of person Ethan thought I was but I wasn’t about to kill the innocent just because they stood in my way. That was why I gave that answer. I’d said I’d do what I had to do.
I would.
My way…
“I’m going back to my place. I can’t stay here. Can we talk tomorrow about your ideas?” I asked.
“You know we can. But Xander… talk to me now bro. Not work stuff. I can see you’re on fire, ready to blow and kill the next thing that moves.”
“I am,” I admitted, trying to steady my thoughts. “You know me. I hate taking orders. I know it’s weird because I worked for Ethan before, but back then I …”
My voice trailed off. I knew what the difference was. I knew it. Back then I had Claire. We worked for the same team. All of us worked in tandem with each other. I wasn’t sleeping with the enemy’s daughter.
“Things were a little different back then?” Wes filled in.
I nodded and glanced over to the open window as a gust of wind blew through, causing the hinges to rattle.
“I don’t know how I’ve allowed this girl to get to me the way she has, Wes.”
“Can’t help who you fall for Xander.”
He knew my story, past and present. Knew everything. Right from the beginning. He was the only guy I’d trusted, as far as trust went to tell my story. I guess my secrets too.
He was like a diary. He knew what had happened to me and knew the stuff I never wanted to talk about. The stuff I didn’t talk about.
It was what fueled me for the last five years to find Balthazar Kane, the man who killed Claire right in front of me.
The same thing kicked me into gear with Jia, but it was different.
It called on that instinct to protect her from people who could get to her.
There was that and now so much more that was out of my control.
She was in danger, but she wasn’t mine to protect the way I wanted to. Tonight made that very clear to me.
I drew in a sharp breath and decided to tell him what happened. I needed to get the shit off my chest. “Her father wants to send her to Europe and marry her off to that prick.”
“Armand?” He raised his brows.
“Yeah. She came to tell me, and warn me that Giovanni will kill me if she doesn’t comply.”
Wes chuckled. “I’d love to see him try to kill you bro. Realistically though, and I don’t mean to be a dick, you know I don’t… but maybe Europe isn’t such a bad idea for her. She’d be safe there. Right?”
“But with Armand?”
“With him… he may be a prick, but maybe getting her out of the way is best. It’s the Ra, Xander. They were in the same fucking room as her. You and I both know that those people who were there on the night of the shootout were just pawns, the guys you send to see if you can accomplish a task. If it works it works. If not then they send in more muscle. That’s the stage we’re at. We just don’t know what’s coming next. She’s the innocent in the mix so maybe it’s best if she’s out of the picture and out of harm’s way.”
All truth, all very reasonable and it all made sense. I just didn’t want to let her go.
I nodded. “Yeah… sure.”
No point telling him the other part of the shit where I promised her I wouldn’t allow Armand to take her.
The more I thought about it, the more it seemed like something that wouldn’t work.
“I’ll deal.” I sighed.
“Xander, I’m here if you need me. No point bottling things up. We trust each other. That’s the way it’s been for years. Even if your old buddies come back with their need for your skills that doesn’t change shit
to me. Talking about work and talking about life goes hand in hand. Because when your mind’s taken up with life you can’t focus on the shit we get up to.” He smirked and nodded, putting out his hand to bump fists with mine.
I obliged in the action we’d shared like it was some act to seal the promise of trust.
“Thanks bro. See you later.”
“Sure. I’m gonna continue working on my ideas. I think I can get a good head start on what we need. I discovered a park we may be able to enter to get into the tunnels. We’ll see though.”
It sounded good. Before I met Jia earlier on, Wes got the building plans for The Grand Marchesi showing the casino and the hotel but also a whole secret area that wasn’t listed on the records City Hall kept. Wes had a friend help him retrieve these new building plans and while I may be all worked up now, I had faith that the blueprints we’d been looking for were there.
It seemed like the perfect place to hide them. Giovanni Marchesi was a real son of a bitch and I would never understand how he could have fathered a sweet woman like Jia, but fuck I had to give the man credit for his ingenious ideas.
He’d gone from arranging an ambush weeks ago on a military envoy carrying the blue prints designed by NASA for a hybrid nuke, to hiding them so well that not even guys like me could find it. He definitely deserved credit for that.
“All being well we can wrap this up this week,” I stated. That was what I needed to focus on. Wrapping everything up. The people Giovanni was working for couldn’t be allowed to further their plans.
I’d seen him talking with The Chameleon and Diego. I saw them myself and knew how real the shit was. The Chameleon was an illegal arms trader nobody could locate for more than five minutes before he disappeared and Diego was of the Cuban Cartel. Just the names of those guys could put the fear of God in anybody. No matter how badass they were. Giovanni, The Chameleon and Diego. Big names but who they were working for had to be bigger.
We didn’t know all the players in this game but we knew they were big. No mere person could want the blueprint designs for a nuke just for a keepsake.
I was here to get the blueprints back before The Chameleon could take them to whoever was supposed to have them next.
That was the part I had to focus on.
All we knew right now was Giovanni was hiding the prints somewhere to keep them safe and The Chameleon had told him he wasn’t ready to take them yet.
It was all being considered a global threat so if I allowed whatever fucked up plan they had to come to fruition it meant disaster for everyone.
And, I didn’t just have them to worry about. There was The Ra too.
Terrorists… terrorists linked to Balthazar.
Balthazar was another reminder of how I’d gotten to this point and that I needed to do my job properly if I was going to get the help I wanted to find him.
He was the leader of The Spades, a faction of the Ra. He was a man I wasn’t likely to find by myself, or even with Wes’ help.
Wes and I had been from one corner of the globe to the next for the last five years in my pursuit to find him. All leads on him had gone to shit. Anytime I thought I was close I came out with nothing.
I was out for blood and vengeance. I wanted his head on a stake for killing Claire.
Ethan promised me help to bring him down if I helped with this mission to find the blueprints.
I was supposed to be dead too like my other teammates that were blown up after Balthazar killed Claire.
I’d been a dead man walking all these years looking for vengeance and this gig made me see that I couldn’t keep on like I was for the rest of my life.
I couldn’t keep looking and hoping I’d kill the asshole then get that redemption I’d wanted so I could face Claire’s father, Jack.
There was so much to all of this mess.
Too much.
Right now everything was such a fucked up mess.
No wonder my head was ready to explode.
Wes gave me a firm nod and I left him.
I hurried back to Jia, hoping she was still asleep. I’d been away a little longer than I’d hoped to be.
The minute I stepped into my apartment something felt off. The presence felt off, as in non-existent.
When I got to my bedroom I realized why.
It was because she’d left.
I would have left well enough alone if I knew she was okay. But that was the thing. I didn’t know. She wasn’t answering her phone and that just panicked me more.
Last night we didn’t really go into too much specifics. Giovanni took her car so I guessed either Frankie who was placed to watch her had given her a lift to my place or she’d gotten a taxi.
I thought she would have done the same to leave.
I just wished she hadn’t left.
Frankie was outside her house in his truck. When I parked I could see him watching something on the little screen in front of him. Looked like a game.
Getting closer I saw it was football. I’d forgotten it was the height of the football season. He was watching a rerun and eating popcorn.
He saw me the second I walked up to the truck and rolled his window down.
“Hey man, what’s up?” he asked.
“Did Jia come back here?”
“Yeah. Less than an hour ago.”
“Cool,” I answered and made a move to go but he jumped out of his truck and stopped me.
“Xander…” He looked at me and blinked several times.
I focused on him and tried to cool down. Realistically I just wanted to go see Jia and make sure she was okay. I didn’t want to talk to anyone else.
“Yes.”
“Look, kid,” he began, and paused to look me over.
“What?” I knew he was about to launch into a lecture. Although he’d never lectured me before.
“Kid…” He called Vinny kid too, although he was only a year younger than him. It was because he was the oldest of the knights at forty-six. That made him my senior by ten years so him calling me kid was something I couldn’t dispute, especially since I was kind of acting like a boy obsessing over a girl.
“I gotta admit at first you got under my skin because I didn’t understand why the boss made you skip the hoops we jumped through, but you’re down to earth and we get on. If we didn’t there’s no way in fuck I’d put my damn neck on the line for you two. But there’s a line. There’s a limit. She told me what’s going on and I have to reign it in and tell you to watch your ass.”
“I just want to talk to her,” I replied.
“I know, and I can see you’re real sweet on her, and truthfully she needs that, but this is a whole other territory. You have to be careful because he will kill you. When it comes down to it Giovanni will always go for what suits him best, he’ll sacrifice his best people to make sure that happens. What suits him best is always what’s best for her. He won’t give a shit how good you are. He won’t care. It’s the way of la famiglia, and the way of La Cosa Nostra. The way of the mafia. So watch your back. Do whatever you need to do and get back to your job.”
It was funny, three people had spoken to me in the space of hours about her and he was the person who reached me the most.
“Thank you. I will.”
I turned and continued my pursuit into the house.
The last time I came here I knocked on the door because I figured it was more civilized and polite. I’d seen the way the guys just walked in and out of her home and I didn’t like it. Most women wouldn’t have liked that one bit.
Today though I used the key Giovanni gave me and went in.
It wasn’t even four a.m. and if she’d come back an hour ago she could be asleep.
The last thing I wanted to do was ring the bell or knock on her door and wake her.
If she was sleeping I’d just look in on her and leave.
If she was awake I’d just ask her if she was okay then leave and figure things out.
The door to her room was ajar and t
he light beamed full force from the crevice, signaling that she was awake.
The next thing that told me she was awake were the little sobs that filtered through the door. I pushed the door open and she jumped off the edge of her bed.
I didn’t think it was possible but she looked worse than when she came to me earlier. She looked like something more had happened.
“Jia.” I rushed to her but she placed her hand up to stop me, shaking her head vigorously.
“No… don’t come near me. Don’t. I don’t know you! I don’t know you.”
I narrowed my gaze at her, wondering what the hell she was saying and what could have happened in the time since we’d last seen each other.
“What are you saying to me? Did something happen?”
I took one step forward and she dashed over to her chest of drawers, opened the top drawer and pulled a gun on me.
Needless to say shock flew through me.
This was the woman I couldn’t kill. But she was holding a gun on me, looking like she was ready to kill me. Her eyes blazed with fury I’d never seen on her before. Not in the short time I’d known her had I seen her look like this.
Like her father. A killer.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Jia
The gun was in my hands.
Cold, hard, steel…cold…
It felt like death.
Very symbolic of death. Ironic because it could take life.
Guns were tools designed to kill.
The coldness reminded me of how my mother felt when I’d watched her die. As I’d watched the life leave her body.
My mother…
As she lay on the ground in a pool of blood and I held her, watching the life drain from her, that was the first thing I noticed. How quickly she became so cold. So cold. Unnaturally cold.
Of course it would be, death wasn’t natural to me and at sixteen years old, it was the first time my eyes were opened to the truth of my life and the darkness of my world. Hard truth had hit me with a slap to the face.
It slapped me into a state of awareness, reminding me I was the daughter of Giovanni Marchesi.
Game of Love : A Mafia Romance Page 21