by Dee, Cara
“Cheers.” I lifted my chin at my temporary ride, and Liam followed me. “Mikey, you know what to do. You have the drone?”
“Aye, boss. See ya in a bit,” he replied, climbing into the truck. “Oi, Ford. Gimme the info I’ll need.”
Liam and I drove off in the SUV, and on the way to the Avellino villa, I connected Eric into our line of communication.
“We’re a go for the villa,” I said, speeding up. “Anything new from the States?”
Eric chuckled over the line. “Some funny news. Gang violence and petty crimes are on the rise in the Philadelphia area.” It sounded like he was reading from a headline.
I smirked. “’Cause we’re not there to help the men in blue keep the trash in check.”
“I wanna see the authorities beg for us to return,” Liam laughed.
That’d be something.
I followed the curve of the dark road and retrieved my smokes from my pocket. Then I lit one up and rolled down a window.
“Joel and Adam are causing mayhem.” Eric went on with what I wanted to hear. “They were chased by six cars this morning, but they shook ’em.”
“Have they taken any out yet?” Liam asked.
“A couple,” Eric responded. “Thomas and Mundy took out four in Boston, too.”
“Good.” Glad to hear it. If we got our way, the Italian rats wouldn’t leave the US alive. “Keep me posted. And I wanna know if anyone clips the guy we saw in the pictures—the young guy walking with a cane. He’s the fucker who stopped Emilia outside the compound.”
Even though the Avellino borgata was big, we had to have put a dent in Gio’s numbers. Considering the men we’d buried around the ranch, and now the pissheads our men were dealing with, there was no way Gio could just sit by and let it happen.
I turned onto a dirt road behind the forest that eventually led to the back of Gio’s property. As per the footage on Google, the road ended less than a mile in. We’d walk the rest of the way with our gear.
“We’ll see you soon, mate,” I said and slowed down the car. “All right, status report from everyone.”
Three or four of them spoke in my ear at once, but I managed to tell them apart. Colm, Conn, Lachlan—and there was Kellan. Mikey reported in too; he was five minutes away from the villa. Sullivan was on his way up a tree with his precision rifle. Patrick was stepping up his game today, and he was helping Eric set up his equipment nearby, as well as getting ready to be backup to Mikey.
That was all of them. Mack was staying behind at our place, just in case. We couldn’t leave the girls completely alone.
Liam gave my earpiece a pointed look and turned off his own.
I did the same and hiked a brow in question.
“What role’s yer brother gonna play later on?” Liam was curious—and just as nosy as I was.
“I don’t know yet.” That was my honest answer. “I used to have this image of him beside me, but I think we’ve both let go of that. He’s happiest running his own crew, and it’s what he’s good at.” I couldn’t see him shouldering a role in management anymore. But we had a long way to go before I took over the Sons, and who knew what would happen by then.
I didn’t really wanna think about it, because we didn’t merely have a lot to do. It was gonna take time too.
If everything went according to plan tonight, we’d be outta Italy before dawn.
England was the logical destination for our next leg of the journey, and I couldn’t tell the men—or my wife—if we’d be there a month or half a year. We’d sure as hell need a few weeks to come up with our next plan, and then… I just didn’t know.
Maybe we were finally catching our break.
Two hours later, everything was going off without a hitch. Mikey had delivered the groceries, Eric had gained control of the drone and flown it into hiding somewhere in the Avellino villa, and Kellan had completed cleanup and gotten rid of the truck driver.
I guess the one sucker punch had been when Eric had sent me a video clip from what the drone was capturing.
We’d gotten a glimpse of Elena Avellino. She’d been in the kitchen, a big, rustic area, and she’d been busy stowing away groceries. I’d frozen the frame in the fraction of a second the camera had captured her face.
Emilia looked so much like her, it was scary. Undeniably beautiful. It was like peering into the future. Elena had the same long, dark hair as her daughter, wavy at the ends, kind hazel eyes, full lips, and the same curves Emilia was developing. Which I sort of tiptoed around. My wife had complained a couple times that some bras and tops felt tight. I only saw her becoming more stunning than she’d already been.
The difference was Elena fucked the enemy, and for all I cared, she could die alongside her husband. I could put a bullet between her eyes without flinching.
Right now, we were only waiting. Liam, Kellan, Sullivan, and I were standing behind the tree line near the concrete wall that surrounded Gio’s property. Hidden away by the trees, bored out of our minds, restless, and, frankly, a little chilly.
Eric and Pat were a few hundred yards into the forest. They had more gear and wouldn’t be able to escape as quickly. Our tech expert had made himself comfortable in a tent. Two screens, the device he used to maneuver the drone, a battery pack, and whatever else Pat had helped him set up.
Lachlan, Conn, and Colm had returned to our place.
After taking a final drag from a cigarette, I put it out under my shoe and stuffed the butt into my pack. We were being careful not to leave any evidence or traces behind.
“Status report, Eric,” I requested and adjusted my earpiece.
Silence.
“He’s administering the sedatives to the dogs,” Patrick replied quietly. “We’re watching it on the screen. Fucking hell, you should see this, bro. Eric’s a wizard.”
I let out a silent chuckle.
“Things seem lax around here,” Pat went on. “Only the wife goes upstairs. One of the guards wanted something, and he stayed at the bottom of the stairs and hollered. There’s a gate for the dogs—they don’t go upstairs either. Two guards on duty, one chillin’. We think there’s a room the guards stay in when it’s not their shift.”
I hummed. “What about the fourth guard?”
“Maybe it was Gio’s driver?” Pat suggested. “We don’t know, but we’ve only seen three men so far.” And they’d had access to footage the past hour and a half. Hardly bulletproof evidence of the last guard not taking a damn nap or something, but time would tell. “They did rounds, two of them, half past and on the dot—so, twice an hour.” Like we’d expected. “Okay, two of the dogs have taken the treats.”
“What else can you tell us?” I asked.
“The place looks just like the pictures in the old listing,” Pat answered. “You’re gonna wanna avoid the downstairs altogether. The guards stay outside a lot, but they duck in here and there. Stay away from windows too. We saw one guard point a flashlight when he walked around the villa. The drone was almost caught in the light.”
Kellan cocked his head, his forehead creasing. “How’re the dogs reacting to the drone?”
“They’re on edge but not overly hostile,” Patrick replied. “Three Dobermans, one Rottweiler. The Rottweiler’s more curious, I reckon. Two of them growled at first, and Eric flew the drone into another room when a guard came to check things out. They seem to have calmed down, though.”
That was good.
“Rottweiler’s taken the sedative now too,” Eric murmured distractedly. “Come on, doggy. Who the fuck doesn’t like bacon?”
Liam snorted in amusement.
Next, we heard both Pat and Eric curse.
“What’s going on?” I tensed up.
“The wife’s coming downstairs,” Patrick muttered. “We have to wait with the last dog. Eric parked the drone above a cabinet.”
And so we kept waiting.
10
Finnegan O’Shea
It was another hour before Eric gave us
the green light to prepare ourselves for entry. Three of the dogs were asleep on the terrace, and the fourth had recently slumped down on the floor in the sitting room on the first floor.
A new guard shift seemed to have started, too, though the last man remained missing. Maybe my brother was right. Maybe that guard was also Gio’s driver.
Liam and I each had a bundle of rope, a couple carabiners, automatic knives, our handguns, and cameras. Multiple pockets in our cargo pants for anything we deemed safe enough to steal. Lastly, Liam had his lock-picking kit.
I was pretty sure that if Gio had a safe, which he undoubtedly did, it would have a combination lock. In that case, Liam’s equipment would be worthless, and yours fucking truly would get shit done.
“Guard one has positioned himself outside the front door,” Eric reported. “Guard two is having a smoke on the terrace. Sullivan, can you get up in your tree again? I wanna know if the light is still on up on the third floor. The master bedroom is the second room to the right coming up the stairs, so it’ll be the side of the house youse’re facing.” Same side of the house we suspected the office was on, only a story below.
The terrace and pool area were at the short end of the villa to our left, another spot we wanted to avoid.
Sullivan disappeared with his rifle.
I swallowed two painkillers dry. Scaling a wall with a fucked-up leg didn’t rank very high on my wish list, and I knew this was gonna hurt like a motherfucker.
The wall would be easy enough. Liam would help me over first. Kellan would help Liam.
“Drone’s on the second floor now,” Eric continued. “No lights on here. Sullivan, let me know when you’re in place. You’ll be our eyes on the outside, and we need to know when it’s safe to use the flash on the cameras.”
“Copy that,” Sullivan grunted. Probably in the middle of climbing.
“We’re gonna do this quickly,” I told the boys. “Over the wall, cross the lawn, and up to the nearest balcony—”
“Negative,” Eric interrupted. “You’ll want the balcony to the left of that. It’s the only room that has a door open. I’m just inside now.”
“And you’re sure the drone can get the lock?” I asked, not for the first time.
“Have some faith, boss,” Eric chuckled. “You watched me build the damn device.”
He was right. The drone on its own didn’t have much power at all, nor could it fly very close to the window because the propellers would slap against the glass. But he’d constructed a remotely controlled grip that extended six inches outside of the drone’s radius.
Kinda the same reach my brother’s dick had.
I laughed to myself. I was a funny fucker.
“Care to share with the class?” Liam asked, amused.
“I was just thinking the grip Eric built has the same reach as Pat’s cock.”
The men snorted and chuckled.
“You think about my cock a lot, little brother,” Pat pointed out. “I would’ve expected it from Kellan, but…”
“Fuck you,” I bitched.
Kellan smirked wryly. “Sorry, mate, you’re not my type.”
“Ha!” I got some satisfaction outta that, at least.
“Now that’s offensive,” Pat muttered.
Ford rolled his eyes at me for some reason. “You feckless pricks. If there’s any O’Shea that’s my type, it’s your pop.”
Whoa.
“Dude,” Liam laughed under his breath.
I just stared at Kellan. “You’re into old fuckers?”
He hung his head and rubbed his temples. “Why did I open my mouth?”
“You gonna stand there and gossip or get started?” Eric asked pointedly.
“Uh, yeah.” I was in a daze. You think you know a guy… Fuck, what had Eric asked? Oh, right. I shook my head and got my shit together. “Right. Let’s go.” Then I pointed to Kellan. “We’re not done here, though. You can do better than finding some creepy Daddy to steal your virtue.”
Kellan looked like he was about to burst out in laughter, but I was fucking serious. He didn’t need some old fucker slobbering all over him. Christ. Was this old bag of balls gonna cook for my friend? Take care of him after work? Un-fucking-likely.
Liam was acting like I was funny too, gobshite, and he dragged me out of the woods and toward the wall. “You’re cute as a mother hen, Finn. Don’t worry. When we get home, we’ll set him up with a good Catholic lad his age.”
I nodded firmly and refocused.
“All right, I’m in place,” Sullivan said, out of breath. “Coast is clear from here. No lights on up on the third floor—or the second.”
I rolled my shoulders and cracked my knuckles. We had a job to do, and the concentration was finally finding me. I sank into it and wished I could turn off the earpiece and put on music instead. In fact…
I faced Liam. “I work better at high speed.” I addressed both him and the others listening. “Once we’re over that wall, I wanna move forward right away.” Alone. In one move. Get over the wall, dart across the lawn, and scale the side of the house. “If I lose speed, the pain in my leg is gonna take over.”
He shrugged. “Go for it. You’ll lower the rope for me, then?”
“Aye.” I brought out my bundle of rope and loosened about six feet of it, and I created a thick knot at the end to give it some weight when I threw it later. Then I tucked it back into my pocket. “Guys, I’m gonna put youse on mute while I focus.” And listen to music. The right kind of music got my blood pumping properly.
I worked best under pressure and when I was forced to come up with solutions on the go. When I stopped, my brain slowed down too.
“He’s gonna play Lindsey Stirling again,” Kellan said wryly.
“‘Crystallize’ is my jam.” No bones about it either. I found the song and put it into a temporary playlist. No use in collecting a bunch of songs on phones we threw away every goddamn minute.
“Is it any good?” Pat asked conversationally.
“It’s the electronica slash classical shite he made us listen to last spring,” Kellan drawled.
“Oh, fuck that.” My brother wasn’t a fan.
Well, screw all of them. This was how I got shit done in under a minute that would otherwise take us twenty.
“I’ll give you a two-minute window before I want you on that balcony, boss,” Eric said.
“I’ll only need one, dear. Your worry’s been noted.” I rotated my shoulders again and went through my memories of the maps we’d studied. The balconies were big and solid, the railings less like railings and more like stone walls. They consisted of low pillars, thick ones, around a foot or so, and there was enough space between each to throw a rope over the stone top and in between the pillars.
It was time.
Liam crouched down near the wall. “You got this, cousin.”
I nodded once and took a deep breath. “Muting the call in three, two…one.” I switched over to the music and planted my boot on Liam’s knee. Shame I didn’t have proper earbuds, though the song flooding my single earpiece still helped. “Ready?”
“Aye.”
As the sound of a violin flirted with my ear, I climbed onto Liam’s knee, grabbed onto the edge of the wall, and heaved myself up as quickly as I could. I didn’t allow any distractions or pains to take an ounce of my concentration. Instead, I gnashed my teeth, lay flat on top of the wall, and extended a hand to Liam, who pulled himself up.
With a quick dip of his chin, he let me know he had it covered.
I gripped the other edge and let my legs roll off the wall, and as I swung downward, my hold kept me from falling. Then I dropped to the ground, boots firmly planted in soft soil. Fucking rosebushes. We’d have to make sure to cover our tracks.
Without a beat to spare, I took off and ran across the lawn, and I aimed for the second balcony, the one closest to the corner of the villa. Cypress trees and a statue of an angel framed the house wall. There was a stone bench right below the b
alcony. It would be quite the leap, but I’d gain some altitude if I—yeah, going for it. I narrowed my eyes, jumped on the bench, up the back of it, then flew skyward. My fingers found the concrete surface of the balcony foundation, and I grunted as I swung closer to get my other hand up there too. Fuck me, fuck me, fuck me. I sucked in a breath and pulled myself up. When I managed to secure my elbow and forearm on the concrete lip, I took another breath before I flung my leg up and around the corner of the balcony.
No looking down.
The heavy bass of the music swept the violin away on a wave of electronic effects.
Regardless of how much the bass was amped up, no matter how many effects were added digitally, the violin only let the electronica take the chase on its own terms. When the violin was done being pursued, it fought back and stole the spotlight.
I climbed over the wide railing and exhaled heavily.
Liam stood below and waited with a small smirk on his lips.
“When the feck did ye learn parkour?” he whispered.
I smiled faintly and lowered the rope for him.
“You didn’t even need to throw this.” He yanked on the rope once I’d fastened it around a pillar.
“I’m that good,” I whispered back.
The bass and electronic waves faded, and the violin stood as the lone victor at the end of the song.
I switched over to the line of communication again. “Daddy’s back. Uh—not your type of Daddy, Ford.”
“For chrissakes,” Kellan groaned.
I grinned, elated. Fuck, how I loved my job at times like this. When I got to get my hands dirty and piss the right people all the way off.
“Door’s unlocked,” Eric said. “Be careful in there.”
I opened the balcony door carefully and silently, then stepped inside and held my breath. It’d be just my luck if there was some alarm we hadn’t noticed. But nothing happened. Cheers, Irish heritage. Well, there was one thing, I learned quickly. The floorboards creaked. We had to be slower than sloths.
My eyes adjusted to the darkness, and I frowned at the big bed. Something was up here. There were picture frames on both nightstands, though it was too dark to see the people in the photos.