Vivienne snorted.
‘Like you can talk. Anyway, we’re Masons, none of us will be living long enough to die from a disease.’
There was no sadness behind her words. She was right, the weight and the truth behind them leaving him feeling drained. Honor inspected the metal, then tossed it at Cross. He caught it with one hand as she wiped her hands on the soldier’s shirt before changing the clips of her Glocks. Johnny and Bo stalked back into the foyer and Cross held out his palm. Johnny took the metal and turned to Honor.
‘Your bullets and Bo’s hit each other in the guy’s head. Nice shooting.’
‘Good training.’
Honor elbowed Vivienne and nodded her head towards the stairs, letting everyone know they would check out the second floor. Cross then turned to Johnny and told him that he and Vince would go back into the kitchen. As the others turned to fan out they heard two shots from upstairs and a sickening squelch. Honor’s voice came through the earpieces, letting everyone know that the three cowards that were hiding were dead and upstairs was clear. Johnny made a circular motion with his fingers but before anyone could move, a choked gurgling drifted into the foyer. Hawk was the first to step into the living room. One of the men against the wall was still alive and had pulled himself up to a sitting position, his body covered in blood from the neck down. He sat staring at them and laughing, a sound that was half laugh half gurgle.
‘Never trust a Mason.’
Hawk stepped closer, his stance widening, his grip on his gun tightening. He looked at the man’s face and his stomach turned. One of his eyes had a scar from the cheek bone to the eyebrow, straight through an eyeball which had a cloud of white where the iris should have been. Frankie Lupus, a senior New York soldier and one of the most sadistic men he had ever come across, was dying at his feet. He would have bet his entire Family that Frankie had been the one to kill Mike. A chill ran through Hawk’s body. Was it possible the New York Masons were responsible for the whole situation? It would explain where all the money had come from. But they’d killed Carter… the War was over… his family wasn’t that messed up that another Mason could be behind the rogues… right? He called out to Honor and within seconds both his sisters were standing beside him.
‘Look who I found. Frankie just told me to never trust a Mason.’
‘Oh really? Why’s that?’
Almost everything about Honor said that she was humoring him, but the tension in her back and shoulders gave her away.
‘You really think that rogue Da Silva is a captain? Carlos is a scapegoat. The real bosses used him to recruit soldiers.’
Spit and blood were flying out of Frankie’s mouth as he continued to mock them. He started coughing, then clutched his stomach. Hawk realized that Carlos was the man Ty was tracking.
‘We were sent to watch him and those soldiers that he turned rogue. Every soldier that’s walked into that club has turned against their Families and I’ll tell you now, any of your boys that are working there are traitors.’
Hawk’s grip on his gun was so tight that his knuckles had turned white, and he was grinding his teeth so bad he could barely talk.
‘Where’s there?’
‘That stupid club he manages for the Da Silva’s. He’s been running ops out of it for almost a year and the Da Silva’s are so caught up in their own little world that they haven’t even realized.’
‘Why are you telling us this?’
‘Well, I’m assuming the Devil has cable, and I’ve always loved a good show.’
Frankie started coughing again and closed his eyes. Vivienne sprang forward and grabbed his face, forcing him to open his eyes and asking him who gave the orders to watch Carlos. He grinned at her, his teeth red with blood. It dribbled down his chin as he spoke his dying words.
‘Think about it princess, why do you think Tony Hannam was the first one to be killed? Tony was the brother that Mario never had, the only one who would never betray him. Now with him out of the picture, well, I’ll let you figure that one out for yourself. Best make friends were you can find them children. God knows you can’t trust your own blood.’
Vivienne started screeching, desperate to know which of their uncles had given the orders, but Frankie’s eyes had glazed over and his head slumped to the side the moment she let go. She stood up and kicked him before turning to Hawk and Honor.
‘We’ve got to tell Halo.’
‘I’m right here.’
Halo was standing in the hallway, a silver suitcase in each hand. She gave a quick nod to Johnny and Bo, before raising an eyebrow and surveying the scene. At that moment, Jamie walked through the front door, Beretta in hand, and asked if they’d found Dallas and Dante. Hawk shook his head and swallowed the bile that was caught in his throat. From the doorway, Johnny addressed the De Matteo captain, letting him know that they were searching the house. Jamie nodded and made his way to the dining room. Once he was gone, Halo spoke.
‘I heard what he said, we’ve got to tell the boss.’
‘Let’s sort this out first.’
Hawk’s eyes were unfocused as he met Aurora’s, a series of past horrors running like a film, flickering and obstructing his view, his brain the reel, his eyes the projectors. He knew that Honor and Vivienne’s eyes would be the same. The very real possibility that one or more of their uncles could be out to destroy not just them but the world they’d worked so hard to control, had shaken them, and he knew that his siblings were remembering the same things he was.
Halo pressed on.
‘If this comes out the other Families will turn against us. We have to act now…’
‘Halo stop! You can deal with the political shit later. Right now you need to fix this situation when the cops get here, do whatever you need to do to make all this disappear…’
‘The Hannam Family will stand by you.’
Halo turned to Johnny as he interrupted, all hostility gone, and Hawk recognized the fear that was behind her eyes. She’d been there. He should have known she’d be having flashbacks too. She looked at Johnny with relief and started to thank him but was cut off.
‘Found em!’
Cross’s voice echoed into the hallway and the group bolted for the kitchen. The conversation was forgotten and Halo was left standing in the hallway with her silver suitcases and fallen pride. The pantry door was open and Hawk could see a hidden door inside, one that had been ripped off its hinges. Cross was running down a flight of steps, with Johnny and Jamie behind him.
He looked around the kitchen and took in the carnage that he hadn’t registered earlier. The room looked like an abattoir. Vivienne’s victim was slumped by the sink with his arm still pinned to the wall, his head resting forward on his open chest, half his organs on the floor beside him. Vince’s sparring partner lay near him, his throat wide open, blood flowing from the hole in his chest. Then there were the soldiers he and Honor had killed. Honor had left a perfect bullet hole between each of their eyes, but while the rogue Romanov soldier still wore his final battle wound, the Hannam soldier wasn’t so lucky. Johnny had attacked him post mortem, the perfect shot no longer visible. The man’s face and chest were caved in, but Hawk knew it would have been worse if Bo hadn’t been there. He tore his eyes away from the scene and turned to Aurora, who stood staring at the open doorway. He took her hand and she looked up at him.
‘I don’t know what’s down there.’
He could hear bars rattling and shots ricocheting off metal as Johnny and Jamie called out to their brothers. She had seen the gore in the kitchen and living room but what was in the basement would be different. The victims wouldn’t be strangers. She raised her chin and squeezed his hand.
‘My brother’s down there. Come on.’
Twenty Eight
Aurora stepped through the hidden door with Hawk and was accosted by the scene. Her chest cramped as the full weight of what she was seeing sunk in. The basement had been turned into a prison with two cells. Flickering fluorescent surfaces
provided little light, and a lone chair leant against the wooden staircase beside a fireman’s hose. The smell was overwhelming, a mix of human sweat tinged with blood and urine. She could only imagine the horrors that had gone on over the past few months.
Dante’s hair had grown long, the curls reaching past his shoulders from the back. His once pressed pants were ripped and torn, his shirt and shoes discarded in the corner of his cell, his muscles shrunken and his face gaunt. His nose was broken and there were cuts on his arms where he had been tortured. His cell contained a stained mattress and a toilet. His hands gripped the bars to his cell as he watched Johnny cock his gun and shoot at the lock. He pulled the bars open and Dante fell into his arms. Johnny hugged him and Dante buried his face in the crook of his brother’s neck. There were more cuts on his shoulders that disappeared onto his back, and he was weeping, a sound that cut through her deeper than any weapon ever could.
Dallas De Matteo was also free and hugging his brother. His cell was identical to Dante’s and his appearance was the same. He stepped back after the hug but Jamie kept his hand on the back of Dallas’ neck, their heads close together. Both had tears in their eyes as they spoke in hushed tones. She felt sick… and angry. She wanted to hunt down the man who had done this to them and slice him limb from limb. She wanted to see his eyes when she ripped out his heart, and she wanted to brand his forehead the way his soldier had branded her. Then she wanted to bury him, each limb in a different location so that even when he went to hell he would never be whole. From behind her she heard Hawk ask if she was ok but she couldn’t respond. Her head was ringing, the rage too intense for her body to contain.
‘John, it was all a set up, I’m so sorry, Dad had faith in me and…’
Johnny cut Dante off.
‘We need to know everything Carlos or any of his rogues said to you.’
From across the room Dallas spoke up.
‘Carlos is one of Juan’s soldiers, he’s gone rogue and taken a chunk of the underworld with him. He was a Da Silva captain for ten years before Juan replaced him with Quinn and gave him The Joker’s Lounge to manage. The guy wants revenge. He came down one day and started waving his gun at us and telling us how he was running with a new Family who appreciated him, only with the way he was behaving and the nobodies he had with him, there’s no way he’s at the top of the food chain. He’s got to be working for someone, someone who not only knows what they’re doing, but who are damn good at it.’
Johnny nodded.
‘I remember him. Did he say anything about who he might be working with?’
Dante and Dallas shook their heads and Aurora winced as all hope that what the man had said upstairs was false evaporated. Hawk’s face was unreadable. She moved to take his hand but Johnny spun around.
‘Hawk, can you call your boy and find out if Carlos went to The Joker’s Lounge? We’ve got to get to him as soon as possible cause if all this is what it looks like, the rogues may know what’s happened and are gonna be looking for him. If they get to him first, they’ll kill him before we can get anything out of him.’
Hawk gave a quick nod, took out his cell and took the steps two at a time to make the call in the kitchen. Johnny turned back to the others.
‘Jamie is gonna take you back to the Family surgeons, get you some medical attention and find out everything these bastards did to you. The rest of us are gonna track down Carlos and his henchmen.’
Jamie put his arm around Dallas and Johnny stalked past her up the steps. Cross followed but as she turned after them, Dante called out her name. It was a question and he was looking up at her as if she was a mirage. She gave a half laugh half cry and made her way down to him, where he wrapped her in his arms and hugged her. Her fingertips brushed the carvings in his back where his tattoo was and the tears started to fall. She was so grateful that he was alive and a deep part of her, the part she had ignored, was relieved that he wasn’t a traitor. He stepped back and held her at arm’s length, taking in her appearance.
‘You’re a Rose aren’t you?’
She knew he’d aimed for nonchalance but defeat laced his words. She nodded and waited for him to say something. He pulled her in for another hug and apologized. She shook her head.
‘This is the way it was always meant to be.’
Then she squeezed him and stepped back, unsure of how to tell him about their father. Dante wiped his eyes.
‘It’s ok, you don’t have to say it. Dallas told me that Dad’s dead.’
‘It’s not your fault, none of us think that and you shouldn’t either. We couldn’t have known what was going to happen…’
‘But if I wasn’t such a screw up then they never would have been able to get to me…’
‘D, that’s enough. We always knew you were innocent and we never stopped looking for you. Now go get yourself looked at ok, I’ll see you when we get back.’
With one last smile at Dante, she ran up the steps in time to hear Hawk confirm that Ty had tracked Carlos to The Joker’s Lounge. Johnny took the lead, heading out the back door as Bo tucked his gun away and raced to catch up with him. Honor and Vivienne followed suit and Cross gave her a smile that was almost imperceptible before walking out and leaving her in the kitchen with Hawk. She closed the distance between them, grabbed Hawk’s tee and kissed him, a kiss that was filled with need and promise. She needed him to know she was there for him, that they would face everything that was coming together. She had seen a glimpse of the demons that haunted him and she refused to let them destroy him. He grabbed the back of her neck in response and returned the kiss. She could hear the police storming in through the front door as she pulled back.
‘No matter what happens, I won’t leave you.’
He stared at her, three unspoken words hanging between them. But they could already hear Halo and Vince doing their thing in the foyer and knew they had to get out of there. Instead of replying, Hawk grabbed her hand and they rushed out the back door just as the police burst into the kitchen.
Twenty Nine
No sooner had the SUVs pulled up in front of The Joker’s Lounge than the bouncers at the door started yelling at everyone to leave. The swarm of patrons trying to sweet talk their way into the club paid no attention, until Ty stepped out of the shadows and shot one of the bouncers in the head. The crowd started to scream, the alcohol in their systems evaporating. Hawk didn’t have the time or the patience to care if the strangers were scarred, he just wanted them to do what his rogue soldiers had instructed and get out of there.
As the crowd rushed to disperse the two remaining bouncers reached for their guns, managing to each get a shot at their captains before they were killed. Hawk and Honor were at the front of the group and while one bouncer missed, the other managed to graze Honor’s arm. Ty pumped six bullets into the soldier’s body while Hawk shot the other soldier in the neck. Vivienne and Cross yelled at the remaining patrons to leave, smashing any cell phones that were recording the scene, Vivienne with her stilettos and Cross with his bare hands.
The heavy front door had been locked from the inside when the onslaught started. Hawk and Bo slammed their combined weight against it and crashed through with their guns blazing. His bullets ripped through his rogue soldiers and he grew angrier by the second, gunning down faces he had trained himself. He couldn’t believe how many rogues from different Families were present, all stepping forward to try and prove themselves. He could see how big the operation was and it made him sick to know that Masons were behind it. Bo had put away his gun and taken out his knife. The guy had found a group of rogue Romanovs and was slicing through them one after the other without breaking a sweat. He reminded Hawk of Honor; they had way too much fun when it came to killing. People were screaming and running to get out of the way. As he shot a rogue Da Silva execution style, he caught sight of Cross and Johnny grabbing hiding patrons by the scruffs of their necks, half pushing half throwing them towards the door. Collateral damage was something they tried to avoid wh
en possible.
The temperature in the club was rising as Vivienne and Ty brandished welding torches and set the place on fire. Where they’d got them from he didn’t know but at that moment, he didn’t care. Spilt alcohol was dancing in flames and spreading throughout the club. It would only be a few more minutes before the whole place was burning. Honor stepped out of the club manager’s office holding a laptop but when she looked over in his direction, she dropped it and whipped out her gun.
‘Hawk behind you!’
Honor’s bullet hit the bulky figure who had been about to stab him in the shoulder and Hawk slammed him into the bar. Honor hadn’t missed, she’d left the rogue for him to finish off. He recognized the rogue De Matteo and they struggled, Hawk smashing the butt of his gun into the man’s bullet wound again and again. The man cried out and tried to headbutt Hawk. He grinned as the rogue fought back, letting him get in a couple of punches to his torso just for fun, the adrenaline pumping through his veins making it almost impossible for him to feel the blows. He savored the brawl Honor had handed him, knowing his back was covered and he could punish the man for his failed attack. He made a spectacle of it, feeling hidden eyes watching him, and when he grew bored, he took out his knife and stabbed the man in the neck.
As the blood spurted out, he let the body sag against the bar. The soldier’s legs buckled and Hawk held him up long enough to give the knife a final twist before yanking it out and turning to seek out his audience. It was then that he saw Aurora racing towards the back door, her eyes focused on the older man that had been watching him. The man turned to escape but Aurora was too fast, grabbing and slamming him against the wall of the back alley. Hawk caught Johnny’s eye and they both ran after her. They found her with her forearm pressed against the man’s chest and her knife at his throat. As the man struggled, Ty burst through the back door.
‘That’s Carlos! Fuck she’s going to kill him!’
Aurora dug the knife into Carlos’ skin and blood started seeping down his neck. She was focused and unaware of anything else that was going on around her. It was a dangerous state, not for Carlos but for her. It left her vulnerable to an attack and if they hadn’t been there she could have gotten herself killed. He called out to her but Johnny grabbed him by the arm before he could approach her. He spun around to find Johnny glaring at him with his yellow eyes.
Poisoned Rose (Dark Roses #1) Page 15