by Andrea Joy
Tires squeal on the asphalt as I take the corner out of the driveway on two wheels and once around the corner, I shift it into a higher gear. I’m so caught up in my own head that I don’t immediately notice the vehicle following close behind, not until it pulls up alongside me on an empty stretch of highway. Movement out of the corner of my eye catches my attention, I turn to my left to see the barrel of a gun pointing towards me. I barely have time to react and fling myself down across the passenger seat before the driver’s side window explodes in a spray of bullets. I reach for the glove box and the handgun I know is always in there. Checking the clip, I twist and start firing back, and don’t stop until the vehicle takes off.
If I didn’t think my adrenaline was pumping before, it sure the fuck is now. In all my years working for the Famiglia, I have never been shot at. Until now. I slowly sit up, wincing at the pain radiating through my arm, and pull out my phone. First calling the tow truck company the Famiglia has on payroll and then Braxton. There’s no doubt in the my mind that the men who just tried to kill me work for Simon Mendoza.
Chapter Thirty-One
MASON
Alessandro: Stefan and Ciaran got a lock on location. You joining the team?
The text comes in just as I step out of my morning shower. I quickly type out a text and then set it back on the counter before picking up the shaving cream.
Me: Count me in.
I go through my whole morning grooming routine including changing the bandage around my arm. Thankfully the bullet just grazed my arm. My phone pings with another string of messages.
Sofia: Mason, please. Call me.
Alessandro: Meet at B’s in an hr.
Cursing, I run a hand over my mouth. I was hoping to have another day before I had to see Sofia and begin to try and work through everything, but I can’t deny that the chance of seeing my son this morning does have its appeal. The revelation still knocks me on my ass. I’m scared as fuck at being a father, but oddly excited too. After Emily died, I never thought I’d get the chance to be a dad. I had practically given up on the idea and then the giant, who I realized later was Ciaran Black, dropped the bomb that Sofia had been hiding my son from me for six years.
Wrapping a towel around my waist, I text Alessandro back that I’ll be there and then bring up my messages with Sofia again and text her back.
Me: I’ll be there within half an hr so we can talk.
Pulling open the doors to my now half-empty closet, I select a dark grey suit pant, and a black button up shirt deciding to forgo the tie today. I don’t plan on getting too involved in whatever the guys have planned today, but I couldn’t say no when Alessandro asked me if I wanted in. I can’t deny that the thought of seeing Simon bleeding and begging for his life isn’t part of the reason for my happy mood this morning. My son being the other.
Heading into the kitchen, I see Mads already has my to-go mug filled with coffee and a blueberry muffin sitting on a piece of paper towel.
“Mads, you spoil me,” I say, pressing a kiss to the older woman’s head and then grabbing the mug.
She laughs. “There will be lasagna in the fridge for you when you get home. And just to remind you that I have the next two weeks off.”
I hum, taking a drink of coffee from my travel mug. “Yes, I remember. Have fun visiting your grandchildren in Florida.”
I make a mental note to add a little bonus to her pay cheque tomorrow and grab the muffin and my keys on the way out the door. It takes me about twenty minutes to get to Braxton’s place since traffic was surprisingly light on the way here. As soon as I get out of the vehicle, the front door opens and Sofia tentatively steps out, pulling the door closed behind her. Well, I guess we’re doing this right now then. Sofia moves to talk as soon as I make it up to her but I silence her with a quick kiss to her lips.
“I’m sorry for my behaviour last night. It wasn’t fair to you and I made myself look like an asshole.”
“It’s okay,” she says, her fingers curling into my belt loops.
I shake my head. “No, it’s not. I should’ve heard you out and not gone storming off like an insolent teenager.”
She sighs, resting her head on my chest. “I should’ve told you when I found out I was pregnant…”
“Why didn’t you?”
She shrugs, pulling away slightly but leaving her hands where they are. “I think I was scared. I knew you were still having a hard time getting over our age difference and technically we weren’t anything to each other. It was one night on New Year’s. I couldn’t let you tie your life to mine because of one night.”
I run my hands up her arms and over her shoulders to cup her neck. “But I would’ve been there for you, Sofia. I would’ve been there for both of you. I can’t imagine how hard it must have been raising a kid and going to school. I could’ve helped take some of the load off you.”
“Ciaran was a lot of help. He looked after Dominic whenever I had classes or had to work. Dominic loves him.” Sofia looks up at me, her brows furrowed in confusion, and I realize that the growling sound I hear is coming from me. She grins. “Dominic knows Ciaran is just a family friend. I’m sure he’ll love you too once you get to know each other.” She removes one hand from my belt loop and presses it to my chest. The growling instantly falls quiet.
Just as I’m about to say something else the front door opens again. This time Braxton, Alessandro, Stefan, and Ciaran step out but they don’t linger long, giving us our privacy. I don’t miss the look Ciaran gives Sofia or the warning look he throws my way before he turns around to join Braxton at the silver Jaguar.
“I have to go and take care of this, but when I get back we will be talking about why you felt the need to keep my son from me. And there’ll be no running or hiding this time, you hear me?”
She swallows hard and nods. “Okay. I-I was going to introduce you soon anyway.”
“But not soon enough.”
“Mason,” she huffs.
I hold up a hand to stop her. “I don’t know why you did it. I would’ve dropped everything and been there for you, Sof. Six years. I’ve missed out on six years of his life.”
“I’m sorry.”
I palm the sides of her face in my hands. “I know. I’m going to need some time to process this, but when I get back I want to meet him, Sofia.” I hesitate before saying my next words, but the look in her eyes tells me that maybe she might feel the same. “And maybe when I get back, we can try being a family.”
Tears begin streaking down her cheeks and I try to wipe them away with my thumbs as they fall but there’s too many of them.
“That’s all I’ve ever wanted,” she murmurs, pulling on my belt loops to drag me closer.
I rest my forehead against hers. “It took us seven years to get here and you better believe I don’t plan on letting either of you go. Not again.” She was right all those months ago, I should’ve fought for her, for us. I should’ve stopped the wedding when I had the chance. Most importantly, I shouldn’t have allowed her to go through with her plan. I know she was trying to protect her loved ones, but my job is to protect her and so far I’ve done a shitty job of it. That changes now. No more drowning myself in alcohol when things get too hard to handle. That shit might have been okay when I was still mourning my late wife, but I’m forty-years-old and about to meet my son. I kept telling Sofia that she was the one who needed to grow up, but maybe I did too.
It takes us about an hour and half to get to the location Stefan and Ciaran pinned down as Simon’s location. When we pull up to the building I’m surprised to see that it’s a house. Actually, it looks exactly like the house in the pictures Braxton’s soldiers showed us when they were doing recon on Simon. Something about this whole thing isn’t sitting right with me. There’s no way he doesn’t know he’s a sitting duck in this house, unless he has some secret passageway type shit going on, but the house looks too new for that.
“Something doesn’t seem right,” Stefan says, from beside
me, echoing my exact thoughts.
“Agreed,” Braxton’s voice comes through the Apple CarPlay. Him, Ciaran, and Alessandro are in the car ahead of us.
“Rico says he’s picking up on four different heat sources in the far living room toward the back of the house but that’s it.” Alessandro’s voice booms through the speakers in the car.
I watch out of the corner of my eye as Stefan quickly types out something on his phone. The place seems eerily quiet. There’s no security cameras either as far as I can tell. After several seconds, Stefan’s phone vibrates with a new message.
“The soldiers are in place around the perimeter. They’re waiting for your signal, Boss,” he tells Braxton through the hands free.
Three doors are pushed open in the car in front of us and Braxton, Alessandro, and Ciaran all step out at the same time, pulling on matching black gloves. Stefan and I join them between the two cars and pull on our own gloves.
“We sure he’s still in there?” I ask, adjusting the Velcro straps around my wrists.
Stefan nods. “Marco confirms. Simon is one of the four in the living room. No women or children. The other three are his main distributors. We’re clear.”
Alessandro and Stefan lead the charge in the front with Braxton and I in the middle and Ciaran taking up the rear. The plan is get into the house as quietly as possible with the soldiers blocking the exits, and surprising Simon. This house is to be his final resting place. We’ve just made it to the front of the driveway when another car pulls up with its windows tinted. Viktor Romanov steps out of the driver’s side dressed in all black. The Russian boss isn’t as big as Alessandro or Ciaran but he’s still an imposing fucker and engaged to Stefan’s sister.
“Viktor,” Braxton says by way of greeting.
“De Luca, colour me surprised when I found out what you had planned and realized I never got my invite.”
Braxton’s lips twitch and he goes on to fill Viktor in on the plan to take Simon out. By the sounds of it, Braxton is planning on handing over control of the Cartel to Viktor once Simon has been taken care of, and as his lawyer I can’t help but think that’s a good move. He’s been trying to move the Famiglia into more legit businesses like Luca Enterprises and Club Nineveh. Plus his loan shark business and weapons distribution keeps him and me plenty busy. It’s a full-time job making sure none of the roads lead back to Braxton or any of the higher ups.
The six of us make it up the driveway and to the house without being seen, and because neither of us gives a fuck, we wait at the front door while one of the soldiers does his thing on a computer god knows where. When Stefan gets the notification that all the alarms have been disabled, including the beeps that lets Simon know a door or window has been opened, as well as the panic alarm, Alessandro grips the door knob and twists, pushing the front door open silently and waits for all of us to enter before silently closing and locking the door again. The motherfucker’s a beast, but somehow quiet on his feet. You never know he’s in the room with you until he’s ready to make himself known. It’s scary as fuck if you ask me. I’m glad I’m on this team and not against them.
We manage to make it through the house and into the living room without being seen. One by one, Braxton, Alessandro, and Ciaran take a stand behind three of the men while Viktor and I converge behind Simon. The fucker is too busy on his phone to even notice our presence. That is until he glances up at the TV and sees our reflection. Simultaneously, the other three men begin noticing they’re not alone too and jump up to grab their guns from their waistbands. But they’re not fast enough and are taken out by a bullet in the middle of their foreheads. Simon remains the only one standing and he’s either smart for not going for his gun or dumb.
He grins. “I was wondering how long it would take you to grow the balls to come after me. I was sorry to hear about your little accident.”
“Get on your knees,” I growl, aiming my glock between his eyes.
Despite having six guns trained on him, the fucker laughs. “Is the servant boy giving orders now? How is my little girl doing?” He asks, licking his lips, a gleam in his eye.
Knowing what Sofia suffered at the hands of her brother while hearing those two words, it makes me want to do so much more to this asshole than put a bullet in his head. I couldn’t kill Dante for her when he was still alive, but I can help protect her by taking care of Simon. I hit him in the side of the head with the butt of my gun, snapping his head to the side. There’s a wicked gleam in his eye when he turns back to me and reaches up to feel the blood dripping from his split eyebrow.
“On your knees,” Viktor repeats my command.
This time Ciaran marches around the sofa to stand behind Simon and with a hand clamped on his shoulder, forces him to his knees. Simon is still chuckling as Ciaran pats him down and disposes him of his gun and knife before moving back to join us on the other side of the room.
I hand my Glock to Viktor, and then pull a set of brass knuckles from my pocket and slide them on. Flexing my fingers a couple times to get used to the feel of wearing them. There’s a commotion at the front door, but I don’t pay it any attention. The first hit is fast, forcing Simon to catch himself on his palms or fall over. As soon as he pushes himself back up into a kneeling position, I strike again this time putting him on his side. A kick to his sternum forces him onto his back and I straddle him. Another punch to the face breaks his nose. His face is nearly completely covered in blood, but I don’t stop. I can’t. I rain down hit after hit, ignoring the sound and feel of bones giving way under the force of the hits. I don’t know how much time passes, but eventually two sets of strong arms grab onto mine and pull me back. I’m panting under the exhaustion, and Simon’s face is almost unrecognizable
“You think killing me is going to solve anything?” Simon spits a wad of blood-stained saliva onto the carpet beside where his struggles to roll onto his side and wheezes. “I’m just another one in the long list of people who’d love nothing more than to see the Famiglia be brought down —”
I’ve had enough of hearing the man spew shit. I get my gun back from Viktor, and before I know it, my finger is pressing harder against the trigger until a shot rings out and Simon drops back, blood beginning to pool over the white carpet. In my peripheral, I see five pairs of eyes turn to me, but I’m still focused on the lifeless body on its back. In all of my forty-years, I’ve never taken another life. As much as I want to say I regret it or feel sick over it… I don’t. Sofia hasn’t come out and told me what happened while she was living under his roof, but she told her cousin, and Braxton debriefed me on everything when he came to see me about pushing a divorce through the process faster than normal. She doesn’t know this yet, but her divorce from Simon Mendoza was finalized twenty-four hours ago thanks to a judge on the Famiglia’s payroll.
“The rest of the house is clear,” Rico says, when him and a few of the other soldiers join us in the living room. He drops a big duffle bag at Braxton’s feet. “We found this in a safe upstairs.”
“Do I want to know how you got into a locked safe?” I ask, finally turning away from the body. The wound on my arm is open again and blood seeps through the sleeve of my suit jacket.
Rico chuckles nervously, scratching behind his neck. “Probably not.”
Alessandro bends down to unzip the bag and pulls it open so the rest of us can get a peek at what’s inside.
“Holy shit,” someone says.
“There’s got to be at least several tens of thousands of dollars in there,” someone else says.
We all look to Braxton as he and Alessandro seem to have a silent communication on what to do with the bag of cash. Finally he nods and Alessandro does up the zipper, throwing the bag over his shoulder.
“Let’s go. Stefan, get the cleaners in here right away and put the house up for sale.”
“Already done. The crew should be pulling up now.”
Before the words have left his mouth, a white van pulls up the driveway and two m
en jump out. I recognize the name of the company sprawled across the side of the van as one Braxton has set up automatic payments for. Stefan stops to talk to them. The bigger of the two men nods along and then shakes Stefan’s hand before they disappear down the hall to the living room.
“Marco will be sending you everything he finds on Simon’s computers. He’s still going through them to make sure it won’t be traced,” Stefan says, when he joins us at the cars. I’m assuming Marco is another hacker/soldier for the Famiglia.
Braxton nods his thanks while taking off the black gloves. “Family dinner at my house tonight. Viktor, you and Gemma are welcome to join us tonight.”
“Da. I think we will,” is all the Russian boss says before heading back to his car and taking off.
I get in the car with Stefan again and ask him to drop me off at home so that I can shower and change and get my bike before heading back to Braxton’s house for dinner and to meet my son. I’ll have to call the Audi dealership and get them to find me another R8 to replace the one Simon’s men put bullet holes through.
Chapter Thirty-Two
SOFIA
I’m a nervous wreck by the time the guys come back. Alessandro leaves immediately after so that he can go home and shower before bringing his family over for dinner. Ciaran and Braxton both head upstairs to do the same thing. The only one left downstairs is Stefan. He must know what I’m about to ask before the words leave my lips because he smirks. A knowing gleam in his eyes.
“Mason had me drop him off at home so that he could shower and grab his bike. He should be here soon.”
I noticed blood splatter on each of the men when they came through the front door. I’m not embarrassed to admit that I paced a strip into the floor of the entranceway while I waited for them to get back. What they left to go do wasn’t a secret, but it was Mason’s first time out on an actual job with them and I wasn’t sure what to expect. Stefan; however, looks the same as when they all left here.