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by Lea Griffith

  He’d forgotten about their food!

  He replaced his gun, reached for his wallet, and pulled out a large bill. The short Asian man seemed nervous, but he thanked him profusely for the tip and left in a hurry.

  Tobias took their food to the living room. He’d ordered enough for a small army, and if the appreciative groans from the other men were any indication, he needed to set Ruthie’s Mongolian beef aside. Otherwise, it would be gone.

  He checked on her once again, found her asleep, and padded back to the kitchen to put her food in the fridge.

  Then he settled in with the others as they all ate and figured out a schedule. Two at a time would have main watch outside the house. They would rotate in four-hour shifts, which would allow them all to rest.

  Tobias yawned as they got the schedule settled and he set his box of lo mein on the coffee table. He took a swig of his Coke and settled back. He noticed Hoenig yawn as well, and smiled.

  He wasn’t happy by any stretch of the imagination, but there was something about having some of the finest men you knew helping watch your lady’s back.

  “Hey, Stanton, how’s the head?” Tobias asked.

  “Fucker hit me hard. I’d like a chance to revisit that on him,” Stanton said in a low voice. Former Army Ranger Graham Stanton was a badass motherfucker. That he’d been taken by surprise had come as a shock.

  But he’d been out of the game for a while, running basic security for Jeremiah and Tobias for many years now. When you aren’t on the front lines constantly it is hard to stay über vigilant.

  “I hope you get it,” Tobias assured him. “But I get first crack. He touched Ruthie—he’s a dead man walking.”

  Each man nodded in agreement. And each man yawned again.

  Tobias thought it odd. Sure, Chinese was a heavy food, probably chock-full of MSG, which made you sluggish, but he was genuinely growing foggy-headed.

  Jeremiah glanced at him, alarm shadowing his face, and his eyes reminded Tobias of his sister. “I’m fucking tired as hell all of a sudden,” the other man stated.

  He’d slurred every word. The alarm on Jeremiah’s face punched Tobias in the gut. He tried to sit up but found himself moving through quicksand as he fell over on the couch.

  Every other man in the room was experiencing the same phenomenon.

  Tobias heard the beep of his alarm and the lights went out. The front door opened and still Tobias couldn’t move.

  His heart beat fast—so fast he wondered if it would explode. Fear was a bitter, acrid taste in his mouth.

  Gallo was here. He’d played it masterfully. Tobias would have never expected this. How could he have known Tobias would order food? He’d ordered on his cell phone.

  No, the man had been waiting and watching. Hadn’t Tobias felt the hair at the back of his neck standing on end earlier?

  Yeah—he fucking had and he’d ignored it, thinking that with the men he had coming, there was no way Gallo could get through.

  But he had.

  Vessi Gallo’s large shadow appeared in front of Tobias. The man leaned down and turned on a penlight. His black eyes were shiny with glee.

  Ruthie! He tried to scream it, but it was no use. Every muscle in his body was frozen. Locked up tight, Tobias couldn’t have saved himself, much less Ruthie.

  “You are so stupid, American. And now I’ll have your woman.” Gallo laughed and shone the penlight on the big knife in his hands. “I’ll give you twenty-four hours to find her. If you don’t find her, I’ll start to send you hints, but they’ll be bathed in her blood. Oh what a fine time we will have, American. What a joy my revenge will be.”

  Then Gallo was gone and all Tobias could do was listen as the man tore his house apart looking for Ruthie.

  —

  Ruthie woke in a rush, her heartbeat echoing in her ears and fear riding her mind. The sound of things being moved and hitting the wall in other rooms brought her to full awareness. What the hell was going on?

  She pushed the covers back and listened, her skin prickling and the hair on the back of her neck standing on end. She rubbed her arms, trying to ward off the chill.

  That wasn’t Tobias. She couldn’t hear anything but a low murmuring and more furniture being displaced.

  She heard the creak of the hardwood floors as someone very large walked over them. He was heading her way. She didn’t question it; she grabbed a lamp and hid behind the door. Whoever was out there, and her mind was conjuring Vessi Gallo, wasn’t here to be friends. Friends called out, they didn’t murmur crazily in Italian while they destroyed your house.

  But where were Tobias, Jeremiah, Stanton, Hoenig, and Finch? Had he hurt them? Rage filtered through her mind, the color of dark red blood.

  Her doorknob twisted and he was there, his sour smell giving her a glaring indication of his mental state. The man was crazy. Beyond redemption.

  She swung and hit him, but the lamp shattered and he was on her, laughing like a loon as he pushed her to the floor, following her down and pressing his blade to her cheek.

  Ruthie went still, heart thundering as she gasped for air. He was lying on top of her, squeezing the air from her lungs as he laughed and laughed and laughed.

  “You’re a feisty one, puttana.” He breathed into her face, the stench of it gagging her. “I like it when they fight.”

  Ruthie made a mental note to never fight him again. “Where’s Tobias?”

  This question brought another round of maniacal laughter. “Sleeping!”

  He pushed off her then, and Ruthie drew in deep breaths, filling her lungs with precious, life-giving air before he pulled her up to her knees by her hair. It stung, and she yelled out before she could check the impulse.

  “Yes,” he breathed out heavily. “Scream. He’ll be able to hear you, but he’ll be able to do nothing about it.”

  She went silent. If Tobias could hear her, she didn’t want him to go his own brand of crazy worrying.

  Gallo shook her by her hair. “Scream, bitch!”

  She didn’t, and he sank the tip of the blade into her neck, the sting of it freezing her breath once again.

  “I’ll go deeper unless you scream,” he said.

  He’d gotten up, but she’d only made it to her knees when he began to pull her by her hair to the living room. She kicked. She cursed him. She fought, but it was an impossible battle.

  “I love you, Tobias!” she yelled out. She needed him to know. Because there was every chance Gallo would kill her long before his master plan played out.

  There was no response from anyone, except Gallo.

  “I love you, Tobias,” he said in an awful falsetto. “Bitch, he doesn’t care or he would have sent you far away from me. Instead he kept you close. He must have wanted you to be punished. I know how much you like to be punished.”

  His oily tone washed over Ruthie and she gagged again. How did he know about her and Tobias? The sick fucker was insanity incarnate.

  “Twenty-four hours, American. I’ll keep her alive that long, untouched unless she pisses me off. Find her and she’s yours. Don’t make it in time and I’ll send her home in pieces,” Gallo promised. “Oh, and tell Dante I’d like him to visit along with you, yes? What is it you Yankees say? Two birds, one stone?” He guffawed but continued to pull Ruthie out the door.

  Her legs scraped on the concrete of Tobias’s walkway, and then Gallo stopped, picked her up, and hit her so hard she lost her hold on consciousness.

  Chapter 21

  Tobias heard it all, every scream, every grunt of pain she couldn’t contain. He went mad waiting for the drug Gallo had put in their food to wear off. Every second of the wait was torture.

  He breathed, but his muscles refused to obey, and it seemed the harder he tried, the deeper under the drug he fell. So he relaxed, concentrating on his woman, his precious Ruthie. He pushed away the sounds of her fear and his thoughts of the terror she must be experiencing. He had no choice.

  He’d be able to replay them o
nce he had Gallo under his hands. Until then, he had to push them away or he wouldn’t be able to function.

  Three hours later, Tobias was finally able to sit up. It took another two hours for him to stand, but by then he’d called Dante, who’d arrived and figured the situation out for himself. Once Tobias’s throat unlocked, the others were rousing, in much worse shape than he’d been because he hadn’t eaten much of his food.

  He was wishing right about now that Ruthie had eaten. Maybe it would have been better for her to have been knocked out by Vessi Gallo’s drug.

  Gallo had hurt her again and Tobias had been forced to listen to it, unable to lift a finger to help his woman.

  “He’s given me twenty-four hours,” Tobias croaked out.

  Dante handed him a bottled water and nodded. “I got the message.”

  “Where is he?” Jeremiah bit out.

  Dante turned to Jeremiah. “Your woman is safe. I’ve got someone watching her.”

  “Where the fuck is he?” Tobias demanded, standing and stretching, trying to overcome the drug.

  “Brunswick.”

  “What the hell?” Tobias exclaimed. “That’s one of our main ports.”

  Dante nodded. “It’s your main hub and will make it sweeter for him. Plus, there is a shipment I’m waiting to arrive any moment. I’m sure it’s why Gallo wants me there.”

  That same certainty from earlier rolled through Tobias. Whatever Dante was shipping had something to do with Gallo. The man wanted back whatever Dante had taken from him.

  “What’s the shipment?”

  Dante sighed and turned, punching the wall. His fist sank into the sheetrock.

  “You’ll fix that,” Tobias asserted.

  “We’ve got to move,” Dante urged. “If he gets to that shipment before I do, I will lose something I’ve worked two years to save.”

  “What is the shipment?” Tobias demanded.

  “Women,” Dante said so softly Tobias wondered if he’d heard him correctly.

  “You’re a goddamn trafficker?” Tobias roared.

  “No,” Dante said with a look so full of fury it could have singed them all to the ground. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “He can explain as we drive. Let’s move,” Jeremiah stated in a cold voice.

  The man was shut down, and Tobias realized it was his worry for his sister that made him that way.

  Hoenig, Finch, and Stanton all moved, albeit slowly, with them to the door. They piled into Dante’s SUV and hit the highway, headed south toward Brunswick. It would be a three-hour drive if they broke the speed limit.

  “I’ve got a missed call,” Tobias said, lifting the phone to his ear and listening to the message. “It’s Savannah—goddamn it! She had him, and the task force lost his ass!” He threw the phone onto the floor. To Dante he said, “Tell me.”

  Dante’s hands tightened on the wheel. “Human trafficking is one of the world’s biggest money-making businesses. About twenty years ago, Vessi Gallo began to head an arm of my grandfather’s business that became incredibly lucrative. He told the Axe Man he was dealing in illegal weapons and contraband. My grandfather had no reason to doubt him. Years passed, and the hue and cry began drawing attention to human trafficking as a worldwide epidemic. Shortly after that, the arm Vessi Gallo had been running broke into different factions. The Russians, the Chinese, the Saudis—they all wanted a piece of the action, and when they approached the Axe Man he was ignorant to the fact that Gallo had been running people, not guns.”

  “Goddamn it!” Jeremiah’s voice ricocheted through the vehicle. “He’s a fucking psychopath and he’s got my sister!”

  Tobias’s heart stopped, then moved into a sluggish beat. His head hurt and he rubbed his chest, hoping and praying Ruthie was okay.

  Dante took a deep breath and began again. “My grandfather found out about the trafficking the same night he found out about you, Tobias. That’s why he took control of the Naples port from Gallo. My grandfather is a bad man who’s done bad things, but even he draws the line at human trafficking. I had refused to step into the fold he’d created for me, but he dangled a carrot in front of me—I could help the women Gallo had stolen and I could follow the other factions, disrupt their shipments of men, women, and children, but I had to take control of the Dixie Mafia first. Then, when it’s time, I must take control for the Axe Man.”

  “How many women?”

  “Thousands, maybe tens of thousands. My mission is to destroy what Gallo created, cut off that arm and destroy the Russian, Chinese, and Saudi arms as well. I have men trained to take over the ships these people are transported on and divert them to whatever port is safest. Then I set them free. Sometimes it’s ten; sometimes it’s a hundred. But no matter what the number, I won’t stop until I’ve eliminated that arm of the Sicilian Mafia.”

  “Goddamn it! That’s why you want our contract,” Tobias spat.

  Dante nodded. “It is dangerous, and if anyone discovers it’s your ship transporting their stolen cargo, they will come after you. I can mitigate that, though. No one will touch you, but I picked you because you’re good men.”

  “You could have fucking told us,” Jeremiah bit out harshly. “We would have helped any way we could.”

  “The fewer who know what I’m doing, the better. It wouldn’t do to be known as a soft Mafia head. I must maintain my façade. Hence the takeover of the DM. Derek Madden deserved what he got when I put a bullet in his brain, but that doesn’t mean I enjoyed it.”

  “So why Gallo?”

  Dante glanced at Tobias. “Gallo was making money hand over fist. When my grandfather took away the port administration from him, he lost his authority. If he can’t control the port, no one will ship their cargo through there because the risk is just too damn high.”

  “But why us?” Tobias questioned.

  “You bring a legitimacy to the port, and if you’re shipping large cargo, nothing will seem off about more of your ships hitting the port. Plus, you deserve that Honda contract. You’ve given up your pretty face and a hell of a lot of money to get it.”

  “Don’t put some magnanimous spin on it. Call it what it is,” Jeremiah remarked. “You want to use us because we’re convenient and cheaper and you know we’ll keep our fucking mouths shut. This isn’t for us, this is for you.”

  Dante nodded, admitting it, though his next words disputed it. “It’s actually for every man, woman, or child who’s been sold into human slavery.”

  “We’re in,” Tobias said simply, knowing Jeremiah wouldn’t argue. “But if Gallo hurts my woman again, I’m going to revisit every hurt on you, Dante. All of this information would have helped us.”

  “Maybe, but maybe not. Gallo is crazy, unpredictable. There was no way of knowing whether he had any idea about the cargo arriving tonight.”

  Tobias shook his head. “Oh, it definitely would have helped. We would have understood his motivations and had we had this knowledge, we could have had people watching the port. I could kill you for this, Shaw.”

  They all went silent, and as Tobias watched the dark night outside the car roll by, he began to pray.

  They made it to Brunswick in three hours. Dante pulled into the gates of the main port and headed down a long row of warehouses.

  “You know where our docks are?” Tobias asked, checking his gun and reholstering it, watching from the corner of his eye as Jeremiah did the same.

  Dante didn’t say a word as he pulled up and parked. His phone rang and he answered, listening closely before he disconnected. “He’s inside. Tobias,” he said as he reached out and stopped Tobias from exiting the vehicle.

  Tobias glanced at Dante’s hand, adrenaline pumping through his body and one thought on a loop—get to Ruthie.

  “There might be blood. He’s going to want you off-kilter. He’ll have planned to get you flustered. I’m hoping we’re catching him by surprise,” Dante informed him.

  “Surprise or not, I’m going in th
ere to kill Vessi Gallo,” Tobias ground out.

  Dante nodded and released him.

  To Jeremiah, Tobias said, “You and Hoenig take the side entrance. Stanton, you and Finch head to the back. Gallo moves fast for such a big man. Make sure you’re ready.”

  Jeremiah nodded and moved into the shadows like a wraith. The others scattered as well and Tobias rubbed a hand down his face, taking a deep breath to control his rage. He wished for Jeremiah’s calm coldness. Ruthie was Jeremiah’s baby sister.

  But she was Tobias’s heart, and the cool serenity he needed was being drowned out by a white-hot fury.

  “Let’s go,” Dante said.

  They moved into the door, no hesitation, though they kept to the shadows. Tobias saw Ruthie, tied to a post in the middle of the warehouse. Gallo had strung a bright light above her, outlining Ruthie and leaving the rest of the warehouse in darkness.

  Dante nodded and Tobias stepped forward, around a row of large boxcar shipping containers and into the main part of the warehouse. “I’m here, motherfucker.”

  Ruthie was shaking her head, trying to communicate from behind the tape Gallo had used to keep her from doing just that. Her hair was a mess, and there was a long cut that ran along the previously uninjured side of her neck all the way down past the top of her tank.

  Tobias shook with his rage, but he didn’t move to her. He waited, and he didn’t have to for long.

  A loud clapping followed by a snicker came from his left, and then Vessi Gallo was there, his wide girth throwing a shadow even in the darkness. “You found me much quicker than I anticipated, American. Tell me, did you bring Dante Shaw?”

  “I’m here,” Dante said from Gallo’s other side.

  “Ooooh, I love it,” Gallo said gleefully.

  Something in the man’s demeanor was throwing warning signs up. He’d planned something and Tobias had no idea what it was. His thoughts were cut off by Gallo’s harsh chuckle.

  “I only cut her a little bit. I know how much the sight of her blood angers you, mio amico Americano.”

  Tobias glared at Gallo. “I’m not your American friend, you sick fuck. Why are we here? What is all this for? Do you not understand you’ve got to be the most hunted man in Mafia history? Hell, even the law is searching for you now, Gallo. If you’d ever made it past me, the Axe Man was never going to let you live.”