Wanted Dead or In Love: A Small Town Romance (The Cortell Brothers Book 3)

by Giulia Lagomarsino

  “Hello?” he asked warily.

  “Levi, it’s me.”

  “Thank God,” he breathed out. “I’ve been hoping you would call.”

  “Why? What’s going on?”

  “What’s not going on? Look, I know about your secret.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “The baby.”

  I sucked in a breath, not sure what to say. We had kept everything hidden about Alessa. There was no way he should have known about her.

  “First, I need to tell you that your father died.”

  “I know. I saw it in the paper,” I lied.

  “Well, I went for the funeral and back to the house afterwards. Antonio was talking with one of your father’s men. He was saying they had tracked you as far as Idaho. They found the cabin, Carla.”

  My mind spun as I thought back to the cabin. We had cleaned it thoroughly. They shouldn’t have found anything.

  “It was a baby toy. It must have fallen out as you were getting in the car. You never would have seen it. They said from the tire tracks, it looks like it fell and rolled under the car. From there, they went to the local doctor and…” He sighed heavily. “Carla, she was tortured.”

  “We didn’t tell her anything,” I whispered, tears filling my eyes. That woman shouldn’t be dead because of me. She only ever helped us.

  “They know that you were staying at the cabin and that you had a baby.”

  I swiped at my nose and blinked back my tears. “What else?”

  “This morning, I went back for another visit. I was hoping I could find out what else they knew. One of the men was telling Antonio that they have the girl.”

  “They have her?” I screeched.

  “I’m sorry, Carla. I wish that I had better news, but-“

  “Where are they taking her?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Well, you have to find out,” I shouted. “You have to tell me where the hell they took her. I can’t lose her!”

  “Carla, I can’t just walk in there and ask about mafia business. You know they’ll just kill me on the spot. That won’t solve anything!”

  “Then what the hell am I supposed to do?”

  He sighed heavily. “Come meet me. Alone. We can figure out something together. Maybe…maybe if they think you came back to marry me, maybe we can convince them that you’re not a threat.”

  “You want me to marry you? To get back into that life?”

  “Carla, I’m just saying, it’s a way to get you back to your daughter. I’m not saying we have to go through with any of it, but if they know that you’re not a threat…We could say that you ran before because you were scared of your father, but once you heard he was dead, you came back for me.”

  “And Josh? What about him?”

  “Carla, do you want your child or not? I’m trying to help you here. I can only do so much. This is the only thing I can think of to get you back here and keep you and your daughter safe.”

  “You don’t know that it’ll work.”

  “You don’t know that it won’t,” he countered. “Carla, time is running out. I have no idea what’s going on, but this is a chance for us to get her back. Just meet me at my house. We can tell them that you left her with Josh until you knew it was safe to come home. And you can say that it wasn’t working with Josh, that he wanted to start over with his family now that your father is dead. It’ll work. I’m sure of it.”

  I chewed my lip in frustration. I didn’t want to believe Levi. He could have overheard lies. If they really had Alessa, wouldn’t I have heard about it by now? There was no way that Derek would let his niece get kidnapped and just carry out this plan as if she was fine at home. Levi’s information had to be wrong. It just had to be. But he had basically offered me my way in without me having to ask, and that was what I had to focus on right now.

  “If I come back, you know that everyone’s going to want to see me. The family will call a meeting.”

  “Probably at the house. I can meet you there and we can go in together. I’m sure if we tell the family that you intend to marry me, I can keep you safe.”

  “Levi, you know what you’re doing, right? I mean, there’s no guarantee this will go our way.”

  “Carla, I would do anything for you, risk anything. Trust me. I’ll take care of it.”

  I had warned him the best I could, and he still agreed. There was nothing more I could do about it now.

  “Fine. I’ll be there tomorrow.”

  “What happened?” Josh asked as I walked back into the house.

  I glanced over at Derek and Hunter, who were standing there waiting for my report.

  “He said that our doctor was found and tortured.”

  “Is he sure?”

  “He said they know about Alessa, that she’s been taken.”

  “No,” Derek shook his head. “He’s lying to you. If she was taken, we would know about it. There are procedures in place, and Eric’s house was wired to Reed Security. They would have seen the breech on the monitors. I’m telling you, she’s fine.”

  “Can you call?”

  “Of course,” he said, pulling out his phone. He spoke a few words to someone and then he held out his phone to me.

  I took it tentatively, and held the phone to my ear. “Hello?”

  “Carly, it’s Anna. I’m working from Eric’s house and Alessa is sitting right here with me.” I could hear her little noises in the background. She was safe. “The guys have been monitoring the house like something out of a military movie. It’s seriously scary. Or hot. Either way, you have nothing to worry about. She’s in safe hands.”

  “Thank you,” I said, handing the phone back to Derek. When he hung up, I took a deep breath, relieved that Alessa was safe.

  “So, Levi can’t be trusted,” Knight said.

  “You don’t know that. He’s an outsider. They could have been feeding him bad information because he was asking too many questions.”

  “Which would lead them to believe that he’s being too nosy,” Hunter said. “If they feel threatened, they’re going to tell him whatever they have to so that he backs off or makes a move. If you really trust him, then that leads me to believe they don’t.”

  “Then having him help is only going to put him in danger,” I argued.

  “Look, we either do this, or you go into hiding for the rest of your lives,” Hunter argued. “Sooner or later, you’re going to have to decide what it is that you really want.”

  I thought about it for a minute, and then thought about Levi’s plan. Maybe that was the way to go. “Levi came up with a plan to get her back. I mean, if she was taken. We can use that plan to get us inside.”

  “And what plan is that?” Josh asked.

  “I go back home and say that I heard about my father’s death and want to reunite with Levi.”

  “Reunite with Levi?” Josh asked incredulously. “He expects you to go back to him?”

  “It doesn’t matter. The point is, if I go back with Levi, maybe that will convince Antonio that I don’t want anything to do with the family business. That I was just waiting for things to blow over.”

  “And then what’s your plan?” Derek asked. “You just go on with life with Levi?”

  “It’s not the best plan, but-“

  “No, it’s not a plan at all,” Knight spat. “The only thing that accomplishes, if they don’t kill you on the spot, is to ensure that they’ll have a target on you the rest of your life. You need to eliminate them if you want to really be safe.”

  “Just kill everyone,” I said incredulously. “Kill my brother and my uncle-“

  “Would you rather it be you?” Josh asked.

  I turned to him, a little shocked that he was making this sound so simple.

  “Josh-“

  “No, I’m sorry, Carly, but they’re right. This is war. This is us against them. Levi can’t do shit to keep you safe. He’s a nobody. Your family doesn’t trust him anymore tha
n any other outsider. There’s no safe way to play this. We either take them out, or we run. Those are our options.”

  I looked at all of them, hoping that one of them disagreed, but none of them even hinted at it.

  “I guess I’m outnumbered.”

  Josh sighed, his hands on his hips. “This is the way it has to be, Carly. We go along with his plan, but take them all out instead. That’s the only way we win. That’s the only way Alessa stays safe.”

  “Alright,” I nodded. “Levi said that if he announces that I’m coming back and want to get married, they’ll call a meeting at the house. He said he would meet me there.”

  “Then let’s start planning out the attack,” Knight said.

  Josh

  “You know the plan?” Derek asked me as he checked his gun one last time.

  I blew out a breath and nodded. “I’m ready for this.”

  He looked up at me, his brows furrowed. “You’re sure? Because once you’re in there, there’s no guarantee that we can keep you safe. We’ll do the best we can, but even one wrong move…”

  “I have to try, and this is the only way I can see us all getting out of this alive.”

  He nodded and took a step back. “You’re different,” he said after a moment. “All grown up. If I didn’t know any better, I would say that you’ve had some training.”

  I smirked at his assessment. “When we were first on the run, I actually had some help from someone that was former military. He had a gun range at his house and he took me out there to practice shooting. And he taught me as much as he could about fighting.”

  I huffed out a laugh, remembering how Carly had tried to trick me into going to the gym, like she was the one that needed it. I had seen through her ploys, but I knew it was necessary to bulk up and be prepared for anything.

  “When this is all over, I want that guy’s number.”

  “Why?”

  “So I can thank him for keeping my little brother alive.”

  My thoughts drifted to the few people who had helped us along the way. “I need you to do something for me. I need you to check on a woman, a Dr. Wilson. I’ll give you her address.”

  “Who is she?”

  “She’s the one that delivered Alessa. Levi told Carly that Antonio tortured and killed her. I need to know if that’s true, and if so…” I shook my head slightly, shame filling me to the core. “Innocent people died because of me.”

  “You were innocent,” he reminded me. “It’s not like you did anything wrong. You were pulled into this and you ran because you had to. You did what you did to survive, and I’m really fucking glad. You have no idea what this did to Ma.”

  “She doesn’t know yet, does she?”

  He clenched his jaw and shook his head. “No, given the circumstances, it’s better if she doesn’t know you’re alive until this is all over.”

  I blew out a breath just as Hunter walked in. “We gotta go.”

  Derek nodded and then moved in closer. “How much do you trust Carly?”

  “What?” I asked, offended that he would suggest she wasn’t trustworthy.

  “Look, I know what she means to you, but you’re my brother, and I won’t put your life in her hands if she doesn’t deserve to be trusted.”

  I wasn’t sure how to convince him, but I could understand where he was coming from. I had been missing for seven years. “I wouldn’t be alive today without her. She ran from her family because she didn’t want to be part of that life. I know it’s hard for you to believe, but she’s on my side. You can trust her.”

  He clapped me on the back, giving me a slight squeeze. “Then let’s go get your life back.”

  We headed into the other room where Knight stood with a pissed off Carly. The two of them would never get along, but that didn’t matter. I just needed Knight to keep her safe. Carly and I headed out to our new vehicle that Derek had gotten for us. Carly slipped in the passenger side, but Derek stopped me before I could get in the driver’s side.

  “Take care of yourself,” he said, pulling me in for a hug. I slapped his back and tried not to think about the fact that this could be the last time I would see him.

  “You too.”

  I pulled back and quickly got in the car before anything else could be said. We would all be meeting up around the house, each of us entering from different locations. The plan was to take out as many of them quietly as possible, and then we would do what we had to do. Hunter, Knight, and Derek were following in another vehicle. Once we were on the road, I nodded to Carly and she made the call, leaving it on speakerphone.

  “Levi, we’re on our way.”

  “He came with you?”

  “It’s his daughter. What did you think I would do?”

  “Carla, this is not what we talked about. You’re going to get us all killed.”

  “Look, we can still play this the way you want. Josh is simply there to get his daughter, but I’m there for you.”

  I clenched my hands around the steering wheel at the thought of her staying with that bastard.

  “The family wants to see you. I can’t promise that he’ll be safe. He’s not family.”

  “You don’t know that I’ll be safe,” she pointed out. “But we have to try.”

  “Carla,” he sighed. “They’ll all be there. If you walk through those doors, there’s no guarantee I can get you out.”

  “I know. We’ll be there soon.”

  “Christ,” he sighed. “I’ll see you soon. Don’t do anything stupid.”

  She hung up and glanced over at me. “Are you ready for this?”

  “To walk into the lion’s den? Piece of cake.”

  She rolled her eyes. “I can’t believe you just said that.”

  I shrugged. “I’m not superstitious. All that matters is Alessa. If we keep her safe, then we’ve done what we set out to do. Let’s just concentrate on that.”

  A half hour later, we pulled up a block from the gates of the mansion and parked on the side of the road. I knew they had guards set up all around the property. Knight, Hunter, and Derek were handling the perimeter while we took care of the front gate. I grabbed my knife and slid it into the sheath at my hip, hiding it under my coat. We were going in quietly, so guns had to wait until we were inside.

  “Let’s go.”

  Carly nodded to me and stepped out of the car. We linked arms and started walking down the sidewalk, like we were out for an afternoon stroll. Carly laughed, like I had said something funny, blocking me as I pulled out my knife. We just reached the gates when one of the guards stepped in our path.

  “You can’t be out here,” one of the guards said. Carly turned with a grin on her face as the guard’s face dropped. “Ms. Scavuzzo-“

  He reached for his walkie-talkie, but I was quicker, stepping out from behind Carly and grabbing the man around the throat, pushing him back into the gate. He struggled to reach for something, but I slammed the knife into his stomach, causing him to bend forward. Then I slid the knife across his throat and watched the light go out of his eyes. I had never killed someone in cold blood like that before, and as I watched him slide to the ground, I tried to feel some remorse. But this was his life or mine, and I couldn’t take the time to sort out feelings right now.

  I hauled his body behind the gatehouse, noticing Carly had taken care of the second guard. I was distracted and that would get us killed. I put the fact that I had killed the man in the back of my mind and focused on the mission ahead of us.

  We stayed out of sight, keeping watch for any of the other guards and waiting for the all clear. It took another three minutes, but then Derek came through my earpiece, signaling that it was time to move.

  “Move out,” I heard through my earpiece. I winced, still unused to wearing the damn thing in my ear. Carly nodded to me and we moved forward, moving as quickly as we could toward the house. There would definitely be people immediately inside the door. Carly had gone over the layout with us over and over again until i
t was burned in our minds. She knew what the rotating schedule of guards used to be, so we only had that to go on, as outdated as it was.

  We crept up to the front door and she slowly turned the knob. She nodded, letting me know it was open. I ducked down low, just as Derek had gone over with us. It was foreign to me, but he had gone over this with us repeatedly, trying to give us as much training as possibly before we put our plan into action. Lucky for me, Carly was a natural at this stuff. I just hoped I didn’t get her killed.

  She slowly opened the door, peeking inside and then nodding as the door swung open. I crept inside, sweat dripping down my spine as we moved further inside.

  “Hey-“

  I spun and flung my knife at the guy, hitting him dead in the chest. He dropped to the ground, his gun clattering more loudly than I had hoped. I heard a grunt from behind me and spun just in time to see Carly flip a man over her back and then spin, slamming a knife into his throat.

  “You guys want to make a little more noise? I can hear you on the other side of the fucking house,” Knight grumbled.

  I heard the footsteps pounding down the hallway and knew we were screwed. There was no way we were making it out of here unless we used guns. Carly seemed to think the same because she pulled her gun and nodded to me. I pulled my gun just as they came around the corner. Carly didn’t wait to fire, so I followed her lead. I didn’t think, I didn’t hesitate, I just fired and took down anyone that walked into the room.

  “Behind you!” someone shouted into my earpiece. I turned just as the butt of a gun came down hard on the back of my neck. Blackness swirled around me and then I was out.

  Derek

  I walked quickly along the side of the house, peeking around the corner to get a better view of the back door. “Two guards outside the backdoor.”

  “And you’re telling us this, why?” Hunter asked.

  I rolled my eyes and pulled out my knives, grinning that I would get to use them again. On a protection detail, it was all about the guns, but I preferred knives any day.