by Mae Doyle
Eva could be asking about a lot of things, and we both know it. We have to worry about her ex-husband, the cut on her face, and what to do about the family to convince them that she’s not a rat.
She also has to convince me that she’s not a rat, but I’m a bit more inclined to believe her than some of the other members of the family.
“I’m going to go take care of your ex.” Planting my hands on my thighs, I stand up, but she reaches out quickly, grabbing my wrist and pulling me back to her. She’s not very strong, and I could easily pull away from her, but I don’t want to. I want to know what she has to say and see what she thinks about my plan.
“What do you mean? Don’t leave me, Roque. I just…we can ignore him, okay, and he’s going to go away.” There’s panic in her voice, and I don’t like that. I don’t want anyone to be able to make my girl feel panic like that, and the fact that a little asshole like her ex can do it pisses me off.
“Sorry, darling, but he can’t last. I saw some of the texts he sent you. He’s not going to stop, and you and I both know it. If you’re going to be safe then we have to get rid of him.” Now I do pull away from her, and she lets her hand drop uselessly to her lap.
“What do I do?”
“You stay here. You stay safe. Don’t leave the house, Eva, do you understand?” What I don’t tell her is that if she does leave the house then I’ll know that she can’t be trusted. If she steps one single fucking foot out onto the porch then this simply won’t work.
Mostly because she’ll be dead.
“Can I go outside?” I want to tell her that she can, and I want to give her some free reign of the property, but that would be too tempting for her, so I shake my head.
“No, Eva. Stay in the house. I don’t know how long I’ll be back, but you can nap, or eat, or read.” I gesture at my shelves. I love to read, which is something that a lot of people don’t know about me, and I’m hoping that Eva enjoys books as much as I do.
Eva opens her mouth like she’s going to argue, but instead she nods, clamping her mouth shut again. Leaning down, I drop a kiss on the top of her head. She may not realize it yet, but everything I’m doing is for her.
Outside on the porch I hesitate, trying to decide if I should lock her in or not. If she really wants out, she’ll be able to knock out a window, but I don’t want to deal with that. Finally, I shrug and walk away, the house unlocked. There’s a bit of movement in the window and when I look up, I see her waving.
I’ll come back to her, but right now I have to make sure that the person responsible for her pain can’t hurt her anymore.
The drive back to Pops’ house is short, but by the time I pull up, I’ve gotten everyone on the phone, and everyone’s already waiting on me. We have a lot to talk about, and Pops herds us into the dining room so we can sit around the table and discuss what’s going on.
He waits until we’re all around the table before he speaks, his deep voice booming out through the room. “We took care of them, Roque, while you were dealing with Eva. You don’t have to worry about another attack on you from the cousins, okay?”
That’s good. I nod. “This means that you’re stable, right?” Everyone knows that the only people who could possibly topple Pops are the cousins, but if they’re gone…
“I’m stable.” Pops cracks a smile and we all pound the table. It’s how we cheer and celebrate in the dining room, and the whole thing shakes a little under the pressure. I know that Ma is in the kitchen while this is going on, but she knows better than to poke her head in when she hears us pounding.
There’s a small chance that she may know what’s going on already, but an even bigger one that she doesn’t want to know. Or shouldn’t. Women shouldn’t know what we’re doing, because it not only keeps them safe, but ensures that we stay safe.
Everyone knows that it’s easy to get information from a woman with the right persuasion.
The thought of Eva falling into the wrong hands makes me sick, and I grip the edge of the table. This meeting needed to be called so we could all talk about the cousins, but everyone here knows that I have something to say.
They all know about Eva. They just don’t know what the plan is.
When it’s quiet I speak, and everyone turns to me to listen. Well, everyone but Ricky. He and Johnny are on special assignment. My phone is on the table in front of me, which normally isn’t allowed, but today’s special. I need to be easily available if shit hits the fan.
“She’s not going to rat, but just in case she does something stupid, I have Ricky and Johnny out there. They’re watching the house, and I told her not to leave.” The words are thick in my mouth, but family comes first. We all know that, and while I think that Eva could be my family one day, right now is not that day.
“If she leaves the house?” Arlo knows exactly what would happen, but I know that he needs to hear me say it. They all do, because Eva’s a woman, and pussy can make you weak.
“Then Ricky or Johnny will take care of her.” I let that sink in before I continue. That’s why I have the phone out on the table. I need to be the first to know if shit goes down with Eva. “But she won’t leave it. I know it. I trust her, and now I need you guys to help me.” As quickly and succinctly as I can, I explain what’s going on with her ex. He’s a shady motherfucker, and even Arlo has a tight look on his face when I’m done talking.
“He’s waiting in her apartment?” Matty shrugs like the answer is as clear as can be. “Then what are we waiting for? You think he’d hurt her?”
This was what I hadn’t told Eva when I got off the phone with her ex. I had assumed that he just wanted her back, and that’s obviously what she thought, as well, but David was done. I don’t know if it was just because he was so close to finding her and hadn’t or if he was really that violent, but he told me that this time, she wasn’t going to walk away.
“He plans on throwing her down the stairs to break her neck.” I clench my fists on the table. “I think he’s drunk, or high, or something, but he told me that there’s no way she’s walking away from him this time, and that I’ll join her if I try to help her.”
Pops actually laughs at this, and I can’t help but agree that it’s funny. There’s no way that I’m afraid of a little punk like her ex, but that doesn’t mean that I’m going to go up against him on my own, especially when I don’t know if he brought backup.
Our family doesn’t handle their shit on their own. We work together, and that’s part of the reason why we’re so successful. I know that everyone here has my back.
“Then what are we waiting for?” Pops stands up and slams one hand on the table. We all stand, slamming ours in response.
Nobody has to go home to get their pistol. Nobody has to worry about finding a silencer. Family always comes first, and we’re always ready to do whatever is necessary to protect the people we love.
Chapter 19
Roque
God, it feels good to be going to take care of this. After today I should know whether or not I can trust Eva, and I’ll have her shitty ex out of the way so that she doesn’t have to live in fear.
Everyone piles into two cars so that we won’t make a caravan across town and draw attention to ourselves. When we pull up in front of the building, I jump out, craning my neck to look up. Adrenaline pumps through my body and I have a hard time standing still. It’s not that I’m jumpy – it’s just that going into a kill that means this much to me has me a little on edge.
“You good?” Pops claps his hand down on my shoulder and I turn to smile at him. Even though my nerves are firing, I take a deep breath to calm down and nod at him.
“I’m ready.” This is my operation, and everyone falls into place behind me. We have to be buzzed into the building, but it only takes paging a few random apartments for someone to open the door for us to head up. Taking the stairs is the best way to avoid getting caught in the elevator and allows us to stay out of sight.
Not that anyone would real
ly notice us. Most of the residents in this building work during the day, so they’re out, but the few that are home and milling around in the halls look high or drunk. Or both. I grit my teeth. After we take care of David, I know for a fact that I’m going to get Eva out of here. She deserves better than to live in such a shithole.
We wind up the staircase silently and in a line, each of us on high alert. I don’t think that her ex is smart enough to keep a look out for us, but I don’t want to risk him making a run for it and coming up on us in the staircase.
Finally, we reach her floor, and I pause, looking through the small window into the hall. Nobody’s there. A single light halfway down the hall is on the fritz, and it keeps dimming and then getting brighter without any warning. The whole thing feels surreal, but knowing that it’s all for Eva spurs me on.
I realize with a start that I’m willing to do anything for her. Taking care of her ex and getting her out of this apartment so that I can keep her safe is just one of the things that I’m happy to do. She’s worth it, and more, and I grit my teeth as I look down the hall.
Her apartment is all the way on the end, but unlike the bottom floor where we came in, there isn’t anyone milling around outside the apartments here. That’s good, because it means that we can act quickly without worrying about running into anyone or having to move them out of the way first.
Our family is relentless when we’re threatened, but the one thing that we don’t believe in is hurting innocent bystanders. It just makes it a hell of a lot easier when we don’t have to worry about how we’re going to avoid putting someone innocent in danger.
Silently I gesture down the hall, and everyone follows me. We’re silent, moving like one, and I know that there’s no way he’ll hear us coming. Once we reach the door, we split up, half of us on one side in the hall, the other going to the other side. Nobody stands directly in front of it. We all know better than to put ourselves at risk like that.
Taking a deep breath, I reach out carefully and try the handle. Chances are damn good that it’s locked, but when I spoke to the ex earlier, he didn’t sound like he was playing with a full deck, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he’d left it open by accident. The handle moves and, with a slight click, the door opens.
Slowly I push it open, taking my time to avoid any loud creaks or squeaks that may occur. It’s silent inside the apartment, but even from here, I can see that the lights are on. He’s in there, the bastard, and we’re going to take care of him.
When he doesn’t come running for the door to stop us, I slowly push the door wider, then slip inside the crack. I don’t even have to look behind me to know that my family is following me. Pops is right behind me. He has my back, and the rest of them bring up the rear.
The apartment is smaller than I thought it would be, and it’s shitty, although I can see a few things that Eva has brought into it to try to make it more comfortable and homey. Although I’d love to stop and look at her pictures on the walls and check out her music collection, I don’t want to get caught with my pants down, so once we clear the living room, I lead us into the kitchen.
Water’s dripping in the sink and there’s a hot mug of coffee on the counter. He’s in here, and he’s closer, but I still don’t have any reason to think that he knows we’ve arrived.
The kitchen leads into a small hall. When I glance down it, I see two doors, which are both closed. It’s likely that the closest one is the bathroom, and when I try the handle, the doors swings open to show me just that.
Carefully, I pull the shower curtain back, but he’s not hiding in there. The bathroom is so small and cramped that I’m the only one fitting in it, and it’s obvious that he’s not here.
Arlo gestures at the closed door down the hall and I nod. Yeah, the bedroom. We got it.
This time, when I try to open the door, it’s met with a little resistance. I don’t throw myself into it, not yet. I know that he’s in there. The door could be sticking because it’s such a crappy old building, but it’s much more likely that he’s figured out that we’re coming for him and has blocked it somehow.
Bedroom furniture would be a bed, a dresser, possibly a nightstand…it’s a dresser. If I close my eyes, I can almost see what he’s done, even though I’ve never been in her room before. He knows we’re here and he’s pushed her dresser up against the door to stop us.
Fuck. I’m so angry that my blood is boiling and I gesture at my family to duck down. Leaning forward, I rap on the door with my pistol, the sound so loud in the quiet of the apartment that it makes my ears hurt.
“Open up, David.” My voice is clear and strong. I’m not nervous, haven’t been since we got here and I got out of the car. Right now all I want to do is find this motherfucker and take care of him. If he knows we’re here, which I think he does, then there’s no reason to pretend and sneak around in the hall any longer.
My command is answered by a volley of shots. Immediately, I throw myself on the floor with my family. The bullets rip through the thin bedroom door and embed themselves in the wall behind us, but they’re all a few feet off of the ground.
I was right. There’s a dresser in front of the door.
My heart is pounding in my ears, but I don’t move until he’s finished shooting. There’s always a chance that he could let off a few more rounds, but I’m not going to give him that chance. For all he knows, it’s just me in the hall. For all he knows, he hit me.
Pops touches my shoulder and I turn to look at him, but he points back to the bedroom door. It’s easy to see a bit of light shining through the holes, and I crawl up to the door, raising myself off of the floor just enough to look through one of the holes.
Fuck, yeah, he barricaded himself in there with the dresser, and it’s just him. Nobody came with him. For a moment, I had a twinge of fear that he may have brought some goons with him, but he’s standing behind the bed, his back against the outside wall of her apartment. I raise my pistol, keeping my eye on him.
This bastard thought that he could come here and ruin Eva’s life. Hell, from the sound of it, he’s already done a fucking good job of hurting her in the past. My finger itches to squeeze the trigger. I could easily take him out from here. He’d never even know that it was coming.
But I stop myself. Her ex has hurt her enough that I want him to hurt. There’s no way for me to shove the dresser out from in front of the door without him shooting more and hitting me. He’s got it barricaded tight against the door, but there has to be another way.
I could shoot him from here and end it all. Hell, that’s probably what Pops and Arlo would tell me to do so that I wasn’t doing anything stupid.
But they don’t know Eva. Fuck, they don’t love Eva. I want to be able to hold her in my arms tonight and know that I shot the motherfucker who was hurting her and that he knew that I was the new man that she loves.
I want to look her in the eyes and know that I’ve done everything I possibly can to keep her safe. I know that it’s stupid, and I know that Pops and Arlo are probably going to give me a hard time about this later, but killing him through the hole in her fucking bedroom door isn’t how I want this to go.
Grunting, I throw my shoulder into the door. It opens just a crack, but I’m met with a volley of shots. The stupid motherfucker didn’t even bother locking the door, which means that as long as I can open it a few more feet, I’ll be able to get in there and take him down.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Arlo hisses at me from his position on the floor. “Just shoot the motherfucker, Roque!”
“I have to do it close,” I tell him. Arlo’s never loved a broad, not like I love Eva, so I already think that he’s going to blow me off for being stupid, but he just nods.
“I gotcha. Stay low, brother, or we’re going to have to call in the doc for an emergency visit.” He crawls past me to the door, staying well below the height of the dresser. If the ex were smart enough to get closer and fire down through the door, we’d be fucked, but h
e’s too fucking stupid.
He keeps shooting above the dresser, and that’s how we’re going to be able to take him out.
“You ready?” I ask Arlo, and when he nods, we both slam our shoulders into the door. It pushes the dresser back a few more inches, opening the door about a foot. Fuck, we’re so close, but there’s no way that I can slip through there just yet. It needs to be a bit wider, and then Arlo will be able to cover me.
Sudden gunfire from behind us makes me jump, but when I turn around, it’s just Pops. He’s shot high over our heads so that the bullets won’t hit the bastard, but they should be enough to make him drop behind the bed for safety.
“Do it.” He nods and as we prepare to hit the door again, he fires a few more shots. The noise is incredible. Even though the walls are so thin that they probably don’t offer any insulation during the winter, it’s still so loud that my ears are ringing. Arlo and I slam into the door again, this time pushing the dresser far enough away from the door that I can easily walk through the opening.
Pops keeps shooting, ensuring that the fucker will be hiding as I walk into the room. I’m bent over a bit, making sure that I’m not a huge and obvious target. Arlo’s close behind me, and I hear Matty and Valentino follow us to cover me.
It’s overkill, but that’s how our family works. We don’t leave anyone out on their own, not when we can do something to make sure that they’ll be safe. My pistol out, I scoot around the bed.
There he is. He’s curled up on the ground, his pistol a foot from his hand. I kick it behind me and Arlo picks it up, slipping it into his pants before training his gun on David again.
“David.” My voice is loud enough that even Pops hears, and he stops firing into the room. David moans and opens his eyes to look at me, but he doesn’t move. “Get up, you piece of shit,” I tell him.
When he stays curled up in a ball, I reach down, grab his collar, and yank him to his feet. He’s unsteady when he stands, but I don’t think he’s drunk. Just fucking scared. There’s a terrible odor and I glance down.
