by Terra Kelly
Miles cleared his throat. “Hey, Romeo, take a deep breath and clear your head. We’re all here for that exact reason: to keep her safe.”
Finley slowly walked back to his post and glanced at his team. “Sorry. I want to fucking take these assholes down once and for all.” He was tired of the blood baths left in the mob’s path, it was time to change shit up.
Cooper nodded trying to reassure Finley. “You and all us of, okay? Now, where were we?”
Miles cleared his throat and stated over the intercom. “Watching Letizia rummage through boxes in the attic. She seems desperate to find something. The assholes are walking around and every few minutes checking the windows. I think we could enter the house one at a time. The guys have non-stop talked and yelled at each other.”
Finley took that invitation and carefully entered the house. They all agreed to be at the bottom of the attic stairs when the fuckers descended. Hopefully Letizia would be in the lead. It could make this attack easier.
The home was over a 100 years old, the stairs to the attic were narrow and closed off. They had left the door ajar and the old wood creaked with each movement. It was easy for the team to know their whereabouts every time someone took a step. Finley was behind the attic door looking through a crack made by the space between the door and wall, waiting for someone to appear. Cooper was in the bathroom across the hall from the entrance. The rest of the team was at the bottom of the main stairs, just in case the two assholes tried to run. Nobody said a word.
The moment Letizia came into view, Finley wanted to let out a sigh of relief. This ended up being too easy. Next, Dego moved forward, and then the last asshole was in plain sight. Suddenly everything happened at lightning speed. Cooper lurched forward and grabbed Letizia, pulling her to the ground. That was when all hell broke loose. Dego fired his gun, not aiming at anything specific, just shooting it in all directions. The other guy did the same. Finley had to drop to the ground to avoid getting hit by a stray bullet. A few of the random shots went through the door he was just hiding behind. When the fuckers ran out of bullets, they reloaded their guns.
Dego was screaming at the top of his lungs. “You better fucking bring that bitch back or else…” But he didn’t get to finish his sentence.
Finley pointed his Colt Commando in the assholes’ direction. “I’d drop it if I were you,” he demanded. Dego and the associate went to point their gun at him, but knew they were fucked.
Cooper was now standing in front of both men. “Drop the guns, boys. You know we have you surrounded. There’s even a pretty little gun aimed at you all the way from that oak tree over there.”
Both men seemed pissed. Dego looked around and then caught sight of Letizia crouched down in a corner. “I guess you didn’t care about your brother after all,” he pestered.
Finley pointed his Colt handgun which had been just a breath away from Dego’s head. “Try saying that again, asshole.” When Dego laughed and went to repeat his words, Finley just shoved the barrel of the gun further into his temple.
Cooper put his hand on Finley’s shoulder. “Pull back, Finley. That won’t fix this mess.”
The moment Finley dropped his gun to his side, Dego let out a laugh. “Yeah, Finley.”
Finley would love to fucking beat this son-of-a-bitch, but instead he headed over to Letizia. The moment he knelt down in front of her, she jumped into his arms. She tucked her head into the crook of his neck and started to cry. He rocked back and forth, mumbling words to soothe her broken soul. Ten minutes went by until the team apprehended the fuckers and Letizia finally calmed down. When he pulled her back to look at her face, her cheeks were red and soaked with tears. “Hey, we have you, you’re safe now,” he reassured.
She shook her head. “But Cristiano?” She hiccupped and cried again.
He brushed the hair away from her face and tried to comfort her broken heart. “We’ll get him, I promise. Letizia, why did you come back here? What were you looking for?”
She bowed her head. “I think I remember something from the night my parents were killed, but all I see is my mom dead in front of me,” she seemed at a loss and fumbled around with a button on his jacket. Looking up into his eyes, “I mentioned there were boxes in the attic that haven’t been touched in years. Maybe Ali saved something in one of them.” She fisted her hands in his jacket and bent her head to lean against his chest. “Oh God, Alessandra,” she started to cry more.
Finley lifted her chin to face his own. “Hey, I promised Ali I would keep you both safe and I’m determined to do just that. Let’s look in the boxes together again, okay?” She had been put through too much at such a young age, and yet she seemed so determined now to get all the answers from her past.
Letizia nodded. “Okay.” She took his hand, and they both headed up the attic stairs together. When they reached the landing, she turned toward Finley. “Giano said my dad was one of his best employees, but then he fucked up a few times and that was that. Supposedly my dad had hired a guy to help him, but Giano claims he never met the mystery guy.”
Finley stared at her, confused. “What does this have to do with you now?” He knew she had been just a child at the time.
She laughed sarcastically. “He claims there’s money missing.”
Finley immediately spoke in his intercom. “Did you guys get all that?” If Letizia’s father stole money, Giano would never stop until his debt was repaid. He nodded toward the boxes. “Come on, let’s see what we can find together.”
Cooper came over the intercom and stated. “We have twelve hours, guys. Dego claims the boy will be killed if they don’t report back. Finley, there must be something up there. A name, ledger, something.”
Finley gave a half smile toward Letizia, then cautiously said, “Let’s go through the boxes you haven’t searched yet, we have little time.” He couldn’t say the words to Letizia, but she knew time was of the essence.
They spent just over an hour rifling through every box up in the attic. At one-point Letizia almost gave up. Then they came across the book. The title read: accounts payable. Could it be the break they had been looking for?
He was standing over Zia as she turned each page. “Oh shit, Finley,” she sounded concerned. She pointed at a certain page and said, “Look.”
He grabbed the book to get a better view of the writing. Immediately feeling dread. “Fuck.” He spoke in the intercom. “Cooper, you need to see this.” There was a list of jobs Lando had obviously completed for Giano, but where it mentioned money he collected for Giano, a second number was in parentheses behind that listing. The amount in parentheses was much higher. What the hell was going on? They turned a few more pages and noticed a name written in small print on the top left corner of one: Jason Keets.
Letizia stepped back and looked at Finley. “My father was scamming the mob boss?” She sounded shocked.
Cooper walked up at that moment and looked confused. “What?”
Finley nodded agreeing with Letizia. “Yeah, I think so. Look at this.” Then he handed the book to Cooper. If that was the case, it was big. He wondered if Alessandra had known about it. Fin looked at Cooper, feeling frustrated. “We need to find this Jason guy, like yesterday.” There was a picture resting on the floor under several boxes, which seemed odd to him. When he could finally pull the frame out from under everything, he noticed the picture did not match up with the worn look of the wood surrounding the image. Once Finley pulled the picture away from the glassed enclosure, a key tumbled to the ground.
Letizia leaned down to pick it up. She peered at the metal piece. “This is a key for a lock box, but you have to have two to get into them.”
Finley and Cooper glanced at one another. Cooper grabbed the key and nodded. “Yup, she’s right.” Into the intercom, “Miles, you and Campbell need to fly back tonight and find this guy. We need answers, he’s our only link.”
Miles responded. “Okay, but first we need to find her brother.”
Twelve
Her head was resting on Finley’s chest and she could hear his heartbeat. She knew he was pissed with how fast his heart was pumping. She moved her hand up and said, “Hey.”
He gave a half smile. “Hey, yourself,” he repeated.
Zia sat up to face him and crossed her legs in front of her, letting out a deep sigh. “Okay, talk. How are we going to get my brother back?” Letizia’s mind was reeling. She was trying to take it all in. First, she finds out Alessandra is not her mother, then some crazed man tries to kill her. To make matters worse, she gets kidnapped by said asshole, who also is the Nesta mob boss. Now, here she was praying they would get to Cristiano in time.
Fin sat up to face her and nodded. “We go in guns a’blazin’.” He grabbed her shaky hand in his. She could feel his calloused rough skin. He gave a half smile. “We will find him and bring him back to you alive. I promise.”
She shook her head and pleaded, “Please don’t do that.” Too many lies, too many impossible promises. She knew now it was okay to trust this man, but yet, trust was still a sore subject.
He turned his head to the side looking confused. “Do what?”
She pulled her hands from his touch, clasped them together, and placed them on her lap. Letting out a deep sigh, “Promise me things.” Letizia looked out the front window, watching as the landscape, trees, and houses passed by. Was this the last time she would ever see her home? What about her bakery? She bowed her head, holding in the tears. With a shaky voice, “I can’t take any more lies or promises, it’s all too much.”
Letizia felt Finley lift her chin up. “Hey. No more lies. This is me, and we will tell you everything that’s happening. You deserve that much,” he reassured her.
Finally, all the tears she was holding onto started to fall. “I can’t believe Alessandra never told me anything. I know she was trying to protect me, but I deserved to know, especially who my parents were,” she protested. Letizia still found it difficult to remember her life before St. Cloud. There should be some happy memory tucked away that included her parents and hopefully it would surface and soon.
She reached over to her side and picked up the small photo album. When they were riffling through the boxes in her attic, she’d come across this little book. Once she opened to the first page her heart skipped a beat—there staring back were her parents, they both were laughing and holding a very tiny baby. As Letizia flipped each page, the baby grew and the images were all still full of happiness. Was it possible that her parents had been that happy? Or was it all just an act? Or maybe she’d brought them the happiness they deserved.
Finley leaned closer to Letizia. Pointing at the book. “Did you find that in the boxes?”
Glancing up into his steel gray eyes, and for the first time in days she felt hope pass through her body. She grinned. “Yeah.” He had this genuine smile, and he proved to her already that he would take care of her. Maybe she could learn to trust this one man. Her life would be a mess, Cristiano would struggle through this chaos, but they had their savior.
Finley pointed to a mini version of herself. “Look at those cute pigtails, and that plaid shirt screams hot,” he chuckled.
Letizia laughed and shoved at his arm. “Hey, I was damn cute, admit it.”
He put his hands up in surrender and nodded. “No argument here.”
Just then the van slowed down. Finley’s boss, her other savior, turned in his seat to face them. “Okay, we need to talk about the layout of the place. Do you know where you were being held?”
Finley turned toward Letizia and grabbed her hand again. “I know this will be tough, but every detail matters now,” he said.
She shook her head. “It’s okay. I’ll do whatever it takes to get Cristiano back. He’s the only family I have left now. I won’t lose him, too.” She cleared her throat and shared all the details of the house she could recall. Starting with where they had begun the interrogation in the driveway. To when they lead her to the basement and she caught sight of the cameras in several areas. She even noticed one in the corner of the room by the ceiling when Giano was drilling her about her past. Letizia shared about the walk down the stairs to a basement where the walls were made of cinder blocks. The moment she explained their technique for getting information, the memories plowed into her and she found it difficult to breathe. She reached for Finley’s hand and placed it over her heart, hoping his touch would calm her growing nerves. She finished with giving them the layout of the house from her vantage point. “I’m not sure I can give you exact information, but that’s all I can remember.”
Cooper nodded. “Letizia, that was perfect. We have our technical analyst back at the office working on hacking into their computer system.”
Finley placed his hand on her cheek and gave a half smile. “Hey, that was excellent. Campbell will stay back with you, okay?”
She would rather have Finley there, but she knew he would never sit still on this mission. She shrugged her shoulders. “Yeah, okay.” Cooper had left the van and was talking to the guys outside. She turned toward Finley and whispered. “Please be careful.”
He squeezed her hand and nodded. “Careful is my middle name.”
She shook her head, leaned up, and placed a tender kiss on his cheek. She could feel the stubble from his five o’clock shadow. Glancing up, “Uh huh. Well, Finley Scott, I need you, okay?” She watched as his eyes went wide. “Hush now, just go get my brother.” Then she stood and stepped out of the van, leaving him there, speechless.
Finley was clasping the last strap on the bullet proof vest. Getting confirmation from his partner, “Okay, we good? Miles, you’ll be in the lead.” He was ready to get this asshole. After all these years and the hundreds of bodies now buried, it was time to take this fucker down.
Miles gave a thumb up and nodded. “Let’s do this.”
Cooper walked up and placed his hand on Finley’s shoulder. Sounding concerned. “You sure your head’s in the game, son?”
Finley closed his eyes and took in a deep breath, then he let it out slowly. “Yeah. I’m good. Let’s get this over with and call it a day.” He knew they still had to find the Jason Keets guy and locate the second key to the mystery lock box. First things first though: Take down the guy responsible for fucking up Letizia’s life.
Cooper shrugged his shoulders. “All right, let’s go.”
Finley turned toward the van and noticed Campbell talking to Letizia. He tried to get her attention, “Hey.” They both turned toward him. He pointed to Campbell. “Keep her safe.” If the rescue mission ended the way they hoped, he planned to take both Letizia and Cristiano back home with him. He was determined to always keep them safe. He had to shake his head at that crazy thought.
Miles was a few feet away. “What?”
Finley just shook his head. “This is all so crazy. Letizia. Cristiano. Everything.” He had never had feelings for a victim before. His work had always been just that: work. The fact that somehow this assignment became so much more…well, he didn’t know how to process it all.
Miles slapped his hand on Finley’s back. “They come out of nowhere, blind-side you.”
Fin let out a deep sigh and nodded at his partner’s statement. “Yeah, something like that.” He pulled his Colt from the holster, cocked the gun to check if it was ready and loaded. Then he added a few more cartridges to his pockets. He planned to light up the place.
Finley watched as Miles nodded to the guys and then headed toward the house. They had just received confirmation from the technical analyst she hacked into the camera system. She had put a lock on the cameras, so when the guys entered the property the associates woul
d not catch any movement. The team could stay under the radar for now, but for how long? The hack would be detected, which meant they were working on borrowed time.
Miles suddenly stopped and held his hand up in the freeze signal. From Finley’s vantage point he could see two men on the property holding semi-automatic rifles. The men had stopped and were lighting up cigarettes, you could see them talking about something, then they continued toward the front of the house. Once the men were out of sight, Miles gave the signal for come, followed by watch. It was hard to know just how many associates were roaming the property, but if they had to guess, it was easily about fifty from their infrared cameras showing so many red dots.
The plan was to keep under the radar for as long as possible. They were not fully equipped with the manpower needed for this mission. With it being a time sensitive situation, Cooper had made the final call to complete the rescue with just his team. Usually for missions not unlike this, several of the teams back in Toronto would work together.
As they reached the front door, Miles had made more signals to keep the guys close together. Finley had his body pressed up against the side of the house when he heard two men scream ‘intruders,’ but they were not in plain sight yet. The team didn’t hesitate, pushing through the front door and hiding away from any gunfire. Within a matter of seconds there were several men with semi-automatic rifles barreling through the front entrance, and some were coming from the back of the house. Miles silently mouthed to Finley to get to the basement while the team planned to cover him. Finley knew there was no time to reconvene and figure out another strategic plan. They had to get Cristiano out now.
There was gunfire from every direction as Finely carefully headed toward the entrance to the basement. From what they found on the floor plan of the house, the basement was next to the kitchen, and straight back when entering through the front door.
