Mafia Love (The Accidental Mafia Queen Book 3)

by Khardine Gray

  “Yes, easy, I need to concentrate,” Cora said, tapping away at her keyboard. She was purely focused on whatever it was she was doing.

  On her screen were a bunch of codes that looked like something from The Matrix.

  They all ran down in lines. I didn’t understand what any of it meant, but I had to hope that her belief in what she was doing would work.

  I needed something to work. Something more than the nothing we had going for us.

  If it worked, we’d have the upper hand. We’d have a mission to plan. I was certain Victor would know by now that we made it out of the facility, but maybe we had a little bit of time and leeway. It was a wild guess, and me hoping we did.

  Cora straightened suddenly, and the code started unscrambling.

  “Eureka.” She beamed.

  “Eureka, as in you found them?” I stood up and moved closer.

  “Yes.” She nodded her purple head excitedly.

  “How did you find them?”

  “Virus. I just hacked their system with a virus, and they actually won’t know.” She tapped away at the keyboard again and instantly, I saw a locator triangle hovering over the map.

  She zoomed in.

  “Peyton Prison,” I said before she could.

  Why was I surprised? The place was abandoned. It had been for years, but damn, it was a secure prison for the worst criminals. The ones with severe psychotic tendencies. The kind of place Victor would go apart from hell.

  It was almost déjà vu. With Henry, Victor had taken him and his family to an abandoned psychiatric hospital of the worst kind. It had been closed down for its inhumane practices. Peyton Prison was basically the same.

  “Peyton Prison,” Cora confirmed.

  “Alright, let’s go.” I crackled my knuckles.

  “Wait, not so fast.” She held up a hand.

  “What?”

  I was very impressed with her skills so far, and I’d be putting it mildly if I said I was simply eager to get going. However, the woman impressed me further by zooming right into the room the phone was located. She hovered around the screen, tapped her keyboard, and the inside of the facility came into view.

  “What did you just do?” I asked.

  “I tapped into their CCTV, so I can see what’s happening inside.”

  I moved closer to her. “Can you see Amelia?”

  Raphael stood up now and made his way over.

  Cora clicked on a series of codes and stopped when we saw Amelia. My heart jumped in my throat. She was in a hall like room tied to a chair, looking around.

  Maurice gripped my arm as we looked at Gigi, who was also tied to a chair.

  She looked pretty bad with her bruises, and she hung her head down, looking limp. Her eyes were closed. She looked like she was in a bad way, but alive. Thank God she was alive. As long as she was alive, I’d save her.

  Cora looked at both of us.

  “God. Sorry to move from this screen, but I saw something a few screens back.”

  As she switched the screens, my heart ached. My Amelia. I let those bastards take her.

  Cora switched to a screen that brought up the foyer, and I saw instantly what she meant as she zoomed closer.

  The floor had little devices all over it. Little balls that looked like Christmas decorations.

  “I don’t know what those are, but you might want to be careful of them, and that.” She tilted the camera, so that it showed the ceiling.

  “Holy shit,” Max breathed.

  There was a big axe-looking blade the size of a man hanging from the ceiling. It looked like it was connected to some trip wire.

  “Victor said we’d be going into an arena,” I stated.

  “Well, these look like traps to me. All of it.” Cora bit the inside of her lip.

  “How will we get in?” Raphael asked.

  “I’ll check something out.” Cora switched the cameras to outside the facility near the lake. There was a tunnel where water gushed out. She looked over the entrance and nodded.

  “The surveillance stops past a certain point in the prison. Looks like the old section has nothing. If you can get in through there and work your way across to where they are, you could go unnoticed. I’ll try and find the best entrance to get in. I suggest going in different teams. Surprise is a good advantage, and having a backup plan.”

  “Okay, rally up the best men we have. They’re team B, and we are A,” Raphael declared.

  I looked to him and cleared my throat.

  “We?” I cocked my head to the side and arched a brow.

  “Yes, we.”

  “Look, sir,” Sinclaire cut in. “I don’t know if Amelia would like it very much if you put yourself in danger.”

  “I appreciate your concern and you both coming here, but she’s my daughter. I’m going to get my child back.”

  “Raphael.” I wrinkled my nose. It was insane. He couldn’t come.

  “Lucian, don’t… don’t.” He held up his hands and stared me down. “Give me five minutes. You guys get prepped.”

  All I could do was stare at him. He sounded more like the man I was used to.

  It was just a shame he looked so frail, and that just might get him killed.

  Chapter 13

  Don Raphael

  10 years and 11 months ago…

  “Make sure you get it done just the way I said. You need to be there at the right time to get them, catch them in the act.” I couldn’t keep the anger out of my voice, or the hurt.

  How was I supposed to?

  Four nights ago, I caught my wife cheating on me. I actually saw her. I actually fucking saw her with my own two eyes.

  Millicent had warned me. She said she saw Tag and Eloise in the park and they looked really friendly. Too friendly for her liking. Suspiciously friendly. Millicent hardly wanted to tell me, because the accusation was so serious.

  She warned me, but I wouldn’t listen. I wouldn’t hear of it because there was no way that I would have believed that Eloise would do this to me. To hurt me and our family like this.

  Things were bad between us, but damn. Damn it, I didn’t think they were so bad that the problems couldn’t be fixed. I didn’t think they were so bad that she took refuge in the arms of another man. One of my best friends.

  Tag… I couldn’t begin to express the disappointment I felt about him. And the hurt to my heart was unbearable.

  “I have everyone ready,” Agent Peterson replied with a sigh.

  He was my contact with the feds. He’d helped me out a number of times and was a good associate to the business. Of course, I paid him well for his services, so he couldn’t exactly complain. He had the best of both worlds. He loved being a fed, but he also loved money. Who didn’t?

  “Raphael, this is Tag we’re talking about. He’s not like you.”

  “What the fuck does that mean?”

  “He’s not as reasonable as you. He’s hot tempered and could retaliate. Can you seriously see him cooperating when we arrest him? He’s the kind to fire back and run.”

  “You’re a fucking federal agent. You don’t allow the other guy to run from you. You know Tag, and come on, if he gives you trouble, you know what to do. Shoot the fucker.”

  Yes, shoot the fucker. I was done with that guy. I’d known him for so long I couldn’t remember not knowing him. I would have trusted him with my most precious possessions. My wife and daughter.

  I kept Eloise and Amelia out of business, kept them right out, but the two guys I trusted most were Marcus and Tag. Marcus met both Eloise and Amelia. When he moved to LA, Tag stepped up and became my consigliere. My confidant. A confidant and friend I trusted enough to introduce to my wife. I introduced the two right here in this house. We had him over for dinner one night. It was just the three of us while Amelia had a play date with her friend from ballet.

  When he met Eloise, the two got on well, but I didn’t realize I’d just set in motion a train of disaster for myself.

  That one mee
ting, just that one meeting years ago sealed my fate and crippled my marriage. I didn’t know how many more times the two met after, or when this affair started and became full blown because I didn’t have Tag back here after that. All I knew was it happened. Eloise came by the office a few times and would have seen him. It would make me crazy trying to figure it out. Trying to pinpoint the when and the where.

  “You want me to kill him?”

  “You kill who you have to.”

  I seriously hoped this guy wouldn’t cross me the wrong way. Not today. He could come with his bullshit some other time, but not today.

  This was the perfect plan. It couldn’t have been more perfect.

  The diamonds were coming in on the shipment, smuggled in from South Africa. Tag, his three sons, myself, and a few of my guys were supposed to be there to collect. The plan was to set up and go in for the taking once the coast was clear. We’d been planning this for months. Before I knew of Tag’s deception and betrayal.

  We’d checked times for when we could pull off this heist in the stealthiest way. Well, plans changed four nights ago when I watched him pounding into my wife.

  I still couldn’t believe it. I’d followed Eloise, and she’d gone to Tag’s place. I snuck in the back and watched. I watched them together out of shock and horror. Sadness.

  “You do what you need to do. Get it done and make sure there are no loose ends. He’ll be getting to the docks in about half an hour. Follow the directions I gave you.”

  “Okay. I’ll check back in later.”

  I hung up.

  It was her reflection in the window that startled me, her in that red dress, that made me whirl around to face her.

  Eloise was standing in the doorway. Tears were streaming down her cheeks, and sorrow filled her beautiful face.

  Shit.

  I thought I was alone in the house. No one was supposed to be here. She said she was going shopping.

  I would have taken more care in my conversation if I’d known she was going to be here.

  “Raphael, what are you doing?” Her voice shook as she spoke, and more tears ran down her cheeks. “Did I hear you right?”

  Damn it, I was such an idiot. I’d allowed my feelings to cloud my actions, and I didn’t think. I should have made that call back at the office. Not here.

  It was so ironic. I’d kept my wife and daughter out of business, kept everything at the office in town. I’d kept things tight and on a leash, never discussing anything in the house, yet she’d just heard me plotting perhaps the biggest and worst ambush I’d ever concocted.

  “What did you hear?” I demanded.

  “Tag. You just ordered Agent Peterson to kill him if he had to. He’s your friend. Why would you do that?”

  That was it. I lost my composure. “I saw you with him.”

  I was never a beat-around-the-bush kind of guy. Never. And I wouldn’t start being one now.

  Eloise sucked in a sharp breath, and her skin turned pale.

  “W-what?”

  “I. Saw. You. With. Him!” I screamed.

  “Raphael, please, I can explain.” She rushed up to me.

  When she tried to touch me, I moved my hand away.

  “Why? Why would you do that? And what kind of explanation do you think you can give me? You slept with him. I watched him with you.”

  “You watched?” she gasped looking mortified.

  “That’s what you’re concerned about? Well, yes, Eloise, a person tends to do crazy shit when they’re in shock. That was one of them. Though it was more the case of me watching in complete horror and disbelief because I didn’t want it to be true. I couldn’t believe it. You and him. Don’t worry. I left before he finished fucking you.”

  “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Raphael, things haven’t been… I should have come to you and told you I wanted a…”

  Wow, please, don’t tell me she was going to say what I was thinking.

  She swallowed hard and wiped her face. “I want a divorce.”

  “Done. Fucking done.” Of course, I was done. Didn’t matter that I loved her with everything in me. Didn’t matter that this was killing me. I was done.

  If she didn’t love me. I couldn’t do anything about that.

  “Raphael, things have been bad with us for a long time.”

  I wished she hadn’t said that. “Yes, that’s the perfect excuse to go fucking my best friend, right? I understand perfectly. That’s the natural thing to do, of course.”

  “It’s not. It was wrong of me, and I made a mistake.”

  “I would never do that to you.” I had plenty women who would have been eager to be with me because of who I was and what I was. I owned Chicago, I had unimaginable wealth, and I think I could be bold enough to say that I owned people too. There were so many chances for me to cheat, but I would never. I didn’t believe in it, and I was too in love with my wife to even contemplate hurting her like that.

  “I know. I know you wouldn’t, and that’s what makes me feel even worse. Raphael, every time I tried to talk to you, you’d come up with some excuse or take us someplace that would make it inconvenient to tell you how I felt.”

  I couldn’t deny that I’d been stepping around a fear I didn’t want to acknowledge. I’d felt at one point that she wanted to leave me. I’d felt it, and it terrified me. It terrified me so much I didn’t even want to acknowledge the fear. So, I’d pushed it aside.

  “How do you feel? Tell me, Eloise. I have given you everything. I have protected you from the darkness in my world. I have given you my heart and soul and loved you.”

  Her lips trembled, and she shook her head slowly. Her face contorted as she winced and pulled in a sharp breath. “I don’t love you anymore.”

  I just stared at her. I stared at her for what felt like an eternity, and I was sure that my heart must have stopped beating.

  “You don’t?”

  “I’m sorry.”

  I had to fight back to control my own tears. “I love you.” It was stupid to say it, but the words fell from my lips mindlessly.

  “Raphael, I’m so sorry. I don’t love you. I don’t love you, but that doesn’t mean I don’t care about you or appreciate all you’ve done for me. You’ve given me everything. A beautiful life I would never have had if not for you. Our precious daughter… but… I just… I lost that connection we had along the way.” She nodded. “Please don’t kill Tag.”

  “Do you love Tag?” Again, another foolish question. I never asked a question I didn’t already know the answer to, and I’d just landed myself in the shit of that one.

  She blinked several times, and her lips parted. “You don’t need to know that.”

  “Because it’s true. You love him.” In rage, I grabbed the glass weight on my desk and threw it against the wall. It smashed, and she shrieked.

  “You can’t kill him. Please call off whatever plans you have.” Her bright eyes pleaded with me. “Please.

  I could give her a divorce, but I wouldn’t give her a divorce and see her with Tag. Tonight, Tag would either end up in prison for a very long time, or dead.

  I answered her with a smile and stepped back.

  “Raphael, please,” she begged.

  “No, noooooooo.” No a million times. That asshole would get his if it was the last thing I did. “No!” I cried out and my voice was so primal and feral I didn’t recognize it.

  Her eyes went wide with fright. “Bastard, you’d kill him?”

  “Not like I haven’t killed before.”

  “I hate you. I hate you.” She turned around and ran through the door.

  I didn’t care.

  As far as I was concerned, I’d lost her. I wished to God I could say that I hated her too, but I was cursed with loving her. Loving a woman I’d been with for nearly twenty years. We had our beautiful Amelia, and I’d thought we were the family I always wanted.

  I’d been so wrong.

  Tag would pay for this. I would make him pay one way or another
.

  Present day…

  I took the whole five minutes I asked for. One minute to pack my guns in my pockets and four minutes to reflect.

  To reflect on the day when everything went to hell. It was the kind of situation that tore a person apart.

  I’d wanted revenge. I’d wanted some form of justice to what had been done to me, and I surely got mine. Revenge was an evil thing that could go all sorts of ways.

  You could take things into your hands and deal out justice, but it would come at a price.

  It always did, and that price was something that could expand to an abysmal black hole and get bigger and bigger. Harder to contain. Harder to manage.

  That’s what happened to me.

  I’d caught Eloise cheating, I’d changed up the plans to get the diamonds and got them well before Tag and his boys could get there, then I’d sent them on a wild goose chase to get them all caught.

  I’d thought prison would have been the result. The shipment contained priceless art and artifacts. It would have been clear as day that they were in the act of stealing the shipment.

  But Eloise didn’t just leave the house that day. She went to the docks in an attempt to save Tag.

  Tag retaliated to Agent Peterson and his men indeed, and she got caught in the crossfire. Not just her. Tag’s boys too.

  In one flash he lost it all.

  His family, and her.

  I lost her.

  My plan to exact revenge had ruined everything and set off the chain of events that followed me right to this point where these crazy people had taken my daughter. The last precious thing I had left in this world.

  The phone ringing on my desk cut into my thoughts. My five minutes were probably up, and normally, I wouldn’t have answered it, but I did now because of the situation.

  “Hello, old friend.” It was Tag. How convenient.

  “Why are you calling me?”

  I wasn’t going to waste time talking shit.

  “Just checking in. I got word your boys made it out of the facility. I’m impressed.”

  “Really?” This was me bullshitting him. Truthfully, I knew from the way Luc had explained what went down that neither he nor Claudius would have made it out alive without Maurice and Amelia’s friends.