by K. A. Ware
Enzo walked in silently behind, “Frankie!” he said loudly startling her and causing her to jump which, in turn, caused the case of Redbull balanced on her arm to tip. She scrambled to keep a hold of it but it toppled over. Enzo lunged forward and caught it before the cans hit the ground, righting himself he glared at her, “I saved your precious energy drinks, now you owe me. Play nice with Mouse here, okay? He’s here to help you.”
She scoffed, “One, you scared me with the creepy prowler thing you do which caused me to lose my grip so technically, since you were the cause of the potential disaster that discredits any owing on my part for your hand in averting said disaster. Two, I don’t need any fucking help.”
She stomped over to the desk, her fire engine red messy bun bouncing against her black plastic rimmed glasses that sat perched on top of her head and plopped her stuff down at her station. She was wearing black leggings, converse and a Gonzaga University sweatshirt that had been cut at the neckline causing it to fall off of one of her slim shoulders. My best guess was that she was about five foot, and barely tipping the scales at a buck ten. The girl was tiny but her attitude was larger than life.
Turning to me she smiled brightly, all previous hostility completely absent from her expression. “You must be Mia, nice to finally have another vagina around here,” she said, and clapped me on the shoulder before plopping down in the chair Mouse had just vacated.
I glanced around to see if I was the only one completely in shock over all that was Ms. Francesca Delrossi. Mouse was staring at her with his mouth hanging open and Enzo just shook his head while looking up at the ceiling as if he were praying for the strength to handle this feisty little thing.
I blinked a few times before I remembered myself, “Nice to meet you Frankie, this is my friend Mouse. He’s a fellow hacker and he’s here to help with the surveillance.”
She didn’t look up from hooking up her computer when she responded, “Appreciate the thought, but I don’t need any help.”
I stood up slowly and looked down at her. I understood where she was coming from, but now she needed to understand where I was coming from. “It wasn’t a suggestion,” I said firmly, “I trust that you will be able to get Mouse up to speed by the time the men head out this afternoon.”
“I-“ she started to reply.
I held up my hand to stop her, “Look Frankie, I get it. But now I need you to get me. I’m not asking you to let Mouse help you, I’m telling you. Now, you’re feisty and I like that about you, but your pride needs to be checked at the door. Mouse is an asset, use him. I’ll be back to check on you guys in a little while, okay?”
She blinked a few times then a smirk stretched across her face, “You got it Boss lady,” she said with a nod.
I smiled and walked out the door with Enzo on my heels. When the door clicked behind us I turned to Enzo. “Is she always like that?” I asked.
“Unfortunately, yes.”
“This is going to be interesting,” I said as I made my way down the hall.
…
We only had about five hours before the meet. The control room was crowded with people getting ready and going over plans. I glanced over to where Carlo was talking to Angelo and Antonio; the two men may have been brothers, but they looked more like twins. I hadn’t gotten to spend a lot of time with Antonio and before this week I had only met him a handful of times. He was even more reserved than Angelo, which was saying something, and he had this blank look in his eyes that made me more than a little weary of him.
Walking over to the men I sidled up next to Carlo, hoping to get a few moments alone with him before they left. It didn’t take long for him to wrap up his conversation. I had to force myself not to roll my eyes at him as he confirmed plans with the brothers for the one thousandth time.
“Hey, you have a second?” I asked.
“Of course. We have a few minutes before we need to head out, let’s go into your office,” he said guiding me out of the room with a hand on the small of my back. That was another thing that had changed over the past couple of days, Carlo was no longer holding back his affections. He didn’t make a show of it but the men caught on pretty quickly and aside from a few sideways glances it was business as usual.
He led me into the office and closed the door behind us. Turning to him, I reached up and linked my hands behind his neck, his hands automatically going to my waist. “I love you,” I said, and stretched up on my toes to kiss him. What started out as a soft and slow kiss quickly dissolved into deep and hungry battle of lips and tongues.
Carlo was first to break away, “As much as I would love to bend you over your desk right now, we don’t have time, and I need to stay focused on what I’m about to do If we’re going to pull this off,” he whispered into my ear, his words were a direct contradiction to the soft kisses he was trailing down my neck.
“I know,” I said. “I just wanted to get in a few minutes of alone time before you left.”
“We’ll have a lot more than a few minutes when I get back.”
“Oh yeah? How long?” I asked feigning innocence.
“How about forever?” he asked, dropping to one knee and pulling a small velvet box from his pants pocket.
I couldn’t keep the shocked look from my face, “W-wha—“ I stuttered, unable to form a coherent thought with him in front of me holding the largest, most exquisite ring I had ever seen.
“I was going to wait until tonight but,” he shrugged. “This feels right.” He cleared his throat, “Mia, I can’t promise you that I won’t mess up or that I will always do what you want me to, but I what I can promise you is that I will do everything in my power to make you happy and safe. I want you by my side for the rest of our lives, each step of the way. I never thought I was capable of feeling for someone what I feel for you. I wasn’t expecting you when you came into my life but one look into your eyes and I knew there was something different about you, something that called to me. I won’t say you’re my other half because you’re so much more than that. You’re my partner, my equal, and together we make a matched set.” He pulled the ring from where it was nestled into the box and held it out to me, “So, Mia, will you allow me the honor of calling you my wife?”
I couldn’t breathe. The air had actually been sucked from my lungs and no matter how much I tried, I couldn’t fill them again. Carlo had just proposed, he was currently proposing. My mind was scrabbling to make sense of the situation, to register everything he had just said but my wheels were just spinning. I stood there staring at him. I was pretty sure my mouth was hanging open but there wasn’t a thing I could do about it. I was frozen.
“Mia, baby?” He pulled back a little, the smile on his face growing stiff, “If it’s too soon, I understand, I just thought…”
All of a sudden everything slammed into me at once, and I took in a huge gulp of air. Images of us over the past three years played out in front of me in fast forward. In all my life I had never been as happy as I had been when I was with Carlo. No matter what we were doing, even if it was just a phone call or a text, he was always the highlight of my day. Did I want that for the rest of my life? I didn’t even need to think about it.
“Yes!” I screamed and lunged for him. He grunted as I collided with him, sending both of us to the ground. His arms wrapped around me and he rolled us so I was beneath him, my head cradled in his hand.
“Just to clarify, that was a ‘yes’ that you screamed at me, right?” he asked chuckling.
“You bet your ass it was.” I replied smiling so big my cheeks hurt.
“Thank God, you had me worried for a second there.” His tone was light but the look in his eyes revealed the truth in his words.
Pulling my left hand up between us he slipped the enormous diamond ring on my finger. I immediately did the thing that every girl does the moment she gets engaged; I stretched my left hand out and gazed at the ring. It was a cushion cut yellow diamond surrounded by a halo of smaller white diamonds that als
o trailed along the top of the band, I had no idea how many carats it was but it was definitely heavy on my finger.
“It was my mothers,” he said quietly.
I glanced up at him and smiled, “It’s beautiful, I love it. I love you.” I said, craning my neck to kiss him.
Thunk, Thunk, Thunk. There was a loud knock at the door, then we heard Enzo’s voice filter in from the other side, “Boss?”
Carlo’s forehead came to rest on my own, “I have to go.”
“I know,” I smiled and kissed him once more, “I’ll be here when you get back.”
We made our way back down to the control room, this time hand in hand. As soon as we walked into the room things started moving at an even faster pace than before. Men were loading their guns and strapping on their holsters while others were packing extra ammo into bags. Before I knew it Carlo was standing in front of me again kissing the breath out of me. In front of everyone. I was shocked, but I guess since we were getting married discretion was out the window. Carlo pulled back and looked into my eyes.
“I love you,” he said softly.
“Love you, too.” I returned, equally as softly.
I had been so caught up in the moment I hadn’t noticed the room grow deadly quiet until I heard Frankie’s voice break the silence.
“Damn, that ring is fucking huge!”
Of course the only other woman in the room would zero in on the rock currently taking up residence on my left hand. I laughed and smiled at her. The men gave Carlo and me a few rounds of ‘congratulations’ before Enzo signaled for the group to head out.
Chapter 45
Carlo
We had just gotten the call from Eddie. The warehouse we were headed to was about fifteen minutes outside of Downtown Portland, in a long since forgotten industrial district. There were ten of us total in three separate SUVs, each taking a different route after exiting the interstate in an effort to minimize any suspicion. We didn’t know what kind, if any, surveillance Ivan had on the place so we needed to take every precaution to arrive without detection.
I twisted around from my place in the passenger’s seat to address Angelo, “So we’ll park on this service road here,” I said indicating to the place on the map where we would leave the vehicles and walk the rest of the half mile to where the abandoned warehouse was located. Pulling up the blueprints of the building Frankie had sent me on my tablet I continued, “Antonio will take his men in first and set up on the platform connected to the catwalk. Enzo and his team will be hidden on the far side by the shipping docks, and you and I will be in an alcove closest to the entrance. As soon as they shake hands you throw the flash-bangs and Enzo and Antonio’s teams will quickly take out Ivan’s men and Eddie’s leader.”
“Got it, Boss.”
“You and I will then move in and grab Ivan. The welding goggles and earplugs will give us maybe a thirty second lead on recovery since we know that they’re coming. It’s not much time but if all goes as planned he’ll still be out of it when we get to him,” I said, sitting back in my seat. Our plan was to take Ivan out of there alive. I needed him to tell us where his father was, only then would I kill him. I wasn’t going to risk the blowback this time, I wanted them all gone before I went back to Mia.
Chapter 46
Mia
“They’re in place,” Mouse said without taking his eyes off the screen, his fingers flying over the keyboard.
“I’ve got a visual on Kashnikov’s convoy, they’re ten minutes out,” Frankie called out, pulling up a satellite feed on one of her multiple screens. I could see three dark SUVs making their way down the road to the warehouse where the meet would be. Enzo’s cousin Eddie and his men were just pulling up to the location and Carlo’s team was already in place inside the warehouse.
I watched as Kashnikov’s crew got closer. My stomach was in knots and I couldn’t shake the thought that something wasn’t right. I couldn’t place why or where it was coming from, but worry niggled at the back of my mind. By the time Ivan’s convoy pulled up to the warehouse I was practically on top of Frankie watching the screen with the satellite feed.
“Here,” she said, pulling out the monitor that was mounted on an adjustable arm and moving it off to the side. “Now you can get as close as you want without squishing me.”
“Thanks,” I responded distractedly. I could hear Mouse in the background radioing in what we knew to our men in the warehouse, but my eyes were still glued to the screen.
After a few minutes when they still didn’t make a move to go inside the warehouse I called out to Sal. “Why aren’t they going inside?”
“I don’t know,” His voice sounded far away and I could feel myself starting to panic.
We needed them inside the warehouse for our plan to work. All of a sudden there was movement, but only one set of men moved towards the warehouse. The others stayed by the vehicles.
“Can you get closer?” I asked Frankie, my tone urgent and strained. The knot in my stomach grew heavier, this was not good.
“I’m trying,” she said as she typed wildly. “This is as close as I can get with a clear picture.”
The view was close enough to see the figures moving towards the building but not close enough to see what they were doing or identify them. My heart was pounding in my chest as the three figures approached the entrance of the building. I could hear the blood whooshing in my ears as the same three figures started running away from the warehouse.
“No!” I shouted when an explosion echoed through our live audio feed.
“What the fuck?” Frankie shouted, “Shit! Mouse, tell them there’s another blast coming! This one’s going to be bigger.”
“What?” I asked snapping my gaze to her.
She pointed at the satellite feed, “Grenade launcher.”
“Fuck!” Sal exclaimed.
I zeroed in on the screen where a figure standing next to one of the SUVs with a long tube like devise on his shoulder. I watched in horror seconds later when the entire warehouse went up in flames.
Chapter 47
Carlo
I could hear Mouse’s voice in my ear, giving us a play by play of what was going on outside. The fact that it had been more than five minutes since Kashnikov had arrived and they still hadn’t made their way into the warehouse was concerning. I exchanged a dubious glance with Angelo and I knew he felt it too. Something wasn’t right.
“They’re approaching the warehouse,” Mouse relayed. I crouched back down into position as the door to the warehouse opened. We didn’t have a visual on the door from our position but Antonio did up on the catwalk. I heard Mouse in my ear shout “Shit, they’re running, get the fuck out of there!” At the same time Antonio screamed “Grenade!”
Several blasts ripped through the warehouse, the noise enough to cause my ears to ring. Angelo and I hadn’t gotten a chance to put in our earplugs since we needed to hear Kashnikov enter the building. Dust and debris were everywhere. I rolled to my stomach since I had been knocked back by the force of the blast, coughing and blinking through the smoke and whatever else was in the air after the explosion. I looked to my right and found Angelo in the same condition, only he had a small cut above his eye that was seeping blood.
“You good?” I asked.
“Yeah, you?”
“Fine,” I groaned as I stood up, “let’s get the fuck out of here.” As soon as the words left my lips I heard Mouse’s warning over my radio. I had enough time to make eye contact with Angelo before an even bigger explosion rocked the building.
…
I heard faint screaming and gunfire in the distance, everything was muffled. I had been thrown back against a cement wall, about eight feet from where I had been before the blast. My body protested when I tried to move, and from what I could tell, at least one of my ribs was broken. Taking stock of my body I realized aside from the ribs and probably a concussion I didn’t seem to be injured anywhere else. Although from the looks of the smoke filling the l
arge warehouse if I didn’t get out of here soon I wasn’t going to stay that way.
“Angelo,” I called out, which threw me into a coughing fit. The smoke was getting thicker by the second, making it more difficult to see what was going on around me. I gritted through the pain and pushed up onto my hands and knees, the movement making my head start to pound. I could see Angelo passed out a few feet away from me. Crawling over to him I checked his pulse, breathing a sigh of relief. It was strong so he was likely just knocked unconscious.
The shooting and shouting had stopped so I stood up to get a good look at my surroundings. The pallets that were hiding us from the main section just minutes ago had fallen over nearly blocking us into the alcove. There was a small space to the far right that was still clear, slowly making my way over I took a cursory glance around. No one, nothing but smoke. I creeped around further, coming to a stop just inside the main part of the warehouse. I couldn’t make out much with the smoke but what I did see made my stomach sink.
Orange flames licked up the walls on the far side of the warehouse where a giant hole took up the space that had been Enzo’s hiding spot before the attack. I couldn’t tell where the gunfire I had heard before had come from since I didn’t see anything but rubble and fire in front of me now.
We’ve got to get the fuck out of here before the entire place goes up in flames.
I turned back around to grab Angelo and get the fuck out of this place and immediately backed up again when I came face to face with the barrel of Ivan Kashnikov’s gun. I saw an evil smirk cross his face and a glimmer of victory in his arctic eyes before everything went black.
Chapter 48
Mia
I felt tears start to prick at my eyes and my nose started to tingle as I watched the flames billow out of warehouse. I heard Mouse calling for the men in the building over and over again, I felt like I was going to throw up. My thoughts were in a tail spin.
