Mafia Princess (The Manning Sisters #2)

by Christina Escue

  “When James was shot and the wall collapsed on us we were both buried under the rubble. By the time Chris got to the house Rachel was gone and James was almost dead. He called Ballard and we were discreetly taken to a private hospital. Getting Rachel back was top priority. James is still in the hospital, but Dakota and I were moved here a few days ago.”

  “But why?” David asked, a look of confusion on his face.

  “Because we were afraid Morrison would kill the rest of the family in order to get us out of hiding if he suspected we were alive,” Dakota answered.

  “I understand that, but why couldn’t you tell me? I’m your fucking twin for Christ’s sake.”

  “David, how could we have let you know when we were never able to have a truly private conversation? Yes, I could have done what I did tonight and just brought you here, but I knew we had a spy and I could not risk being followed. The spy has been taken care of though and we are safe to move everyone here if we need to,” Chris answered before Dakota could and David looked at him intently.

  “Chris, you and I have had several private conversations. Why the fuck couldn’t you have told me?”

  “David, how many of those private conversations were over the phone? How many were in hushed whispers in a room full of people? How many were truly private enough to share this with you?” Chris asked him and watched the defeated expression cross David’s face.

  “Okay, I guess you have a point,” David finally conceded.

  “David, look at me,” Lis prompted softly.

  “I get it, Lis,” David replied without looking at her.

  “Do you?” She asked and he looked up at her finally. “Rachel’s safety had to come before anything else.”

  “I know,” David signed out in frustration. “I just felt so lost for a few days. I guess I should have known you were alive, but I didn’t. We’ve never had that twin thing where we can feel each other.”

  “David, Lis and I wanted to tell you, but we couldn’t risk anyone else finding out. We made the decision with Chris to make people think we were dead. We knew it wouldn’t be long before we could reveal the plan to you and everyone else.”

  “I get it,” David repeated, frustration filling his voice as he ran his hands through his hair.

  “David?” Dakota asked cautiously.

  “I’m fine,” he responded and looked up at them. “I just need a few minutes to wrap my head around this. And we need to figure out what to tell Mom, Dad, and Tati. They are flying back from Paris in two days and I really hope we’re able to meet them at the airport together.”

  “You can count on that, brother,” Dakota told him as he rose to his feet. “Why don’t I get us a couple of beers and we can talk about what happens next?”

  “Sounds good,” David responded and rose to his feet. “I need to call Tiffany and check on her progress first though.”

  “You do that and I’ll grab the beers,” Dakota told him and nodded. “Just meet me in the living room when you’re ready.”

  David nodded and pulled his cell phone from this pocket. Once he was alone he dialed Tiffany’s number and waited as it rang.

  “David, what’s wrong?” Tiffany answered on the third ring.

  “Is Rachel secure?” He asked, trying to keep his feelings buried deep.

  “She’s secure,” she assured him and he sighed at the completely professional tone in her voice.

  “How are you handling things?”

  “I’m fine and my cover is secure, David. Don’t worry about me, worry about getting everything in place to get Rachel out. We have, at most, twenty-four hours before all hell breaks loose here.”

  “What happened?”

  “Kevin is dead,” she responded bluntly.

  “What? How?”

  “Rachel killed him. It was beautiful. I’ll let her tell you once she’s out,” Tiffany told him and he could hear the joy filling her. “In the meantime, she’s going to need someone beside her when she steps forward to take over. You are the logical choice, but that’s something that will have to be discussed. Twenty-four hours, don’t forget.”

  Before he could respond she ended the call and he sighed deeply before walking into the living room and relaying what she’d just told him to the others.

  Chapter Ten

  “Michael?” Rachel called out cautiously as she entered the library the next morning.

  “What happened?” Mike responded as he rose from the couch he’d slept on.

  “We, um, had a bit too much to drink last night and..” she trailed off and looked at him expectantly. “Don’t you remember?”

  “Last thing I remember is you handing me my after-dinner scotch. After that everything is blurry.”

  “Michael, we made love last night. Beautiful, passionate love.”

  “Wait, we made love and I don’t remember it? That has never happened to me before,” he told her and she shrugged.

  “Guess I’m not a memorable fuck,” she told him, letting hurt and disappointment enter her voice.

  “Maybe we can try again while I’m sober,” he reached for her as he said this and she took a step back, just out of his reach.

  “Maybe some other time,” she countered, letting crocodile tears fill her eyes. “I was just coming to tell you that I picked out a dress and Tiffany is having her designer come by later to get my measurements so he can make it.”

  “Wonderful,” he responded with a smile. “Will everything be ready in time?”

  “It will be and it will be the perfectly planned show you’re wanting. I have to go now though. Tiffany is having flower samples delivered today so we can pick out the perfect flowers for the bouquets and arrangements,” Rachel told him then walked to the door. “Oh, one more thing, we didn’t use protection last night.”

  She caught the look on his face before she walked out of the room and it was all she could do not to break down in uncontrollable laughter.

  While Rachel and Tiffany worked on the escape plan from inside the manor, Chris and David worked on the same plan from the warehouse they were using as a headquarters.

  “Chris, Tiffany told me last night that we had no more than twenty-four hours. I’d like to have them out in twelve.”

  “We will have them out in about six,” Chris responded and smiled. “Tiffany called me this morning and we talked about how things were progressing. She is having flower samples delivered today and inside the bags of samples will be several things those two can use to help us get them out. Once that’s set up, Tiffany’s friend, Steve, is going to go in undercover as a dress designer. He’s a trained military operative and once he’s inside we can get the girls out.”

  “Sounds like a plan. When will the flower samples be delivered?”

  “Within the next half hour. Once they’re there and everything is set up, Tiffany will text me and Steve will be sent in. He will go in completely unarmed, but the samples being delivered will have everything they could possibly need to escape.”

  “How dangerous is this going to be for them?”

  “Shouldn’t be too dangerous. We have a disturbance set to happen just about the time the flowers arrive and that should pull most of Morrison’s men away from the manor before Steve arrives. Morrison himself may even go, but I almost hope he doesn’t.”

  “Why?” David asked, confusion thick in his voice.

  “Because I would love for him to watch everything come tumbling down around him.”

  David chuckled at the thought before he looked over at Chris. “This Steve guy, how does Tiffany know him?”

  “From what I’ve heard he is the grandson of a friend of her Grandfather’s. Not sure really, but I know they were married once upon a time.”

  David looked at his hand for a moment, the shadow of his wedding band had faded now, but he could still see the ring there. He could still remember the night his world was ripped apart.

  “You okay, man?” Chris asked and David shook his head.

  “
Not really,” he answered quietly and looked at the ceiling. “I was married once upon a time as well.”

  “I didn’t know that,” Chris responded honestly.

  “No one outside my family knows that,” David told him and sighed. “

  I was seventeen, had just graduated high school, and enlisted in the Navy when my girlfriend found out she was pregnant. We married the week before I shipped out to boot camp. When I got home almost three months later she told me we were having a little girl and I was over the moon happy. My girls were my everything. Everything I did for the next decade was for them. Four years ago, while I was overseas doing my final mission before being discharged, our home was broken into. My wife and daughter came home as the men robbing us were searching for my safe. Both were killed, execution style. My girls died because the men who broke into our home wanted information on the mission I was on and thought I kept records in my personal safe at home. ”

  David stopped talking for moment before he took a deep breath and finished his story. “I was immediately discharged and sent home to plan their funerals. After my entire life was buried side by side, I hunted down the men who killed them. Their deaths weren’t so quick and painless.”

  “David,” Chris started, but stopped when David shook his head.

  “Dakota saved me after that. He’s the reason I’m not dead now.”

  “He’s your brother and he loves you.”

  “Yes, but that’s how or why he saved me. He reminded me that Cheyenne and Madison wouldn’t want me to live the way I was. He saved me by reminding me that I am not like the men who killed my girls.”

  “He was right, you know. You aren’t like those men. You never could be.”

  “I could have been. Very easily.”

  “Well, then, I’m glad you had Dakota to keep that from happening.”

  “So am I,” he responded and looked at the plans before them. “Let’s go over this one more time before things start happening.”

  Chapter Eleven

  “Miss,” Danielle said softly, causing both Rachel and Tiffany to look up. “There is a delivery here for Miss Page.”

  Rachel looked at Tiffany and smiled broadly. “Thank you, Danielle,” Rachel addressed the housekeeper as Tiffany left the room. Once she was gone Rachel looked at the housekeeper again. “Can you do me a favor? Can you get your daughter and a few things together and leave?”

  “What? Why?” Danielle asked, shock lacing her words.

  “Danielle, I want you to just leave. Head to Cape Cod and have a day on the beach with your daughter.”

  “I’m not sure what’s going on, Miss, but if you’re telling me to take the day off I will be happy to.”

  “Good. Get your girl and head to the beach. Stay gone as long as you’d like,” she added and reached into her pocket. “Also, take this. When the sun starts going down call the number on this card and someone will give you directions to a place away from here. A place Morrison cannot get to you.”

  “Thank you, Miss. Thank you for everything,” Danielle gushed and Rachel smiled.

  “No thanks necessary. You and your daughter just be out of the house within half an hour and that will be all the thanks I need.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Danielle smiled and hurried out of the room.

  Rachel was still smiling when Tiffany returned a couple minutes later carrying several bags of fresh cut flowers.

  “What are you smiling about?” Tiffany asked as she sat the bags on the bed.

  “I just got Danielle and her daughter out of the house so they won’t get caught in the crossfire.”

  “Good idea,” Tiffany agreed. “Let’s see what we have here.”

  “You sound like a kid at Christmas,” Rachel told her with a laugh.

  “I love this stuff,” Tiffany responded and giggled. “Oh, look at this?”

  Rachel watched Tiffany’s expression as she pulled a Desert Eagle 357 from the bag and laid it on the table.

  “Think you can handle this one?” Tiffany asked and nodded toward the Desert Eagle on the table.

  “I can handle anything,” Rachel answered and picked the gun up. When she took it apart and put it together in under two minutes Tiffany grinned.

  “I was hoping you would say that,” Tiffany told her as she pulled a matching gun from another bag. “I didn’t think Chris would send anything you couldn’t handle.”

  “Chris knows I can handle anything,” Rachel grinned and peeked into one of the other bags. “Oh, are we blowing something up?” She added as she pulled a small block of c-4 from the bag.

  “Potentially,” Tiffany answered and shrugged.

  “Hmm..” Rachel started as she looked into another bag. When she pulled out two extra clips for each gun she grinned.

  “We probably won’t need these, but you never know,” Tiffany reminded her. “Can you check that last bag and see if there is another gun? Chris was supposed to send three.”

  Rachel looked into the last bag and pulled the triplet of the two already on the table out. “He did,” she told Tiffany as she sat the last gun on the table beside the other two.

  “Good,” Tiffany rose to her feet and walked to the bedroom door. After peeking out, she closed the door and locked it. “Okay, here’s what’s going to happen. In about five minutes, after the dress designer gets here, there are going to be a series of small explosions set off through Morrison’s organization. It will be one every fifteen minutes for the next hour. Once the second explosion hits, we’re hoping Morrison and his men shuffle the three of us into the panic room. You, the dress designer, whose name is Steve, and I will be armed and ready to break out as soon as the door is shut behind us. Once inside, even if Morrison is in there with us, we will be exactly where we want to be.”

  “Why do we want to be there?”

  “Because that’s the one place we can be safe when this little baby goes off,” she explained and pointed to the c-4 on the table. “We are setting this up in the library up here. It’ll be on a timer set to blow exactly five minutes after the last diversion explosion. If Morrison is in the safe room with us, then he won’t be harmed either. He isn’t the target, yet. What we’re after at the moment is what’s inside that safe. We believe it has the information on your parents’ deaths and the events that happened following them.”

  “Okay, so we want him in the panic room with us so the safe can be searched without him interfering,” Rachel stated and Tiffany nodded. “Okay, but how are we going to get out with him in there?”

  “Well, it just so happens David’s company is the one who installed Morrison’s panic room. It mirrors the one that was in your house.”

  “So, it has a back door,” Rachel commented and Tiffany grinned.

  “And I have the keys,” Tiffany told her and grinned again. “Now, let’s get downstairs and wait for Steve to get here. We have about ten minutes before the fun begins.”

  ****

  “We ready to do this?” James asked as he slipped a t-shirt over his head.

  “We’re ready, are you?” Lis asked and smiled.

  “I was born ready,” he answered and looked at Dakota.

  “Let’s get this done. Tiffany and Rachel are supposed set the house to blow in just a little over an hour and I want us in place well before that happens.”

  “Don’t forget, we want Morrison’s men to see us,” Lis reminded them.

  “I remember,” James told her and grinned. “I just want to get this over with so I can have Rachel in my arms again.”

  “I know,” Lis replied and smiled. “I’m sure she’s ready for that as well.”

  “The first of the explosions will be set off in about ten minutes so we’d better head to Morrison Manor and get ready. We have just over an hour,” Dakota reminded them and looked at his watch.

  “Yes, we need to go,” Lis agreed and grabbed James’ bag off the floor. “Your girl is waiting for you.”

  “She’s the reason I survived,” James told t
hem and Lis nodded.

  “Yes, and you’re the reason she did. Now, let’s get in place and wait for the fun to begin.”

  Chapter Twelve

  “Morrison,” Mike answered his ringing phone as he continued to try to remember what had happened the night before.

  “Boss, we have a problem,” Morgan told him quickly. “There was a small explosion in one of our flower shops about twenty minutes ago. No one was hurt, but there was a lot of damage.”

  “Why are you calling me about this?” Mike asked, cutting his head of security off.

  “Because five minutes ago there was a second explosion. One of my men was killed when his SUV blew up. He was sitting outside of one of our warehouses.”

  “Was anyone else hurt?”

  “No,” Morgan answered and sighed. “I think these explosions are meant as a warning, not to harm people.”

  “A warning?” Mike asked, not liking where this was leading.

  “A warning from the Mannings or, possibly, the Chakravarthys,” Morgan answered.

  “Why the Chakravarthys?”

  “We received a threat shortly after the Manning estate was bombed. It was from

  Chakravarthy . He warned us that if we did not release Rachel Manning he would retaliate for the family.”

  “And why am I just now hearing about this?” Mike asked, fuming.

  “Because, at the time, we felt it was an empty threat,” Morgan replied.

  “Did you get hit by the fucking stupid stick?” Mike yelled as he rose to his feet.

  “I’m sorry, sir. We evaluated the threat and deemed it empty. Chakravarthy has made threats before and never followed through.”

  “God damnit,” Mike yelled and ran a hand through his head. “Do you not fucking remember Chakravarthy crushing Nadas’ throat with his bare hand? Are you a fucking moron?”

  “I’m sorry, sir,” Morgan apologized.

  “You’re sorry? You’re fucking sorry? Morgan, you are a dead man. You can fucking run, but there isn’t a hole in Hell deep enough for you to hide in.”