Fully dressed, Vee sat back in the passenger seat and took a swig of water from the bottle I had found in the glove compartment. Her cheeks were flushed, her hair mussed up. She was so beautiful. I experienced my love for her like a physical pain, as though someone had punched me in the heart.
I couldn’t lose her. Not now.
“It’ll be dark soon,” she said. “Then we should go to Tony’s house.”
“I assume we’re not just going to knock on the front door?”
“Nope. We’re going to have to be sneakier than that. I know where Nicole will be sleeping. We’ll sneak in over the wall you and Harvey climbed over when you came and got me, and then we’ll break into the house and make our way up to the bedroom.”
“What about the guy she’s having a relationship with? The tutor, Mateo? Do you think she might be staying with him instead?”
She shook her head. “He doesn’t live on site, and there’s no way Tony would let her leave to be with him.”
“So we’re just sneaking in there and telling her your father is free and that it’s not safe for her? What’s going to make her change her mind about leaving? What’s to say she won’t say exactly the same as the last time—that Tony is going to protect her—and refuse to leave.”
“Then I’ll take her by force.”
My eyes widened, my brows lifting. “You can’t be serious, Vee?”
“I am. Deadly. I’ll put a gun to her head and tie her up and carry her out of there if I have to.”
“That’s insane.”
“She’s still a minor, and is still under my charge.”
“You can’t kidnap your own sister.”
Vee leaned back in her seat and folded her arms across her chest. “You’re hardly one to be lecturing me about morals.”
I huffed out a breath in frustration. “Okay, so say we manage to get her out of the house, what then?”
I watched her visibly relax from my acceptance of her plan, her arms unfolding, her shoulders dropping. She might be saying she’d do this on her own, but I could tell from her body language that she’d rather I was with her.
“Then I go back in and kill Tony,” she said. “I know where his room is. He won’t be expecting me to attack him. He’ll be assuming I’ve run now that my father is out.”
“So you think he knows about that?”
She nodded. “Tony has enough ears around. He’ll have found out.”
“Will he have already told your sister there won’t be a trial?”
“Honestly, I don’t know. I’m not sure what he’d gain from telling her. It would only freak her out more. After the shooting, and then me leaving, I imagine he would want to keep her calm until he figures out his next move.”
“And what do you think that’s going to be?”
Her teeth bit into the fullness of her lower lip as she thought, the small gesture causing my cock to stir in my pants again. I didn’t think I’d ever get enough of her. I just hoped we’d both live through this.
“I’m not sure. He’s going to be fucking mad at my father for sending his crew in to shoot up his place. I’m sure he’s pissed that I’ve gone, too, but what my dad did has got to be so much worse.”
“He might believe your father’s men were the ones who took you.”
“Perhaps for a while, but not now that Johnny saw you on the street. I’m sure Johnny will have gone straight back and filled Tony in on the details.”
“Damn it. I’d forgotten about that.” I scratched my fingers through the soft beard growth on my jaw. “So what are you thinking?”
She sat up straighter. “Tony is going to use Nicole against my father however he can. He’s going to want to punish him, or perhaps use her to lure him into a vulnerable position. Tony doesn’t have a use for me anymore. At best, if he was able to get his hands on me, he could use me to lure my father out, but he’d only be giving my father what he wanted if I ended up dead. No, I think Nicole is the one who’s the main pawn in this whole thing. That’s why it’s so important I get her out of there, even if it’s against her will.”
“I’m worried, Vee. I know I’m sounding like a broken record, but I want you to consider one last time the possibility of leaving New York.” She opened her mouth to speak, but I lifted a hand to stop her. “I swear I won’t even mention your sister. I want you to think about leaving for a different reason. I’m concerned about who went through the room back at the motel. I’m worried someone might be onto me.”
She frowned. “You think whoever ransacked the room was after you?”
“It’s a possibility. The memory of my picture in the paper keeps haunting me, and I know I have enemies out there, too. There might be someone onto us who isn’t even connected to Tony or your father.”
Her jaw tightened. “You need to tell me. You’re helping me with all of my shit. I need to know about yours, too.”
I took a breath. I worried that telling her would somehow expose her to the man I knew had it in for me, but I figured she’d most likely find out soon anyway.
She needed to know everything in order to be ready for what might be coming.
“A month ago,” I started, “I was paid to take someone out, a cop who had been poking into the business of one of the mafia guys, Giovanni Bianchi.”
Vee nodded, obviously recognizing the name.
“Bianchi wanted the cop dead, but I couldn’t bring myself to do the job. I recognized the cop’s name as soon as I was given it. I’d known him from the early days when I went into law enforcement myself, before I realized it was completely the wrong job for me. He had been my mentor. Instead of doing what I was paid to do, I warned the cop in question that people were after him. I took the gangster’s money, gave a chunk of it to the cop to get him and his family to safety, and stashed the rest in the suitcase with the guns and the fake ID. I thought the cop would do the smart thing and vanish, so I could tell Bianchi he was dead and everything would be cool, but instead he decided to go down the correct procedures and report the whole thing. All except for me. He was decent enough not to report my real name, though I was well aware he could have. Instead, he reported the gangster who wanted him dead, and let it slip that the man sent to kill him had instead given him the opportunity to leave.” I sighed. “Stupid asshole should have taken the chance. He was dead a few days later. Giovanni Bianchi must have hired someone else to do the job. Of course, there was never any proof that Bianchi was behind it—there never is with those guys—but Bianchi knew exactly who had given the cop the heads up about who was after him.”
Her eyebrows lifted. “You.”
I nodded. “To be honest, I’m surprised Bianchi hasn’t tracked me down already. I assumed he’d decided to keep his head down after the cop’s death, and was waiting for the right opportunity. When I took the job for your father, I hadn’t yet known about my old mentor’s slip. If I had, I wouldn’t have even looked at taking another job. But I’d taken the money from your father, and I wanted to do it, mainly because I’d seen your photograph and I wanted to find you. It at least got me far away from New York. I hadn’t considered that it would also be the thing that would bring me right back again.”
“Jesus. So you think it might have been this Giovanni Bianchi who went through the room?”
“Yeah, possibly. He wouldn’t have found anything that would have related to me, though, so I’m hoping that bought us some time. He might have even thought we’d left the city already.”
“You should have told me sooner.”
“I didn’t remember it, and when I did remember, I felt like you had enough to worry about.”
“So, do you think there’s an award for New York’s most hated couple?” She said it with a deadpan expression, but then I saw her holding back a smile.
“Or an award for ‘couple most likely to be killed by the end of the day’?” I joked back, though we both knew our jesting was perilously close to the truth.
She laughed. “That, too.”
I loved how she was still able to put a brave face on everything, despite the number of things going against us. I couldn’t help myself. I leaned in and kissed her. “I love you, Verity Guerra.”
She kissed me back. “I love you, too.”
I stopped and pulled back to look into her eyes. “You mean that? You’re not just saying it?”
“No, I swear. I’m sorry I freaked out on you before. I was frightened of my emotions. You must have realized by now that I’m not exactly in touch with them.”
I reached up and traced my knuckles down the side of her face. “Is that the reason you never cry?”
She bit her lower lip, glancing down. “Maybe, in part. But mainly it’s because when you cry, you can’t fight. You use up all your emotion in the tears and the sobbing, and it drains your strength. When you’re drained, you’re weak. And when you’re weak, you’re vulnerable. I learned a long time ago that being vulnerable can get you killed.”
I leaned in and placed another slow, soft kiss to her mouth. “You can be vulnerable with me.”
“Can I? We might not be physically fighting, but the same thing applies. If I’m vulnerable, then I’m weak, and when people are weak, they get hurt.”
“Not if they have people around to protect them.”
“I wouldn’t know anything about that,” she said, looking me in the eye. “I’ve never had that experience.”
I took her hands. “Neither have I. But now we can be each other’s little piece of protection.”
Chapter Twenty-six
V
We had guns and we had each other. For the moment, that would have to be enough. I felt bad that I was emotionally strong-arming X into helping me. He’d made how he felt about my sister perfectly clear, and I didn’t blame him. If he’d wanted to help a family member who’d only ever betrayed him, I’d probably feel the same way. But I couldn’t shut my feelings for Nicole off like a tap. She was the last link I had to my mother, and—considering I refused to think of my father as family—the only family I had. I’d been raised within such an enclosed world of the mafia, with everything being about blood and trust, that to find myself utterly alone in this world made me feel unhinged and adrift.
I knew X would argue that I wasn’t alone, that I had him now, but it wasn’t the same when you weren’t connected by your genes.
We made sure both guns from X’s case were fully loaded, so we’d be prepared for whatever might happen next. I clutched the handgun on my lap, taking some comfort in the cool, solid metal.
X started the car and pulled out of the rest area where we’d taken some time to rest and gather our thoughts. He knew where Tony’s house was now, so I didn’t need to give him directions. A tense silence lay between us as X navigated the vehicle back toward the city, but it wasn’t because we were uneasy with each other. Instead, we both knew this drive might be the last we took together. One or both of us could easily end up dead.
As we approached the area where Tony lived, I forced myself to take slow, steady breaths. I remembered how it felt to wake with Tony’s fingers around my throat, the cold blankness in his eyes. I couldn’t have this man watching over my sister, even if he did promise to protect her from our father. It wasn’t a protection that came from the goodness of his heart—if he even had one. He only ever protected his assets, and if Nickie remained with him, that’s exactly what she would become.
X pulled over a couple of blocks from the property. He glanced over at me. “Are you ready?”
I nodded.
“Sure you want to go through with this?” he tried again.
“I have to.” I wasn’t going to turn back now. X and Harvey had both managed to get inside the house unseen—even if it hadn’t ended so well for Harvey—and I knew my way around its numerous hallways far better than either of them had. That was my advantage. I knew this place, I knew Tony. And there was no way Tony would be expecting me to just walk back in there.
“We’ll do a drive-by first,” said X. “Just to get a scope of the place.”
I nodded again, and he pulled the car back out onto the road. At this time in the evening, most people were already home curled up together in front of the television or reading in bed, so the streets were relatively quiet. We hadn’t done anything to draw any unwanted attention to ourselves, and there was no reason for anyone on watch at Tony’s house to think we were anything other than a couple out for a drive, or headed to a party.
As we turned into Tony’s street, my stomach twisted into a knot and my hand tightened on the butt of my weapon. X drove one-handed, his other hand also around his gun. If anyone started shooting at us, we’d be ready to shoot back. We approached the property and I sat back in my seat, trying to appear inconspicuous while craning my neck to get a view of the house. It came into sight and we drove past slowly.
I frowned. “Something’s wrong.”
X glanced at me. “What do you mean?”
I nodded toward the front of the property that led out onto the street. “Those gates were always shut, and now they’re wide open.” They were, too, revealing the driveway and large frontage of the house. The massive window of Tony’s office, which had been shattered during the attack, was now boarded up, and the glass hadn’t been replaced.
“Maybe that’s just a leftover from the shooting,” he suggested.
I shook my head. “No, something’s not right. Where is everyone? If Tony doesn’t have the security of those gates, he would at least have eyes on the road, but there’s no one around.”
“Do you think he’s left? Maybe he didn’t feel secure if the gates are out of action.”
“He’d have just brought someone in to fix them. Or he’d have bought himself a new set. It’s not as though he’s short of cash. I can’t imagine a couple of broken gates would be enough to chase him out of his home.”
“So do you think he isn’t even in there?” said X. “Even though there are lights on inside.” From between the wooden boards covering the office window, shafts of light slatted out onto the driveway.
I nodded. “Okay, we need to check it out.”
I was worried for Nicole’s safety. What had happened at the house? This didn’t feel like the same highly guarded, almost military run place I’d vanished from only a few days earlier.
We left Tony’s road and drove back around the block, so we were at the rear of the property. X pulled over and we both climbed out, keeping our weapons close to our bodies so they wouldn’t be spotted by any passersby.
Stooping down, X placed the keys on the wheel arch of the car on the driver’s side. “You never want to lose your keys when you’re trying to make an escape,” he explained.
I tried to smile, but my mouth was dry, my lips sticking to my teeth. I remembered he’d done the same thing when he’d come to my house where I’d been living during my time in the Witness Protection Program. That felt like a lifetime ago, rather than a matter of weeks.
He pulled me in and squeezed me tight. “It’ll be all right.”
I nodded, not trusting myself to answer.
We cut across another property, keeping our bodies as low to the ground as possible while still being able to maintain a run. Darkness was on our side, and no security lights came on as we moved. We reached the back of the tall wall which surrounded Tony’s place. Unsurprisingly, the rope which X and Harvey had used to climb had been removed. It occurred to me that we could have just slipped in the front gates, but if someone was still inside, I didn’t want us to be seen. Tony’s security cameras were most likely still running, and he could easily have spotted us.
“You’re going to have to go first,” X said to me, keeping his voice down. “I might need to give you a shove from behind.”
I nodded then moved back, allowing myself a run up. I pushed the gun into the back of my pants, wedging the handle so it wouldn’t move, and then set off at a sprint. Right before I reached the wall, I sprang for the top. My body slammed into it, and I
gave an ouff of exertion. My fingers gripped the top, and I thought I might slip, but then I felt X’s firm hands from below, and he gave me a push, lifting me high enough to get my elbows up onto the wall then haul the rest of my body up.
I stayed flat, not wanting to make myself a target to anyone who might have been watching from the house. I was pretty sure I’d still find bullet holes in the wall below, left over from last time, if I looked hard enough.
X retraced my movements and ran for the wall. He was a little taller than I was and got a better hold, but I still reached out and pulled him the rest of the way up, partly so I could touch him again.
He sat astride the wall. We waited, keeping down, quickly scanning the grounds. Most of the place was in darkness, with the exception of a few lights on in the house, which spilled their illumination to the outside area.
“Doesn’t look like anyone is patrolling the grounds,” I said. “Tony would normally have someone watching out.”
“Perhaps they’re still short on men, since the shooting.”
“Yeah, Tony did lose people.” I wasn’t convinced, though. I hadn’t seen how the shootout had ended, but I’d assumed the people in the vehicles had just driven off again. Perhaps things had ended differently, or perhaps something had happened since then.
X jumped down first, and I followed, him half-catching me as I landed.
Staying alert, both of us with our weapons drawn, we ran across the lawn, quickly moving into the protective shadow of the building. Sticking close to the wall, we edged along until we reached the place where Harvey and the other man had been shot. There were no signs of the bodies, or, from what I could see in the darkness, even blood on the ground. Someone had taken the time to clean up.
“Hey, look,” X hissed at me.
The door to the rear of the property was busted open, the wood of the doorframe splintered. X and I exchanged a glance. The door had been broken inward, so someone had been trying to get in rather than out.
Warped (The Mercenary Series Book 2) Page 16
