Fearless: Mob Boss Book Two (Volume 2)

by Michelle St. James

  She wanted to be excited. If all went well, she would be back together with David in just a few hours. But it was the “if all went well” part that scared her. There was a lot that had to happen between now and any moment when she had David back.

  And a lot that could go wrong.

  Nico’s hand closed over hers across the console of the car. “You okay?”

  She nodded. Already their moment on the beach seemed a lifetime away. She wanted to go back. To let Nico’s body cover hers—the only time she really felt safe. But she couldn’t hide behind Nico. Not now, and not after David was rescued. She would have to stand on her own two feet, and she wouldn’t be able to do it beside Nico. Her responsibility was to David. And to keep David safe, she would have to distance herself from Nico.

  It was after two am as they made their way toward Hermosa Beach, the streets nearly empty, other cars few and far between. The witching hour. Isn’t that what they called it? It seemed strangely appropriate, and she wondered suddenly what it meant, where the figure of speech had come from.

  She watched Locke’s second SUV in the rearview mirror. They were all in it now, for better or worse. She felt the weight of it. All these people, trying to save her brother. Was this what it was like for Nico, day in and day out? Knowing that one mistake, one doomed operation, could cost his men—and women like Sara—their lives? How did he stand it?

  She shook her head. She was being stupid. Nico and his men did what they did by choice. Sara, too. It wasn’t the same as she and David becoming pawns in a greedy game of chess. She had always been honest with herself about Nico, about what he did and who he was. It hadn’t stopped her from loving him, from wanting him, but she hadn’t been a liar at least. She wouldn’t start now.

  The breeze coming in through the window changed as they got closer to the beach. It smelled like Locke’s house, like sea and salt and moisture in the air. They must be close.

  Nico turned right on the Esplanade and headed north. They traveled about a half a mile, past apartment buildings, hip sushi restaurants, and a pier that jutted out into the darkness, lights illuminating the water on either side. Finally, Nico turned into a tiny alley, checking in his mirror to make sure the other SUV was still following. They pulled into an empty carport, and Nico turned off the car.

  “The house is farther down the Strand,” he said. “I don’t want to park too close. We’ll gear up here.”

  They got out and moved to the back of the SUV. Elia, Marco, Aldo, and Mattia got out of the second car, parked alongside the carport. Dressed head to toe in black, the men looked like the criminals they were—either that or like the kind of men who took down criminals. Maybe both. She could tell from their easy movements that this wasn’t the first time they’d been deployed on this kind of mission.

  “Keep it down,” Nico said softly. “It’s late.”

  They nodded, and Nico opened the trunk. Angel had recognized the two duffel bags when the men loaded them up, but they didn’t scare her now. She just hoped their contents did more good this time than they had at the museum.

  Nico unzipped one of the bags and extracted a heavy duty laptop. He handed it to Sara, and she opened the computer in the back of the SUV and started tapping at the keys. While she worked, Nico passed out tiny headsets to the men. After they’d put them in their ears, Nico handed each man a black piece of plastic, which they all proceeded to clip to their shirts. A moment later, a grainy image appeared on the laptop.

  “Got you,” Sara said.

  Angel peered over her shoulder. It took her a few seconds to orient herself to the image on the screen. Then she got it; she was looking at Nico’s face and chest, projected from the camera clipped to Luca’s shirt.

  Sara hit a few more keys, and five more boxes appeared on the screen, each of them broadcasting from one of the body cams.

  “All present and accounted for,” she murmured, shutting the laptop.

  “Good,” Nico said, turning his attention to the second bag.

  A mini-arsenal was inside—big, scary looking weapons that Angel thought must be semi-automatics from Locke’s stash. Nico handed one gun to each of the men, then surprised Angel by handing one to Sara.

  “She’s as well trained as the men,” Nico explained when he saw the expression on Angel’s face.

  She glanced at Sara, who just shrugged. She had never said she wasn’t trained like the men who worked in the field. In fact, it made sense that she would be; Nico left nothing to chance. He wouldn’t allow anyone on his team—male or female—who couldn’t hold his or her own. Still, Angel felt strangely betrayed, like she’d just found out her best girlfriend was an undercover spy when the truth is, she didn’t know Sara at all, and she was probably a lot closer to a spy than a garden variety computer geek.

  Nico handed out extra ammunition, then finished by handing out wicked looking knives and night vision goggles. By the time he was done, Angel’s nerves were strung tight. The show of force represented by the weapons gave her the feeling this wasn’t going to be an easy mission. More like a full on assault.

  “Obviously, we want to go in and get out as quietly and as quickly as possible,” Nico said, looking at the others. “But the number one imperative is to get David Bondesan out alive. That will be my job, as we discussed. The rest of you lock down the house. Quietly. The houses are too fucking close together, and we don’t have enough clout out here to keep it quiet like we could in New York.”

  “What about Santoro?” Luca asked.

  His voice was too even. Angel was scared by the cold fury in it. It was like falling down the rabbit hole all over again; she was surrounded by men who were as chivalrous as they were deadly, who’s capacity for violence was measured not by their lack of control, but by the measure of calm a situation forced them to exercise. A world where the time to be scared was not when one of them was mindless with anger, but when they were brought to quiet stillness by their rage.

  “Santoro is mine,” Nico said flatly. “And this time it will get done right.”

  She should have been shocked, even disgusted. She knew what Nico meant. Knew that this time, he would kill Dante. But she was surprised to find that she didn’t care. The world would be better off without him.

  People will show you who they are if you listen.

  She heard her father’s voice, registered with detachment the alteration in her character. It was entirely justified, she thought coldly. Nico would take care of Dante, and he would never hurt someone like he’d hurt David. She would think later about what it meant that she had come to this place. Right now all that mattered was getting David out alive.

  Nico put the empty duffel bag in the trunk and handed the one with the laptop to Sara. Then he removed a key from his pocket and handed that to her as well.

  “You know the address?”

  She nodded.

  “The house is empty, but keep the lights off in case a neighbor’s watching.” His gaze flickered to Angel. “And don’t let her out of your sight.”

  He withdrew a pistol from the holster strapped to his body. “This is the same gun you fired at Locke’s range,” he said. “Remember; keep the safety on, and don’t point it unless you mean to shoot.”

  She nodded, and he gave it to her handle first. She wrapped her hands around it without hesitation, grateful for the cold weight of it.

  He looked at her for what seemed like too long given the circumstance, then slipped his hands into the hair at the back of her head, crushed his lips to hers.

  “I’m going to get him out,” he said. “But you stay put no matter what.” He looked at the men. “Let’s go.”

  They turned away and were swallowed by the night seconds later.

  “Come on,” Sara said softly. “We need to get into position, too.”

  43

  The house was big but unremarkable, a stucco box with large windows that looked out over the strip of concrete called the Strand. Across the pavement, a lifeguard station jut
ted out of the sand, illuminated by a spotlight. Beyond it, she could hear the ocean rushing the beach in the darkness.

  “Let’s go upstairs,” Sara said softly when they’d let themselves in the back door. “We’ll get better reception up there.”

  Angel had no idea how Nico had gotten the key. Like so much about him and the power he wielded, it remained a mystery. She followed Sara up the stairs to a large living area with big windows. Sara set the bag with the laptop on the floor, then reached into one of her pockets for a headset. When both were in place, she handed a headset to Angel.

  “It doesn’t have a mic,” Sara said, “so they won’t be able to hear you. But at least you can listen.”

  Angel knew why it had been set up that way; they didn’t need her voice in their ear. She tried not to feel stung. She was an observer, and she didn’t have anything to contribute to this kind of mission. She was grateful Nico had relented to include her at all. She attached the headset to her ear and watched while Sara walked to the window and scanned the surrounding areas.

  “In place,” she said softly into the headset.

  Nico’s voice came through the headset. “Copy. Watch for my signal.”

  Sara pointed to the houses north of the one they were in. “Watch over there.”

  Angel did, and a moment later a faint blue light flashed near a yellow house two addresses up from where she and Sara would be monitoring the operation. Angel reached into her pocket, felt the weight of the gun. David was right there, only two houses away. Nico would get him out, and if Nico didn’t, Angel would do it herself, whatever it took.

  “Ten minutes,” Nico’s voice said in the headset.

  “Let’s set up,” Sara said, bending to the duffel bag.

  She removed the laptop and several power cords. Angel plugged them in while Sara pulled up the body cams. Then Angel could see the men, their faces still and tense. They must have had their mics off, because she could see their lips moving but couldn’t hear what they were saying. A few seconds later, Mattia and Aldo disappeared from view, followed by Marco and Elia.

  Sara tapped some keys on the laptop, then lined up six mini screens side by side. Angel watched as each pair of men moved into some kind of prearranged position. Her heart was hammering in her chest, her breath coming too fast, too shallow. She stood and walked to the window, wrapping her arms around her body, trying to keep from shaking.

  She’d been so focused on David, that she’d forgotten something else; Nico would be in there, too. The two people who mattered most to her in the world at risk in the same situation. If Nico saved David, it probably meant they had both made it out alive. If he didn’t, they could be lost to her forever. She almost doubled over from the fear and pain conjured by the thought.

  “You don’t have to watch,” Sara said quietly behind her. “No one would blame you. You can stay right there. I’ll keep you posted.”

  It was tempting, but that was the coward’s way. David was in there, had lost two of his fingers and suffered god knew what else. And Nico was risking his life for her brother. For her. She would watch, would go to David the minute he was clear of the building. Would hold Nico close while she still could.

  “It’s okay,” she said, returning to the carpet next to Sara. “I’m good.”

  “You sure?”

  Angel nodded.

  Sara reached out and squeezed her hand. “It will be okay.”

  “Two minutes,” Nico’s voice said over in her ear.

  She and Sara turned their attention to the screen in front of them.

  44

  Nico stood next to Luca, both of them with their backs against the side of the house as they prepared to go in through the back. Somewhere at the front of the building, Marco and Elia were preparing to break in through the front door. Aldo and Mattia would climb in through the second floor balcony. Beach houses didn’t have basements, and most of the attics in Southern California were unusable. Nico was betting that David was in one of the rooms on the second floor.

  Normally Nico would be leading the charge from the front where it was most dangerous. But he’d made a promise to Angel that he would get her brother out alive, and he intended to see it done.

  Personally.

  But he would kill also kill Dante. That was personal, too, and he’d instructed the other men to do whatever they had to do to keep Dante alive until he could get there. They could shoot him to within an inch of his life for all Nico cared, but he would deliver the kill shot, and he would wait with him until the fucker’s heart stopped beating. It was no less than the bastard deserved for what he’d done to Angel and her brother, and it was the only way Nico could be sure she would never have to worry about Dante again.

  He checked his watch, then spoke into his headset. “Two minutes.”

  “Copy.” Marco’s voice came first. The others followed.

  Nico took a deep breath, cleared his mind of everything, even Angel. He couldn’t let himself think about her now. Not if he wanted to help her. She was the one thing that could undo him.

  He watched the second hand tick on his watch. When it hit twelve for the second time, he spoke into the headset.

  “Go time.”

  Luca bent his head to the lock on the door of the garage and went to work with a pick. It was open in less than twenty seconds. He waved Nico in.

  The garage held a red Corvette and a black Escalade. A small set of stairs led to the house. Nico moved toward them with Luca on his heels. Sometimes these kinds of missions were grab and go; bust down doors, go in shooting, make a lot of noise to disorient everyone inside.

  This was different. This was about getting a hostage out alive. And not just any hostage; the brother of the woman he loved. It pissed him off to be careful when he wanted to tear Dante’s safe house apart, scare the living shit out of him, pull him and everyone in the house out of bed, kill them all while they were just awake enough to know he was the one pulling the trigger. But he would do it for her.

  Angel…

  He shook her name from his head and opened the door to the house.

  45

  Nico must have turned his mic back on, because she heard him tell the men it was time to go. She watched the screen that was projecting his body cam.

  A darkened garage. Two cars in the shadows. A staircase leading to the house.

  Then they were in, a long hallway stretched out in front of them. It was eerie watching them move down the unlit hall, their even breathing the only sound coming through the headsets. She couldn’t tell if they were at the front of the house or the back, and she watched as they entered a massive gourmet kitchen, cleared it, then moved past it.

  They had entered another hallway with several closed doors when Marco and Elia came into view from the opposite direction. She watched as they seemed to return hand signals that Nico must be making behind his own body cam. A few seconds later, Nico moved past them, and Angel caught a glimpse of Mattia standing back from one of the doors in a position that made it clear he intended to kick down the door. He didn’t though—not then anyway—and she watched as Nico headed for a set of stairs.

  46

  Nico turned to Luca, gesturing up the stairs. Marco And Elia had the downstairs doors covered, but unless they were forced to act, they would wait to go in until Nico gave them word that he had David. If everything was going according to plan, Aldo and Mattia were already on the second floor balcony, maybe even inside one of the upstairs bedrooms. They wouldn’t speak into the headsets now unless they had to, just in case they were overheard.

  He and Luca reached the top of the stairs and started down a wide main hallway. He was glad Luca didn’t try to go first. As Underboss, it was protocol for Luca to protect him, but he had to know that Nico wouldn’t have any of it. Not this time.

  He started with the first closed door, quietly testing the knob to see if it was locked. It wasn’t, and he continued to the next one without opening the door. He didn’t think the second door
would be David’s prison either; if their recon was correct, it was the room attached to the balcony. He couldn’t see Dante locking David up, then giving him an ocean view and a way to escape.

  He tried it anyway, careful not to make any noise, and was unsurprised when the knob turned easily. He left the door closed and moved farther down the hall.

  They passed a bathroom and came to another closed door. Also unlocked. He felt the first twinge of doubt.

  What if they were wrong? What if David wasn’t here at all?

  He pushed the thought away. David was here. He could feel it.

  There was one more door at the back of the house. He stood to the side, placed his hand on the knob, and turned.

  Locked.

  Nico looked at Luca and gestured from himself to the door, then pointed Luca to the first unlocked door. Luca would clear that room, Aldo and Mattia would take the second room on his command, entering through the balcony, and Nico would order one of them to the third room as soon as he could use his headset.

  He stood back from the door and spoke into the mic.

  “On my count; three, two, one…”

  47

  Angel’s stomach tightened, her chest constricting as Nico’s voice sounded in her ear. She glanced at Sara, staring at the screen with all the fear and intensity Angel felt, and wondered if Sara was as worried about Luca as Angel was about Nico.

  She turned back to the computer as Nico counted down, and then the screen was a blur of movement as all hell broke loose, her headset filled with crashing and shouting.

  * * *

  Nico kicked in the door and simultaneously spoke into the headset. “One of you clear that third upstairs room.”

  He burst into a small bedroom with two boarded up windows, a mattress, and an attached bath. It took his eyes a moment to adjust to the room, but as soon as they did, he spotted a figure hunched in the corner.