Wanted Dead or In Love: A Small Town Romance (The Cortell Brothers Book 3)

by Giulia Lagomarsino

  “Just letting you know I was about to take out two men.”

  “We’re impressed,” Knight said. “I’ve already killed five and I’m inside, waiting on your ass.”

  Leave it to Knight to brag about his accomplishments. I really hated that guy sometimes. I spun quickly, throwing first one knife and then the second, hitting my targets just as expected. I hustled over to the door and withdrew my knives from their bodies, wiping the blood on their clothes. I could see through the window that someone was walking down the hall toward me, so I hid behind the door, counting the steps until he was right in front of the door. I flung it open, slamming it into his face and then snapped his neck. I hauled him up under the arms and dragged him through the door, flinging him in the bushes.

  I quietly shut the door after slipping back inside, and quickly moved down the hallway to the room Carly said was used for meetings. Hunter came from the other end of the hallway, nodding that he was ready.

  “Entering the meeting room now,” I whispered. I flung the door open, knives at the ready, but stopped when I saw that there were already seven men on the floor, all of them dead. And Knight stood there, leaning against a desk like he didn’t have a care in the world.

  “Seriously, Knight,” I hissed.

  “What?” he shrugged. “You were taking too long. That’s twelve, by the way.”

  I glared at him, but my retort was cut short by the sound of bodies dropping.

  I raced out of the room and turned down the hall, making my way through the maze of hallways to get to the front.

  “You guys want to make a little more noise? I can hear you on the other side of the fucking house,” Knight grumbled.

  I turned the corner, immediately met with a group of men charging down the hallway. I could see the front hall from where I stood. My brother was firing at the men pouring out at him, but he was outnumbered.

  “Knight!” I shouted, hoping he understood what I needed from him.

  I pulled my gun, the air of secrecy gone, and fired several shots, taking out the men as they ran toward us. I took cover behind the wall, and then felt the tap on my shoulder. I nodded and laid down cover fire for Hunter as he ran across the hallway to make his way around from another angle. I was just about to pull back when I saw a man running up behind my brother.

  “Behind you!” I shouted, hoping he heard me. I watched as he spun around, but it was too late. He dropped like a brick and a second later, Carly did too. I ran forward, ignoring the bullets flying at me, trying to get to my little brother. Pulling my second gun, I fired at anyone who got in my way, but I was too late. They were already being dragged off. I couldn’t get to them in time.

  Men started pouring out from different directions of the house. I saw Knight fighting off some of them from his position, but he wouldn’t be able to hold too much longer. I had no clue where Hunter was, and at this point, we couldn’t afford to be separated.

  “We need to regroup,” I said to them. “I’m clearing the field.”

  I pulled a grenade from my pocket and launched it, then ran for cover. The explosion was enough to knock most of the men down, killing those in closest range.

  “Backdoor, twenty seconds,” I said, coughing from the smoke as I made my way to the door. Once outside, I sucked in lungfuls of clean air and waited, gun at the ready for anyone that came through the door. When Hunter and Knight ran out, I breathed a sigh of relief that we were all still alive. Now it was time to get my brother back.

  “They took them down to the basement,” Knight said. “We can’t get to them easily. We need a plan.”

  “We need a distraction,” Hunter said.

  “What are you thinking?” I asked.

  “I’m thinking we send in the one man that they aren’t expecting,” Hunter grinned, then slapped Knight on the shoulder.

  Knight rolled his eyes and sighed. “So much for making sure I stay dead.”

  Josh

  Groggy as hell, I slowly lifted my head and tried to make out where I was. The whole room was weaving in and out in my vision and my head felt like it was about to roll right off my damn neck. I was barely able to hold my head up as I blinked repeatedly, trying to make out where we were. We seemed to be in an office, and Carly sat beside me in a chair, arms tied behind her back. She was just coming around, her movements sluggish as she tried to move her arms.

  “Carly,” I mumbled. A hard punch to my face had my head snapping back. I was still too out of it to really react in any way. I tried to move my arms, but they were tied behind my back also. Our plan had failed. At this rate, Carly and I would be dead within the hour.

  I blinked several times to try and figure out who was standing in front of me. He looked familiar, like I had seen him before, but I couldn’t place him. He had dark hair and eyes so dark brown that they almost looked black. His hair was slicked back and he wore all black. It was like he was trying to look as menacing as possible. And that was when I realized who this man was.

  “You must be Antonio,” I mumbled, spitting the blood from my mouth.

  “You’re smarter than you look. So, you thought you would walk back in here and do what exactly?”

  I couldn’t tell him that we had come to wipe out his family, so I went with the lie we had been fed.

  “I’m just here for my daughter.”

  “Your daughter?”

  I nodded slightly, my head still wobbling around on my neck.

  “Antonio,” Carly murmured. “Where’s Levi?”

  Antonio glared at her. “Did you really think I would let an outsider in just because he used to be your fiancé?”

  “Antonio, I don’t know what you think happened-“

  “I think you turned on the family. It was bad enough that Alessandro started working with the Russians, but to find out that you were fucking Aleksandr…”

  I shook my head in confusion, sure that I was still coming off some pretty heavy shit because I wasn’t understanding a word of what he was saying.

  “Who’s Aleksandr?” I asked.

  Antonio laughed, pulling out a knife and holding it to Carly’s cheek, pressing just slightly. “You didn’t know she was fucking the head of the Bratva?”

  I squeezed my eyes shut, still sure I was hearing this wrong. “The Bratva?”

  What kind of alternate universe was I in? The mafia universe, that’s why nothing made sense.

  “I wasn’t fucking anyone,” Carly spat.

  He gripped her jaw hard and forced her to look at him. “You were supposed to marry Levi. I saw the pictures. I saw you taking off your clothes for him. Your own family wasn’t good enough?”

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Carly said slowly.

  “Is that who helped you fake your death?”

  I watched as her brows furrowed. We had assumed that they knew about her faking her death because of her friend, the coroner. But if she hadn’t given Carly up, who had?

  “Antonio, I didn’t-“ He slammed his fist into her face, her head jerking back painfully.

  “Hey! What the fuck! You’re her brother!” I shouted, trying to distract him in any way. The last thing I wanted was for her to be hurt.

  “And she betrayed her family.”

  “She’s been with me,” I insisted.

  “I know all about you. She’s been with you for seven years, but she was missing for four years before that. It seems you don’t know everything about her like you thought. Did you ever ask her what she did for the four years before she met you?”

  We had skirted over those topics. I knew it was hard for her to talk about.

  He walked over to a table and pulled out some pictures, holding them out in front of me. It appeared to be her, in a hotel with some guy. I had no clue who this was, but apparently, Antonio knew.

  “This was just a year before she met you. Here she was, fucking the enemy.”

  “It’s a lie,” Carly spat. “I never would have done that. You know that!”
>
  “Pictures don’t lie!” he shouted, tossing them in a flurry all over the floor. “I expected this from Alessandro, but not you.”

  “And what about Ricardo?” she asked. “Do you think he betrayed you too?”

  Antonio’s eyes narrowed. “What do you know about Ricardo?”

  “I know he died in a mob hit. But somehow, knowing who you are now, I’m guessing that you killed him.”

  He stepped back, shock on his face. You couldn’t fake that kind of pain. He had nothing to do with Ricardo’s death, or if he did, he regretted it deeply.

  “Ricardo was caught up in something he never should have been part of. I didn’t kill him, but I made sure that the man that killed him suffered. Ricardo was innocent, just like I thought you were.”

  The door opened and a man was dragged in, bloodied and barely able to stand. Carly gasped and her gaze immediately went to Antonio.

  “Antonio, what are you doing?”

  “It seems Levi is sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong,” Antonio sneered. “So, you thought you would come back and sink your claws in again? Don’t you know by now that we never deal with outsiders?”

  Carly was panicking, her face was pale and she struggled to get out of her chair. It killed me that she felt so much for Levi that she was this upset.

  “He isn’t an outsider. I’m going to marry him!”

  “Really? Then what does he mean to you?” Antonio asked, jerking his head in my direction. “You can only have one of them, so which is it? The father of your child or the man that you claim you’re going to marry?”

  Carly looked desperately between us, trying to figure out how to save both of us, but it wouldn’t happen. And the truth was, it didn’t matter if she chose me. He would kill me no matter what. She had a better chance of keeping Alessa safe if she was with Levi, and we both knew it. I caught her eye, trying to convey to her that I understood the choice she had to make. Her eyes filled with tears as she shook her head slightly.

  The door opened again, and this time, an older man walked in the room, dressed in a clean, crisp suit. He had all the airs of being the boss, but I had no clue who he was.

  “Carlotta,” he said, walking over to her. “It’s a shame you didn’t stay dead.”

  “I don’t understand. Why were there men trying to kill me? I had nothing to do with the Bratva. You know I never would!”

  “Pictures don’t lie. Of course, it wouldn’t have mattered anyway,” he said, pulling out a gun. “There needed to be a change of leadership around here, and you definitely weren’t up to the task.”

  I watched as Antonio’s brows furrowed. “What are you talking about?”

  The man sighed and stepped in front of Carly, pointing the gun at her head. “Your father was failing miserably at holding the family together. He was making bad decisions, costing us millions. And his hopes and dreams were pinned on a union between Carlotta and Levi.” He snorted in derision. “And it became clear that she didn’t want that. I had someone follow you that night,” he said to Carly. “I didn’t trust you back then. You didn’t have what it took to really be loyal to the family, but then I thought all my problems were solved when you got in that car. Boom,” he laughed. “It was like all my prayers had been answered. You were out of the picture, and I only had your brothers to get rid of.”

  My eyes widened as this man talked. I could see Antonio growing angrier by the second, but he had yet to make a move. Whatever was going on here, we were in for a major battle. I just hoped Derek could still hear all this. Otherwise, we might not make it out alive.

  “I don’t understand,” Carly said. “Why would you want to get rid of me?”

  He leaned forward, resting his hands on the arms of the chair Carly was strapped to. “Because there was no way I was going to allow you to live when I could take over for your father.”

  Carly

  I stared at my Uncle Giuseppe in disbelief. I just couldn’t comprehend what he was saying. He was the man that used to give me piggyback rides and always seemed so loving in comparison to my father, but now he was telling me he wanted me dead?

  “Soon after your supposed death, he told me that he was dying, that he had cancer. Of course, it took him much longer to die than I had hoped. It was easy enough to get rid of Ricardo. He was always too trusting. I sent him to a meet and he was ambushed by his own men. Of course, it was set up to look like the Russian’s had killed him. And then Alessandro,” he chuckled. “He always was too clever for his own good.”

  “You killed him too,” I seethed.

  “No,” he sighed. “I didn’t have to. Not when I had an enforcer so willing to carry out my every order to protect the family,” he said, turning to Antonio.

  Suddenly, Antonio didn’t look quite so willing to go along with our uncle. In fact, he looked like he was ready to kill him.

  “You told me that he was responsible for the multiple attacks from the Bratva. You said that he was working with them. You-“

  “And if you want to stay alive and on my good side, you’ll finish what we’ve started,” my uncle snapped.

  Everything happened so fast. One minute, Antonio was fuming across the room, and the next, he was holding a gun against my uncle’s head. “You killed off my whole family, just to gain some power.”

  Giuseppe didn’t even look worried about the fact that he had a gun to his head. “Your father was going to pass down the business to one of you, and there was no way I was going to let a woman take over, let alone any of you. I had worked beside your father for years. I knew all the players involved. It should have been mine, so I did what I had to do.”

  “And you used me to do it,” Antonio shouted. “You had me kill my own brother! You said he was a traitor!”

  “And you went along with it so willingly.” Giuseppe smiled. “You didn’t even believe Alessandro when he was pleading with you to save his life. He begged you, told you that he was being set up, and you pulled the trigger anyway.”

  Antonio’s hand was shaking with rage. I knew he wanted to pull the trigger, but something was stopping him. The door flew open and more of my uncle’s men stepped into the room, all heavily armed. This was getting out of control way too fast. I had to find a way to end this before Josh, Levi, or I were killed. As for my brother, I had no idea what to think at the moment.

  “I would remove the gun from my head if you want any chance of living,” Uncle Giuseppe laughed. Antonio glanced around, seeing how outnumbered he was and took a step back. I needed to defuse the situation somehow. As I glanced over at Levi, passed out in a chair, I knew what I had to do.

  “Uncle Giuseppe, you have to believe me. I left because I didn’t want anything to do with the family. Levi and I are getting married, and Josh just wants his life back. I promise, it’s all yours.”

  “I know,” he grinned, his eyes gleaming in victory. “But you see, your father had a will drawn up, and the only way for you to go away without me losing millions of dollars, is for you to die.” He glanced around the room and then back to me. “All of you.”

  “You won’t kill me,” I said, my voice shaking. “You won’t hurt my daughter. She’s innocent.”

  “So was Ricardo, but I ordered the hit on him. And Alessandro, but I had your brother kill him. And here’s one last secret for you,” he said, stepping forward slightly. “Your father was getting better. He’d been going through chemo and he was most likely going to survive. So, I killed him too,” he said slowly. “There is no one that works here that doesn’t bow down to me, and now that you’re all here in one room, you’ll all disappear and I’ll take over.”

  He jerked his head toward one of the guards. I glanced over at Josh and he gave me a slight nod. It was now or never. I slipped my hand out of the rope that had been tied around my wrist. I had been working on it since I had woken up. I knew Josh had been doing the same.

  “Well, isn’t this a fun picture.”

  My head snapped toward the door where
Knight had just entered. He was holding a gun to one man’s head, who looked like he was ready to shit his pants.

  Giuseppe turned to him, his eyes narrowing as he took him in. “Garrick Knight?”

  “Recognize me?” he asked. “I know it’s been a while, but surely you recognize the man you hired to kill your niece.”

  My gaze swiveled to Giuseppe’s. It was like one bomb after another around here. I couldn’t keep up.

  “An assassin that couldn’t finish the job,” my uncle snorted.

  “If I had wanted to kill her, she would be dead,” Knight said, shooting me a dirty look. “It turns out, she’s more useful alive than dead.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “You know, the problem with you mafia types is you can only see what’s directly in front of you. You never look at the bigger picture. You think killing off one woman is going to get you what you want? There was a reason I didn’t kill her that day.”

  “Yeah? And what was that reason?” Giuseppe asked.

  “Simple. I don’t work for assholes.”

  In a flash, he turned his gun on my uncle, firing before anyone had a chance to respond, hitting him dead center in the forehead. Then he turned his gun on each of the guards, firing off three shots before anyone even made an attempt to move.

  Guards came rushing at us and I pulled my hands out from behind my back and grabbed the chair, swinging it at the first guard that came at me. I picked up his gun, ready to fire on anyone that was a threat. I saw Josh out of the corner of my eye, fighting with one of the guards, struggling for the gun. Gunshots fired all around us until all that was left standing were Knight, Derek, Hunter, Josh, Antonio, and me.

  “Cutting it a little close,” Josh grumbled.

  “Well, if you recall, the plan wasn’t for you to get kidnapped, little brother.”

  Knight had his gun pointed at Antonio, who also had his gun pointed at Knight in a standoff. But after a moment, Antonio lowered his weapon, dropping it to the ground.