by Shandi Boyes
Reign
The Italian Cartel #3
Shandi Boyes
Edited by
Nicki @ Swish Design & Editing
Illustrated by
SSB Covers & Design
Copyright
Copyright © 2020 by Shandi Boyes
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Written by: Shandi Boyes
Editing - Nicki @ Swish Design & Editing
Proofreading - Kaylene @ Swish Design & Editing
Cover: SSB Covers & Design
Model: Jonny James
Photography: Kruse Images & Photography
Created with Vellum
Dedication
To the voices in my head,
* * *
Thank you for convincing people I am not crazy.
* * *
Shandi xx
Contents
Also by Shandi Boyes
Want to stay in touch?
1. Dimitri
2. Dimitri
3. Roxanne
4. Dimitri
5. Dimitri
6. Roxanne
7. Dimitri
8. Roxanne
9. Dimitri
10. Dimitri
11. Roxanne
12. Dimitri
13. Roxanne
14. Dimitri
15. Roxanne
16. Dimitri
17. Dimitri
18. Roxanne
19. Dimitri
20. Roxanne
21. Dimitri
22. Roxanne
23. Roxanne
24. Dimitri
25. Roxanne
26. Dimitri
27. Roxanne
28. Dimitri
29. Roxanne
30. Dimitri
31. Roxanne
32. Dimitri
33. Roxanne
34. Roxanne
35. Dimitri
36. Roxanne
37. Dimitri
38. Roxanne
Dimitri
Acknowledgments
Also by Shandi Boyes
Also by Shandi Boyes
Perception Series
* * *
Saving Noah (Noah & Emily)
Fighting Jacob (Jacob & Lola)
Taming Nick (Nick & Jenni)
Redeeming Slater (Slater and Kylie)
Saving Emily (Noah & Emily - Novella)
Wrapped Up with Rise Up (Perception Novella - should be read after the Bound Series)
* * *
Enigma
* * *
Enigma (Isaac & Isabelle #1)
Unraveling an Enigma (Isaac & Isabelle #2)
Enigma The Mystery Unmasked (Isaac & Isabelle #3)
Enigma: The Final Chapter (Isaac & Isabelle #4)
Beneath The Secrets (Hugo & Ava #1)
Beneath The Sheets(Hugo & Ava #2)
Spy Thy Neighbor (Hunter & Paige)
The Opposite Effect (Brax & Clara)
I Married a Mob Boss(Rico & Blaire)
Second Shot(Hawke & Gemma)
The Way We Are(Ryan & Savannah #1)
The Way We Were(Ryan & Savannah #2)
Sugar and Spice (Cormack & Harlow)
Lady In Waiting (Regan & Alex #1)
Man in Queue (Regan & Alex #2)
Couple on Hold(Regan & Alex #3)
Enigma: The Wedding (Isaac and Isabelle)
Silent Vigilante (Brandon and Melody #1)
Hushed Guardian (Brandon & Melody #2)
Quiet Protector (Brandon & Melody #3)
* * *
Bound Series
* * *
Chains (Marcus & Cleo #1)
Links(Marcus & Cleo #2)
Bound(Marcus & Cleo #3)
Restrain(Marcus & Cleo #4)
Psycho (Dexter & ??)
* * *
Russian Mob Chronicles
* * *
Nikolai: A Mafia Prince Romance (Nikolai & Justine #1)
Nikolai: Taking Back What’s Mine (Nikolai & Justine #2)
Nikolai: What’s Left of Me(Nikolai & Justine #3)
Nikolai: Mine to Protect(Nikolai & Justine #4)
Asher: My Russian Revenge (Asher & Zariah)
Nikolai: Through the Devil's Eyes(Nikolai & Justine #5)
Trey (Trey & K)
* * *
The Italian Cartel
* * *
Dimitri
Roxanne
Reign
Maddox
Rocco
* * *
RomCom Standalones
Just Playin’ (Elvis & Willow)
The Drop Zone (Colby & Jamie)
Ain't Happenin'(Lorenzo & Skylar)
* * *
Short Stories
* * *
Christmas Trio (Wesley, Andrew & Mallory -- short story)
Falling For A Stranger (Short Story)
K (A Trey Sequel)
* * *
Coming Soon
Skitzo
Want to stay in touch?
Facebook: facebook.com/authorshandi
* * *
Instagram: instagram.com/authorshandi
* * *
Email: [email protected]
* * *
Reader’s Group: bit.ly/ShandiBookBabes
* * *
Website: authorshandi.com
* * *
Newsletter: https://www.subscribepage.com/AuthorShandi
1
Dimitri
Unsettled tension grips my throat as I stare at the rice-size tracking device in Rocco’s hand. It’s coated in as much blood as Rocco’s hair, revealing the men who took Roxanne didn’t just remove the device from her arm, they cut it out.
If the anxiety plaguing me is anything to go by, that’s only the start of the torture they’ll put her through. This is about more than money. Fien’s low-ball ransoms already disclose this fact. If it were solely about the coin, as Roxanne said months ago, my daughter’s ransoms would have been as extravagant as the one I placed on the table to keep Roxanne safe. They’re playing me, and for once, I’m about ready to play back.
We play to play.
We kill to kill.
And we take down any fucker stupid enough to get in our way.
After licking my dry lips, I get down to business. Annoyance is bubbling under the surface of my skin. It’s heard in my low tone when my snapped command leaves my mouth with a roar. “Send details of the van Roxanne was placed in to the teams located around Dr. Bates’s practice. If they spot it, have them relay the information directly to me but maintain a safe distance. We don’t want to spook them into doing something stupid.”
The shit I’m spurting isn’t anything new. This is how we planned to run our ruse. I’m merely implementing extra steps to ensure I reach Roxanne before any of the horrid thoughts in my head come true.
“Once that’s done, bring up the surveillance before the blackout. I want to know the position of everyone in the clinic and a block each side of it before we were kicked in the guts.” When Smith jerks up his chin, I lower my eyes to Rocco, who’s peering up at the camera in the alleyway as if he can see me as clearly as I can him. “Anything?”
He reads the unease in my one word like no one else can. “I’m sorry, D, I had to take him down. He had a gun to my head and no intention of letting me leave the pharmacy once the command to move left your mouth.”
He stuffs Roxanne’s microchip into his pocket before dragging
a man who’d weigh at least three hundred pounds into the frame. Since he’s as worked up as me, he doesn’t pay attention to the massive graze down one side of his skull I assume is the flesh wound of the bullet that was supposed to kill him while propping the man in front of the camera so Smith can log his face into his facial recognition software. The reason for the man’s three bullet wounds to the chest makes sense when Smith gets an unhindered snapshot of his face. If Rocco had gone for a straight-up mafia kill, it would have made identification hard in this technology-dependent world.
With that in mind, I bring some old-school gangster tricks into play. Remembering where I came from and how I got here might finally have me one step ahead of my enemies. “Check his pockets. His tats reveal he’s a bottom dweller, so he may have been stupid enough to carry ID with him.”
After pulling a face, disappointed he hadn’t considered that, Rocco commences checking the buzz-cut man’s pockets. A few seconds later, he pulls out a retro Velcro wallet. “Who the fuck carries around a tri-fold wallet these days?”
He answers his own question when he rips open the over-used Velcro with force to discover nothing but receipt after receipt after receipt. “Fuckers with no money, that’s who.”
My jaw has only worked through half a grind when Smith asks, “Do any of the receipts have payment details on them? Or was everything paid for with cash?” After raising his eyes to mine, he explains, “He might be lax on ID, but that doesn’t mean we can’t find out who he is quicker than facial recognition.”
“Bing-fucking-o.” After holding up a receipt for a purchase at a computer store in Ravenshoe to the camera for Smith to zoom in on, Rocco pops another bullet into the man who tried to kill him. This time, his bullet pierces his brain via a hole between his dark brows. He isn’t just displaying he is pissed the wannabe gangster got a jump on him, he’s sending a message. The cartel is in town, and we want you to know it.
“Where am I going, Smith?” Rocco asks, eager to move on to his next victim.
His hankering for a rampage hasn’t been this perverse since a handful of my father’s associates decided to test the authenticity of my threat. We went in hard and fast and without mercy. No one was spared.
As they won’t be today, either.
“Give me a sec…” Smith punishes his keyboard as badly as I want to punish someone’s face, pissed as fuck I made him work from Roxanne’s family’s ranch. Roxanne wasn’t lying when she said the cell phone service here was shit.
My wish to kill is the highest it’s ever been. It is brewing inside of me, warning that when it’s finally unleashed, it will be explosive. I honestly don’t know if I’ll be able to control it. It has been building for years, so shouldn’t it take just as long to dispel?
As the thirst for a bloodbath dries my mouth, another disturbing thought enters my mind. “How did they know Roxanne was wearing a tracker? No one knew she was wearing one. We kept it between the three of us…” My words trail off as pure rage takes their place. Although I have all my men on this case, one outsider was brought in. She left a couple of hours ago. “You fucking little snitch.”
Smith appears lost to who I mean, but Rocco clicks on remarkably quick. While dragging his hand over his clipped hair, he growls out, “She’s been under our nose the entire time.”
“Don’t remind me just how long, or I’ll kill her before we get any information out of her.” The roughness of my voice exposes I’m not joking. I am about to kill a friend I’ve known for years, and although her daughter’s baby daddy isn’t dead, the three consecutive life sentences he was handed down two years ago will make it seem as if she’s an orphan. That messes with my head even more than wondering what’s happening to Roxanne at this very moment. She’s unconscious, naked, and in the back of a van with a doctor who sells babies for a living and a goon with an unrecognizable face. I could already be too late.
Rocco’s deep timbre draws me from my dark thoughts. “Where am I meeting you, D? Harbortown Penitentiary or are we going directly to the source?”
My smirk tells him everything he needs to know.
“Directly to the source. I’ll wait out back. Make sure the pool house is empty.”
He waits for me to lift my chin in thanks before he hotfoots it to his ride, but not before laying his boot into the man now housing four of his personally selected bullets, though. He’s pissed he got the jump on him. Not as much as me, but for now, I’ll let it slide.
Time is critical in these matters. The verdict of me waiting until the deadline for Audrey’s ransom exposes how dire things become when you leave them to chance. I took a risk my family’s reputation would pull me out of the wreckage unscathed twenty-two months ago. I refuse to make the same mistake today. This entire operation falls on my shoulders. If I fail, it fails. I can’t explain it any simpler than that.
“Have Rico keep a watch on my father. Until we find out exactly who has taken Roxanne, we can’t assume anything. This could still be about the bounty on her head.”
I know it isn’t, but I’d rather be cautious, especially if it comes with less bloodshed on my side of the field. There can’t be change without chaos, but can there be chaos without bloodshed? Up until a couple of weeks ago, I would have said there was no chance in hell you can’t have one without the other. Now I’m not so sure.
I will protect Roxanne and Fien no matter what. I just don’t want my victory to come at the ultimate price.
2
Dimitri
With traffic light and my foot heavy, I make it to a ritzy family estate in a well-to-do area within a record-breaking thirty minutes. I want to say my blood cooled a smidge during the commute, but that would be a lie. If anything, it’s more heated since the tail a secondary crew had on Roxanne was lost.
The van they transported her in has been dumped and burned, and the cameras in the area aren’t controlled by me. They’re owned by none other than Mr. Isaac Holt, and his security personnel isn’t playing friendly. Smith has attempted to reach out to Hunter numerous times the past thirty minutes. He’s yet to be successful. I’m tempted to ask Isaac what his problem is, but since that could cause more issues, I’m holding back the urge—barely!
Not wanting my guest to be aware of my arrival, I park at the side gate before using the secret entrance only a handful of people know about. I’m not surprised to spot a man guarding the door with a customized M4. Only a fool goes against a man with nothing to lose halfheartedly.
The guard slumps to the floor before he knows what’s hit him. It isn’t often a victim can respond to a bullet between the eyes. More times than not, they’re dead before they hit the ground.
After pulling the security guard into an area he won’t be seen by little eyes, I unlatch a set of keys from the waistband of his jeans, shove it into a retro-looking lock, twist, then wait for further instructions.
Smith is guiding me from above. Since this compound is wired to the hilt with surveillance, he has eyes in every room. “Target is in her office. She isn’t alone. Halo is in the vicinity. Three guards are walking the hall. One is out back…” The hiss of a silencer whizzes out of the listening device in my ear a second before Smith corrects, “Pool house is clear. Rocco is on site.”
As my lips curl into a smirk, I creep down the lit-up corridor like a real-life action hero. Despite my many wishes to be born to any family but the one I was, the adrenaline roaring through my veins bares reason to my birthright. Hate is strong in my bloodline, but so is vengeance. I live for this.
Pop. Pop. Pop.
Three guards are dead. Serves them right for standing together in an open arena. Regardless of what you’ve heard, there’s no safety in numbers. If you want to stay alive, branch away from the group. You have a better chance of remaining hidden if the loudmouth of the group is nowhere near you.
The faintest hum of a melody I’ve heard a handful of times buzzes into my ears when I lower the handle of the office door now housing the blood of three men.
Their deaths were silent, but the smell of desecration is obvious. Unfortunately, it isn’t solely coming from my side of the room.
Alice is standing in the corner of her home office. She has a gun butted under her quivering chin, and sweat is beading her brow. Her daughter, Lucy, sits at her left, oblivious to the fact her mother is moments away from blowing her brains out. She’s immersed in a video game all kids seem to love these days.
Although shocked Alice has placed her life on the line with the very gun she bought to protect herself, it is understandable. She’d rather die via her own hands than be tortured like she was when she was seventeen. That’s why Rocco is out back, waiting by the pool house. Alice’s biggest fear in life is losing her daughter. Her second is being drowned like her father attempted to do when she told him she was pregnant with Lucy. Both Alice and Lucy survived his attempt to kill them. Alice’s father didn’t.
