Convenient Mafia Vows (Ruthless Billionaire Mafia Kings)

24. Caleb

24

CALEB

I’m almost out of the door when my cell phone rings. Martin.

I know before I even raise the phone to my ear and hear him say, “We have a problem,” that something has happened to Victoria.

“Where is she?” I growl.

“Dragon’s Den. We lost her.”

I kill the call, turn around to find my family watching me with dark eyes. “They have Victoria.”

No point venting my anger on Martin. That will come later. No point even asking him how it happened. They disobeyed my orders; they allowed Victoria to walk into the Dragon’s Den, and then they failed to keep her safe. My priority is to find Victoria and make sure that Olivia Dragonetti never so much as sets foot in the vicinity of the people I care about again.

Only then will everyone in my employ know what happens when they disappoint a Murray.

“Let me handle it.” Terry is already out of the door, flanked by Cash and Bash, cell phone raised to his ear. “You stay here.”

“No can do.” I follow him into the corridor, everyone else on my heels.

No one asks how—the details are unimportant. We know why, and we now have a location. Sitting around and waiting for more information to land in our laps isn’t an option.

“You’re too involved,” Terry shoots back. “Mistakes will happen.”

“Caleb, wait.” This is Mom. “You know Terry is right.”

I stop and turn around to face them. Terry will handle this his way, and I’m not about to stop him. He always gets results. But Victoria is my wife, and this is personal. No one touches the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with and walks away unscathed.

“The only mistake here is Olivia Dragonetti thinking that she can win.” My voice is cold. I’m calm. Calmer than I’ve ever been, because I have a purpose, and that purpose is Victoria. “Go home, Mom. Keep Abigail safe.”

“Caleb.” She shakes her head, and I can see the same fear in her eyes that I saw when I was a little kid, and she was scared that our father would hurt us.

“Don’t worry about me, Mom.” I pull her into a hug, kiss the top of her head, and then walk away.

Kyle matches my stride. “I’m coming with you.”

“I’m doing this alone.”

“Caleb, for fuck’s sake. She has Sienna too. Five years I’ve wasted wishing that I could go back and change what happened; you can’t take this away from me now.”

I don’t slow down. Terry and the twins have already disappeared, and I’m grateful to have them as backup, but how do I tell my big brother that it’s my duty to keep him safe. That I worry he’s too fragile to get involved in this situation. That holding a gun to the head of our family’s enemies isn’t his strength.

“I’ll bring her back, I promise. You’ll get your chance to tell her everything.”

I use portable flashing lights on the roof of the car to beat the traffic. In the basement parking lot at the Wraith, I switch the car for the Harley, fasten my helmet, and head to the exit, the engine thrumming between my legs.

I don’t know what makes me stop, but I slide my cell from my pocket and check the tracker on Abigail’s phone. My heart skips a beat when I find that it’s moving. Heading north, towards Lake Placid. Good girl—she’s learning.

It almost feels wrong to be heading out of the city without Victoria behind me. I focus on the moments we’ve shared in the short space of time since she agreed to be my wife, watching her in the dressing room mirror, tasting her for the first time, burying my face between her legs in the elevator, fucking her in the rooftop pool. But it’s when I picture her eating lamb on rice out of greasy paper, the tears in her eyes in the theater, the way she nestled against me on the Byway with the city lights in the distance that my cool resolve almost crumbles.

Fuck the alliance.

Fuck this way of life if it means that I can’t have her.

I promised to keep her safe, and I’ve not done a great job of it so far.

There’s no sign of Terry when I stop at the abandoned warehouse in Lake Placid that he mentioned before, but I’m not the first to arrive. Vans with black-tinted windows block the entry points, and half a dozen guns are pointed at my head before I even dismount and remove my helmet.

I raise my hands in front of me, palms facing outward. “I don’t want any trouble. I’m here to find my wife.”

A man steps forward from behind the weapons. Unarmed. I recognize the thick dark hair, prominent eyebrows, and narrow lips. Lev Petrov. Ivan’s father.

“We can’t let you through.”

There’s a pistol in my inside pocket and a knife tucked inside my boot. I’d maybe take down one, two if I’m lucky, before they kill me, but if they wanted me eradicated, they’d have done it already.

“This isn’t up for debate.” I lower my hands slowly. “I meant what I said: I’m not here to cause trouble between our families. But my wife is inside that warehouse—” I nod in the direction of the building behind Lev and his men “—and I’m not leaving without her.”

“My son is also inside that warehouse.” Lev remains where he is, protected by the guns still pointing at my head. “You may not wish to form an alliance between our families, but I take no chances when it comes to my son’s life. No one enters the building unless I say they do.”

“I wish Ivan no harm… So long as my wife is safe.”

Lev’s mouth twitches at the corners. “My son is hotheaded, but he does not kill without good reason.”

Ivan is inside; I have no doubts that Olivia is with him, but Lev Petrov is outside. The exit routes are blocked. He doesn’t like this situation any more than I do, but we’re on opposite sides of the fence. His son has already been banished once. If— when —shit goes down, he wants to ensure that Ivan doesn’t take the rap. They might be prepared to sacrifice Olivia Dragonetti to save their own, but I’m not relying on their good nature and mafia code to protect Victoria.

“Then you have nothing to worry about.” I step closer.

“Stay where you are, Mr. Murray.” Lev’s voice is cold, clipped. “I had hoped that we might do business together in the future, and I’m sure you appreciate that no one here wishes to start a war.”

“Let me through, and you have my word that I will forget Ivan’s part in this.”

“Your word.” His smile surfaces briefly and disappears again. “Why should I trust you?”

He’s stalling. He’s wasting time while Victoria is inside his warehouse with Olivia Dragonetti, and my patience is wearing thin.

I walk towards him. I’ll be no use to Victoria dead, and I can’t take on a Russian family single handedly, but I can prove to him that I don’t want a full-scale war.

I glimpse movement to my left, but before I can reach for my gun, something hard connects with my jawbone, and I sprawl forwards, white-hot pain flaring inside my skull. A knee is between my shoulder blades as I hit the ground. I try to roll, the pain crashing through my head with the movement, and swing a punch with my right fist. It connects with the shin of the man standing closest to me before a booted foot grinds my wrist into the ground.

My arms are dragged behind me and cuffed, the metal clinking as they haul me back onto my feet.

Lev stands in front of me, while his men grip my arms with iron fists, the barrel of a gun pressed against my neck. “Your devotion to your wife is commendable. Truly. But you perhaps misunderstood me when I said that I could not allow you to interfere.”

I can feel my brain throbbing against the inside of my skull. “Perhaps you misunderstood me when I said that I’m not here to interfere. I’m simply here for my wife.”

His expression is neutral. “You and I both know that you would not have entered that building and walked out with your wife without blood being shed.”

I blink against the pain. He’s right, but I’m not going to give him the satisfaction of agreeing with him. Until Terry arrives, I need Lev Petrov in my corner. “What’s the plan?”

He smiles. “The plan is already in motion.”

“But you’re not going to tell me what it is.”

My cell phone rings. It’s Terry’s ringtone.

One of Lev’s men slides a hand inside my pocket, pulls out my cell, and hands it over to Lev. “Mr. Keegan,” he speaks into the handset, his gaze holding mine. “Lev Petrov. Your stepson is already here. Seems he beat you to it, but don’t worry, he is in good hands.” He ends the call and tosses the phone aside; I hear it land with a dull thud in the scrubby borders surrounding the warehouse.

A black car pulls up outside the vehicle blockade set up by the Petrovs. The rear door opens. More of Lev’s men appear from inside the stationary vehicles and surround the new arrival. I see a black suit, silver-gray hair, stooped shoulders. The man’s movements are slow, head bowed, as he makes his way towards the warehouse entrance, Lev’s men providing a safe passage for him, weapons aimed directly ahead.

Don Dragonetti.

My stomach twists. He’s the last person I expected to see here. I didn’t even know that he’d been discharged from the hospital, but obviously his daughter means more to him than any alliance. She means more to him than his own health, and I have a fleeting vision of him collapsing inside the warehouse and Olivia fist-punching the air in her moment of power-hungry glory when she takes over as heir to the Dragonetti family.

Disappointment settles inside my stomach. He knows that Victoria and I are not married. She’ll be expendable in his eyes, especially if it means that I’ll take Olivia off his hands and keep her in check.

He disappears inside the warehouse, the door closing silently shut behind him. Lev’s men stand guard.

That’s when I hear the screeching of tires as Terry arrives with backup.