Chapter 26
Chapter Twenty-Six
Dom
Hanging up on Pen might not have been a smart move, but there’s no way I’m having him come with me and be in the line of Rick’s fire. That bastard has nothing to lose and will shoot Pen dead without thinking.
With Callum in Rick’s hands, he would then hold all of the cards. Callum’s life is on the line. Adding Pen into the mix would only rile Rick up and make the situation worse.
My mind races at how to approach Rick. How to enter the trailer park where all this began, without being seen. How much I’m going to enjoy wrapping my hands around the fucker’s neck for taking what’s mine.
“Jesus, Callum.” I rub the back of my neck in frustration.
Exhausted and anxious for the jet to hit the tarmac, I scroll through my texts and see the number Rick first texted me from.
I still don’t know how he fooled me. Rick made it appear that he had turned into a drunk and a junky.
There were so many empty bottles and cans lying all around his apartment.
Then there were the burned tin foils, spoons and discarded needles on the table.
Visually, it was easy for me to believe he was an addict. Wait—was that even his apartment?
And that person that supposedly attacked him? Suddenly, I remember Rick’s clean fingernails…
Everything was a fucking lie. Christ, I’m such a gullible idiot.
My eyes study the number until my finger, almost of its own volition, taps the call button.
I suck in a breath as the phone rings. Then the call hits dead air. I don’t say anything, just listen for a beat.
“I knew you’d call me,” Rick eventually says with an insidious chuckle.
“Why are you doing this, Rick?” I try to keep my voice even, but my rage is seeping through my words.
“Why do you think?” The incredulousness in his voice has my hackles up.
“I don’t know, I can’t read your fucking mind,” I bite out. I’m not playing games with him anymore.
More chuckling from the other end. Then I hear a whimper. Callum.
“If you hurt one hair on that man’s head, I swear there’s nowhere you can hide,” I growl in warning.
“How sweet. You see, Dom. You should have died with Jacob like you were supposed to.”
“Like I was supposed to?” I repeat in confusion. Thinking back to that night, it was a scramble—trying to get Jacob out of that trailer as the bullets were turning the mobile home into Swiss cheese. But we only had seconds before the killers made their way inside and shot Jacob.
“I took the bullet that was meant for you,” he rants. “And now look at me. No wife or son. No career. No connection to her family.”
What the hell is he talking about? What’s this got to do with her family?
“We were lucky to be alive, Rick.” I try to target his sensible side, hoping he’ll see reason. “And Callum isn’t involved in this. Never was. Let him go.”
But he refuses to listen.
“Do you understand that you don’t deserve to live, Dom? That killing you isn’t enough? I have to take what you love the most. Only then will you have an inkling of my pain.”
“What about those feds you killed?” My gut instinct is telling me that Rick is also behind the murders I learned about in Joust’s office. But why?
Silence meets my ears.
“Rick—”
“Fuck off, Dom. You’re not hearing me. You should have died with that twink. If Victor Mastov’s man had had good aim and nailed you between the eyes instead of shooting me in the chest, we wouldn’t be here.”
“Victor Mastov?” I grit out as my fury turns into an inferno. “You. You were the snitch?”
“Give that man a cigar. Yeah. I had no choice. Either I did it or I’d lose my family.” The heinous laughter on the other end of the call is like a knife gutting me from neck to sternum. “But I lost them anyway.”
“You son of a bitch. You sold us out—and for what?”
“Lots and lots of money, and for the love of my woman. You still haven’t figured it out?
I’ve been in deep with them for a long, long time.
Family is everything. And I would have kept mine, if the job had been done correctly.
And now I get a second chance to make things right.
And you’re the last loose end to tie up, Dom. ”
“You killed all those agents and for what?” I’m gut-punched and utterly shocked by Rick’s confession.
“Victor gave me no choice. Clean up my mess, or die and never see my kid again. What would you have me do?” he asks. “Now you know. Tick tock, Dom. Better hurry up. You do want to see your boyfriend alive one more time, don’t you?”
“Rick!” I scream, but I’m yelling at dead air. He fucking hung up. I try redialing but it goes straight to voicemail.
Think—damn it. Think. I unbuckle the seat belt and get up to pace the aisle. The harder I think, the faster I pace. I need a plan. If Callum and I are to come out of this alive, I’m going to need help.
Jesus-fucking-Christ. If I heard Rick correctly, he married into the Mastov family.
Why didn’t Joust know this? But then, knowing the bastard, he knew and kept that information close to the vest.
I pull up another phone number—the one I didn’t think I’d ever use again, and tap it and call.
“Rossetti,” he answers in his usual stoic tone.
“How long?”
“How long what?”
“How long have you known that Rick was married into the Mastov family.”
“About a week. How did you find out?”
That’s bullshit. Greg’s lying, but I don’t focus on it. “I just talked to Rick.”
“Do you know where he’s heading?”
“Royal Oaks Mobile Home Park,” I say with malice. “So when were you going to tell me it was Rick? This entire time, he’s been after my men and you didn’t say one fucking word.”
“We weren’t sure—not until he took Callum Fitz as a hostage,” Joust says with a bit more empathy.
“Liar. I know you have ears, eyes and your nose all over the damn place. You knew he was coming after me. I’m telling you right now, if Callum gets harmed, I’ll make sure the entire world knows who was at fault. You.”
“Threats don’t work on me,” Joust grates out.
“It doesn’t matter. You handled this poorly, just like you handled Jacob’s case poorly.
He died because you and the feds didn’t secure the witness.
You let a member of a syndicate family work as the bodyguard for a witness who was going to testify against that syndicate.
How fucked up is that? It’s your fault, Greg, that you didn’t look into your own people.
” I let out all the aggression that’s been pent-up for years.
“Did you know Brian Fitz came to us six months ago, clueing us in on Rick’s connections to Victor Mastov? Did you know Brian Fitz is also associated with the Mastovs?”
Well, that’s news to me, but I’m not all that shocked to hear it, since Brian doesn’t know how to keep his nose clean. “I know now.”
“I told your friend, Dean Harper, to stay out of this and we’ll get Callum back, unharmed,” Joust explains. “Keep your distance, Dom. I want you out of this mess.”
“Bullshit,” I shout into the phone. “Listen to me. Rick’s expecting me go there. If you show up instead, I know for a fact he’s going to kill Callum and I can’t let you do that.”
“Goodbye, Rossetti.” Joust hangs up and I see nothing but red.
I throw my phone across the plane, and the device crashes against the wall. Once I clear my head, I pick it up. The screen is shattered and the cell isn’t working.
No matter, I know how to get to Royal Oaks. The second the jet lands, I grab a rental and head straight to the trailer park.
Fuck Joust if he doesn’t like it. I know Rick well enough. He was my partner for many years. If I don’t show up, he’ll kill Callum. And I can’t let that happen.
If anything, I’d give up my life for Callum’s, and I wouldn’t regret it because I know he would still have Pen.