Chapter Forty-Nine
ORAZIO
––––––––
Raz stood in the hallway, watching his brothers. The truth of what they’d just done settled over them like a heavy shadow, and it wasn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Their father was dead. The bastard was now a lifeless heap on the floor.
Yet, the wounds he’d left behind in each of them still bled. It would take more than stitches to get some of those wounds to heal. And because of those wounds, Raz would never forgive his father.
The fucker didn’t deserve a proper burial. If he could, he’d leave his ass rotting in some landfill. He may just do that. Raz took in his brothers’ expressions. Cas was staring at the floor, his hand shaking slightly as he wiped blood from his face.
Rome stood beside him, jaw clenched, but even he couldn’t hide the flicker of pain in his eyes. And then there was young Denver, still trembling, still clinging to Cas like a shipwreck survivor grasping for anything solid, trying to stay afloat.
Raz crouched down to Denver’s level, placing a hand on the boy’s trembling shoulder. His heart ached for his little cousin. The kid had lost everything tonight: his parents, his innocence. No, he hadn’t lost everything.
He still had them. Denver still had his family. However, after what Raz’s father had done, the kid may not be so comfortable around family any longer. They’d have to show him that the old don wasn’t the blueprint for how their family worked. He was merely a glitch.
“You did good, Den,” Raz praised softly. “I need you to stay with Rome now, okay? I have to go find Monique.”
“Who is that?” Den asked.
My life. My heart. My everything. “My girlfriend.”
“You have a girlfriend, Raz?” Den asked, sounding so shocked he caused all of them to chuckle.
“Yes, I have a girlfriend.”
“And she’s here? Is she... okay?”
Raz nodded, amazed that at a time like this, little Den could still be concerned about others. That was proof that his father hadn’t won.
“I left Leo with her,” Raz told him. “She should be fine. Thank you for asking.”
Denver’s eyes were still filled with tears, but he nodded, his lips quivering. “Will you come back?” he whispered.
“I will. I promise.”
Den took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. “Okay, Raz. I’ll stay with Cas and Rome. I’ll be brave. You go find Monique.”
“Good boy.” Raz straightened, turning to his brothers.
Rome gave him a nod. “Go ahead. We’ll stick with Den and keep him safe. Our guys should be bringing an end to all dad’s... the old don’s bullshit right now.”
Cas, though shaken, gave Raz a nod also. “I’ll stay until you get back, then I need to go make sure Meka is okay.”
“She’s here?” Raz asked.
“Yeah. But she’s fine. I left her with a team. They were helping escort guests out when we headed this way.”
Raz had to hurry up and get to Monique so he could let her know her friends were there. She’d want to see them, to make sure they were safe. First, he needed to make sure she was okay. If anything had happened to her in his absence... fuck ! He had to go now!
“I’ll be back,” Raz told them before turning toward the stairwell, ready to tear the entire place apart to find his Rose.
But before he could take another step, the stairwell door creaked open, and there she stood. Raz’s breath caught in his throat, and murder hummed through his veins. Monique stood in the doorway, her hair a wild mess, her dress torn in multiple places.
Blood coated her hands, smeared across her knuckles like war paint. She hadn’t looked this way when he’d left her with Leo. Someone had hurt his Rose. Someone had to die. His gaze met hers.
Her eyes lit up the moment they locked onto his. Relief and desperation swirled together in the brown depths of her gaze. And before he could ask her who’d hurt her, she called out his name, her voice like a caress against him.
“Raz!”
“My Rose,” he whispered.
She bolted toward him. He opened his arms, ready to catch her, always ready to catch her. The moment she collided with his chest, he wrapped her in his arms, holding her tightly against him. She buried her face in the crook of his neck, her body trembling as she cried against him.
Raz couldn’t help but close his eyes and breathe in her scent, his heart pounding with relief. She was alive. She was safe. She was in his arms. Thank God. He held her tighter, his hands running over her back as if to confirm she was really there, really in his embrace.
“You’re safe,” he whispered into her hair. “You’re safe.”
Those were the only two words he could utter, the only two words that continued running through his mind. Monique clung to him, her fingers fisting in his shirt, her body pressed close like she was afraid to let go.
“Raz, I...” Her voice broke, and she shook her head as if she didn’t have the words.
She didn’t need to. Raz could feel the fear and relief radiating from her.
“It’s over now,” he murmured, burying his face in the crook of her neck, letting her warmth seep into him. She was safe. He’d never been so grateful for anything in his life. “It’s over. I’m here.”
Monique pulled back just enough to look up at him, her hands coming up to cup his face.
“I was so scared that I’d... that I’d lose you,” she whispered, her voice trembling.
“You’ll never lose me,” Raz stated firmly.
He couldn’t stop looking at her. Even though she was bruised and bloodied, even though her dress was torn, she was still the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen.
“You’re bleeding,” he murmured, eyes scanning the blood on her hands. “Who did this? Who do I need to kill?”
“It’s not my blood,” she assured him. “It’s... it’s Isla’s.”
Raz frowned. “Isla?”
Monique nodded, swallowing hard. “She tried to kill me, Raz. She... I stopped her.”
His eyes darkened, rage flaring within him. “Isla Miconi tried to kill you?”
“She was trying to take me out of the picture,” Monique explained. “She thought if I was gone, you would choose her. Don’t worry, I taught her a lesson.”
Raz’s jaw clenched. The urge to hunt Isla down and finish what Monique had started burned inside him.
“Where is she?” he asked, his voice low, dangerous. He was ready to put a bullet in the Miconi duo and bury their asses together with his father.
Monique shook her head, placing a hand on his chest. “I didn’t kill her. And you can’t kill her either. She’s all Frederico has left, and I... I couldn’t let her die.”
He didn’t give a damn about what Frederico had and what he didn’t have.
“I know that look,” his Rosa whispered. “Let it go. There’s been enough...” her gaze drifted past him, and he knew what she saw. His father. Dead. His brothers, broken. His little cousin with a tear-stained face. “There’s been enough pain today. I’m ready to end this.”
The anger slowly drained from his eyes. He reached up, brushing a thumb over her cheek.
“Okay. If that’s what you wish.” He’d let it go for tonight. Tomorrow was a different matter. “You shouldn’t have gone through that alone,” he told her. “I should’ve been there.”
“I’m fine, Raz. Now let me get a look at you. You’ve been running around, fighting while still recovering from me drugging you... I mean...”
Toya burst out laughing. “You still drugged him, even though the kidnapping was off? That’s my girl!”
Monique's cheeks flushed with embarrassment.
“I deserved it,” Raz said. “Plus, it’s Rome’s fault she had the drugs in the first place. If anyone should pay, it’s him.”
A phone rang. Raz looked back to find Cas pulling his phone from his pocket. Meka was standing by his side, holding his other hand. But her gaze kept drifting to the dead body in the middle of the floor. Shit .
He needed to get them away from here and get the clean-up crew on the way. His gaze met Rome’s. Rome nodded, seeming to read his expression, and pulled out his phone, stepping away from the group to make a call.
Still holding Monique close, Raz listened in on Cas’s call. When Cas hung up, he relayed the message to Raz.
“That was Bryce. He’s with Tatianna and a team he brought with him. They’ve cleared the main gala. No guests were killed. However, a few were wounded. Many of our guys didn’t make it. Along with dad, I mean, the old don’s men. Guests have been escorted to their cars. Landon is here helping also.”
“Landon? Landon Harrison?” Raz asked.
Cas nodded. “He was on the guest list. He stuck around to help out. He was able to keep police from hearing about what happened. He has someone on the inside. Apparently, he has way more connections than he used to.”
True . Back in the day, he’d been called a train wreck in his hometown. He’d even been sent to prison for a crime he hadn’t committed. He was back now, and Raz had a feeling a lot of people were going to suffer his wrath.
Raz was willing to lend a hand if Landon needed him. He could connect with his old friend later. Right now, they needed to get everything cleaned up.
“Bryce said that Landon wants us to get away from the facility as soon as possible. His connects are keeping the police from finding out. But once guests are away from the facility, some may contact authorities that his connections can’t cover. It’s best if we’re not here when they arrive. Bryce is already working on a cover story about dad, the old don, coming here. The story is that Dad showed up uninvited, causing chaos because you’d taken over the company. He wounded dozens of people before escaping. Now, he’s in hiding from the family.”
That story was vague enough to take some heat off them, but the police would still have questions. As long as there were no bodies here when they arrived, they should be good.
Raz nodded. “Leo...” he glanced over at Leo and found him leaning against Toya for support. “Who beat your ass?”
Leo didn’t respond. Toya did. “I’ll have you know he was outnumbered. He held his own, though.”
If Leo smiled any harder, his cheeks would burst.
“Did he? Was he holding his own when Rosa was fighting Isla?”
Leo’s smile evaporated. “Boss, I...”
“That can be discussed later,” Toya spoke up. “Shouldn’t we be escaping or some shit.”
Yeah, or some shit. Raz would question Leo later. Monique was fine, and that was all that mattered. But Raz needed to know what had happened.
“The clean-up crew are on the way up the stairs. They were already en route when I called them,” Rome told him. “They have a crew downstairs that are going to start cleaning up the venue. He ran into the gala owner downstairs, who told him it would take a hefty donation to make up for this.”
“Got it.” Raz already knew it was going to take a lot to keep the owner and staff silent.
“They’re going to get rid of any bodies in the building,” Rome continued. “But they’re taking Dad’s body to the family. They know where to take him.”
Rome let it end at that, probably not wanting to speak about it in front of the women. Raz nodded. Yeah, they knew where to take Cattaneos who’d been killed but couldn’t be taken to the morgue.
With the adrenaline winding down, the pain was winding up. Raz held in his groan, not wanting Monique to notice that he was hurting.
“It’s time to leave,” Raz told them. “I want to do a sweep of the area before we go, just to make sure everything is fine.”
“You sure you’re up for it?” Monique asked, eyeing him warily, picking up on his pain.
“I’ll be fine, love.”
“I’ll handle the sweep,” Rome told him. “You, Cas, Leo, Den, and the ladies should go get treated. I’ll escort you all out of the building before I do a final check with Bryce and our guys.”
Raz nodded. He trusted his brother to handle things. Right now, he had Monique to think about, and judging by the blood on her hands and the weariness in her eyes, she needed rest as much as he did.
“All right,” Raz said. “Let’s get out of here.”
Cas nodded, holding little Denver close. “Come on, Den. Let’s go get some air.” The kid had been through hell tonight, and Raz’s heart ached seeing him cling to Cas as they headed out. Meka brushed the boy's hair back and smiled down at him. Den smiled back.
The quiet hum of the cleanup crew echoed through the stairwell. As they made their way down the stairs, they met up with the cleanup crew that was heading up to collect his father’s body.
Raz exchanged a nod with the team’s leader before continuing down. They reached the main floor, and Raz’s gaze moved across the mess left behind – shattered vases, bullet casings, and blood smears decorated the polished floor.
He couldn’t believe his father had caused all this bullshit. His lips tightened, but he let the frustration pass. The old don was gone. His nightmare was over. Once the cleanup was finished and they’d convinced the police that the old don had gone into hiding, they would be able to put this night behind them... for the most part.
“Who is that?” Monique’s voice broke through his thoughts.
Raz looked up, following her gaze toward the double doors. A woman had just stepped in, dressed in a cream-colored business suit and matching high heels. Her blonde hair cascaded over her shoulders in soft waves as her piercing eyes landed on him. Fuck! Raz recognized that woman.
The woman’s lips curved into a smile. “Hello, sons.”