Chapter 4 – Elias #2
This is my first time meeting Noah, but I know all about her. She’s Lance’s neighbor and a contract killer who goes by the name Colpa Sicario—one of the best in the industry. My brother had no idea he’d been living next door to his rival when she moved in a few months ago.
They somehow ended up on the same assignment, to kill Cillian O’Connor, the son of the Don for the Lords of Staten Island. I’ve been trying to take down that sad excuse for a crime organization for years. Cillian was the worst of them, a rapist, low-life scum.
His father, Finn, is a piece of shit too. Finn is involved in human trafficking, and I have no doubt he’s helping this new fucker, Moonlight, who we believe is behind recent shipments.
If the Lords are working with this Moonlight douchebag, then they both need to be taken down.
But dismembering a whole mob isn’t easy.
I can’t go in with guns blazing. It’s too big of a mess to clean up that would involve utilizing my contacts with the FBI.
I’d rather keep them out of this if I can.
The Lords are already under the agency’s eye because of the crimes Cillian committed. He was messy and one more crime away from getting the Lords slapped with RICO charges.
But he’s gone now. Dead.
And Noah was the one to take him out.
But now she’s found herself in trouble. The day after she killed Cillian, her apartment building—the same one where Lance had a safe house—blew up. That was just over two weeks ago. We spent a week trying to find the person responsible with no luck .
But now they’re both here? At Gio Lenetti’s Christmas party? Lance didn’t tell me he had been invited, so this was either planned or a coincidence, and I hate coincidences.
Time to piss him off.
I scan Noah’s body and rub my thumb over my bottom lip. She’s beautiful.
Not as beautiful as Reine.
“Elias. This idiot’s brother,” I say, then take Noah’s offered greeting.
I lift her hand to my mouth and kiss her knuckles.
“A gentleman,” Noah purrs.
“He’s not a fucking gentleman,” my brother growls.
I laugh, full belly. “I have to say... I’ve never seen my brother so... protective of another person before.”
The woman takes my brother’s fisted hand and weaves her fingers with his. His anger immediately fades.
A pang rips through my heart and stabs my insides from my heart down to my stomach.
I want that. I want a woman who can calm me down with just her touch.
What if I had her and let her go?
“What are you doing here?” Lance asks, his voice low. “If anyone were to find out the leader of the QBM is at an Empire party...”
I glance at Noah, expecting her to react to my brother calling me a fucking mob boss, but she’s Colpa Sicario. She likely knows all the heavy hitters in this godforsaken city.
“I was invited,” I say and take a drink of my whiskey.
“By my father?” Noah asks, and I whip my head back to her .
“You’re Gio Lenetti’s daughter? I thought Noemi Lenetti—”
“Died? No. It was a lie.” She snorts. “It’s weird hearing my birth name again after all these years.”
What the hell is going on? Noah is a contract killer and a mafia princess? Even worse, she’s the daughter of the man who Lance and I believe ordered our mother’s death?
I turn my attention to Lance. How long has he known she’s our rival? Is she making a play? Using my brother to get to me to take down the QBM?
“We’re working together,” Lance says.
“And fucking,” Noah adds.
My face heats with anger. How could he do this? It’s... betrayal. He’s literally sleeping with the enemy.
My brother wraps his arm around her waist, bringing her closer to him, clearly seeing my rage. Which pisses me off even more. Did he really think I would do something to her? We’re in public for fuck’s sake and on Empire territory.
“I wanted to meet yesterday to tell you everything,” Lance continues. “But you never answer my text messages. I even called and left a voicemail. So, don’t act surprised. I tried, like I always do. We’ll meet tomorrow to talk.”
My anger dissolves and is replaced with guilt.
I’m trying to be a better brother. I want to start involving Lance in my life more.
I’ve been pushing him away since Christmas Eve, twenty years ago.
Because the men who were hired to kill our mother forced my little brother to slit her throat instead. He was only twelve. Twelve.
I wasn’t there for him. I wasn’t there to save our mother and protect Lance.
I was a failure, and I haven’t been able to forgive myself. It makes me angry and instead of telling him how I truly feel, I lash out at him. A part of me worries that if I keep him close, I’ll lose him just like we lost our mother.
That being said, I’m still pissed about him hooking up with Lenetti’s daughter.
“It better be a good fucking explanation, little brother,” I say through gritted teeth.
“It will be,” Noah says, trying to ease the tension between us. “Oh!”
Someone behind me catches Noah’s eye, and she squirms out of Lance’s hold. She waves, and I turn to see who she’s bringing over to us. After learning Noah is an Empire heir, I can’t trust her. I have to watch my back.
“Sage,” Noah says, and my heart stops beating.
My breath is captured by the blonde goddess walking toward us. I slink behind my brother, not that my big body will be hidden by Lance.
Noah hugs the woman who’s been haunting my dreams for the past three weeks.
“You look amazing.”
She fucking does .
Her red strapless dress sparkles, and the fabric falls to the floor aside from the split where her leg peeks out. Her long hair falls over her shoulders in curls. She’s wearing white gloves that come to her elbows paired with a pearl necklace and matching earrings. Very old school Hollywood.
She’s tanner, as if just returning from an island vacation. Her blue eyes, which have specks of green throughout, glow.
“Thanks, Noey!”
She blows a kiss to her best friend, and I’m tempted to lunge in front of Noah to steal it, but I stay where I am, peering over Lance’s shoulder since Sage still hasn’t spotted me.
I’ve been the Don of the QBM since I was twenty-two years old. Fourteen goddamn years killing and threatening and scaring men to the point they piss themselves.
Yet I’m hiding from the woman who walked out of my life after what had to be the best sex I’ve ever had.
“Sage, you’ve met Del before.”
She says something, but I’m no longer listening. Because I’m freaking out. Because I’ve been searching for this woman for weeks , and she’s finally back in my life.
Only this time, I won’t let her go.
“And this is Elias—”
“Oh, fuck.” Sage’s cheeks pink, and she takes a step back.
“You,” I growl.