Chapter Thirty-Seven
In which are you fucking kidding me right now?
Luna…
“I’m going to enjoy this.” Richard’s grinning at me, and all I can see is the Namahage mask he wore that night on the island, the hideous grimace, and the big, blocky teeth.
“What the hell is going on?” Collin thunders. I feel a huge surge of relief that it’s obvious he didn’t know that his brothers set me up. “Why the hell is Armstrong here?”
“So, you do know about the product and the very active bidding war?” Malcolm prompts.
“There’s been a lot of speculation,” Collin agrees. “I know about the four families. Armstrong has been shopping around for a buyer. It’s a weapon. A chemical weapon, correct?”
“It’s nerve gas.” I jump in, spitefully happy to do it before Malcolm can make another smug pronouncement. “A special kind that can be launched from an extremely long distance. It kills within seconds and dissipates minutes later because who would want to destroy property, right? Just the human beings standing on it.”
For a horrible moment, Collin looks intrigued before his frown returns. “We don’t do business with chemical weaponry. Too messy, too complicated. So why is he here?” He turns to me. “How do you know so much about this, Luna?”
“Because she was there that night when Kai MacTavish murdered my brother.” Richard stands up angrily, and I don’t miss how Collin steps in front of me. Unfortunately, neither do his brothers; their impassive expressions melt into something darker. “She showed up with her slutty girlfriends, wanting to be part of our group. A bit too select for trash such as her.”
“You will not speak about my granddaughter that way, or I will tear your head off your body. Am I clear?” Collin’s not shouting; his tone of voice is calm, but he is terrifying and for a moment, I see the enforcer who’s killed for his mafia.
“All water under the bridge.” Richard waves his hand graciously. “Here I am, with the product. Our agreed upon price, one point five billion US dollars and…” He turns to smile at me, mouth stretched wide and too many teeth. “This bitch and her husband.”
“I told you-” Collin steps forward, and Malcolm interrupts him.
“Agreed. You have two of the three items required and…” he checks his watch, “MacTavish should be here in eight hours or so. He was very adamant about his wife’s safety.”
“I won’t allow it.” Collin catches on quickly. He puts a protective arm around me. “Why would you be willing to invest this absurd amount of money to go into a dirty business like this? Lucas, Jonathan, you can’t be on board with this insane plan.”
“It’s all about diversification,” Lucas says, looking completely indifferent to his brother’s shock. “You expand, or you fall behind.”
“What about the risk of civilian casualties?” Collin argues, “You’d bring down law enforcement on us from every continent on earth.”
Oh, sweet baby Jesus, Malcolm mentioned Kai was on his way here. Eight hours, he said? I can’t let him come here. Richard, that bastard, that fucking snake, he’ll kill him in some horrible way. Probably me too, but I can’t think about that right now.
“It’s worth the risk,” Lucas says impatiently. “This weapon puts us in an invincible position. No mafia, mob, or bratva would dare come after us.”
“This kind of opportunity is a lightning strike,” Malcolm says. “You finding your granddaughter and we discover that she’s the last piece to negotiating this deal? Of course we’d move on this.”
I look around the room for exits, but I don’t see any. Guards are patrolling outside the windows, and the door we came in likely has a dozen armed men hovering on the other side.
Then I see that on the wall opposite the windows, there is a door, beautifully carved to fit in with the rest of the wainscoting. It probably just leads to a bathroom or something but…
There’s a thunderous boom outside, unimaginably loud like standing next to a train roaring past you on the tracks, and it’s so powerful it makes the windows - and my eardrums - bulge. Then it’s all on fire.
Something hits me in the shoulder, knocking me to the ground. My ears are ringing, I can’t hear anything. Collin’s shouting something he has blood on the side of his face. There’s fire. Fire and broken bodies and glass and I moan in pain when my grandfather hauls me off the floor by my arm dragging me toward the door in the wall.
Ripping open the door, he shoves me inside, cupping my face with his hands. “...attack …stay here …safe.” I blink up at him stupidly, wishing my ears would stop ringing violently and I could understand him. Grandpa kisses my forehead and slams the door shut. With me inside. He’s on the other side with the fire and broken bodies.
Kai…
Two minutes earlier…
“You’re sure you have her fecking position?” I’ve got a grip on Georges’ shirt, and I know he’s too scared to pull loose.
“I swear it.” He shows me an iPad with the heat signatures in the room. The only one I’m sure of is my Luna, thanks to the tracker in her wedding ring. That she is still wearing it is the best news I’ve had since she walked out of my house. “She’s on the north side, the farthest from the window. There’s a person in front of her.” He points to the red dot next to her. “I don’t know if he’s friendly or hostile, but his body will shield her from any shrapnel.”
“There won’t be any,” Michael’s hunched over another screen with Roger. “These charges are precisely targeted. The only danger is if she suddenly moves within the next sixty seconds.”
Our men surround the compound on every side. One of the explosive charges will tear open the west corner, the weakest spot in the perimeter. The other will rip right through the wall of the house.
“Feck…” I’m pacing, hand on my hips, watching the drones streak toward their destination.
“You were the only one to speak to Collin,” Da says. “Do ya think he’ll protect Luna?”
“I saw his expression when he looked at her. It was his chance to get his daughter back through Luna, in a way. Aye, I think he’ll protect her.”
Bulletproof vest on, guns loaded, pockets bulging with ammo, we climb into the jeep. I’m in the first team to breach the mansion and my only priority is my wife.
The roar from the charges is percussive, and the earth rolls. Our armored car tears through landscaping, knocking down men shooting at us and bursts through the hole in the mansion’s wall created by the explosives.
There’s dust, always dust during a firefight, choking and blinding. In the shattered room, fires are burning here and there, and the bloody remains of what I’m guessing are two of the Harris brothers are sprawled on the floor. I search every corner. No Luna.
Striding toward Collin, I grab him by the throat. Blood is coursing down his white shirt. “Where is my wife!” I shout in his face.
“Door behind me,” he wheezes, “didn’t know. I didn’t know. Get her out.”
A fresh bloom of blood spreads across his chest, and I look back to see Malcolm crouched behind his desk, still aiming his smoking gun at his own brother. “She was nothing!” he screams at Collin. “All you had to do was hand her over! It was the fucking opportunity of a lifetime , she fell into our laps!” His voice is high and hysterical, and I shoot him in the face, sending his brains splattering against his expensive paneling.
“Armstrong’s over here!” Da shouts, holding the red-faced, struggling bastard in a chokehold.
Endless rounds of gunfire echo through the house and in the distance as our men bring down the rest of the compound. The fires in this room are getting aggressive; time to get my girl out of here.
Pounding on the door, I shout, “Luna! Open the door love, it’s me.”
“I didn’t want you to come!” Luna rips open the door, sobbing as she leaps into my arms. “They were going to kill you and torture you and me too, probably, but I didn’t want you to die!”
“I’m braw, little fox, true braw, it’s all right. Your grandad, he’s-”
She looks past me and pulls away, dropping to her knees next to Collin. “No. No no no, I’m so sorry Grandad. You should have come into the room with me! We’ll…” She frantically pats his chest and finds the wound on his left pectoral, over his heart. “Get me something to stop the blood! Kai, get me some bandages and he needs a doctor! Where’s the doctor?”
Collin smiles, and I wince, seeing the blood staining his teeth. “You called me Grandad.”
“I’m sorry!” Luna sobs, “Do you want me to call you Grandfather? Grandpa?”
“No, Grandad’s good,” he manages. I gently lift his arm, putting his hand over Luna’s on his chest as he coughs, spitting up more blood. “I didn’t know. I would never have brought you here. I didn’t…”
“I know, Grandad, I do. It’s not your fault.” Luna’s sobbing so hard that her sentences are coming out in short little spurts. “Thank you for coming for me. Thank you for wanting me to be in your family. I’m sorry it wasn’t sooner.”
“Me, too,” he groans, and his head rolls loosely as he squints at me. “Thank you for telling me I had a granddaughter.”
“I was selfish…” I want to apologize, to make amends, but his eyes are already blank. His soul has left his body. Luna wails, rocking back and forth.
“I just got him.”
“C’mon love, we need to go. I’ll have our people bring him, don’t worry. Come now.” I lift her in my arms, waiting for two of Gary’s men to gently carry Collin out.
Luna’s silent on the jet. Conversation eddies and flows around us, everyone relieved and boisterous after the fight. Scooping her up, I settle her on my lap.
“How are ya feeling?”
“I lost my grandfather. And I killed my uncle, so that’s pretty bad,” she says listlessly.
“He wasn’t much of an uncle to ya,” I say reasonably. “And he was trying to kill me.”
While we were navigating the craters in the lawn, Collin’s son Kurt surged out of the house, screaming at us and firing randomly. He’d either been shot or was drunk, because he couldn’t aim for shite. But he was charging toward us and a bullet would find Luna or me. I put her down and behind me so I could pull my gun, but he got me first.
The bullet thudded against my chest. It felt like getting hit by a car, knocking me over.
Luna stumbled down, grabbing my Glock, and in one graceful swing, she aimed and pulled the trigger, the bullet hitting her uncle in the neck. I could see his white, shocked face before he toppled over into the mud.
Dropping the gun, she waved her hands mindlessly, like she was shaking off water or shooing away a bee. “Don’t die too, please don’t die!” She curled over my chest, weeping.
“No, baby. I’ve got a bulletproof vest on, he dinna hurt me.” It’s gonna leave a bruise the size of Mars, but that’s not important. Getting to my feet with a groan, I picked her up again, ignoring her protests, and headed for the armored car.
The gunfire was already slowing down enough to hear Uncle Lachlan negotiating with Uncle Cormac. “Are ya a hard ‘no’ on arson? ‘Cause I really think we can wrap this whole thing up with fire.”
“I wish you’d never called him about me,” Luna says, staring out the jet window. “Then he wouldn’t have died.”
“His brother was a piece of shite and he would have crossed Collin sooner than later.” I kissed the top of her head. “At least this way, ya had a chance to get to know each other. I know Collin wanted that more than anything.” It feels like a fist is gripping my heart, squeezing. “I should have told ya sooner. I’m so sorry, love.”
“That doesn’t matter now,” she says listlessly. “My parents shouldn’t have died in that car accident. I shouldn’t have been on that island. Grandad shouldn’t have been killed by his own fucking brother and I hope Malcolm rots in hell. It all happened the way it was going to, whether we wanted it to or not. Life is like that.”
“When I couldn’t find ya in that room…” I swallow, squeezing her a bit. “I love ya, my sweet bride. I should have told you the moment I realized it.”
Her fingers run along mine, linking them. “And I love you. I should have been brave enough to say it first.”
“As long as ya say it. That’s all I need.”
Her red, swollen eyes look up at mine. “What happens now?”
My jaw works as I try not to grit my teeth. “As Chieftain, Uncle Cormac stayed behind to lay down the law with Malcolm’s oldest son, Robert. He’s the new head of the Harris Mafia. Like any other self-serving mafia fuck, he seemed happier about taking over than upset about his dad gettin’ killed. He has no interest in moving past their usual activity in guns, strip clubs, and drugs.”
“What about Armstrong and the gas?”
“That’s being taken care of,” I say. “It’s gone for good.”
I dinna tell her that he’s already given up the location of the lab. It’ll be bombed into nothingness, along with the formula, Armstrong, and anyone else with knowledge of the sick business plan the Aristocrats concocted. It will all be buried under tons of rock and metal. We MacTavishes believe in destruction so complete that no one will ever be tempted to try that shite again.
“I want to come back for Grandad’s funeral.” She sits up, jaw tight. “I want to be there. I’m his family.”
“We’ll be there,” I promise, stroking her hair. “Right in the front pew.”
Braw - Scottish slang for I’m fine