twenty-five Warren
twenty-five
Warren
We stumble into Xavier’s house, and nobody speaks until we’re inside, the door bolted, the alarms checked and double-checked.
The last twenty-four hours have been a complete nightmare.
After we were arrested, I sat in that jail cell wondering if my life was over.
Fear that Selena would leave me had me vomiting and shaking in anger.
If she had chosen to leave, I wouldn’t have blamed her.
I’m not good for her. My life is dangerous.
I had tried to warn her in the beginning, but she was too headstrong to listen to me.
I fell in love with her fierceness, and the thought of her walking away was almost my undoing. They could lock me up and throw away the key if she left. I wouldn’t have anything to live for after that.
Selena grabs my hand as everyone moves into the living room. Dad is still on the phone. He’s been making calls nonstop.
“Hey, are you sure you are ok?” she asks.
Seeing the concern in her eyes causes my heart to still. This woman is too good for me.
“I am now,” I say, kissing her.
“I was really worried about you,” she sighs.
I take her hand and lead her through the kitchen and onto the back patio. I have to meet with the guys in a minute, but I need to talk to Selena first. Once we are outside, we sit down on a lounge chair.
“Selena, are you sure you want to stay? If you are scared or don’t want this anymore, I can send you somewhere safe until this all goes away,” I tell her.
I feel like I’ve been stabbed in the heart. I want to beg and plead with her never to leave me. But I can’t. I’ve been a selfish bastard my entire life, and right now, all I can think about is her wants and needs. Even if it kills me, I would let her go, but I would never stop following her.
From afar, I would watch her and always ensure her safety.
She takes my hand in hers, and I see tears pooling in her eyes. “Warren, you warned me what I was getting myself into. I am here because I want to be. I don’t think I will ever be able to walk away from you,” she says, tears streaming down her cheeks.
I cup her face and kiss her. This woman is my everything now.
“I wouldn’t be able to live if you left,” I say, kissing her again.
The back door opens, and Xavier sticks his head out. “Hey, we need you inside right now,” he grunts, and then slams the door closed.
I kissed Selena again. “Go to our house and wait for me.”
“Our house?” she questions with a smirk.
“Yes, our house. You are mine now. It’s you and me together forever. No more hiding how we feel.”
She smiles as she kisses me again. Her hands roam down my chest and to my crotch, where my dick is throbbing with need. Fucking Xavier had to come out and ruin everything.
“Hurry up. I really want to show you how much I like hearing you say our house,” she teases, jerking my cock in her hands.
I groan and close my eyes. My phone rings, and I wish more than anything that I could ignore the call, but I know that the guys need me.
We need to end this attack on us so that Selena and I can start our lives together.
I move to stand, adjusting my dick so my family doesn’t see me with a raging boner.
“Get ready, baby, I’m going to really show you how dark and dirty I can get tonight,” I tell her, as I open the door to the house.
She smiles and laughs as I walk inside, and that is the most beautiful sound in the world.
Walking into the office, I spot the gloomy looks on everyone’s faces.
“Warren, we are going to meet with the intel tonight. Our insider has let us know that the rat from the Santino family is Todd Rossi. A pause, filled with the intensity of the moment. “Name’s Todd. He’s nobody now, but last month he beat the shit out of a boss’s daughter at a party in Encino.
Tried to start his own crew. Word is he was trying to make a name by putting one of us in the ground. ”
He doesn’t know that we are on to him yet.
He’s got another shipment coming in tonight at the docks.
That bastard is using our territory to bring in his fucking goods,” Dad shouts.
“Xavier is working with our intel inside the police department to get them there at the exact time we need them. Damon has called in two other families that have also been fucked over by Todd Rossi. Tonight we take them down.”
I glance at my brothers and then back at my dad. “So tonight, it all ends?”
He nods. There’s something unspoken in the way he looks at all three of us.
I can feel it in my heart and soul that he’s going to let us go after this.
No more late-night calls to clean up messes.
No more intervening with new clients. I feel a surge of happiness at that.
I can be with Selena. I can have my freedom.
My brothers and I all exchange knowing looks.
Tonight, we each start a new chapter.
Leaving Selena at the compound was difficult, but Dad added more security and swore she and Lily would be safe.
As we pull up to the docks, I have that sense of urgency filling me. Things could get ugly tonight, but we have to do what needs to be done to protect our family and move forward.
We all gather our weapons. We park two blocks away and meet up with the rest of our crew.
We all put on night goggles and earpieces so we can hear one another if we need to talk.
According to our information, a shipment of cocaine is supposed to be coming in at midnight.
This rat is selling drugs laced with fentanyl to dealers on the streets.
He’s using our docks, our territory, without asking.
That’s a huge indiscretion in the mafia world.
You never intervene on someone else's territory. Then add in his stunt with setting us up with the dead body… he’s a dead man walking.
Wearing all black, we all move forward like ninjas in the night. Our steps are slow and calculated, our breathing even. We want to sneak up on them so they never see us coming. These bastards think the police have us.
“Two men are stationed at dock 9,” Dad whispers into his mouthpiece.
We turn and nod in understanding. Damon and I move to the left while Dad and Xavier go to the right. Our other men have positioned themselves down at the water level and a few near the warehouses where the shipments are placed once they are unloaded from the docks. We’ve got eyes everywhere.
A man wearing a tan suit emerges from a ship that has just docked.
I glanced at my phone and the image of Todd that was shared with us.
I look back at the man and recognize that it’s him.
Dark spiky hair, pale blue eyes that appear almost gray, and a muscular frame. He looks like a fucking low-life bully.
“There’s our rat,” I whisper to Damon.
With our guns ready, we move forward, making sure to remain in the shadows. Voices carry ahead of us as the men speak.
“Rossi, how much are you getting for this load?” an overweight man asks as he uses a crane to lift a large box off the ship.
Todd Rossi stands there watching, a smug smile on his face. “Around a million,” he announces.
“What about the King Mafia Family?” another man asks, as he helps move the box to the dock.
Damon and I tense at the mention of our family name.
“Those idiots fell for our trap,” Todd laughs.
“We contacted them about moving some shipments at their docks, and they fell right into our hands. We had one successful load, and then on the second one, I planted the body of some loser who owed us money. The police are all over them. Last I heard, they had been arrested. Once word gets out that the boss and his sons are locked up, their organization will fall apart, and we will be the big dogs. All of Sunnyvale will be ours,” he mocks.
I raise my gun toward Todd as anger flares inside of me. Damon grabs my hand, settling me. “We wait for the signal,” he whispers, reminding me to calm down.
I’m shaking with rage right now. This piece of shit thinks it will be that easy to take us down.
“Yeah, and we’ve been following them. They’ve got some pretty pieces of ass, too. Lily and Selena. Once Damon and Warren are gone, I’m going to get me a piece of both of those sluts,” Todd laughs out.
I turn to Damon, who is seething. I can barely contain my anger, and I already know that Damon is about to explode, too.
We might be evil, but no one messes with the women we love.
“Alright, I need to kill this bastard,” I quip.
“When are we moving in?” Damon asks through his mouthpiece.
We are both on the verge of forgetting about the plan and taking Todd out ourselves.
“Play it cool. We are waiting,” Dad’s voice comes through our headsets.
“Leave extras for us,” another man chuckles.
“Nah, once I fuck them, I will get rid of them,” Todd laughs.
That’s it. I can’t hold back any longer. I look at Damon and nod.
“We are going in,” Damon says through the headset.
Damon and I move around behind the men, snaking our way until they are turned, looking at the boxes.
“Don’t move, asshole,” I seethe, pointing my gun at the back of Todd’s head.
The men all freeze as Damon points his gun at the other two guys.
“Holy shit, so you are all out of the joint,” Todd says.
“Dude, no one talks like that,” I mock.
“Fuck you,” Todd snaps at me.
The anger that had been boiling inside of me has finally reached its limit. I take the but of my gun and slam it into the back of Todd’s head. He grunts out in pain and falls to the ground. I kick him in the gut, and blood spits out of his mouth.
Damon fires a shot at one of the other guys' kneecaps, and he falls to the ground, crying out in pain. The other guy attempts to run off, but I grab him by the arm and punch him in the face. Todd is still groveling on the ground, and I move over, kicking him again.
He looks up at me and smirks. “It’s only a matter of time before we destroy all of you,” he slurs. Leaning down, I grab him by the collar and then begin punching him in the face. Bones crack, blood stains my face, and his cries echo all around me.
“Police,” Damon yells, as he grips my shoulder, pulling me off of Todd.
Todd is limp on the ground, barely breathing, as I stumble back.
Suddenly, three large SUVs come barreling through the area and I hear men screaming. Gunfire begins to echo throughout the air, and Damon and I exchange looks before racing for cover behind a concrete wall.
The FBI is everywhere. Men and women shout orders toward Todd, who is barely conscious, and his men, who are firing back at the police.
“Back to the vehicles, take the shoreline,” Dad announces through our mikes.
Careful not to be seen, Damon races toward the water, where we creep along the edge of the shore and toward the parking lot where we parked. We can still hear the shouts and gunfire as we race away.
Once we are all back at the parking lot, we assemble into the vehicles.
“What was that?” Xavier asks.
Dad sits in the front passenger seat while Damon, I, and two other members of our crew are in the back. The rest of our guys are in their SUVs waiting for commands.
“We let the police know about the shipment coming in,” Dad explains.
“They are also going to find that the gun Todd has on him is the same one used to murder the man they left on the docks. If the police hadn't gotten there before the shipment was unloaded, we were going to open fire and take him out ourselves. Now, we don’t have to worry about backlash from any of Rossi’s men. ”
We all nod in understanding. This was the first time that we didn’t get our hands dirty taking someone down. It feels good in a strange way.
“So, what now?” I ask.
“We go home and wait,” Xavier announces.