Chapter 14
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
~SHANE~
“ I t’s a party,” Cameron says when my brothers and Nadia file into the office in downtown Denver. “I should have brought chips or something.”
“Good to see you,” Carmine says, shaking his hand.
“I wish it were under better circumstances,” Cameron replies. When we’re all seated around the room, me behind the desk, Rocco standing to my left, and Nadia and Carmine on the couch, Cameron gives his report.
“As far as I can tell, the Sergis were behind yesterday’s attempt at a raid,” Cameron says, making Carmine swear ripely. “I was able to do some digging and found ten-thousand dollars deposited into the asshole’s account. I suspect it was just a scouting mission. If they were serious about getting in and grabbing Ivie, there would have been more than just one guy there.”
“I thought the same,” I add with a nod. “Why would Billy start a war with the Tarenkovs?”
“Because he’s a piece of shit,” Nadia says coldly. “He has to know that Ivie is one of ours. He’s not stupid, and he was at Annika’s wedding earlier this year. Not to mention, he has a grudge against me.”
“The Sergis love money,” Rocco adds.
“They have plenty of fucking money,” I remind him.
“Come on, man,” Rocco says. “You know he heard that there was a bounty on Ivie’s head, dead or alive, and figured he’d cash in on the payday.”
“A million dollars,” I mutter, shaking my head. “He’s willing to start a war over a measly million dollars. They’re worth a hundred times that much.”
“Billy’s not particularly smart,” Carmine adds. “I wonder if his father knows what his son’s up to.”
“I’m going to kill him.”
All of the eyes in the room fly to me. Cameron scowls. “Shane?—”
“I’m going to tie him up and disembowel him. Slowly. The son of a bitch will pay for this.”
“There’s more.” Cameron stands to pace the office. “You said that Ivie kept coming up with her father’s name as one of the owners of the phone numbers yesterday.”
“What?” Carmine demands. “I thought he was long dead.”
“We all did,” I confirm, and can see from the look on Cameron’s face that the man is very much alive.
“It was a cover,” Cam says and blows out a breath. “If anyone finds out that I came into this information, my family and those closest to me could be at risk. The O’Callaghans can’t be touched for this.”
“They’ll be protected,” I assure him. “You all will.”
“I’m trying to get the fuck out of this life,” Cox reminds me and then shakes his head in disgust. “Okay, so about a dozen years ago, maybe a little more, a lot of people wanted Pavlov dead. He was a piece of shit, a bad businessman, and liked to borrow money that he never repaid. We won’t even get into his lack of parenting skills.
“Anyway, I was part of a taskforce back then that was trying to find his whereabouts so we could get in, assassinate him, and get out.”
“The government wanted him gone?” Rocco asks, surprised.
“Oh, yeah. He was a Bulgarian operative. It’s all just a mess, and the world was better off without him. Anyway, before my team could get in and take care of him, someone supposedly beat us to it. Killed him. We saw a video of it, for fuck’s sake. They hung him.
“We closed the case and forgot about it. Wrote it off. We had other missions to worry about, and while Pavlov was a pain in the ass, he was small potatoes compared to some of the things we do.”
“But?” I ask.
“I made some calls, started asking around. Discretely. Called in some favors. It was a cover. Pavlov wasn’t hanged that day. It was a guy who looked a lot like him. Turns out, Pavlov has been living in Dallas for at least a decade, still doing his shady shit but on a smaller scale.”
“Who was behind this?” I demand, seeing red.
“Sergi.” Cameron blows out a breath. “Pavlov was working on his turf. But Sergi didn’t want him dead because Pavlov knew too many people, kept too many secrets. He needed him alive, just in case. So, he staged the murder, hid Pavlov away, and no one was the wiser.
“But, about a year ago, Pavlov fucked up again and pissed off some people. The wrong people. In Dallas. Who is the Dallas syndicate?”
“It used to be the Carlitos,” Carmine says thoughtfully. “But the boss died twenty years ago, and no one was interested in taking over.”
“Apparently, that changed, too,” Cox replies. “A kid by the name of Benji Carlito has decided to take up the reins. He’s twenty-four.”
“Grandson,” I murmur, remembering stories from my father. “He was the boss’s grandson.”
“And he has a taste for the mob,” Cox says. “I don’t know who Pavlov pissed off, but it filtered to Carlito, and that is what spurred the search for Ivie. They thought they could hurt the old man if they got their hands on his daughter.”
“Little do they know that Pavlov doesn’t give two fucks about Ivie,” Nadia says, fury shooting from her gorgeous blue eyes.
“Are Carlito and Sergi working together?” I wonder aloud. “I want to know exactly what Billy knows. That piece of shit.”
I want to punch something. Hard.
“Okay, we’re going to go about this methodically.” Rocco turns from the window where he’s been taking it all in. “I’m headed to Dallas in the morning.”
“Nadia and I will go to New York,” Carmine says. “I already have a rapport with Billy. And I can just tell him that Nadia wants to shop for the wedding. I had good dealings with him just a couple of months ago.”
“Good.” I tap my fingers on the desk. “I’m not going to just sit on the ranch anymore. It’s not safe. I should have left last night, but I didn’t have this information yet.”
“Leaving is a good idea,” Cameron says with a nod. “Get her to Seattle.”
“He’s right.” Carmine stands. “Take her to Gram’s house. The security is brand new, the house is secluded, and it’s not under your name. Not to mention, it has the safe room in the basement.”
I nod, thinking it over. “It’s the best solution. We’ll be ready to go by this evening.”
“I’ll fly you over before I go to Dallas,” Rocco says. “It’s not exactly on my way, but I’d like to be the pilot for that trip.”
“Appreciate it.”
“I’m done,” Cameron says, regret in his eyes. “I can’t do any more for you. I’m sorry. I’m breaking free of this life because I want a family of my own. I want Mary Margaret. And I want to make sure she’s safe.”
“You’ve done more than enough.” I shake my friend’s hand. “Thank you. I want an invitation to the wedding.”
“I have to talk her into marrying me first.” He grins. “You’ll get one. You all will. Good luck, and be careful.”
He waves and shuts the door behind him, leaving me alone with my family.
“I’m fucking pissed,” I growl.
“Are you angry because they’re threatening someone or because they’re trying to kill the woman you love?” Carmine wonders.
“I won’t deny it. I love her. I won’t let them hurt her. And I’m going to kill them all.”
Carmine nods. Rocco cracks his knuckles.
“We’ll help,” Nadia says as she stands. “It’s time we teach the Sergis a lesson.”
I texted Curt when I left Denver to let him know I’d be back home shortly. I hit some fucking traffic just outside of the city, which lost me about thirty minutes, but I’m now getting close to the ranch.
Cell service is spotty on this section of road, but suddenly a text comes through from Curt.
Curt : 12 to 20 operatives. Breached from the west.
“Fuck. Fuck, fuck, fuck.” I hit the steering wheel. I should have listened to Curt and my gut last night and gotten the hell out of there.
Instead, Ivie and Curt are both in harm’s way.
I slow the vehicle and snarl when I see four Jeeps pulled into the bushes on the edge of my property.
I pull in behind them, arm myself with a knife and two pistols, and make a mental note of where I have weapons hidden on the property. No one, not even Curt, knows that I’ve got at least ten stashes of weapons placed strategically.
I ease out of my vehicle and silently creep up on a man who’s standing by the Jeep in front. He’s looking at his phone.
He’s an idiot. These people need to hire better lookouts.
I easily sneak up on him and slit his throat, then let him fall to the ground.
One down. I have no idea when Curt sent that text since I’m often in dead zones between Denver and the ranch. I don’t know if he’s already taken out a good portion of the men, if they’ve killed him, or even if they’ve reached Ivie.
Fuck, I’m going in blind.
I take a deep breath and walk, low and fast, through the invisible fence and up a short hill to survey the scene.
I see two men, pacing back and forth, each armed with automatic weapons. These two have more training, watching the area around them closely.
I pull my sidearm from its holster, screw on the silencer, and shoot them both in the forehead before they can blink.
Three down.
I hurry over to the bodies, relieve them of their weapons, and crouch, listening.
I hear voices to the east but no gunfire. No struggles.
Staying close to the ground, I hurry on. When I see the door to the bunker, I blow out a breath of relief when I see the discreet green light level with the ground.
That means someone is inside. Safe. It hasn’t been breached. Praying that it’s Ivie in there, I continue, moving toward the house, and see movement on my right.
It’s Curt, cutting a man’s throat very much the same way I just did back at the Jeeps.
I start to wave him down, but he sees movement and throws the knife, hitting another man square in the forehead, killing him instantly.
I don’t ever want to be on Curt’s bad side.
I issue the low whistle we used to use back in the day and nod when Curt’s gaze finds mine. I see his shoulders relax, and then he starts giving me hand signals.
Eight more men on the property. Four at the house, four at the barn.
I nod and silently give him directions to go to the barn, indicating I’ll take the house.
He nods in affirmation, and we set off to find our targets. I crouch in the long grass and quickly type out a message to Rocco.
Me : Infiltrated. Need the chopper to get out ASAP.
I don’t wait for a reply as I hurry to the house. I don’t see any movement outside, so I press my back against the wall and ease over to look in a window.
Two men in the kitchen.
I keep going around the house, looking in the windows. The basement door is still secure. That’s a good sign.
I move to the side door, near a sunroom that I’ve never furnished, and see two more men about to come outside.
So, I wait for them. Let them come to me. If I can eliminate them without using a firearm, all the better. I don’t want to alert the two inside.
With my back to the side of the house, I wait while the two come through the squeaky screen door, and when they come around the corner, I spring into action. The first one gets his neck broken, and then I spin and wrap my legs around the other’s neck, taking him to the ground. I fling my arm back and stab him in the neck.
Seven down. There are two more here, and four with Curt.
I slink into the house, silently moving through the rooms, my weapon drawn.
Both of the remaining men are bent over the basement door lock, trying to disarm it and get inside.
Morons.
I’m able to sidle up behind them and look down at the doorknob.
“How’s it going?” I ask, surprising them.
Before they can draw their weapons, I have them both on the ground, dead.
No blood.
That would be messy to clean up.
I check for pulses before opening the basement door and slinking down the stairs to look at the monitors. I check the bunker first.
Ivie’s there, watching the other wall of monitors. Good, she’s safe.
Then I check the barn. I count three dead bodies. None of them are Curt, but I can’t locate him. After scanning the rest of the screens, I don’t see any other men on the property.
Just Curt and one remaining asshole.
I shut it all down, hurry up the stairs, lock the door behind me, and am out of the house and running to the barn within seconds.
When I reach the building, I stop to listen.
I hear a scuffle coming from the side of the structure.
I run toward it, my weapon drawn once again, and find Curt punching the fuck out of a man. He has blood coming from his nose, but he’s spouting profanities.
“Don’t kill him,” I instruct in a firm, cold voice. Curt immediately stops punching but holds the asshole against the building.
“Who do you work for?” I demand.
The piece of shit spits in my face.
“That’s not the answer I wanted. Curt?”
Curt takes his knife and slices off the man’s ear, making him squeal like a pig.
“Now, let’s try that again. Who do you work for?”
“You’re just going to kill me.” He’s not wrong. “I’m not telling you shit.”
“All of your comrades are dead. All of them. Now, we can make this easy on you, and I can kill you fast—you won’t feel anything. If you answer the question. If you don’t, I can make your last few minutes as miserable and painful as anyone has ever been through. It’s up to you.”
His eyes fill with tears, his lip quivers.
“Billy Sergi.”
“Not his father?”
“I take my orders from Billy.”
I nod thoughtfully. “Is anyone else on their way?”
“He hired us to handle it. We’re military-trained. How you two killed us all, I’ll never know.”
“Whoever trained you should be ashamed.” I push my face close to his. “I’m going to be the one to end you. And Billy. And anyone else who tries to kill her.”
And with that, I press the barrel of my sidearm against his temple and pull the trigger.