28. Savio
28
SAVIO
E very part of me wants to stay in bed with Nicci as she drifts off to sleep in my arms, my cock still buried inside of her.
It’s been years since I’ve fallen asleep with a woman like this. Years since I’ve felt this warmth, this intimacy. I would never have guessed that I would find it—or want it—with her…but things have changed immeasurably in the past few days.
I reach up, brushing a bit of hair away from her face as I feel her breathing even out. My body is exhausted—drained after hours of sex and three orgasms—but my mind is still awake and alert, spinning through the possibilities ahead of us.
The Crows are finished. Nicci is hurt, but she’ll recover. And now I have the last part of my promise to her to keep—to make sure her father and brother see justice for what they’ve done to her.
And then what?
She lets out a small sigh in her sleep, and my chest tightens. I’ve never seen her this vulnerable before. Tonight, in the shower—she let me closer to her than I’d ever expected her to. And now that I’ve had her like this, I don’t want to let her go.
The sound of my phone buzzing on the nightstand next to us jerks me out of my thoughts. The last thing I want to do is pull away from Nicci, but I force myself to roll to one side, letting out a sharp hiss of breath between my teeth as my oversensitive cock slides free. It twitches as I roll over, protesting leaving the warm, silky depths of her body.
I’d fucking stay there forever, if I could.
I grab my phone and look at the screen. It’s one of the men I hired to guard the penthouse—Jonas—who I’ve put on a different job along with the others, since Nicci and I hit the restaurant and finished off the Crows.
Jonas: Both targets at home tonight. Looks like the aftermath of a dinner party. Drunk, security is lower. Good time to hit.
I let out a sharp breath. The last thing I want to do is leave Nicci tonight. After what we just shared, I want to fall asleep with her in my arms and have her wake up next to me. I want to continue what we started in the morning, and I don’t want to give her any reason to think that this was a mistake. I don’t want her to wake up alone and start overthinking things.
But I know what she wants, too, more than anything. And it sounds like I’m in a position to give it to her tonight.
Sitting up slowly, careful not to wake her, I text Jonas back to grab the other men and meet me at the point we arranged before. And then I get out of bed, giving her one last glance as I quietly go to get dressed.
—
Jonas and the four other men I’ve hired are waiting for me at the meeting point. It’s chop shop that one of them owns, just on the outskirts of the city. Two of the men are sitting on idling bikes, the others are waiting next to a blacked-out SUV, and Jonas is leaning against the hood. I step out of the car, and he straightens, motioning to the others to wait as he walks over to me.
“You’re sure this is a good night to move on the targets?” I ask him, shrugging into my black leather jacket.
He nods. “Mr. Armand had some kind of dinner party tonight. Some of his associates stayed after and spent the evening in his study, getting drunk on high-end whiskey. Security is lower tonight, too. It’s never easy breaking into a place like that, but a couple of the guys did a scan of the entryways and exits. My guy Jake has tech that can get the alarm codes and disable them. If we’re quick, we can pull it off.” Jonas raises an eyebrow. “I imagine the pay for this is high enough to warrant the danger?”
“Yes, and then some,” I assure him. “With a bonus if you don’t ask any questions.”
Jonas chuckles. “We can all manage that.” He glances back at the blacked-out SUV. “Space enough for you to come with us, give us a little extra stealth.”
I shake my head. “I’ll go with my driver. You’ll need the space in the SUV. We’re not killing Mr. Armand and his son.” I narrow my eyes. “We’re taking them with us.”
Jonas gives a sharp nod. “Understood. Let’s roll out, boys,” he calls out, and I retreat to my waiting car, adrenaline already pumping through my veins.
As much as I’d wanted to spend all night with Nicci and wake up next to her in the morning, she’s going to be much more excited to wake up to what I’ll have for her now.
We leave the vehicles at a spot near the back of the Armand estate, an area that Jonas scouted that has a blind spot. There are no cameras angled at it. For the couple of days that he’s been watching, security seems to mostly miss it in their rounds. It’s a tree-lined area off to one side of the fence, and my guess is that they think it’s too far off of the main entrances and roads to be much of a problem. There’s also an alarm on the nearest gate to the fence, but it doesn’t take long for Jonas’ tech guy to break the code and deactivate the box. Jonas has a hand-held blow torch that burns through the lock, and the gate swings open, revealing the backyard of Mr. Armand’s mansion.
My jaw tightens. There’s no room for fucking this up. We get one shot at it, and I have no intention of leaving here without my quarry. “There’s no ‘dead or alive’ in this,” I remind Jonas. “Both Mr. Armand and his son need to be taken alive . No alternative. Am I understood?”
Jonas nods sharply. “Understood.” He motions to the maze of carefully trimmed hedges that are dotted across the landscaping. “We’ll use those for cover. Let’s go.”
The six of us start to move through the darkened backyard. Jonas has it mapped out, all of the points to avoid that might set off motion-sensored lights or cameras memorized, and we follow him—me right behind him, and the other four bringing up the rear, weapons at the ready in case we run into unexpected problems. Halfway through the yard, Jonas holds up a hand, and we all freeze behind one of the hedges as two of the security guards walk past.
My pulse is beating hard in my throat, my muscles wound tight with anticipation and adrenaline. This isn’t something I’ve ever done before. Breaking and entering, kidnapping—hell, I paid Mr. Armand for Nicci before I took her from the club. This kind of thing isn’t what I do. But for her?—
I’d do it again if I had to.
I force all thoughts of Nicci from my head as we move forward again. My confusion over how I feel, over what we are—and what comes after this—hasn’t lessened. And it’s a distraction I can’t afford right now.
The trek to the back of the mansion feels as if it takes fucking forever. We have to pause twice more, hiding in the shadows as security passes by, before Jonas takes us along a zig-zagging path to a back door that keeps us out of sight of the cameras. Once there, he motions for Jake to move up, and the tech guy goes to disable the alarm.
“Staff entrance,” Jonas mouths.
I nod, understanding. This time of night, the staff will be few and far between. We’ll be able to move quickly through the house and, hopefully, grab Mr. Armand and his son without too much difficulty. So long as we can do it quickly and quietly, there shouldn’t be too much trouble.
Jonas tugs his balaclava up over his mouth, and I do the same. The staff door clicks open, and the six of us move silently into the mansion.
Nicci told me that no one other than she, her father, and her brother lived here. The staff came and went on shifts, as did security. The silence of the house at this hour seems to corroborate that. We creep through the kitchen, and Jonas motions for four of the men to head towards the upper level of the house, where they’ll likely find Nicci’s brother. Jonas and I will head to the study and see if Mr. Armand is still there. If not, we’ll start hunting for him and try to avoid any guards.
The other four men slink off, and Jonas and I head toward the study, me following Jonas’ carefully mapped path. I can hear my heartbeat pounding in my ears as we approach the hallway where Mr. Armand’s study is, and I see a light under the door.
“Keep behind me,” I hiss through my teeth to Jonas as I move forward. I sweep the hall for guards, seeing no one, and take the last few strides to the door, reaching out with one gloved hand to wrench it open.
Mr. Armand is lounging in a leather wing chair by a bookcase, a glass of whiskey in his hand, a cigar in the other. His cheeks are flushed from the alcohol, and if his gaze hadn’t snapped up at the first sound of my footsteps on the wooden floor, I might have thought he’d fallen asleep in his chair.
Before he can call out for help, I have my gun out and leveled at him, pointed directly at his head. “Don’t make a sound, Mr. Armand,” I growl, doing my best to keep my voice disguised, the hint of my Italian accent dropped. “One peep, and I’ll put a bullet through your head before anyone can get to you.”
I won’t, of course. Nicci would skin me alive if I killed her father for her rather than bringing him back to her, and frankly, I wouldn’t blame her. But he doesn’t need to know that. And, from the way his eyes widen as he looks at the barrel of the gun pointed at him, he believes me.
“My men are looking for your son right now. Once they’ve got him, we’ll all take a nice little walk.” I take a few more steps forward, ensuring that he’s well within range. If I did plan to shoot him, I wouldn’t miss, and he knows it. I can see the blood draining from his face, his skin going chalk-white as he sits there stiffly, his fingers clamped around the whiskey glass.
“Set it down,” I tell him firmly, nodding to the glass. “Nice and slow. Any of your men come in here, you tell them to back right off. Understood?”
Mr. Armand nods, and I catch his gaze flicking towards the door. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Jonas moving into the room, leaving the door open just a crack for the rest of the men when they make their way down here.
“Get him secured,” I growl at Jonas as Mr. Armand sets the whiskey glass down. “Tight, but not too tight.”
Jonas nods, moving toward the chair with his own gun drawn. He shifts behind Mr. Armand, and I jerk the gun towards him.
“Stand up. Hands behind your back.”
It’s incredible, I can’t help but reflect how easily some men cave when a weapon is pointed at their face. Mr. Armand rises clumsily out of the chair, his movements clearly slowed from how much he’s had to drink, and he obeys my command. His face is bloodless, his eyes wide, and I can see his mouth trembling as he presses it into a thin line.
Nicci’s father might make deals with gangsters, I think with some amusement, but he’s far from one himself. He’s a coward, and I feel a rush of anger as I look at him, remembering everything that Nicci told me he’s done to her. Everything that he’s allowed to be done to her. I have to bite back everything I want to snarl at him, all the threats I want to make. There will be time for that, but it’s not right now.
I hear the sound of footsteps outside and then a sudden shout. The door is shoved open, and Jonas twists toward it just as he finishes securing Mr. Armand’s hands behind his back. Two of our men shove a man in his mid-twenties into the room—clearly Nicci’s brother, from the look of him—wearing nothing but boxers. At the same moment, I hear gunshots going off in the hall. Jonas pushes Mr. Armand behind him, striding forward.
“Jake, get the window!” he snaps, just as Nicci’s brother lunges for him.
Jonas decks him with a hard right punch, sending him down to the floor. In an instant, he’s on the other man, rolling him to his stomach with a knee in his back as Jonas yanks his hands behind his back and zip-ties them. I hear three more gunshots as I hold my own weapon on Mr. Armand, and then our other two men come running into the room, slamming the door behind them as Jake disables the alarm on the window. One of them has blood running down his temple.
“We’ve taken out three of them,” the man gasps. “We need to fucking go. More are coming.”
“Out the window!” Jake yells, shoving the huge bay window that opens out to the grounds open. It’s a very small drop down to the lawn, and I stride forward, shoving the gun into Mr. Armand’s face.
“You heard him,” I growl. “Out the window.”
For a moment, I think he might not comply. “Please,” he mumbles, his voice slurred from drinking. “I’ll pay—you don’t need to do this—whoever you are, we can make arrangements?—”
“This is the arrangement. Get the fuck out of the window.” I push the gun into his temple, and he staggers backwards, obeying my command as Jake vaults himself out of the window and onto the lawn.
Mr. Armand follows, tripping over himself and falling onto the damp grass below. Jake yanks him up, with my help as I follow, and I can hear Nicci’s brother struggling as the rest of the men get him outside. I hear the door slamming open just as the last of our group jumps out. Two of our men hang back, opening fire as Jake, Jonas, me, the two men, and our captives make a break for the tree-lined area where the cars are waiting.
Nicci’s brother is the most difficult. He tries to break away from the group, and Jonas and one of the other men wrestle him down to the grass, knocking him out cold. I hear a bullet whiz past us and swing around, firing in the direction it came from and sending one of the grounds’ security down into the grass, a spray of blood darkening the hedge next to him. I hear two of the men picking up Nicci’s brother, hauling him toward the SUV as Jonas and I herd Mr. Armand there. The other men lay down fire to keep us covered as we make our getaway.
“The two on the bikes will bring up the rear, keep the guards busy,” Jonas says as we all pile into the SUV, motioning for the driver to go. “Boss, directions?”
I quickly give the driver the address to get us to the cabin, and the SUV peels out of the treeline, the gunshots still echoing as we drive away.
Mr. Armand has started to curse in French, interspersed with pleas and attempts to bargain, and I look at Jonas.
“Shut him up,” I order, and Jonas pulls a small leather pouch out of his pocket, removing a syringe. In a matter of minutes, Mr. Armand is entirely silent.
With that silence comes the inability to quiet my own thoughts. I can’t stop thinking about Nicci, how just hours ago I had her in my arms.
How I want her there again, and again—for as many nights as I can. With her father and brother dead, she’ll have no reason of her own to stay—and I don’t have the heart, any longer, to keep her a prisoner.
I’ve gone from claiming her as mine to wanting her to be, and I have no idea how to make her see the future that, last night, I was able to see for us both.
The sky is beginning to grey when the SUV pulls up to the cabin. Jonas and the other men help me get Mr. Armand and his son to the shed down the hill, where I’ve strung up two meathooks on chains through the rafters. First the son, and then the father are dragged up—their bound wrists looped over the hooks, left dangling there with their toes just brushing the wooden floor.
“Found the son balls-deep in some woman upstairs,” one of the men chuckles. “Yanked him right off of her. Whatever he did, hope it warranted getting hauled off right in the middle of it.”
“It did.” I clench my teeth, looking at the two unconscious men. “And safe to say he won’t be using his cock ever again after tonight.”
“Shit.” The man whistles through his teeth. “Well, are we good here? Jonas? Boss?” He glances at me, and I nod.
“We’re good. Get going. I don’t want anyone else on the property except me and Nicci for the rest of the day.”
Jonas gives me a quick, respectful nod, following the other men out. I watch from the door of the shed as they leave, standing there until I can no longer see the SUV heading down the mountainous road. Then I turn to walk back to the cabin.
It’s time to go tell Nicci about her surprise.