Chapter 50 Caterina
Caterina
“We have a lead,” Malachi said, rushing into my bedroom.
“Where?”
“They have a warehouse in Milwaukee. High-ranking clientele still has access to the women. Vincenzo refused to have his business down for longer than a month even after we raided his club.”
I changed out of my t-shirt and slipped into a black button-up. Malachi looked at me like I had two heads. “What?” I asked.
“Where the hell do you think you’re going?”
I arched my brow. “Where the fuck do you think? Did you expect me to stay here?”
“Boss, you’re still healing.”
“I am fine. My arm is healing and I can still shoot with my other one. I’m not sitting here while you and my men raid Vincenzo’s place. I’ll help the girls we save while you kill everyone. I’m going, and you can’t stop me. I don’t give a shit about broken ribs or what the fuck else.”
Lena wanted me to rest my body. My father and Serena wanted me to relax, but I couldn’t relax.
I refused to be cooped up in this house on bed rest while Harlow was out there alone.
Finding her was more important than healing.
It was not the first time I’d been injured, and it wouldn’t be the last. Harlow would be in my arms again if it was the last fucking thing I did.
Falling in love with her was never my intention, but now that I knew what it was like to have her, I would never let her go without a fight.
She was my heart and soul, and without her, I was not whole.
Moira eyed me as I left the house with my men, but she didn’t say anything.
I knew they knew this was how it would be.
Even when I was a teenager, barely able to fight, I was out with my father or the men under him.
It took me two years to learn combat. I was fighting men a hundred pounds heavier than me and knocking them on their asses.
I was the best fighter they’d seen, and then I became leader.
My father’s men obeyed me at the snap of my fingers, but everyone else had trouble believing a woman could lead.
The ride to Milwaukee was silent and filled with tension. The driver was looking back at me through the mirror any time he hit a bump. He was new, which meant he didn’t know me, only the stories he heard from others. The rumor mill was intense when it came to the Moretti family.
My father built a name for the family creating businesses to hide the illegal shit he did on the docks: either drugs or weapons.
Both had a market in the city, but he and other families refused to deal with sex trade.
My father believed women should be cherished, loved, and wooed properly.
Even though his marriage to my mother was arranged, he courted her until the two of them fell in love.
Savina Rossi was a wildfire. According to my father, she had a wild streak before he finally got his hands around her.
Most arranged marriages happened only if the daughter was pure in some old-fashioned bullshit tradition.
My mom and dad were friends, and instead of waiting until marriage, my mother decided to find someone to lose her virginity to.
It was her way of choosing something for herself before the mafia life happened.
I didn’t ask questions, but they had a great marriage and love life after my mother made my father miserable for a few months.
When they married, my mother informed him she wasn’t a virgin, and my father didn’t care.
“I have you now, and no other man will have the pleasure of having you ever again.” It was not the happiest night of my life knowing of my mother and father’s sex life, but I knew they were happy.
Before I lost her, I wanted the happiness they had.
And after she was gone, I never thought I’d have it.
Meeting Harlow, everything changed. She was mine, and our future was sealed.
Once I had her back in my arms, everything would be perfect once again.
I would do everything she needed to heal and be there every step of the way.
No one would ever harm her again. Vincenzo made a mistake, and while he had almost a month, his time was running out. He would die when I found him.
“There are men in there with women. I want to get as many girls out as we can without casualty. Kill the men. We only need one,” Malachi informed the men as they loaded their weapons and double checked their ammo before he looked at me.
“Do I need to tell you to stay behind me, or are you going to be a brat and disobey your father’s orders? ”
I rolled my eyes, loading my gun. “I’m not a brat. I’ll shoot you myself if you ever say it again. I got your back. Let’s get this done.”
Alexi kicked the door open, and instantly gunshots and screams filled the air.
While my men killed our enemies, I grabbed the girls one by one, pulling them behind me.
I winced as one of the girls grasped my shoulder in a death grip, aggravating my broken collarbone.
The pain was temporary, but saving these girls was more important.
I could handle a little bit of pain if it meant I could get them all out of here.
I shot one man in the chest who attempted to sneak up on Malachi as he killed a group of five.
Moving the girls, I told them to take cover hiding at the bar, grabbing one of my men to keep them safe.
The look on their faces told me to bring Spencer next time I raided a sex ring.
The girls looked terrified of my men, but I needed to check the rooms while the men out here were occupied.
I made my way down the hallway, kicking in doors and shooting the men that I saw.
Thankfully, none of the girls I had found were physically injured besides a few scrapes and bruises.
The last room on this hallway had two men and an unconscious girl who looked no more than eighteen.
I shot the two men, killing them, before checking the girl.
She had a pulse, and her chest was rising.
My body would regret this later, but I grabbed the girl, throwing her over my good shoulder and going back down the hall with the other girls behind me.
Malachi glared at me when he saw me stumbling from the hallway with the girl draped over my shoulder, but I ignored him.
He sprinted to me, taking the girl, and I sighed in relief.
Normally, this wouldn’t be an issue, but on a normal day I was not suffering from broken bones.
Regardless, she needed to be saved from those men.
Malachi set the girl down on the bar, inspecting her and applying pressure to her abdominal wounds. It looked like a gunshot. I grasped my side, holding pressure to my screaming side. Broken ribs were not for mafia leaders, because injured or not, I would fight.
“How many girls are injured?” I asked.
“Eight. Including her, unfortunately. I don’t think any of the men are alive.”
“We’ll deal with it. After this, Vincenzo will be angry. I’ll get with Roman and see if he can come down and assist. Igor Orlov has a club here. One thing about Vincenzo’s men is they are scared, choosing safely. If Vincenzo is hiding, his men will find safety in an ally.”
“Vincenzo never hides, though. He was always on the front lines waiting for an attack.”
“He has my wife and he doesn’t want to give her up this time. He will hide until I give up or Harlow…”
“That’s not going to happen. We will find her. Harlow is stronger than you know. She’ll be cracked, but she won’t be shattered. She’s waiting for you to swoop in and rescue her like the hero in her books.”
“She thinks her hero is dead,” I deadpanned.
Malachi rolled his eyes. “Isn’t that how plot twists work? The so-called dead lover comes back to rescue the fair maiden?”
“Shut up and get the van.”