Chapter 35
Chapter Thirty-Five
Lance
I push through the crowd in a diagonal line to get to where I saw the colors. Suits, people, jewelry flashing in the light—too many things to focus on. As I make my way toward the stage, I subconsciously touch the gun holstered at my back. The jeebies did a number on me this morning, and I over prepared.
I jump onto the stage and rush behind the curtain. It’s mostly cleared out by now. The props are everywhere, scattered around. The backstage opens to the main hallway next to a back door that leads out to the forest side of the school. It’s the worst point of entry in the entire building. I hated it the second I saw it in the blueprints. Got to find my kid .
Maybe I’m overreacting. But the jeebies have never been wrong before. Who the hell would take Drew? Rage simmers in me, threatening to erupt with each step I take. I need to keep my cool, do what I’m trained to do. But I’m failing him. I’m supposed to keep him safe. He’s my principal, he’s my kid.And he’s not backstage.
I rush out to the main hallway and also trip over something. As soon as my brain registers my heart sinks. There’s one Mongolian boot on the floor.
No.
“LANCE!” My name slices through the noise like a sword. Drew stands with his mom. Instant relief. He’s safe. But there’s something wrong. The crowd clears slightly, and I see it. He’s wearing two boots.
Ian.
I push the door open with my arm, half expecting alarms to go off, and the silence breaks my heart. Shit. Once outside, the tree line with orange and brown leaves is only a few feet away. The leaves are already disturbed, and I follow the path into the woods. My gun drawn, I make my way through the branches, and Ian bellows to send me in the right direction.
There’s a figure, a man in a black coat, holding a squirming, crying kid. Is Ian the target? Does he notice Ian is screaming in Russian? “Stop!”
Former Russian mob trying to settle a score?
An enemy of the Four Families trying to make a point?
A rival crime family?
A kidnapping with the intent to hold him for ransom?
The figure turns around, shouting, “He’s mine!”
I recognized him from surveillance footage. Izzy’s ex, Mike Bringsea. And he has a gun to Ian’s head.
“Put down the gun and give me the kid.” I try to keep my voice even, but I haven’t seen Ian this scared since we rescued him in Russia. Tears stream down his red face. “It’s going to be okay.” I try to reassure him, but Ian knows exactly how this can end.
“He’s my son, and I’m taking him. The Four Families will have to negotiate with me if they want him back.”
No, he’s not. I know for a fact who Ian’s father is, and it sure as hell isn’t that guy. Ian freezes for a second and starts thrashing around crying.
Holy shit, this mother fucking asshole has the wrong kid and doesn’t even know it.
He didn’t even recognize his own son.
He had a fifty-fifty shot of getting it right, and he still fucked it up. “Give me the boy.”I yell.
“You’ll have to shoot me first.”
I lift both hands in the air. “I’m not going to shoot you at an elementary school.”
In the distance a door slams, the sound so jarring, Mike takes his eyes off me. “Who the fuck are you?”
My lips curl at the corners, because I know exactly who’s interrupting us. Three black dogs charge from the woods toward the gunman. Hadeon’s dogs jump on him from behind. Well played. The gunman is distracted enough for Ian to scramble out of his grip as a sixty-pound rottweiler knocks Izzy’s ex over. Ian sprints toward me, smart enough to run in a zigzag. His arms wrap around me as the school door crashes open on its hinges.
Dimitri charges out like a tank, breezing past me, past three dogs howling and snapping, andbarreling into the ex with all of his weight, slamming him to the ground. Maybe it’s wishful thinking because I heard the snap, but I’m kinda hoping he broke a few of Mike Bringsea’s ribs and not merely a bunch of sticks. He wraps one fist around the asshole’s shirt and pummels hard on his cheek and jaw with the other. “You fucking touched my kid. How dare you!”
Ian flinches a little as he wraps his arms tighter around my waist and buries his face in my hip. I drop my arm and rub his back, keeping my eyes, and my gun, pointed in the direction of the bludgeoning I have no intention of stopping. “You’re safe now. It’s okay.” But Ian’s sobs are barely audible over the barking.
Bringsea stammers, “You’re the Squid. You’re supposed to be dead.”
Dimitri scoffs, “That was my brother. I’m the Octopus.” He lifts his fist high in the air. And that’s when the full range of Dimitri’s fist slams down.
“Well, that’s a broken jaw,” I say to Ian.
The school door opens again, and this time it’s Thiago, Duncan, and Izzy, with a terrified Drew leading them. “They went out this way.” In the distance there’s a whistle, and the dogs disengage from their attack and retreat.
“Um, I’m so sorry they got away.” Hadeon looks awkward and disheveled.He looks at the kids. “Can you help me get them?” These dogs have hundreds of thousands of dollars in training. One word and they would go running to his side. No. Hadeon is distracting the boys so they won’t be scared. Dad Mode activated .
Drew watches the dogs for a few moments before turning his attention back to Ian. “Are you okay?”
Ian lifts his head and growls, “You have a bad dad.”
Drew pauses and blinks a few times. “You speak ENGLISH!”
There’s a sound that’s half laugh, half cry from Ian. “Yeah.”
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Drew’s frustration is laced in every word.
Ian sniffs. “You move your hands around like a clown when you talk to me. It’s funny.” I give him one more quick squeeze before pushing him off and nudging him to his friend. Ian wipes his face with the heels of his hands.
Drew glances at me to see what to do. I smile at him and motion to the dogs running around the campus. His face is hard to read. Could be grateful, maybe also a little hurt. And a good level of annoyed. Drew huffs, “Come on, let’s go get the dogs. You have to get all the fast, annoying ones.”
The two boys run off, trying to grab their collars every time a dog gets close. Ian laughs as one dog slips through his fingers only to have one jump on him and lick his face. It would almost be a wholesome scene if the dogs weren’t lethal guard dogs, the witnesses weren’t in the criminal underworld, and an entire extended family wasn’t super pissed at the bleeding asshole in the pile of leaves.
Izzy steps forward, but Thiago puts his arm out. “Hold on.”
Duncan walks into the woods with a black backpack over his shoulder. I’ve never seen them work before and now doesn’t seem like the right time to start.
Instead, I focus on Izzy. She’s my whole world. Her bottom lip quivers, and her eyes get glassy. She’s starting to shake, too, but this isn’t a fear reaction. She’s not looking at me, only at the men in the woods. My hand rests on her cheek. “They’re safe.”
Izzy is still on the stairs, a few feet higher than me, and she watches over my shoulder. Between the barking and the kids yelling, I can still hear the sound of fists on flesh.
Thiago steps to the side and joins his family into the darkness of the treeline.
Izzy’s voice sounds shallow as she whispers, “He didn’t even realize it was the wrong kid.”
The breach of security is bad. The kidnapping is catastrophic. To use that child as a bargaining chip was evil. But not recognizing your own son? That’s a low I hadn’t seen before. It takes all my strength not to run into the woods and take a few punches of my own.
“Do you need a hug?” Everyone is different when they are in a rightful rage. To assume she wants me at all at this moment is selfish.
She nods and throws her arms around me, burying her head in my neck. She shakes and whispers, “Thank you.”
“I thought it was Drew, I thought he took my…” I stop myself before the words came out. My kid. Drew is mine.
She squeezes me tighter. “Drew is more yours than his, that’s for damn sure.”
The door swings open, and two more women emerge. Izzy’s mother is on the phone. “Hold on, there are dogs everywhere.” She pauses, taking in the situation. “I see him. Our boys have him.” She curses under her breath, but her expression and voice are completely stoic when she lets the caller know, “There is a camera that needs to get wiped. I’ll see you soon.”
She stumbles forward slightly as she’s pushed out of the way. Nonna emerges behind her, hikes her purse on her shoulder, and stomps forward. Izzy reaches for her, to keep her stable, warning, “Watch the stairs.”
“I’ve been going up and down stairs my whole life.” She yanks away from her granddaughter and heads toward the woods. Her gait is slow, steady and menacing.
Izzy and I follow behind. By the time we reach the tree line, the ex has his arms and feet tied behind his back. The old woman lifts his bleeding chin. He cries out, his jaw out of alignment, and his eyes already swollen. She digs her nails in deeper. “Thus far you have survived solely out of the mercy of the matriarchs of this family. That ends now.” She spits in his face and turns away to the field. “Call my grandson over here,” she says to Izzy.
A few seconds later, Drew runs over. “What’s up, Grandma?”
“You will never see this man again. Anything you need to say to him, do it now.”
Drew turns his head between his mom, his grandma, and me. He bites the inside of his lips like when he’s nervous. He’s been doing that all day. I bend closer to him to make sure he hears me loud and clear. “Nothing that happened today was your fault. You and Ian did nothing wrong. As kids go, you’re in my top five.”
He snorts, “You only know five kids.”
I lean in and whisper, “Don’t tell the others, but you’re my favorite.”
He sniffles and takes a deep breath before squaring his shoulders and walking toward the broken and tied man. “Today sucked. I had to talk in public, wear a stupid hat, and you hurt my best friend.” Drew calls over his shoulder to Ian, who walks over. “He’s on shaky ground, though, considering he’s been lying to me for the last few months.” Drew shoots Ian a knowing smirk before taking another step toward his sperm donor. “My family might be full of criminals and murderers, but at least they aren’t assholes.”
Dimitri calls, “Ian, do you have anything to say?”
Ian swallows and steps forward. “We do not look alike.” He pulls his arm back and starts to launch forward, when Drew grabs his hand.
“No. Fix your thumb.” He takes Ian’s thumb and moves it further down on his knuckles.
Ian smiles and pulls his arm back, letting it fly with a force I never would have imagined a kid that size could pack. The impact makes the man howl. I’ve never seen Dimitri more proud.
But Nonna frowns at the violence and clicks her tongue. “The men use their fists, the women use words. One will always do more damage. How did your mother raise you?”
Drew takes a second to think it over before he says, “I don’t know what my uncles will do to you. I’m going to live a long and happy life, and me and my family will never think about you again. Because you’re that worthless.”
Thiago pinches his lips tight the way he does when he’s trying not to laugh at Maria. But Duncan lets out a low whistle and says, “I’d rather get hit than have a ten-year-old say that to me.”
As the two men lift up the body and walk off into the woods, Nonna turns back to the building and says, “It’s too hot out here. Let’s go back inside.” She reaches for her daughter’s arm, and that’s that.
Ian pets one of the dogs behind the ears. “Bye.”
Drew shoulder checks him. “I’m still pissed at you.”
Izzy looks up at me. “What?”
“Um, Ian speaks English.”
Izzy laughs. “Oh, baby, you got Four Grandma’d.”