Chapter 30
Thirty
ROME
“Your girl can cook,” Carson says as we walk out to the waiting SUVs.
“Flirt with her again, and you’re fucking done.”
The fucker smirks. “Come on. You know I wouldn’t do anything. I like her for you.”
I glance his way. “I’m so relieved that I have your blessing. Are you ready to go intimidate my woman’s piece-of-shit father now?”
The humor leaves his face, and what replaces it is pure wrath.
“Always. Let’s do this.”
The four of us are traveling in separate SUVs, as usual. Rizzo agreed to meet with us, but we’re in the middle of a goddamn war, so we need to be ready for anything. We have an army of forty men going with us, and I trust each of them implicitly.
“Our guys are in position and ready,” Luke informs me once I’m in the back seat of my black SUV. “Rizzo is there. He has eight men with him.”
“That’s it?”
Luke shrugs. “Seems so.”
I shake my head and feel the fury pulse through my veins as every word my firefly said to me earlier in the kitchen runs through my mind.
He didn’t just abuse her.
He fucking tormented and tortured her for twenty-three years.
I’m not simply going to kill him. That’s too good for that piece of shit. No, I’m going to keep him alive for a good long while and make him beg for death. Even then, I won’t give him peace.
He’d better enjoy every day of his freedom because it’s coming to an end soon.
We stop outside of the warehouse that we use for meetups like these. Our army has instructions to surround the area, with fifteen men coming inside with us. Just because Rizzo has eight at his side doesn’t mean he hasn’t given similar instructions to his own men.
We could be walking into an all-out battle.
I check both my sidearms and the knives on my belt before stepping out of the vehicle.
Julian, Mateo, and Carson are ready as I join them, and the four of us walk through the doors side by side.
Rizzo leans negligently against a crate, his arms folded over his chest. His dark hair is slicked back, and his eyes are hard and calculating as our men file in behind us.
“So much for a friendly meeting,” he sneers.
“We don’t have a friendly relationship,” Julian reminds him, taking the lead. Rizzo thinks we’re here because of the man’s attack on Julian’s port. We don’t plan to tell him about Eloise’s whereabouts. “You made sure of that when you killed my men and stole from me.”
Rizzo shakes his head. He’s not quite fifty, less than ten years older than any of us, but he likes to talk down to everyone around him.
He’s annoying as fuck. I want to send one of my knives right through his throat. It would be so easy. So fast.
Too fast.
“Now, Julian, I didn’t know the port belonged to you.”
“That’s a crock of shit,” Mateo says with a scoff. “The entire West Coast knows. You thought you could swing your dick around and get away with it.”
“Did you get my package?” Julian asks. Suddenly, weapons are cocked and pointed at us.
I grin.
This is the part I enjoy. Threaten me. Fucking threaten me and see where it gets you.
“Listen.” Rizzo holds his hand up, and his men stand down. “I got your message, Julian, and you have my apologies. Like I said, I didn’t know it was your shipment.”
Carson growls.
Mateo scoffs.
But Julian and I simply stare.
And Rizzo’s eyebrows pull together, just long enough to show that he’s rattled.
“I want my diamonds back,” Julian says. “With interest. And I want your men off my turf.”
Rizzo doesn’t speak for a moment, and then says, “I can agree to that, with a condition.”
“I don’t really think you’re in a position to demand conditions,” Mateo mutters, but Rizzo keeps talking.
“My daughter is missing,” he says, and my hands ball into fists. “The last I knew, she was here in Las Vegas.”
“The last you knew?” Carson asks, tipping his head to the side.
“The man I sent to collect her has gone missing,” Rizzo replies. “And there has been no news. That was days ago.”
“Send men into our city without talking to us first, and bad things happen,” Mateo says.
“I was trying to rescue my daughter,” Rizzo says. “I love her so much and just want her home with me.”
My jaw is clenched so tightly, it’s a wonder my molars don’t break.
“It sounds like she might not want to be found,” Carson says, and Rizzo licks his lips.
Everyone is terrified of Carson.
“Maybe she skipped out with your man,” Julian suggests, knowing it’ll piss me off.
“She’s a foolish girl,” Rizzo replies, shaking his head. “I’m ready for her to be married, and she needs to come home. So I’ll pay your interest if you help me find Eloise.”
Her name in his mouth makes me feral.
I could kill him and all of his men right now. It’s nothing less than he deserves.
But Julian still has his product and money to collect.
“I want the goods and the money within twenty-four hours,” Julian says. “Once that’s delivered, we’ll see what we can find out about your daughter. She may not even be in our city.”
“I suspect she is,” Rizzo replies.
“Why?” I ask, speaking for the first time. “Why do you think she’s in Vegas?”
He watches me for several long moments. “Call it a hunch.”
I don’t buy it.
He knows something. Once Julian has what he needs out of this asshole, I’m taking him out.
“Twenty-four hours,” Julian repeats, and the four of us turn to walk out of the warehouse.
“Oh, one more thing,” Rizzo says, catching our attention. “If I find out that one of you has touched her, that she’s not pure as fucking snow when she’s delivered back to me, I’ll kill all of you.”
Carson smirks.
“No,” Mateo says in a low voice so only I can hear, so I don’t raise my weapon and take him out.
Without answering, we leave and climb into our vehicles, then drive away.
To say my fury is barely controlled is an understatement.
The piece of shit who not only beat his daughter but sold her was right fucking there.
Pretending he loves his “foolish” daughter.
I could have gotten justice for my firefly.
It can’t come soon enough. Christ, she survived that.
We reconvene at Julian’s mansion since it’s the closest, and once inside, we sit in his living room with some whiskey.
This room is massive, but it’s lived in and not ostentatious.
Julian built this place about five years ago, and we’ve all spent plenty of time out here, especially when we want to get out of the city.
“He knows more than he’s saying,” Mateo says, staring at me.
“Do we have a problem?” I challenge my friend.
“Maybe. I’m not convinced that your girl isn’t a fucking plant. I don’t care how well she cooks or how good her pussy is—”
“For fuck’s sake,” Julian grumbles.
“She could be a goddamn spy, and you know it.”
I shake my head, impatience seething through me. “She’s not a goddamn spy. I’ve seen the bruises her father put on her. She’s told me about what that fucker put her through. She’s not trying to get information for him.”
“She could be lying,” Julian points out.
“Okay, I’m going to side with Rome on this one,” Carson says, shaking his head. “That girl is no plant. I really don’t think he knows where she is. He sounded almost desperate.”
“And not because he loves her,” I add. “Eloise told me about his plan to marry her off, but that she didn’t know the man. Had never heard his name before. Whoever it is, Rizzo clearly needs her for an alliance of some kind.”
“Did she tell you the name?” Mateo asks, but I shake my head.
“No. Just that she ran because she didn’t trust that they’d be any better to her than her father had been.
If she was a fucking plant, she wouldn’t have been living in that piece-of-shit motel.
She wouldn’t have been so goddamn terrified.
” I watch Julian and Mateo, and I can see that they agree with me, but they still don’t trust her.
“What do you need to know to trust her?”
“I need Rizzo to die and to see her reaction to that news,” Mateo says simply.
“Well, as soon as Julian gets what he needs from the asshole, that’s the plan,” I tell him. “Because after what he put Eloise through, he doesn’t get to live one minute longer than necessary.”
Before the conversation can continue, Julian’s son, Elliott, walks into the room with his fiancée on his arm. He’s in a tux, and Natasha looks beautiful in a floor-length gown the color of her eyes.
Sapphires.
Her blond hair is swept up and away from her face, and she’s holding Elliott’s hand.
She won’t look any of us in the eyes. That’s not unusual.
“Hey, everyone,” Elliott says with a smile. “Natasha and I were just headed out to the Wish Upon a Star Gala. We’re going to bid on some silent auction things and dance, right, babe?”
Natasha’s smile is forced, but she nods. “It should be fun.”
I glance over at Julian, who watches his son cooly. Julian has had to buy Elliott’s way out of jail a few times, yet the idiot continues to be reckless. His gambling habit will end up getting him killed, even if his father is Julian Stavros.
But recently, Julian approved the engagement between his son and Natasha Ivanov, the daughter of Sergei Ivanov, the head of the Russian Bratva. The alliance would be good business for both families.
However, based on how tight Natasha’s smile is and the way she looks like she wants to run away from Elliott, my guess would be that she’s not thrilled by the union.
“Have a good evening,” Julian says with a nod. The couple walks through the door and out to Elliott’s Range Rover.
“She doesn’t look thrilled,” Mateo says.
Julian’s eyes narrow. “They’ve only just met a few weeks ago. They’re getting to know each other.”
“When’s the wedding?” I ask him.
“Next month.”
We nod because there isn’t anything else to say. This is how things work in our world, whether we like it or not.
“We have other business to discuss.” Mateo changes the subject. “And Carson’s not going to like it.”
“I don’t like much,” Carson reminds us. “Just say it.”
“Adam Damien,” Mateo says, and Carson stands to pace. “I haven’t had eyes on him in our city, but there have been rumblings.”
I watch Carson, aware that this hits a particularly sensitive nerve for him.
For all of us, really.
Adam Damien is why Carson spent the better part of a decade in federal prison.
He’s also the reason the love of Carson’s life is dead.
Damien’s why Carson is as deadly as he is. The reason he’s filled with revenge and wrath despite none of that bringing Rina back.
Nothing can bring her back.
“If he steps one toe in this state,” Carson growls, “I will skin him alive.”
“I’m just putting everyone on the offensive.” Mateo shakes his head. “The man’s a fucking ghost, but I’ve been hearing things.”
“Keep listening,” Julian suggests. “And keep us informed.”