15. Marco
CHAPTER 15
“Update?” Javier asked for the third time. This hour.
“No,” I bit out.
“She’ll be back as soon as she can,” Cruz muttered from the corner of the room where he sat with his laptop on his legs.
Javier went back to his pacing.
We’d rotated losing our minds over the last four days. It was currently his turn, but he’d calm down soon enough. Then one of us would take his place.
I clicked through various feeds of the northern warehouses Dias used for his weapons trafficking. There was another delivery due, but no sign of it yet.
Compared to the chaos of the last few days, this was mind-numbingly boring.
Millie’s birthday party had been a complete shitstorm that left his men reeling and struggling to hold the business together enough to run.
A gang war had not been in our plans for that night. We wanted Dias to admit in front of his guys how much he’d given to Michael to rent out the club, but drawing weapons had been unexpected and less than ideal.
At least we could add another enemy to the list of suspects when everything finally went down. The Velez would be so far down, we’d probably be overlooked entirely. Dias was that good at pissing people off.
We wanted Em back to see for ourselves that she was safe and unharmed. Listening and watching the disaster unfold from our apartment was a living nightmare. Javi, Cruz, and I had stayed here since the party was such a low risk.
It was nothing other than luck that she hadn’t gotten hurt. All the training in the world meant nothing when you were unarmed in the middle of a gunfight.
Ama getting shot in the shoulder was a blessing considering what could have happened.
Dias lost four men. The gang lost one, with two in serious condition.
To say his men were mad would be the understatement of the century. Talk of removing him from the top was widespread and out in the open. His top men, who should have immediately stomped out any mention of a mutiny, didn’t bother pretending like they didn’t agree.
He was called unstable. Insane. Delusional. Unhinged. Unfit.
We sat back and let the doubt spread.
“They’re still in bed. How long can he keep her there before it’s a hostage situation?” Cruz slammed his laptop closed.
“I told you to stop watching. I have alerts set up if any of the exterior windows or doors open,” I reminded him, not that he’d forgotten.
We wanted her home. Not with that bastard.
“How can he not tell she’s faking it? I’m not even in the room, and I know.”
I closed my eyes while pinching the bridge of my nose. We shouldn’t be watching that intently. A quick glance to confirm her location was all that was needed. Watching her intimate moments with Dias was too much.
Derek was there. Alessio gave him a guest room when Em refused to send him away. His presence was the one thing keeping us all from running over and ripping her out of that house.
If we were losing it watching the feeds, I had no idea how my brother was surviving being down the hall.
“Fucking stop,” Javi snapped.
“I can’t,” Cruz yelled. “It’s haunting me.”
“It’s her job. She’s doing what she needs to. That’s it.” As if I needed to remind him of that. “We all know if she had a choice, she would be here with us.”
“Do we?” Cruz challenged. “Because I’m pretty damn sure she didn’t have to fuck him twice last night.”
“Shut up!” Javi stood and faced off with our brother. “She doesn’t owe us or anyone anything. Not an explanation. Not an apology. She’s not your girlfriend. She doesn’t belong to us.”
“I’m well aware,” Cruz grumbled.
But Javi was fired up. “Just be grateful she’s willing to go this far. She’s giving us the time and space we need to put things in place without alerting Dias to anything. She’s sacrificing so much more than any of us could imagine and hasn’t complained once.”
Cruz cowered. “I would never say anything to her.”
“Don’t even think it!” He didn’t back off. “We asked for more time, so she’s risking her life in that house doing whatever she has to keep Dias occupied. You don’t get to say a single word, let alone have a thought, that doesn’t respect that. The absolute last thing she needs when she can finally leave and come back home is for any of us to do anything but support her. We thank her for her amazing work. We tell her how much we appreciate her. We update her on the rest of the case. We fulfill our responsibilities so her sacrifices don’t go to waste. That’s it.”
Cruz stared up at him, mouth slightly ajar, before finally nodding. “Got it.”
Javi eyed him before turning and sitting back down.
I smirked but stayed quiet for a few minutes to let them calm down. “With the new information she gave us, we’re almost done.”
“And?” Cruz asked.
“Exactly.” I sighed, glancing between them. “Then what?”
“We go home.” Javi shrugged.
“Without her?” Cruz crossed his arms.
I shook my head. “Absolutely not. We’re staying together.”
“How?” Cruz asked.
I opened my mouth, then shut it.
“She might be willing to leave.” Javi stared at the ground. “She hates what the Pack turned her into, but it was her only way to survive.”
We all did. None of us wanted to be killers, but we weren’t in control. “We owe our lives to the Velez,” I started. “Everything we have––everything we are––is because of them.”
“We can leave. Take her with us,” Cruz offered.
Javi frowned. “We can’t. Not without getting ourselves, and her, killed.”
His words felt like a sucker punch, but he wasn’t exaggerating. We had no way out. The Pack was too powerful. Too expansive. We were tiny pawns in their world, and they wouldn’t hesitate to take us out, even Em, if we betrayed them.
“There must be an answer. Maybe she can get permission to move in with us. at least then she’d be off Pack land,” Cruz suggested.
I slumped. “We’ll always be their soldiers. We can ask but, in the end, it’s up to them.”
As if any of us needed the reminder that our lives were not our own.
The energy of the apartment changed the moment she stepped inside.
A shift without her saying a word. I didn’t turn. Didn’t need to see her to let go of the weight I’d been carrying through the days since we’d last seen each other.
“Marco.” Her voice was a balm.
I turned away from the counter, lowering my phone and taking her in. Her beauty was hard to believe, no matter how many times my mind filled with visions of her.
Her golden skin, glossy raven hair, and hickory eyes glinting with mischief.
Even windswept from the boat ride, she was stunning.
“I missed you.” The words slipped before I could stop them, not that I would have. I wanted her to know.
Her full lips curved. “I missed you more.”
I patted Derek’s shoulder as he passed with their bags. He grunted and headed straight for his bedroom.
I moved to her, wrapping my arms around her back, holding her close. I pulled back just enough to capture her chin and tilt it back to claim her lips. She kissed me back gently once.
“Where are––”
“Shh.” I spun us, pressing her back to the wall and pinning her hips with my hands as my lips crashed against hers. This was all we needed to focus on. At least for a few minutes.
She relaxed and slipped her hands around my neck, her fingers wrapping around my hair and tugging gently. Her mouth opened, inviting, and I stroked my tongue along hers. I wanted––craved––more of her.
It had been too long.
Years.
A lifetime.
There would never be enough.
She moaned, thrusting her hips against mine.
A throat cleared, and I growled as I dropped my forehead against hers. “Go away.”
“Don’t be greedy.” Javi smirked when I turned and gave him the finger.
Em hurried to him, and he caught her by the waist, spinning her around before sliding his hands up her body as he brought them together.
Watching them kiss as passionately as we just had probably should have made me jealous. It would destroy a lesser man, but I was too relieved to have her back with our family for petty emotions.
“Did I hear the door?” Cruz called as he came out of the office with headphones around his neck. He froze as Javi and Em broke apart. “There’s my girl.”
She laughed and cocked a brow. “Your girl? I’m not sure where I should even start with that statement.”
“Oh, shut it.” He smirked. “I know you missed me most.”
She hummed but didn’t argue.
Cruz shot me a glare. “Someone could have told me she was back.”
“And give up precious seconds with her?” I scoffed. “Not our fault you couldn’t sense her.”
“I did, actually. I was just the only one working and had to finish a call.”
He shot me a glare before going to Em. She stepped out of Javi’s arms and sighed as she rested her head against Cruz’s chest.
“I missed you too,” she whispered before looking up at him and waiting.
He grinned and pressed a gentle kiss to her lips. I expected them to separate so we could catch up, but he kept his arms locked around her.
“You okay?” Javi asked.
It was an oversimplified way of asking her for an update on the past several days. I doubted it was a word she would use to describe herself right now. Were any of us okay?
“I’m frustrated and tired and annoyed and sick of playing stupid and two seconds away from shoving him off a tall building, but yeah. I’m okay.”
I let out a low laugh. “No killing him yet.”
She rolled her eyes, still leaning into Cruz. “Fine.”
“How did your talk go?” Javi asked, and she brightened.
“Better than expected. He believed me when I said I had work to catch up on. So I pushed it and told him we need to figure out how to balance our lives better, treat this like the real thing rather than hiding out at his house.”
“How did he react?” I asked.
“He seemed a little relieved. He’s probably dying to get back to work.” She smirked. “I can interrupt him as needed.”
Cruz laughed. “Evil temptress.”
She grinned up at him.
“How’s Ama?” Cruz asked.
“Fine.” Her shoulders sagged. “Acting like it never even happened, which means either it has before or she’s been told to carry on like things are normal.”
“Both probably,” I added.
“Which means Dias knows he’s being watched.” Javi stared out the tall windows. “But by who?”
“He’s still suspicious of Brazzi, but the gang is his top priority right now. He’s trying to smooth things over.”
“Well, they got their revenge the other night,” Derek said. “The missing delivery went to one of Michael’s shops on the west side.”
“Weapons or drugs?” she asked.
“Drugs,” Cruz answered.
She scrunched her nose. “His men won’t like that.”
“Word spread pretty fast. Seems to be the last straw for a lot of them. According to my last call, word is going around of who should replace him.”
“Any names coming up?” Javi asked.
“None they can agree on. It’s split between men who want to take control, men who want Dias to pull his head out of his ass, and men who might make a good leader but aren’t interested in having the target placed on their backs.”
“I can’t imagine wanting to step into Dias’s shoes right now.” I blew out a breath, “He’s making things messier than we are.”
Javi smiled at Em. “Should we start calling you Helen of Miami?”
She scoffed. “You give me too much credit. A better leader wouldn’t be in this position in the first place. His father should have taken more time to train him.”
Unfortunately for them, that didn’t happen, and now he was running out of time.