Chapter 32
Kingston
Gio was holding off five men when I finally got to him.
He was on the porch, kneeling while taking each shot. A few of the men had torches and were indeed attempting to burn the farm to the ground.
Flanking the men, I shot the ones my brother hadn’t gotten to yet. After that wave, it seemed there weren’t any more. It was silent again as my brother nodded toward me.
“Henry is on.” He threw me his cell, and I caught it midair, bringing it to my ear.
“The fuck is going on, Henry? Where is everyone?”
There was an eerie silence in the background. “Half your men were bought off, Kingston. Scotty bribed the men with half a million dollars.”
I stopped walking. “And the other half?”
“They’re loyal to me.”
My stomach dropped out as my eyes bounced up to my brother. He didn’t know what was being said, so he still looked hopeful.
“You honestly thought you and your brother would just be handed something as powerful as El Peligro just like that? Men had been loyal to this gang for decades before you were even a thought. They were loyal to your father because he understood the danger of it. He respected El Peligro. You and your bitch brother treated it like an ATM machine.”
I spun around and began running toward the manor, already knowing Gio would follow.
“But this war with Markos is beneficial for El Peligro because of the power shift. Aside from us, why wouldn’t you want to take him out?” I asked.
Henry yelled at someone in the background while other sorts of commotion took place. “Oh that. You never did piece it together, did you?”
Sweat broke out on my brow as I pushed closer to the manor. My stomach churned painfully. What had I missed? What the fuck was there to miss?
Gio was next to me, his brows drawn in tight while he checked the property through his scope.
Henry laughed. “The tattoo you saw in the picture when we invaded the Mariano residence. You looked at it as if you’d seen it before.”
Fuck. The image flashed in my head, the hourglass with a knife cutting through it.
It finally hit.
“You work for Markos?”
“Ding, ding, ding. Fuckin’ brilliant. There was so much shit you missed because you were distracted by that cunt, Presley.
You’ll enjoy what her sick fuck of an uncle has planned for her.
Markos will be taking your sister as a bride, but Presley, he’s giving to Scotty to whore out with some alliance.
Word has already spread that she’s untrustworthy, so he’ll force her to demonstrate she can play well with others. ”
“You’re dead.” I seethed while anger surged through me. “Fucking dead.”
I heard him laughing again, “So dramatic. You ever ask why Scotty wears so many layers? Ever consider he might be hiding a similar tattoo?”
He hung up before I could respond.
Gio assumed what had happened. “He double-crossed us?”
“Yeah, they all fucking did. Scotty bought off half the men with a couple million dollars.” I had no idea where he’d gotten that kind of money, but hadn’t Pres mentioned something about Scotty randomly visiting Carter and asking about her billionaire grandfather?
“We need to go check on Dad and the family. They should have been out here with us.”
We were near our family wing, by the back patio, when I noticed Gio was struggling to hold his gun.
“What’s wrong with you?”
He twisted his arm around as if to stretch it. “Just a pinched nerve, I’m good.”
Brushing it off, we quietly entered the manor through the kitchen doors of our family wing, and the second we were inside, we realized what had gone wrong.
“Taylor, I’m willing to save your children. That’s the current offer on the table, but Juan will be killed.”
Gio raised his scope, moving silently through the kitchen.
Benni and Renzo Adesso stood next to Markos, one had their gun trained on my mother, while the other had one aimed at Alex.
Markos sat directly in front of our mother with her between his open knees.
Her hands were tied behind her back, and her mouth was covered.
She didn’t cry though, no. She looked angry. So did my sister.
“Come now. Think of your children, Aurelia.”
Gio glanced at me, with his brows up high as if he were as confused as I was. I remembered there were things our parents had shared with us, and Dad had said she was once promised to him in marriage. Did Mom have a different name? I knew her father’s last name was Varga…
Dad began shaking in his chair and yelling around his mouth gag as Markos stroked a finger down Mom’s face.
“Perhaps a more suited fate would be to allow your husband the opportunity to watch me defile you.” Markos laughed while he leaned in closer to kiss our mother, but she met him half way and slammed her forehead into his nose, making blood spurt everywhere.
Raising my gun, I focused on my target right as Gio fixated on his, and in unison we shot. A spray of red came from the back of Benni’s head, and then Renzo dropped to the ground. Markos lifted his head, trying to gauge what happened, but his nose was busted to shit, so he was disoriented.
“Call all your men off.” I pointed my gun at his forehead while Gio helped our dad out of his bindings. The second he was free, he pulled our mother away from where Markos was sitting and undid hers, then he went to Alex.
Markos tried to struggle, but Gio brought his gun up and shot him in the other arm. “Call them off!”
“Fine, give me my phone,” Markos spat, but now that our dad was free.
“You touched my fucking wife.” His fist flew into Markos’s face.
I sat back and watched as Dad’s fist came down again and again and again.
I realized I might be able to call things off simply by sending a text from his phone.
I checked the dead brothers first, using their faces to unlock their phones.
Sure enough, they were texting with someone outside who was in charge of bringing all the men.
I shot off a text for them to fall back and wait for further command.
I heard a gun being prepared to fire and turned around. My mother stood with her mouth rag around her neck, a smear of blood along her lip, and her hands wrapped around a pistol.
She aimed at Markos.
“Taylor?” Dad said, with his fists still clenched. He wasn’t done with him, but he moved out of the way.
Mom didn’t seem to care as she pulled the trigger.
I needed to go find Presley. Gio seemed to have the same concern as we left our family and began running through the manor.
“Where are they?” Gio yelled while searching their side of the James family wing.
Empty.
“I don’t know, but we have to keep searching.” I exited their wing with my rifle raised once more, clearing each space. I didn’t think they’d be in Carter’s wing, but we checked it regardless.
Then we rushed to the gym as a sinking, nagging feeling relentlessly crept in.
Gio kept his gun trained on the door as I yanked it open, and right as we did, everything seemed to come to a screeching halt.