Chapter 8
Chapter Eight
ANDIE
“You look better,” Declan says to me when Liam and I come out of the bedroom.
He’s sitting on the small couch, a pair of reading glasses perched on his nose and an e-reader in his hand. He doesn’t look like a mobster or a cold-blooded murderer. He doesn’t look like the man who recently took out over half the made men in the Rossi organization.
“Is Tessa still here?” I ask him, taking a seat in the plaid armchair across from him.
I cross my legs at the ankle, hands folded demurely in my lap, and sit up straight. It’s a habit ingrained in me through years of beatings. Fuck that shit. I slouch back and man-spread like the best of them. Declan seems bemused.
“She left a little while ago.”
“Rafe?” Just saying his name makes my blood rage. My ex and I have some unfinished business.
“He left with her,” Declan casually answers, which is not the answer I was wanting, but I let it slide for now.
He tells Liam, “Get everything ready. We’re leaving within the hour.”
“Yes, sir.”
Liam casually brushes a hand across my shoulder as he passes by. A gesture that isn’t lost on his boss. I avoid Declan’s questioning eyebrow raise by taking in my surroundings.
The interior of the house looks different in the daytime. Like a vacation rental. The living room, kitchen, and eating area are all connected in one big, open space. There are four bedroom doors lined up alongside one another off the living room. A short hallway leads to the back door and the outside cellar. The walls are bare. No pictures or other decorations.
“Are we going somewhere?”
Declan removes his glasses and sets them and the tablet on the table. “We’re going home.”
Home .
“You told me last night that I was free to leave. Were you telling the truth?”
Declan props his elbows on his knees, his eyes meeting mine. “I will never lie to you.” He doesn’t blink or look away. “I won’t stop you. But I don’t think leaving is what you want to do.”
His discerning gaze and the fact that he can read me so easily, catches me by surprise.
“It’s not.”
He nods slowly and sits back. “I’m listening.”
Without hesitation, I reply, “I’m not done with my revenge.”
Maximillian Rossi was just the first. I remembered something Keane had said about cutting off the head of a hydra and another one appearing. That things within the organization were precarious, like falling dominoes. I have to make sure the Rossi famiglia is fully dismantled and destroyed so completely, that it can never rise from the ashes. Then, there is what to do about the Ortiz Cartel. Before I decide on how to handle that problem, I want to speak with Rafe.
But first, I need to send a message.
“Is he still down there?” I ask Declan.
“Liam will destroy any evidence before we go.”
I hold up my hand. “Don’t. Leave him exactly like he is. I want them to see.”
I want Keane and Jax to see what I did. To understand how far I’m willing to go. I want the families to know what’s coming for them. I want them to be afraid. Of me. See my name carved into his chest and his fetid dick shoved down his throat.
Declan gives me a small smile of approval. He looks proud of me.
“What do you want me to do with the others?”
So, it really was him that kidnapped Uncle Dom and the other capos. “Are they alive?”
He actually laughs.
I should feel bad that Uncle Dom is dead. But I don’t. He’s as culpable as my not-real father. Uncle Dom should have stood up for me, protected me. Done something to stop his nephew from using me to make a deal with Julio Ortiz.
I thoughtfully consider Declan’s question. No one has ever asked me what I wanted before.
Rising from the couch, Declan comes over to kiss me on the top of the head, then he goes into the kitchen to the coffee maker. There is a pot already half-full. I eye it like it’s chocolate cake. Pouring me a cup, he hands it to me when I join him. I take a very grateful sip of caffeine, its effects instantaneous.
“Bring the bodies here and lay them at his feet. He wanted to be a king. He can rule over their dead bodies.”
I get another small smile of approval. Might as well add on another request since Declan is being magnanimous this morning.
“One more thing. I have a niece, Sarah. I want her found and brought to me. Without her nanny,” I add.
It suddenly came to me during the night as I stared at the wall. The song Sarah had been humming that sounded so familiar, and where I’d seen the expensive jewelry on Meribella’s dresser. The song was from an old Victorian music box. One that Kellan had given me for my seventh birthday. And the jewelry was my mother’s. Either Meribella stole them—which is highly unlikely since she left them out in the open—or she was literally in bed with the devil. The thought of her fucking Max is repulsive. How she could let that man touch her… regardless, her fate is sealed now. Sarah is mine, not hers.
I finish my coffee, set down the mug, and ask Declan, “What should we have for breakfast? I’m starving.”