14. ~Emilio~
14
~Emilio~
I had a lot of fucking concerns, and overseeing this mission was just one of them.
Julian was out in the field for the first time in a long while. Although I was glad that he’d reached a state where he was ready to take that on again, it still had me on edge. I was used to being there with him, too, so that added another layer of worry to it all as well.
Nico was going to unleash his feral side on the Elia mission tonight. It was something he hadn’t done fully for a long time, either. Worse than that fact alone, was that he’d been actively repressing it for some time. What if he lost complete control? And this time I wouldn’t be there to force him out of it, to make him pull it back.
And then there was all the worry I had about Caterina coming back to us. What if the results of ripping these safe zones out from under Erebus didn’t result in what we were hoping for? What if it didn’t redirect their focus from the hit?
And there was still the issue of Angelo.
Levi was working on another strategy and reworking his program to try to cut through Erebus’ misleading way of doing things, so he could obtain a lead and pinpoint Angelo’s position for more than an hour at a time. Enough for us to get there and take the fucker out.
My focus was split in several different directions.
Given that I was overseeing synchronized raids on eight different safehouses right now, my concentration being split even more so than the nature of the mission itself already entailed wasn’t fucking acceptable.
I just had to see through the shitstorm of it all to keep my eye on the prize. Not being there as their protector… it got under my skin. It made me fucking queasy… unsettled. But what I was doing tonight had to be shoved to the forefront of all the rest. Success with this operation would be a massive step on the road to ending all of this.
As the confirmation came in from the final team leader that they were in position, I switched frequencies to Levi.
“Cry havoc.”
“Copy that,” he returned, dark amusement in his tone.
I scanned the building that my team was targeting, taking everything in for the umpteenth time.
Despite being known as a slumlord, Victoria Munsen did own and rent out other properties that weren’t total shitholes. In the case of these, Nico had delved into Munsen’s records and discovered that she was offering these without so much as a fee. She wasn’t fucking charging these shitheads. Either it was out of fear for what Erebus was, or Angelo had offered her something greater, like a massive piece of the pie for when he returned and took power over us all—his foolish and highly unrealistic belief that something like that would actually be able to come to pass. His insanity operated on several different levels.
This particular safehouse was the largest of the eight, hence why I was taking point on it.
It was a classic villa design taking inspiration from Mediterranean architecture, the walls with stucco finishes, a terracotta roof, along with a couple of terraces and a fuckload of columns and arched windows. The spacious courtyard had some impeccable landscaping, along with manicured hedges. It had an elegant charm that stood in contrast both to the purpose the place was currently being used for by a bunch of hyped-up mercenaries, as well as the three ugly-ass unmarked black vans parked out front in said courtyard.
The whole situation from start to finish since we’d decided to wage war against the two families had basically been a clusterfuck of insanity.
And only two things had kept us sane through it all—the promise of what victory would mean and each other.
The lights suddenly shut off as Levi had obviously cut the power.
In the next few seconds—and I didn’t know how the hell he was doing it concurrently like this with barely a breath to see to it in between—the alarms of the three vans were set off, blaring out into the night as we watched from the cover of the surrounding trees.
Confirmations rang in my ears again, all seven other teams confirming that the same had happened at their target locations.
Then Levi’s voice sounded again.
“Over to you. Let slip the dogs of war.”
I smiled to myself.
With pleasure.
I communicated with the leaders of the other seven teams spread throughout the city at the other safehouses, including the likes of Tony Amato and Rocco Barone, and ordered them to move in and take the fuckers.
Then I focused on my own team, the nine soldiers that I had with me here tonight. I had three positioned at the rear of the villa, ready to infiltrate via the back door and the kitchen over in that area. Another four were poised to scale the two balconies at the front of the building. And I had two with me who were going to engage in my wrecking ball approach and cover me in doing so.
When, as what we’d predicted happened, and two hostiles came barreling out of the front doors to check out the car alarm situation, the distraction was in place to make the op a go.
I tapped my earpiece and transmitted my command along our frequency. “Move in. Neutralize all enemy targets and retrieve any devices that you can.” That last part had been at Levi’s behest. He wanted to see if he could use them as an in to crack Erebus’ communication systems.
Standing with two of my soldiers at my back, I watched as four others made it up onto the roof, then moved to the two balconies either side on the front face of the villa, then two each dropped onto either balcony.
The moment they breached the doors and headed inside the house, I made my move with the two at my back, guns at the ready.
Two well-aimed shots from my guys dropped the hostiles by the vans.
I broke into a run with my backup flanking me, and I fired at a hostile rushing through the front door, blasting his brain matter all over the formerly pristine white wood.
I stepped on his fresh corpse and burst into the living room as five guys were getting up from where they’d been hanging around watching TV on an antique, fancy-ass couch, while two others had been playing cards at a table just off to the left.
My two soldiers fired off two chest shots, taking out the card players on the sidelines, which cleared the way for me to pull my wrecking ball and launch myself at the remaining shits.
A brutal push kick from me sent one of them hurtling into the couch, the thing toppling at the force I’d used.
Then I snagged the other two with either arm by the collars of their black muscle tees and took them down to the floor.
They choked from the impact, slowing their reaction times, which allowed me to beat on them with fists of fucking fury, utterly decimating them as my superior weight and muscle trapped them there at my mercy.
I pushed off them when they were pummeled unconscious, bloodied macabre figures of their former selves. I crushed one of their skulls beneath my boot, and my backup shot another through the throat.
Commotion coming from the kitchen in the distance and upstairs took my attention, and I ordered, “Back up the other two units.”
Just as they headed off to do that, I picked up movement in my peripheral vision of the guy I’d downed with the couch. This time I was highly alert and at my best, so I didn’t miss it as I had last time when Caterina had needed to step in to save my sweet ass.
I spun just as he came at me with a knife—a knife to the fucking back! There really was no honor with these shits and anyone connected to Angelo and motherfucking Leo.
I snagged his wrist and jerked it to the side, making him grunt as a telltale snap sounded, indicating that I’d broken it in one vicious shot.
Demonstrating his training, he managed to move past it, and he even extricated himself from my hold with a series of rapid-fire moves.
The knife was still in play as a result.
He went for me again, and I dodged it, but it was clearly what he’d been counting on, because he was then in the perfect position to roundhouse me into a column. It smashed my gun right out of my hand with the precision of the kick.
As my back jarred hard against the column, another hostile broke free, hurtling down the stairs, clearly having gotten past my team. Between them, they kept me forced against the column, each of them holding me on either side with all their strength.
“Fucking beast of a guy,” the knife-wielder grunted to the other as they struggled.
The other guy told him, “Take him out! Now!”
The knife-wielder went to do just that, going for my throat, but I managed to twist harshly at the last second, and it plunged into my right shoulder instead.
My roar that was more indignation than pain startled them and the guy without the knife made a mistake of shifting his weight.
It was all I needed to use it to my advantage and haul around with him holding onto my other arm, essentially tossing him into the knife-wielder.
They were fucking shocked at that, because not a lot of people had the ability or strength to pull off ripping a grown man off their feet and tossing them away with just one fucking arm available.
But their superior training showed again as they recovered quicker than most people would have been able to and came at me.
Either side of me, I fought them back and forth, their rapid-fire blows slamming up against the hefty powerhouse nature of mine. Every time one of my hits connected, it jarred them considerably, serving to slow them down.
I got in a shot at the new guy’s throat that had him reeling back.
Then I ducked and rolled over to the table.
In the next second, I was snatching up one of the wooden chairs and smashing it into the knife-wielder. His knife went flying over near the door as he, himself, took a hit to the face.
I was there in the next second, wrenching him up by his shoulder, then slamming my knee into his face. As he reeled back, blood spurting from a clear broken nose, I dropped him, jammed my knee into his gut and, as he instinctively doubled over, I smashed my elbow into his back. That knocked him to the ground, sprawled out on his back.
Before I could finish him, I picked up on the other guy coming at me in my peripheral vision and I snagged him just before he hit and tossed him into another column.
I located my gun and dove toward it.
I managed to snatch it up just in time as the fucker bounced back and came for me, and I spun on the ground and fired off a shot right through his throat.
He choked as blood erupted like a fucking geyser.
Unlike Nico and Caterina, I didn’t care for that sickening sound, so I pushed back to my feet and pistol-whipped him, knocking him out so I didn’t have to hear the sounds of his brutal death.
Then I put a bullet in the back of the knife-wielder’s skull, ending him as well.
In the next second, I was bolting across the vast space and into the kitchen, throwing the door open to see all hostiles down and my team gathering their devices.
“Nicely done,” I told them.
I headed back out to the living room and started for the stairs to check on the progress of the others up on the second level.
But before I’d even made it a single step up, one of my guys came barreling down, reporting, “All down, Emilio. We’re good.”
“Excellent job. Drag the bodies down here for transportation. I’ll call in the truck.”
He gave me a chin lift, then set off to carry out my order.
I placed the call to the truck and to the cleanup crews.
And then I tapped my earpiece and reached out to Levi.
“Lev, I need eyes on Julian.”
“I thought you might. It’s already in place. Go to the link I just sent to you.”
“Thanks.”
I pulled out my phone and accessed the link, which I quickly realized was access Levi had obtained to the security cameras inside Victoria Munsen’s house.
I took in the sight of five of her bodyguards dropped. The two soldiers we’d sent along to back up Julian were cuffing them for transportation out of the city. It took me some time cycling between the different feeds until I caught sight of Julian in Victoria’s bedroom, executing one of his flying kicks and sending the final bodyguard across the room.
As the guy struggled back to his feet, Julian was there already with those fast moves of his, trapping the fucker in an impressive chokehold, while also ripping his feet out from under him with a sweep to the back of his legs.
As he was doing that, Victoria burst from the bathroom, screaming when she saw the last of her protection was in the process of being taken down.
She made a break for the door, but Julian was at his best, and he pulled a throwing knife and tossed it at her. It cut through the air like fucking lightning and drove through the arm of her robe, missing her skin, but pinning her to the door.
“Fucking cunt!” she yelled at him. “That’s what you are, you know? Angelo told me as much. Actually, he even showed me the footage of your kidnapping.”
Goddammit.
I saw Julian flinch at that.
But he didn’t release his hold on the guy.
“I’m sure you had a sick viewing party. Trash like you would enjoy something as demented as that,” he told her in a calm, yet eerie tone.
He finished choking the guy out, kicked him in the face for good measure, then approached Victoria.
“I did enjoy it. Immensely,” she told him nastily. “And so did you.”
No. No. No.
My fingers tightened around my phone as I watched Julian clench his fists, a hiss of indignation escaping him.
He was fighting himself, fighting what had happened, fighting for his fucking life.
This was the first time that he’d come up against a direct, brutal reference to what had happened to him with that motherfucker. Especially in this way, being thrown in his face.
“You can deny it all you want, but I saw it. And so did Angelo. He knows the truth.”
She was a fucking demon of a woman. Irredeemable piece of shit.
Julian stepped up to her, but I saw his fists unclench. And when he spoke, all I heard from him was calm. “There’s a difference between a physical reaction being elicited—or forced in this case—to actual enjoyment being had. To consent being had, to wanting it. Or wanting him. The two of you are cut from the same cloth, so I wouldn’t expect your warped minds to understand that. It was sexual abuse, forced degradation, and torture that I was subjected to. And the shame of that isn’t mine, nor something I’m going to allow myself to take on any longer. The shame was all Angelo’s. What he did to me was horrific and most definitely unwanted. No amount of attempted emotional manipulation from either of you is going to reframe the reality there.”
I smiled.
He’d done it.
As she went to speak, Julian cut her off, telling her instead, “And just so you know, unlike your bodyguards here, you aren’t being transported outside the city and merely removed from the situation. We’re dropping you on the ADA’s doorstep. You had a second chance when you were released from jail early on good behavior, but you didn’t take it. You even delved into more sinister activities. Suffice to say, with the proof of said activities, along with Remo’s close relationship with the ADA, you’ll never taste freedom again.”
She started screeching, and fighting to escape her pinned position against the wall, cursing him out, the whole nine.
At that point, two of our soldiers strode into the room and removed her.
I watched as Julian stepped back uneasily and slapped his hand to the wall, then scrubbed his hand over his face.
He took several beats, and then he straightened and walked out of the bedroom with his head held high.
My Sunshine.