19. Liam
19
LIAM
Y esterday, I spent hours with Franco and another new recruit getting fitted for suits. It was a far cry from the uniform I was used to in the military, but I wasn’t going to protest the Constella dress code.
Eva enjoyed checking me out in my tailored garments last night, too.
However, tonight, on my first official assignment, I was dressed down in the shittiest jeans I owned and a plain black T-shirt.
Just like I wouldn’t complain or criticize how they wanted me to dress in an expensive suit, I wouldn’t say no to anything they asked me to do. Including going undercover to this second, secret MC compound where they wanted me to place a listening device. Recording the conversations that the bikers held in privacy would give Dante and the Constella forced much-needed intel to remain ahead of the game. I understood that Dante, Romeo, and Franco all kept themselves in a position to stay one step ahead of the Giovannis and the Devil’s Brothers, and I respected that they weren’t rash gangster idiots.
They strategized just like my superiors had in the army, and it was no different. Not the same battlefield, but the same concepts were at the base of it all.
Dante approached me near the garage, where I was getting fitted with different guns. He nodded, approving of how I looked. “I agree,” he told Franco. “Looking like this, he’s the most likely to get close enough undetected.”
That was all I had to do. Sneak in, plant the bug, and get out. Easy, peasy.
“Well, they would be able to identify most of our men,” Romeo said, also looking me over. He was always so serious, but I wanted to tell him that I had this. This was far from the first undercover task I’d completed.
“And he hasn’t been around for long.”
I grunted a laugh as they checked my holsters. “I can’t believe it’s only been a month.” It felt like so long ago since Eva and I met at that engagement party. Now, after all these weeks when we’d tried to keep our distance, we were together.
“Are you ready?” Franco asked. He was the supervisor I reported to, the highest-ranking capo in the organization. Although he was the man I had to directly answer to, he seemed more like a friend than a manager. Every night this past week, after dinner and before I’d wait for Eva to come to my room, we hung out over a drink and just talked.
“It is kind of quick,” he said of my first assignment arriving.
“Nah. I’m good. Just need to check on my girls.” I stopped mid-step. “Girl,” I corrected. It was too damn easy to see Eva and Olivia as my girls , plural. But I had yet to tell any of these men that I was sleeping with her. I got the impression she wanted to keep it on the down low too, and until we agreed that we’d make it known, I’d follow her lead.
Lots of things were happening right now, and I didn’t want to complicate anything by telling Dante that I was with his precious niece. I was no one, an outsider fitting in. If anyone claimed I wasn’t worthy or good enough for the Mafia princess, I had no grounds to argue it. I would, but I understood my position here, and technically, I was nothing more than a guest who overstayed my stay until I became a new hire.
I didn’t look back to see if the men heard my slip. Or if they noticed. No one called me out for the way I implied that Eva was my girl. Instead, staying punctual to the assignment, I headed to my room where Olivia was still napping. Eva had fallen asleep in my bed, but I didn’t want to presume anything.
“Hey,” I said after I entered, finding her walking out of the shower.
“Hey.” She smiled. “Getting ready to leave?” She looked over my grungy outfit.
“Yeah. But I wanted to stop in and say bye.”
“Oh.” She ran her hand through her hair. “Is Danicia coming to babysit, then? I’ll get out of the way.”
I grabbed her at her side, giving in to the temptation to slide my hand under the towel and caress her smooth skin. I couldn’t get enough of her, and I was weak to want to touch her every chance I could.
“You are.”
She frowned. “I’m in the way?”
“No.” I kissed her. “You’re babysitting. Or I’m hoping you will.”
Her smile lifted my heart. She was goddamn gorgeous when she grinned like this, that private, soft smile just for me. “You want me to watch Olivia?”
I nodded. “Yeah. You’re spending so much time with me—and her—it makes sense, right?”
She was still surprised, pleasantly, but she agreed with a nod. “Well, yeah. I wouldn’t mind at all.”
“Good.” I kissed her again, then looked her over with a long sigh. “But don’t wait up for me.”
She rolled her eyes. “As if.” She dropped the towel and turned to get her clothes.
“You tease.”
She rubbed her hands over her bare ass, taunting me more as she bent over. “Go on. Be careful and come back to me.” She glanced toward the crib. “To us.”
Damn, I liked the sound of that. Not just me and her, but all three of us. I’d never considered being a father, but now that I was, I was a package deal. And she’d accepted both me and my daughter.
I left before I’d been tempted to go after her, and as I rode out on a bike Dante secured for me—not mine, since the MC might recognize it after some of the men picked a fight with me at that gas station—I savored the allure of coming back to Eva. And Olivia.
I had something to fight for, more than ever, and with that reminder, I was motivated to be alert and focus on this first assignment.
The ride to the area where this second compound was didn’t appeal. It was a rundown part of the city, neglected and beaten down with the pressure from weather, lack of maintenance, and gangs. Squatters no doubt stayed in many of the structures barely standing upright, and I knew I had to be in the right place when more motorcycle engines roared in the distance. I stopped my bike near a bar, but I didn’t go inside. Now that I knew what the Devil’s Brothers’ cuts looked like, their patches and emblem, I could spot them and avoid their noticing me.
The compound wasn’t too hidden, not with the music blaring from inside. A party—or three—raged on in there, and with the cover of blending in with other bikers, I slipped into the rundown building.
At one time, it was likely a warehouse. Tonight, it was a shot-up dump. The grimy interior didn’t stop the bikers and whores from drinking, taking drugs, and dancing. Weaving through the crowd wasn’t as easy as I'd hoped.
Too many glances at me made me nervous, even with the sham replica of the Devil’s Brothers’ cut on my back. The leather of the sleeveless vest was still stiff, unused and not broken into since Franco had someone stitch it together this afternoon.
But it worked. My disguise covered me all the way toward the back of the building. Franco, Romeo, and a spy named Andy all strategized with me earlier. Placing the spyware in the main clubhouse wouldn’t be effective with the risk of multiple conversations overlapping or music droning voices out.
Back here, near smaller rooms where people could speak without distractions, were more optimal places to stick the small recording devices.
As long as they don’t sweep this place for bugs , I mused after I put three in smaller rooms. They were all empty, but I bet they held meetings and “church” in here. Each room had a main table and chairs set out for an audience. One looked like an office, maybe where Reaper held phone calls.
“Hey!”
I stopped short at the sound of a man noticing me in the hallway.
“Yeah, man?” I talked casually, turning and using the beer bottle I’d grabbed as a prop. I lifted it for a drink in case he’d recognize my face.
“Where you going? You ain’t supposed to be by the Prez’s office.”
I shrugged. “Just took a piss and walking the long way back to the whores.”
He grinned, showing me his gnarly, stained teeth. “You want a piece of the new one we got tonight?” He tipped his head toward another door that I hadn’t tried yet. “Get in there before she passes out, man. They’re so fucking hot when they cry.”
I gritted my teeth, resisting the urge to attack this asshole. In the main clubhouse, the whores seemed into it. They were likely the usual ones they kept here. But in the back?
Maybe that’s where those screams are coming from.
“Yeah, man. Take a look.” The biker held open the door, giving me a preview of the three young women being gang-raped. All holes were filled. Blood and cum dripped over their flesh. With their sounds of protest at being restrained and raped, my soul hardened and darkened.
They were teens, not even women yet, and the urge to kill all of these sick fucks nearly overwhelmed me.
I wouldn’t survive it. One man against dozens was suicide, and I had Eva and Olivia to live for. I had to get back to them, but I swore on my soul that these motherfuckers would die slow, painful deaths.
I slipped away, claiming the need for more booze first. As soon as that biker left me and I wove through the crowds again, I let my fury bottle inside me.
You sick assholes. Raping young girls. It was a crime, an atrocity, and it killed me to have to walk away.
I’d placed all the recording devices that I had, and with confidence that I’d successfully pulled off my mission, I left the compound.
Bothered, no, enraged, by what I saw, I walked back to where I’d left my bike. At least the girls at home are safe. Nina, Tessa, and Eva were all accounted for and thoroughly protected. While the men in the Constella family were killers, they weren’t rapists like these nasty bikers.
Comparing the two evils, I felt better about my choice to work for Dante. My views on the Mafia had changed since I told Dante that I’d be his soldier, but seeing the gang rapes in that compound served as further evidence that I’d sided with the lesser of two evils.
As I approached the bike, I slowed in my steps.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” a Devil’s Brothers biker asked as he stalked toward me.
He stood between me and the borrowed motorcycle, blocking me from escaping.
“With that motherfucking fake cut you got on,” another biker added, flicking his fingers at his own leather vest.
Both toted knives, eyeing me like I’d be carved up in seconds.
Goddammit. Just when I’d been thinking I had gone undetected.
“You a spy? Huh? What the fuck are you doing on our property?”
I pulled in a deep breath, bracing myself to fight my way out of here.
Because I was leaving. They wouldn’t keep me here. I had Eva and Liv to come home to, and no one was stopping me.
I grabbed my gun and fired at them.