Chapter 21
Twenty-One
“Touch what’s mine, and I won’t just take your life. I’ll take your legacy.”—Cyan MacBrady.
“You know, most panic attacks pass on their own if left alone.”
“I know, Col, but she wasn’t coming back. You think I don’t know panic attacks burn out on their own? This wasn’t that. Her mind was locked somewhere I couldn’t reach falling into a mental freefall. If she hits the bottom, I might not get her back.”
I drag a hand over my face, then through her hair. Soft, calming, and tormenting at the same time. She lies against me, her breathing controlled now, the picture of peace after a storm that almost swallowed her whole. I failed to be calculated, letting emotion override logic.
Johnny shifts in my periphery. “Hey, C. Before she spiraled, Aria said there was another man. I checked the other side of the alley. Nothing. No car.”
“If there were another,” Collin says, “the coward bolted.” The sharp screech of tires cuts through the air. Instinct ignites. My hand is on my gun before my brain catches up. “Relax, C.” Collin’s eyes flick to the noise. “It’s our crew. I’ll update them.” He heads toward the sound.
I shift Aria carefully, fastening her seatbelt. Her tiny frame feels as though she’s made of fragile glass. I linger for a beat, long enough to hate myself for letting her reach that breaking point.
I slide out of the car. “Johnny, take her to the Towers. Get Rosa to clean her up.” Johnny nods, hops in and drives off. A part of me goes with her. I turn toward the alley, toward the body.
Collin meets me halfway; his face twisted in a way that only means bad news. “Cyan, we’ve got a situation. That guy you just took out. Yeah… you’re not gonna like who he is.”
“Like I give a shit,” I snap. “Wouldn’t have changed a damn thing. Who is he?”
Collin’s morbid grin widens. “Leonardo Ricci Rizzotto. Lorenzo’s heir.”
“What the fuck was he doing in my city?”
“That’s the question.” Collin folds his arms. “If Lorenzo sent his son here on official business, Jake would’ve notified you. I checked in—no requests. Tommaso knows nothing either.”
A cold, murderous stillness slides through me.
Lorenzo’s son in my territory, with my woman.
How is this all connected? If Leo came in under the radar, it means one thing: he was fishing.
Maybe on his father’s orders, maybe not.
It doesn’t fucking matter. His death guarantees one outcome: Lorenzo will be out for blood.
My entire plan takes a massive shit dive in an instant.
Aria sits dead center of the fallout. If she wasn’t bound to my world before, she’s welded to it now.
There is no clean escape for her. Not after this.
Three familiar figures step out of the alley’s shadows.
Sebastian’s sharp gaze sweeps the scene, parsing every detail. “C, our men combed the area. So far? It’s fuck nothing.”
“What’s your play here, C?” Collin cuts in, eyes gleaming with the thrill of collateral damage.
My brother doesn’t fear danger; he gets off on it.
This is the only time you see anything other than cold indifference in his expression.
My gaze hauls to Leo’s body. Aria’s face flashes in my mind; terrified, trembling, whispering my name before collapsing in my arms. My selfish claim tied her to this life and tonight, with Leo’s death, it cemented the knot.
She’ll hate me for what’s coming next. But I need her locked down.
Jake steps forward, curls wild around his glasses. “Lorenzo won’t let this slide. He’ll hit back. He’ll come for all of us.”
Gabriel, the older of the two standing over a corpse, folds his arms and leans against the wall. “Sounds like you stirred the pot without us, C.”
“Then we get ahead of it.” Hands in my pockets, “We can’t afford to be caught flat-footed.
” I’d like more time. Jake and Troy need it to track Lorenzo’s emergency accounts.
The other capos could side with Lorenzo if he spins this right.
I know we’re standing on a knife-edge but.
“Hesitation is death. Reinforce security across Boston and Crescent Bay. Lock down every Irish Fist property. Find the other man. I want him in the tunnels, hung up. We drain everything he knows.” I can’t shake the feeling Leo wasn’t a rogue.
His father must have sent him and I’m going to carve the truth out of that second man.
Collin crosses his arms. “That’s a long shot, C.”
“Maybe,” I admit. “But if Rizzotto sent his son into my city like a thief in the night. We need to know why.” I turn to Jake. “Hack the traffic cameras. Track the bastard.”
Jake cracks his knuckles. “If he left in a car, I’ll find him.” He heads off.
“By the way,” Gabriel holds up Leo’s phone from his pocket, “I used his fingerprint to unlock it. Luckily, he didn’t go for facial recognition…” His gaze flicks to me, smirking before returning to the phone screen. “Because, you know, you fucking annihilated his head.”
Collin snorts. “My brother’s got a serious hard-on for Aria. So, it couldn’t be helped.”
Gabriel whistles low. “So, she’s the distraction, huh? Our ‘calculated leader’ popping a mob heir before we could milk him for info? Christ, never thought I’d see that day.”
Sebastian chuckles. “Guess one of the MacBrady brothers isn’t a cyborg after all.”
“There’s a text to Lorenzo,” Gabriel continues, scrolling, “about some ‘information’ being delivered. No clue what the info is. I checked his pockets… just his wallet and phone. I’ll give him a full pat-down before we make what’s left of him disappear.
” He raises an eyebrow. “Maybe he’s got something tucked where the sun doesn’t shine. ”
A sharp, incessant buzzing cuts through the alley’s stillness. “Do it,” I say. My voice is steel. “No loose ends. Not anymore.” Pulling out my phone, I glance at the screen. Lorenzo Rizzotto. I hit answer and press speaker, so my brothers hear every goddamn word. “Lorenzo.”
His oily voice slides through the line. “Cyan… boy I just received some news that can’t be true. Where is my son?”
I let the silence stretch, long enough for the monster inside me to savour this.
“Dead.” A sharp inhale on the other end.
Good. “You should’ve taught him manners.
Not to touch what’s mine.” My voice is lethal, and my gaze drops to Leo’s body.
“Men like us don’t have morals, Lorenzo.
That’s why we operate under rules. Rules that keep the blood from flooding the streets.
Your son came into my city unannounced. Like a rat. ”
Lorenzo’s hiss turns feral. “Has the mighty ‘King of Boston’ lost respect for his Don? Just like your uncle… you’re nothing but Irish scum. I should have put your mutt blood in the ground just like Melania, your bitch of a mother.”
My fingers tighten around the phone. A slow, simmering pulse of rage eats into my bones. “You’ll pay for that insult. Like your fuckwit son, you’ll die. But I’m going to take my time with you.”
“You’re playing a dangerous game. Boy.” He spits the last word. “You’re a dead man. Do you know who the fuck I am?”
“Yeah, an old man clinging to power that should’ve been ripped from him years ago.”
“You forget your place, Cyan. You breathe because I allow it!”
“You see, that’s where we differ.” I smile. “My bark and my bite? They’re the same. Before this is over, I’ll take everything you value.”
“You fucking Irish swine.” Lorenzo explodes. “I was running this world before you were even a damn thought in your father’s nut sack.”
I laugh—the laugh of a man acting as if he has nothing left to lose. “And yet here we are, you scream and all I hear is a dying relic.”
“You and yours will not see the sunrise,” he growls.
“Fucking try it.” I hang up before he gets the last word.
War just arrived Lorenzo lost his son tonight.
He’ll lose a kingdom next. I turn to them, my tone turning to steel.
“Lock the city down. Get Police Chief Roger on the line. NYPD might suck Lorenzo’s limp dick, but Boston PD still answers to us.
” Sebastian nods, already dialing. “Boston is too exposed,” I continue.
“Too many civilians. Too many eyes. Send word to the main family. Everyone moves to the Crescent Bay compound. No exceptions. Lorenzo will retaliate. All our people need to be extra fucking careful.”My mind goes to her.
Aria will move to the estate immediately.
Even if I have to drag her kicking and screaming, so be it.
I’ll burn the world down before I let anyone reach her again.