Chapter Fourteen
Antonio
The rotor wash battered me where I stood a distance from the waiting aircraft.
Kerosene fumes mixed with wet tarmac smell created the backdrop.
My heart pounded with equal parts fear and…
elation. Tessa was pregnant with my child.
As badly as I failed Darby, I didn’t think I deserved a second chance so while I was happy, that happiness wasn’t for me.
Tessa was happy. I was happy she was happy.
If the end result was I got a chance to be an actual father, I’d grab it with both hands and hang on as long as Tessa let me.
OK, that wasn’t true. I wanted this child. I wanted to love this child. Most of all, I wanted to protect the child and her mother like I hadn’t been able to with Darby and Jen.
And… I hated fucking waiting. They should be here any minute, but I had a bad feeling.
I climbed inside the waiting helicopter and one of the hanger crewmen shut the door after me. My phone vibrated with an incoming call. When I answered it, my world stopped.
“They hit us, boss.” Finch panted, his breaths coming in heavy even as I heard continued gun fire in the background.
“How bad?” I barked.
“Everyone is alive, but they took Tessa.”
I didn’t even hear what Finch said next.
White static filled my head, drowning out everything.
My knees buckled, and I punched the inside panel where I sat so hard my fist went numb and a line of blood welled up between my knuckles.
Didn’t feel it. Didn’t care. All I could see was Tessa’s face, eyes shining, hand on her belly. My baby. My woman.
And someone had fucking taken her!
The pain hit so hard I almost puked. Instead, I dragged the agony inside and let it burn. Rage, ugly and bright, lit up my veins. Every failure I’d ever made blared in my ears. Jen’s eyes, Darby’s silent judgment, all the girls I couldn’t save. Every Goddamn one of them.
I would rip this mountain apart stone by stone. I’d stalk the bastards who took her to the ends of the earth and carve the Goddamn directions in their skin. I would not stop. Not this time. I’d kill every motherfucker who touched her.
“Location?”
He gave it. I left the chopper idling and hopped back in my car. My driver, Kellen, must have seen or heard unusual commotion because he slammed the gas down and skidded to a halt next to the aircraft before I’d climbed down to the tarmac. I gave him directions and he nailed the accelerator.
The world outside blurred past. I let Knuckles and my own men talk me into this, had understood their reasoning even, and now Denton had Tessa. I was supposed to be her protector. Instead, I was at a fucking air strip, twenty minutes up the road.
The wreck came into view. Kellen rolled over the glass at fifty and jammed the brakes, sliding sideways into the shoulder. I was out before the vehicle came to a stop.
The lead vehicle’s nose was caved in, front end scored deep and bleeding fluid all over the asphalt.
The wrecked van had no markings or tags of any kind.
My crew was still on their feet, though, given how violent the crash looked, their survival was no small miracle.
That no one had been seriously hurt seemed impossible.
Finch had the perimeter. He worked the blacked-out lens of a small drone, scanning tree lines and ditches.
Kass knelt by the open passenger side of the lead SUV.
He held a rag to his upper arm, scarlet already soaking through.
A gash dripped blood down his forehead and he pressed another cloth to it for a couple seconds before dropping it as he stood.
His chin was set like he was still looking for a fight.
Carrie stood off to the side, hair in a messy rope, hands red to the wrist with blood and blood spatter.
Her clothing was dark but the stains still showed.
Her jaw flexed and her eyes held steady.
She stared at the ground where the second man lay, his mask off, mouth open and full of blood bubbles, patches of red on his neck where he’d been stabbed to shit, likely by my niece.
Kass spoke first. “There was a team of assholes waiting. They caused the crash to stack us up. Finch took one in the chest, but the flak jacket stopped it. Carrie handled a couple of them, but she’s one woman, no matter how well trained.
The rest of us were pinned down, which was how they planned it. ”
I knelt beside the dead man, glad he was dead but wishing I could have made him suffer.
Carrie stepped closer. “He tried to take Tessa.” Her voice was gravel.
“I took his knife and let the fucker have it. There’s another one farther down the road there, closer to where they had their van waiting.
Kass shot another one through the teeth.
There were more, but that’s three of the five man team they sent for her.
Everyone else was the diversion, but I think they’re all dead. ”
I looked. The first body lay by the open driver’s door. Entry wound was a star under his chin.
“Tessa fought,” Finch said. “Went for the eyes. Kicked one in the nuts. She didn’t make it easy.”
Carrie stalked up beside me, hands curled into claws. “They were calm. Like they knew exactly where we’d be and how many. I try to stay as far away from that life as I can, Tonio, but this wasn’t a normal crew. I’d bet my pinky toe these guys do snatch and grabs for a living.”
“Plates?” I asked.
“Nope. Even the VIN number on the one that hit us had been removed. It was a surgical hit. They were in and gone in under a minute.” She took a breath. “But…”
I narrowed my gaze. “But what?”
“The van that took her is dark, but it’s got that guy’s blood,” she hiked her thumb over her shoulder to indicate one of the men she’d stabbed, “all over the side. As much as I could get in one pass. If Knight knows what to look for…”
“He can track it with city traffic cams.”
Finch held his phone to his ear. “Knight’s already inside the traffic grid. He said to tell you this was where that new toy you bought him would save your girl’s life.”
I don’t think I realized until just that moment how thoroughly I trusted Knuckles and his men. If Knight said he could find Tessa, I believed him. The band around my chest eased slightly.
Hawk and Griffin came in on foot from farther down the road. Hawk’s pants were soaked at the hem, like he’d been running the ditch.
Sully rolled up shortly after in a battered pickup, fresh from the compound. He stepped out, blocking the scene with his frame before he approached. “We set?” he asked.
A black luxury car rolled in, tires crunching sharp on gravel. Seth Miles got out of the back seat. The man was in his late sixties, but you’d never know it. He might leave most of the heavy lifting to me now, but my father was still a formidable, physical presence.
He said nothing as he walked up to the scene, eyes colder than I’d ever seen. His gaze locked on me. He walked right past the bodies, stopped in front of me. For a half second, I thought he might swing. Instead, he put a hand on my shoulder. “We’ll get Tessa back, Tonio.”
“She’s carrying my child, Seth. I’m not letting her go, so don’t try to talk me out of going after her myself. Not this time.”
Seth’s hand didn’t move off my shoulder. “I wasn’t going to try.”
I really studied my father’s expression. My old man had lost as much in his lifetime as I had. More. He knew exactly what it cost to lose people who mattered, and he knew better than to stand between me and someone I cared about.
My phone buzzed, harsh in the hush.
Knight’s voice snapped over the line. “I got ‘em. Use the loading dock off Old Hickory near éclipse.”
“éclipse?” I shook my head, even though Knight couldn’t see me. “That building’s been a tomb for ten weeks.”
“No shit.” Knight's keys rattled hard. “I had the same thing, but I’m pulling archive against live thermal right now and the place is lit up like a Goddamned casino. Bodies, vehicles, the works. Somebody’s been looping me dead footage while they moved back in.
That’s not Denton's kind of patience, boss. The fuckers are hardwired to that access road. You’ve got maybe forty minutes before they can vanish her and there’s not a Goddamned thing I can do. You want me live on the line for this?”
“I want you running the cams from where you have the best access. You pull everything you can from every source you have. This is where all that shit I bought you pays for itself. And Knight? Tell Knuckles I’ll cover anything he needs to protect his men from fallout bound to follow tonight. Nobody’s walking away from this.”
“Already on it, boss. I’ll keep you posted. You need a crash team?”
“You take the whole fucking club,” Seth interrupted. “And every Goddamned man Tonio has, Knight. We will bring my daughter-in-law and grandchild home.”
Knight grunted, satisfied. “Done. Go get those motherfuckers.”
Yeah. We were all done playing nice.
We all headed toward éclipse hard, picking up several more of Kiss of Death as well as several black SUVs carrying my own men.
Denton’s people thought they could take what belonged to me.
They’d soon find out how wrong they were.
We took the road to éclipse with every intention of razing the place to the fucking ground.
By the time we reached the edge of Denton’s territory, the convoy had tripled in size. Kiss of Death bikes poured in from every side street, and my men were right in the middle of them. Either on their own bikes or in one of the armored SUVs in my fleet.
The first lead came in from Knight as we screamed up Hillsboro Pike. “Spotters in a silver Tacoma three blocks ahead. They flagged your tail as soon as you hit the city limits.”
“Show them what their disrespect is going to cost,” I said to Hawk.
He adjusted his neck, the joints cracking, with grim satisfaction. “That I can do.”