Chapter Fourteen #3
“You probably already know, but they’re wiping camera feeds in real time.”
“Yep. Already worked around it. They are not nearly as thorough as they thought they were.”
I hung up and pointed at Kass. “We blitz the van, then take the tails. Everyone dies.”
Kass was bleeding from two places but didn’t seem to notice. “Copy.”
I nodded at his arm. “You good?”
Kass glanced down and shrugged. “Just a scratch. Got another on my outer thigh, but it’s just cosmetic.”
The next intersection held the first sweep car. Hawk and Griffin boxed them, yanked the two men out, and hustled them into the alley. One guy tried to beg for his life. He actually knelt with his fucking hands together like he was praying.
I crouched to meet his eyes. “Think you’re the first one begging tonight?”
He shook like a leaf and had no information. So, I put a bullet in his skull and moved to the next.
The second man tried to run. Griffin caught him with a short right and dropped him cold.
“Want him breathing?” Griffin asked.
“No.”
Griffin, to the fervent pleas of the man, just one in a chain of many enabling a sex trade full of unwilling and expendable women and girls, shot the motherfucker in the throat. I raised an eyebrow. Griffin just shrugged. “Might have wanted an open casket.”
“Nice,” I muttered wryly.
The actual loaded van was harder. The men inside were professionals, unlike the other men in this fucking chain. By the time we hit the loading dock, the van had rolled into the lot. Four men in masks, all armed, swept their area.
We formed a perimeter. Kass, Finch, and Sully moved tight, silent. I watched the driver. He was the one in charge.
I waited until the cargo door opened. I saw the smeared blood on the left panel. Carrie’s touch. My pulse spiked. I hit the driver hard. I yanked him out by the collar and cracked his head into the van frame. He slumped, out cold, blood pouring from the scalp wound.
The men piled out, guns up. Finch shot two. The fourth tried to knife Sully, but Sully caught the blade on his forearm, then ripped the gauge out of the guy’s ear with the crook of his finger. Again, the screams were some of the most satisfying I’d ever heard. I relished every Goddamned note.
I found myself on the last one. He tried to mouth off but before he could speak, I took him to the ground and broke his hand with a hard stomp. He screamed, so I put my gun to his eye and waited for the shudder of real terror.
“Where is she?” I said.
He spat. One tooth, bloody, hit my shoe. “Don’t know. They rotate the doors. But the boss, he wanted this one special.”
“Who gave you the order?”
“Look, I take a phone call, I do a job.”
Sully, behind me, called out. “Tonio. He’s done. You don’t want to lose this thread until Knight says it’s done.” I stood, breathing hard enough my vision went blurry. I did not want to let this kill go. She had been right here! And this was one of the fucks who’d taken her.
Sully studied me. “Boss. Let’s not make it personal with the help.”
I pointed my gun at the guy anyway. “This is what happens when people touch my family.” I fired, splattering his brains on the pavement. Then I knelt and checked his pockets for the phone he’d mentioned and pocketed it.
Knight’s voice came from someone’s phone on speaker. “You’re two minutes from the loading bay. Watch for a burnout camera on the south side, that’s their override. They’ll be inside by the time you hit the door.”
The run through the back lot was pure adrenaline. My hands shook, but not from fear. From the need to get Tessa back. She was so close I could almost feel her in my arms.
But something shoved into me, solid and unbreaking, a pit bull refusing to be ignored.
Carrie stood there, blocking the way, eyes burning, her jaw clenched.
Her hands were streaked red with blood, the stuff caked under her nails.
She stood her ground and put a palm against my chest, pushing me back.
I stared down at her. “Move aside, Carrie. I mean it.”
She didn’t flinch. “No.”
“Carrie --”
She shoved harder, raw strength when she could look all too fragile when she needed to.
“No. You’re wearing Flagg’s face, Antonio.
You want to kill for Tessa, fine. I would load the gun myself.
” Her eyes were hot, voice a scalpel. “But if you keep on like this, you’ll become the same monster.
And before you get all pissy, I do understand the difference.
But killing takes a piece of your soul, whether you want to admit it or not.
Every. Goddamned. Time. Tessa deserves more from the father of her child. ”
“What would you have me do?” I practically yelled at Carrie. I knew I’d regret it later, but I wasn’t following what she meant.
“You want to kill these guys? Fine. We’ll kill them. But not here. Take them back where it’s secure.”
“That might be where we don’t understand each other, Carrie.
I’m doing this to make a statement as much as to satisfy my need for blood.
I want every motherfucker in this city to know why they cross Antonio Miles at their own peril.
That includes selling skin in my backyard right under my nose.
For taking my woman, they get to die extra hard.
That’s not Flagg, Carrie. That’s the underboss of the Miles family.
” I stared at her a long time, letting her see the unyielding resolve hardwired into my being.
“I would never hurt Tessa, and seeing this side of me might hurt her in ways I could never fix. So I understand your concern.” If anyone other than Carrie had confronted me, I might have softened my tone or at least tried to suppress who I was.
But Carrie had lived worse than I could ever be.
Well, OK, so I was just as bad as that bastard, Flagg, who’d raised her and her brothers.
He’d trained them all to kill, to be the leaders of his personal army or something.
“But trust me when I tell you everything I’m doing now is to ensure Tessa and her child have any future they want.
I have to maintain control in this city or the wolves will eat everyone in my family alive. ”
“Fine.” She didn’t stop, just changed tactics. “I killed for her today, too. You want to keep hunting? Do it. But think about this. Tessa doesn’t need another monster at home. She needs you. The father of her child. She needs you, Tonio.”
She let her hand drop. Blood smudged my shirt, but she didn’t seem to notice she had it all over her. Kass stood behind Carrie now, eyes black. Even Veda came close to stand with Carrie. The whole crew, lined up at the mouth of the alley.
I turned to face them. Kicked the dead man’s body to the curb.
“I swore to Tessa the night I pulled her from that sewer that I would kill every single fucker who put her there, or paid for it, or looked the other way.” My voice went rough.
“I intend to scorch the earth and clear this filth from my city because I absolutely will not allow any more of our women or children to be at risk. As long as any of these bastards are alive, they will keep coming after us. Not just me, but Kiss of Death because of your ties to my family.”
Carrie nodded. “Good. Then be the man who made her that promise.”
I worked my jaw. Let the hate settle. Then I straightened my shoulders and gave the orders, voice clear and cold as anything Seth Miles ever taught me.
“I have my head in the game, Carrie. I swear to you, much as I’m enjoying seeing these bastards fall, I’m doing this for the right reasons.
Yes, I’m leaving a bloody trail, but it’s necessary.
” I looked out over the gathering crowd.
“Nobody takes Tessa from her family. Anyone between us and that girl goes down, hard. Denton dies. Rainman dies. Every buyer, every collector, every witness. We end it tonight. And we bring her home. Then the violence ends.”
My men all grunted in assent. Kass loaded a new mag. Finch racked his slide. Hawk squared to my left, a solid wall. Darby, her expression more than a little wild, gritted her teeth and shouldered up behind Carrie, like she’d fight beside me if I let her inside that place.
Carrie held my gaze just a second longer before stepping aside. She wiped her bloody hand on her jeans in a slow, steady drag. “OK. I see you, Antonio.” She gave me a steady look. “Let’s do this.”
I led the charge forward. The monster didn’t die or even go back inside its lair. It locked on a target. Denton had less than an hour to live. Then I was sending the bastard straight to hell.