1. Raphael
Raphael
1
“The rat’s in the henhouse. I repeat, the rat is in the henhouse.”
My cousin Dominic’s voice fills my ears, and I respond by rolling my eyes at his childish antics. Not that he can see me, but it at least makes me feel better.
“It’s fox in the henhouse, not rat,” Enzo corrects him through the headset. He’s watching what Dominic and I see through our cameras on a laptop while he waits in the car. Although he’s back on his feet, his injuries haven’t fully healed, which prevents him from joining the front lines. As a result, he has absolutely no tolerance for anything. “Dumbass.”
I adjust my rifle, aiming it toward the house, and peer through the scope to get a clear view of the man I’ve been waiting for.
“I see him,” I tell them both, relief drowning away the anxiety and worry I had coming in to tonight’s mission.
It’s taken weeks to gather the intel necessary to confirm the location of the Triad leader’s home. We finally had our big breakthrough with the help of Evelyn, my future sister-in-law Rose O’Leary’s best friend and Enzo’s…actually, I’m not sure what the two of them are, but whatever it is, she has the gruff, Viking look-alike wrapped around her prim little English finger.
If there were ever a more opposite-looking couple, it would be those two. Evelyn is a real-world lady hailing from Britain with hacker skills and professionalism enough to warrant jail time, but the woman is impeccable at covering her tracks. Besides, if she were ever caught, her family name and fortune would be enough to buy her a suite at the finest jail. If it even got that far.
I’m still not clear on how Evelyn did it, but she located an image of our friendly neighborhood Triad rat leader, Xiao. The man thought he could hide his face from technology, but nothing stays hidden forever.
This leads us to now, with me perched high on a branch in the tallest oak tree outside Xiao’s residence, staring at the bastard through a rifle scope with a trigger finger itching to fire. He’s smoking some kind of cigar, a Cuban by the looks of it, and wearing a silk robe, open to his bare chest…correction, make that open to his naked body.
“Please, God, tell me he’s not naked,” Enzo begs, seeing what I do.
“As the day he was born.”
Dominic groans. “Because the last thing I want is to see his pencil-thin dick.”
“Bigger than—” Enzo starts.
“If you’re about to say my dick, I’m going to come over there and kick your ass.”
“Oh no,” Enzo taunts. “Big words for a small dick.”
Keeping the two of them on a mission is like herding cats. In the dark. During a hurricane.
“Can we focus, please?” I ask, interrupting what is about to become an annoying and unnecessary conversation if I don’t.
“Sorry, boss,” Dominic mocks with a chuckle.
I’m glad I’m not the boss anymore. With Michael’s fertility proven with the birth of his son, Liam, and his pending marriage to Rose O’Leary, he has officially been renamed heir to the DiAngelo family, leaving me in the clear.
Kind of.
Before the truth of Rose’s identity came to light, Dad entered into a marriage contract between me and the youngest daughter of the Sicilian Cosa Nostra leader, Emilia.
Strategically, I understood why he did it. I was the heir at the time, and he felt pressured to have me married. But my fiancée is younger than my baby sister, Gabriella. At eighteen years old, the girl is fifteen years younger than me.
Now, listen. I’ve enjoyed the company of women her age before, but I’ve never wanted to marry any of them. Holding a conversation with one is like talking to a foreigner, and I’d much rather they use their mouths for something far more productive than struggling to hold an intelligent conversation with me.
When the dust settled following Michael’s drama, Dad canceled the marriage contract. However, Emilia’s father asked if our family would still host his daughter over the holidays since she’s never been Stateside. Even a blind man can see what her old man is trying to do. He’s hoping there’s a possibility that after we meet, I’ll like her. No chance.
The girl is due to arrive next week, and I’m hoping that while she’s here, I’ll be too preoccupied with our sleazy rat friend here to even give her the time of day. Maybe if I ignore her long enough, she’ll get annoyed or bored and just return home. Either way, it’ll be a win-win for me.
“We’re on the clock here, remember?” I remind the pair.
“You’re right,” Dominic replies, all silliness gone from his tone.
“Alright. Killing the power in thirty seconds,” Enzo tells us. “You have ten minutes, at most, before they get control back.”
The plan’s pretty straightforward but also extremely risky. Once the power’s out, Dominic and I will infiltrate the house, taking advantage of the chaos caused by the blackout, and get Xiao out, preferably alive, but dead is fine too.
“Three, two,” Enzo counts down. “One.” The house goes dark. “Now.”
I snap on a pair of night-vision goggles, sling my rifle over my shoulder, and rappel down the tree, meeting Dominic by our entry point at the back door. The home is well guarded, but with no moon in the sky and with us wearing all black, we’re practically invisible to the naked eye.
A second later, the door swings open, just as we expected, and a pair of Triad guards rush out. We each grab one and simultaneously snap their necks.
I check my watch. That took less than thirty seconds. Not bad.
We step inside and work as a team, moving through the bottom floor, searching each room for our prey, and taking out every Triad member we find. If tonight ends up a bust, at least we got to exterminate some fucking rats in the process.
“Five minutes left,” Enzo announces in our ears.
Where the fuck is Xiao?
Despite Evelyn’s best efforts, she couldn’t find a blueprint or floor plan of any kind for the house, so we’re in the dark here as well, primarily relying on intuition and basic house building. “Are you sure he hasn’t left, Enzo?”
“Positive. Unless he somehow actually turned into a rat and slipped out, he’s still in the house. Somewhere. May I suggest you two divide and conquer?”
I don’t like it, but with the clock winding down, we have no choice. My eyes flick toward the second floor. “I’ll take the upstairs, finish—”
“We’re not splitting up,” my cousin interrupts because he knows what I’m about to order.
“Really? We don’t have time to argue about this.”
“I’m not arguing.”
“Then what do you call this?”
“Sorry to interrupt what I’m sure is about to be a very fun back-and-forth on should you stay or should you go, but you have four minutes left,” Enzo says.
Dominic clenches his jaw, hating how we both backed him into a corner before he nods. “Fine. I’ll finish clearing the downstairs, but if you get yourself killed, don’t come crying to me.”
I can’t help myself, and as I slip by him, I say, “If I do, your ass is the first I’ll haunt.”
“Fuck off.”
Chuckling under my breath, I rush up the stairs, relieved the carpet absorbs the sound of my hurried steps. I round a corner and come face-to-face with a Triad guard. Burying my knife in his neck, he’s dead before he even hits the ground.
Fewer rooms are up here, so I systematically clear each one until only the one behind the double doors at the end of the hall remains. The knob is locked, but since it’s a standard model, I swiftly pick the lock without much effort. As soon as it’s open, I glide through the dark room like death’s shadow, ready to claim another soul.
In the center of the room sits a massive canopy bed. As I draw closer, I notice a distinct lump beneath the sheets. Someone is lying there. I raise my gun, finger on the trigger, as I reach out, pull the sheet down…
... and lock eyes with the most enchanting sapphire-blue eyes I’ve ever seen.