Chapter 28
CHAPTER 28
T here was one thing Collins and Fergus didn’t know. They thought they were invisible right now. They thought no one could see their men planting drugs and guns. They thought no one would see them in his office. They were wrong. They might have cut her feeds, but they hadn’t cut Kale’s. He just hoped Kale was as much of a know-it-all as he liked to come off as. If Wilder could keep Collins and Fergus talking, he could buy time for reinforcements to arrive. And if they didn’t, at least he’d have his murder on video and it would clear himself, his clubs, and Bex of any wrongdoing.
“What I don’t understand,” Wilder said, trying to keep Collins and Fergus talking because he really did want to know. “Why target me? Why target my clubs? You already have your nephew manipulating the police. Why bring Seabrook into it?”
Fergus looked surprised by that. “You figured out Sean was my nephew. Impressive since he doesn’t even know.”
Wait. Sean didn’t know that? Wilder looked at Collins who didn’t seem surprised. “But you know your husband is Fergus’s nephew?”
“I’ve known the entire two years I’ve been with Sean.”
“Why?” This was the dot he’d been missing when trying to solve this.
“Because my fiancé needed someone he could manipulate in organized crime. Someone he could get to look the other way at certain crimes and someone he could use to attack his enemies. Or the enemies of his friends,” Collins told him.
Fiancé? Enemies? Friends? That’s when it all connected. “You’re engaged to Seabrook but married Sean to help Seabrook with optics since he was an unpopular DA. He needs to look good for his mayoral run. So, he pimped you out to make him look better. Wow. Then, he pimped you out to Fergus to get rid of a competitor. A competitor who was making too much noise about Seabrook being soft on crime. It was a two for one deal to get rid of me.”
Collins smirked. “Exactly. And with your death, Fergus will take over WET New York’s building and clients where he’ll be able to sell a lot more drugs and Guy will have a huge political win touting that he took down a huge local drug ring that was assaulting women and potentially trying to traffic them.”
“But you didn’t count on Detective Moretti not doing Seabrook’s bidding to take me down.”
Collins looked angry at the mention of Bex. “Dumb bitch. How hard was it to do what you’re told? It would have made her career.” Collins waved the gun as if clearing the air. “But it doesn’t matter. She’ll be set up as your partner in all of this. The public loves a story of a dirty cop getting killed.”
“And when this is all wrapped up, and Seabrook is voted in as mayor, you’ll divorce Sean and what? Marry Seabrook?” Wilder asked and then laughed.
“That’s not funny,” Collins snapped.
“Yeah, it is. You’re stupid if you think Seabrook will marry you. A cop’s ex-wife isn’t the ideal political wife. You thought you were using Sean the whole time, but it was really Seabrook using you the entire time.” Wilder chuckled again as Collins looked ready to shoot him when there was a knock on the door and it pushed open after Collins called out to enter.
The last person Wilder expected to walk in strode in as if he were expected. Nico Saccone stepped into the room as if he owned it. “I’m sorry I’m late for our meeting.” Nico looked around the room, ignoring Collins and landing on Fergus. “Fergus. I thought my grandfather agreed to let you live after not delivering your sister to the altar if you stayed out of our business. Yet here you are.” The cold look on Nico’s face even made Wilder shiver.
“You’re not in charge anymore, Saccone. You’re a pussy and gave up your seat at the table,” Fergus spat nervously. “And this is my business, not yours.”
“Wilder Townsend is my business and you’re interfering with it.” Nico took a step forward, completely ignoring the gun Fergus was now pointing at him. “And I never gave up my seat at the table. I sit at the fucking head of it and just because I’ve gone legit doesn’t mean I don’t control everything my family does. I allowed Nikolas into New York, and his presence there is at my discretion. True power, Fergus, isn’t loud and demanding. It’s in the silence.”
Collins and Fergus had their complete attention on Nico and they forgot Wilder was a threat. In fact, Wilder believed they never saw him as one. That was one of their many mistakes. The other main one was telling him they were going to kill Bex. Wilder slowly slid the side drawer of his desk open as Nico revealed way more about himself than Wilder knew. Wilder might not do guns, but that didn’t mean he was weaponless. He reached silently into the drawer and felt his hand close around the military tactical knife he kept in every office he had.
Wilder heard feet pounding down the hall and grinned as he pulled the knife from the drawer and flicked it open. Reinforcements had arrived. The door shoved open and four men rushed in. “Boss, we have company.”
Kord’s group peeled off and would enter the building from the rear. However, the rest of them drove straight to the front door. What sympathy Sean had had for his wife was now gone. TJ had hooked Bex’s phone to the SUV’s Bluetooth and the whole conversation about using Sean had played loudly and in stereo for them all to hear.
No one said anything, and the sound of Sean checking to make sure a round was in the chamber of his gun was his only response to what his wife had said. Bex’s father and the Shadows Landing caravan slid to a stop in front of WET. Men dressed as workers were out front. No matter how they pretended to work the bulge of the guns they were all carrying was easy to see.
Bex was out the door before the SUV stopped. “Police!” she shouted at the same time Granger shouted “Sheriff’s department!” Guns were drawn and Damon came off his motorcycle swinging. Literally. He had a bat and knocked one of the men out cold with one swing. Bex returned fire and dropped one of the men who shot at them. A second later, a very loud shot sounded and a man Bex hadn’t seen dropped. Maggie. Maybe it was a good thing the Townsends came too.
PJ and TJ got in two-by-two SWAT formation and Bex and Sean fell into place behind them as Hunter and his group returned fire. People on the streets of Charleston screamed and fled. She heard her father and uncles and Lydia Langston clearing the streets. Landry joined Bex and Sean. “I got your back,” he called out as he used the knife hidden in his cane to run through a man trying to reach for his gun. “Lacy, get your ass back in the car!” her father yelled as Lacy stood guard outside the van with a sword. The teen rolled her eyes. “Three o’clock!” Lacy called out. Bex didn’t even think. She turned and fired at the man taking aim at them. “Fine. You can help, but get behind the van for protection,” her father called out, relented to his daughter.
“I thought you were badass as a teenager because you could beat up Phil and Jimmy,” TJ said as he leveled a guy with a punch. “But she has a freaking sword. She’s so much cooler than we were.”
Sirens sounded in the distance, but all Bex cared about was getting to Wilder. She heard fighting on the side of the building where the side door was and knew Kord and his team were trying to get there too. PJ reached out and yanked the door as Bex ducked a punch and kicked a man in the balls before Granger grabbed the man’s arms and slapped a zip tie around them. Landry stabbed another man in the thigh and Granger was on him in a second with more zip ties.
“Put them with the others,” Granger ordered. Her father and Uncle Paulie raced forward, hooked him under their arms, and dragged them away.
“Do you have a code for the door?” PJ asked. “It’s heavy steel.”
“No, but I know someone who might.” Bex shot off a text to Kale as cousin Bobby ran around the corner of the building.
“We can’t get the backdoor open,” Bobby shouted to her.
“Working on it,” Bex replied, but then she got a text she didn’t want to get. “The power has been cut to the building. The only way in is with a master key and we don’t have it.”
“Good thing you brought me then,” Forrest yelled, reaching into the trunk of Rowan’s car and pulling out something. “These are linear charges. It’ll blow the door open inward.”
“Why do you have those?” TJ asked as Forrest attached them to the door.
“I’m an environmental engineer. I use them for removing contaminated buildings or for taking down temporary structures. We once had to build a very quick concrete building to live in for a month. Took it down in seconds with this and then loaded it up and hauled it away,” Forrest explained as he finished setting up the charge. “I’ll get the side door too. Light this in thirty seconds. Then get across the street and behind the cars.”
Police were getting closer, so Lydia moved her van to block the street in one direction and Uncle Frank did so in the other direction. “Light it,” Bex ordered as she and the rest of her team jogged across the street. TJ lit the fuse and sprinted to join them. The door exploded forward and Bex didn’t wait. She charged across the street with her brothers, cousins, and Granger with her.
She hadn’t even entered the building when a second charge sounded. “Granger, Sean, TJ, PJ, with me!” Damon entered the building before Bex got there. He fought like a man possessed. With a bat in one hand and a knife between his teeth, he cleared a path for them like a vengeful demon.
They met resistance as soon as they entered the club. But when Kord came in from the side and Hunter from behind, having secured everyone on the outside, the opposition was quickly overpowered.
“Where’s my wife?” Sean asked with zero emotion after slamming his fist into someone who might be his cousin.
“Follow me.” Bex took off for the stairs with Sean hot on her heels and PJ and TJ cursing to catch up. She was prepared to fight, but as she climbed the stairs a man screamed and a body was thrown toward them from upstairs. Bex and her party melted into the wall as the man crashed onto the stairs and rolled to the bottom. “Got another one for you, Granger!” Bex called as Bobby came through with zip ties and Granger right in front of him.
“You need local law enforcement with you,” Granger said, rushing past them and up the stairs. The hall was littered with bodies. Damon stood halfway down the hall with his finger to his lips as he pointed at the door that Bex knew led to Wilder’s office.
Granger shook his head, but Damon didn’t look like he was going to listen so Bex held up three fingers as they moved into position. Damon and Granger to one side of the door, her and Sean on the other, and TJ and PJ at the ready.
Bex could hear fighting inside as she counted down silently from three. On go, TJ slammed his boot into the door handle and the door flew open. Bex and Damon entered together as Sean and Granger entered right behind them.
Wilder was covered in blood. Bex almost freaked out until she saw the knife in his hand and the body on the floor. Collins leaped onto Wilder’s back to try to stop him from stabbing another man while Nico took on Fergus and another Kelly.
“Police!” Bex yelled as Granger yet again yelled “Sheriff!” No one blinked so they charged into the fight.
“Uncle Fergus!” Sean yelled. Fergus got distracted and that’s when Nico landed a solid punch, sending Fergus straight into Damon, who shoved him to the ground to take down the man fighting Wilder. TJ leaned down and grabbed Fergus, yanking him up.
“Honey, save me!” Collins cried out as she tried to take Wilder’s eye out with her thumb, but Sean ignored her and stalked over to where TJ and PJ had a near-feral Fergus by the arms. “Sean!”
Sean continued to ignore her as he leveled a punch straight into Fergus’s gut. “Nice to meet you, Uncle. I heard you tried to sell my mother into marriage.”
“Your mother? What about me? I’m being attacked and you won’t save me!” Collins cried out.
“Someone get this banshee off of me. I thought I could hit a woman, but I can’t,” Wilder cried out as Damon was attempting to pry her hand from Wilder’s face.
“Don’t have to ask me twice,” Bex said, reached up, grabbed Collins by the hair, and ripped her from Wilder’s back so hard she had to shake off a chunk of blonde hair from her hand.
“Sean! Arrest this bitch. Sean?”
“I’m sorry. Sean has a family thing to deal with and I doubt you’ll be his family much longer. You have to deal with me face to face. No fiancé, no husband, no co-conspirators to help you out now.” Bex had a gun. She could just shoot her. Only Collins wasn’t armed. It appeared her gun was on the floor across the office from her. That and Bex really wanted to punch the bitch.
“What are you talking about? My husband is right there.”
“My bad,” Wilder said. “Did I forget to tell you I added additional security to all my clubs? Did you hear the part of Collins being engaged to Seabrook, sweetheart?” Wilder asked with a smile.
“We sure did. All of us heard it. Do you think your sister will represent Sean in the divorce?”
“Pro bono,” Damon and Wilder said at the same time.
The truth hit Collins just as Granger went to reach for her. She wasn’t in New York. Seabrook wouldn’t and couldn’t rescue her here. Collins screamed and charged Bex. Bex shook her head slightly to let Granger know she had this and then slammed her fist straight into Collins’s perfect face.
Bex was hoping Collins would put up a fight and she did. Bex grabbed Collins by the shoulders and slammed her downward onto her knee. Bex saw the men standing around watching. They’d step in if Bex needed it, but she didn’t need it.
Collins went for a punch, but Bex ducked it. When she rose up, she used an uppercut Wilder would be proud of. Collins’s eyes rolled back and down she went. The soft sound of applause filled the room. The men standing all around the room gave her a golf clap.
“I give the uppercut a 10,” Damon said. “But you could have gotten more scalp with the hair yank, so overall I’d give you an 8.5.”
“I don’t know. Bex was toying with her. She could have finished the fight in one punch,” her brother said. “I’m going with a 6.”
“A 6?” Bex gave her brother a well-known Italian gesture that would have gotten her yelled at by her mother if she had seen it.
“She’s a 10. My 10,” Wilder said, stepping forward and wrapping her up in a tight hug before kissing her in front of everyone.