21. Dominic
Dominic
Ipace through the living room of our suite while Leo calls Lucas on speakerphone. Marco has his hands shoved in his hair, gripping hard. It’s the first time Amanda has been in direct danger, and he’s not handling the situation well.
Nico, the only one of us without a woman to worry about, is texting furiously, working to get in contact with our West Coast allies. If we’re about to go into a war, we need all the support we can get.
“Leo?” Lucas answers on the second ring. “What’s up?”
“We need coverage at Vincent’s house now!” Leo barks. “The girls are in danger; Kozlova and Perez are planning an attack on the baby shower.”
“Holy fuck!” Rustling sounds in the background on Lucas’s side. “When? Where are they coming from? How many?”
“We don’t know,” Leo says. “But we need to prepare immediately.”
“I’m contacting our crew now.” Lucas pauses. “I just sent out a mass text for backup. I’ll call the front gate and get them to send out a warning.”
“Get more guys over there immediately,” Leo barks.
“Trust me,” Lucas snaps. “I’m fucking on it.”
The line goes dead, and I take a deep breath.
I have to stay level-headed. Our enemies want panic. They want chaos.
They want . . . the upper hand . . .
“I have an idea.” The room comes to a standstill. “All we can do from here is wait for word on our counter defense. But what if we go on offense? Create a distraction that pulls Perez and Kozlova away from efficiently running their attack?”
Nico looks over in intrigue. “Like what?”
“Well, I’m always a fan of arson,” I say with a smirk.
Dropping his head, Leo mutters an exasperated, “Oh, God.”
“Other than the condo, there is only one other location we know they’re using in San Juan.”
“The airport,” Nico says.
“The airport,” I echo.
“So, what?” Leo leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees, while he considers my idea. “You want to burn the airport to the ground?”
“Not the whole thing.” I scoff. “Just their hangar. Destroying their jets might cause a bit of chaos, don’t you think?”
The four of us share devious glances before Marco steps up and says, “Let’s do this shit.”
We keep our three soldiers on watch for movement from Perez and Kozlova, while the rest of us load into the SUV Leo rented and head toward the airport.
Our plan takes shape as we drive. After one stop at a locally owned hardware store, where we pick up a few hundred dollars’ worth of suspicious items, we pull onto a side road and finalize our plans.
“Dominic and Marco will take cover in the back of the car,” Leo recaps. “The supplies, along with them, will remain hidden under what looks like a stack of cardboard boxes.”
“Marco, you better be able to squeeze your fat ass into that space, or I swear to God . . .” I snip, eyeing my brother’s bulky frame.
“Hey, none of this is fat,” he argues. “It’s pure muscle.” He follows his brag with a flex to punctuate his point. I roll my eyes in return.
“The airport staff and guards shouldn’t recognize Nico.
As of now, Kozlova and Perez don’t know that the family is working closely together.
Nico will enter the airport under the guise of being a businessman interested in using one of the smaller hangars for his single-engine aircraft. Nico, how’s the research going?”
My cousin grunts as he continues scrolling through an aviation website, trying to learn as much as he can about personal single-engine planes in under an hour.
Leo grimaces. “Just do your best. Play up the novice pilot role. The biggest factor is where you park the car. The best place I can pinpoint is a row of spots in between the air traffic control building and the hangar next to the one Kozlova and Perez are using.”
He flips his iPad to show us a map. Nico scours it before nodding and returning to his phone.
“Dominic and Marco, from what I can tell, there isn’t good security camera coverage behind the buildings, so you should be okay climbing out of the car and staying on a path between the hangars and the fence.
You’ll have to work fast; light as many spots against the wall as you can and then get the hell out of there without being seen. ”
“Should I move the car closer to them?” Nico asks, finally giving up on his quest for aviation-based knowledge.
Leo tilts his head, thinking over the question. “If you can, without being suspicious, go for it. But I think Dominic and Marco’s best course of action is to stay behind the buildings.”
“Are we sure the structures aren’t fireproof?” Marco asks, studying a blow torch.
Leo shrugs. “I mean, probably. But we’re just trying to cause a distraction. Even if it’s only the outside of the building that burns, it will draw their attention.”
I lock eyes with my brother, neither of us satisfied with Leo’s answer.
“Everyone on the same page?” Leo scans our little group, waiting for any dissent.
As we nod in the affirmative, his phone begins buzzing with alerts from Lucas. “They’ve got the threat at Vincent and Cecilia’s under control.”
“Thank God,” Marco says, rubbing a hand over his face.
“Uh, there’s still an issue.” Leo’s expression turns grim as he drops the phone to his lap. “We lost two men, and Adam was shot. It’s not looking good.”
“What about the women?” I ask, a sense of dread forming a pit in my stomach.
“They were supposed to go to the safe room.” Leo picks up the phone and types another message.
We wait in silence for Lucas’s response.
“They’re checking now.”
“Guys, I hate to be an asshole,” Nico says. “But we can’t wait.”
The rest of us eye him as though he’s suggested we jump off a ten-story building. But after a moment, I sigh. He’s right. It’s going to take Lucas a few minutes to sort everything out. We need to start moving before Kozlova and Perez have time to send in another set of soldiers.
“I’m sure they’re fine.” I acquiesce. “Did Lucas say if anyone got in the house?”
“They didn’t,” Leo confirms. “All the bloodshed was outside.”
“The girls are smart,” I say. “Cassandra has gone through enough to know protocol, and she wouldn’t put the other women in jeopardy.”
“Why haven’t they texted?” Marco asks.
Leo taps his index finger on the side of his phone. “They probably left their phones upstairs. Plus, I don’t know that they’d get service from the safe room.”
“They probably wouldn’t,” I agree.
“Then are we ready?” Nico asks, reaching for the passenger door.
“Let’s go.” I prompt us into action and jump out.
It takes Marco and me a few minutes to get situated in the back of the SUV. As cramped as I am, he looks even more miserable.
“I swear to God,” I grumble. “If you move, I’m going to set you on fire.”
“Shut up,” he mutters as Leo carefully places flat boxes over us. The arson supplies set a divider between Marco and me.
“Do your best not to move,” Leo instructs. “I’ll be at the fence outside the airport where we ran surveillance last time. I’ll keep in contact with all of you by text, so pay attention.”
“We’ve got this,” I say, my voice muffled by the cardboard above me.
Leo closes the trunk door and walks around to climb into the passenger seat. Nico starts the car, and we’re off.
We spend a few minutes on smooth pavement before Nico turns, and we’re suddenly bouncing along a dirt road that leads to the end of the runway.
“Jesus Christ,” Marco snaps. “Take it easy.”
“We’re almost there,” Leo calls. “Just stay still.”
After a minute, we stop, and Leo climbs out, parting with a “Good luck.”
Once he’s out, and Nico makes a U-turn, the atmosphere shifts. I run through each step of our plan, searching for any misstep that could turn fatal.
I’m stuck on one thing . . . I want to debilitate Kozlova and Perez, not just cause them a headache.
I want their planes destroyed.
In my head, I start altering the plan. As long as Marco is willing to listen, I think we can achieve my goal. It won’t be easy, but if we succeed, it will be worth it.
If we don’t?
I’ve got a decent life insurance policy.
Within five minutes, we stop at the airport’s main gate. Nico rolls down the driver’s side window and speaks with the guard. Without fanfare, he’s waved through, and we head toward the main building.
“Okay, guys,” Nico says when he pulls into a space. “This is where Leo told me to park. There are only a few other cars nearby. But be careful because it’s the middle of the day and there’s not a lot of cover.”
“Thanks,” I say before Nico exits the car, and Marco and I are left to execute the plan.
Marco instantly throws the boxes off and uncurls himself. “Mother fucker, that was uncomfortable.”
Joining him, I stretch, then start collecting the items we need.
“Wait,” Marco says as he picks up a canister of gasoline and his blow torch. “How the fuck are we carrying all this?”
“Fuck.” My brows dip as I curse us for forgetting a major factor.
From our spots, sitting in the back of the SUV, we search the car for anything we can use to transport the offending items.
“Hold on,” I say, climbing over the back seat. “We have luggage!”
Marco attempts to join me but gets his foot stuck behind a headrest.
“Jesus Christ,” I mutter, twisting to remove the headrest and help my not-so-agile brother. “Here.” I hand him his suitcase. “Empty this and load it with supplies.”
I grab Nico’s suitcase because I really don’t want to have to re-pack mine. I’m kind of an asshole. A collection of clothing and his laptop fall to the floor of the car, and I join Marco in packing the bags.
“Ready?” Marco asks once he’s zipped his suitcase. He reaches for the door handle, but I grab his arm to stop him.
“Change of plans.”
He cocks his head, eyes squinted, making him look like a confused gorilla.
“We need to incapacitate Kozlova and Perez, right?”
“Yeah,” Marco drawls.
“Just setting the outside of a building on fire isn’t going to accomplish that.”
He drops his arm and turns toward me. “Okay, so what are we going to do?”