Chapter 30
Chapter Thirty
NAOMI
Ido and undo the top few buttons on Paxton’s shirt. I can’t stop touching him. I don’t know whether it’s my obsession with him or that we’re about to part ways. I’m sure it’s a bit of both.
“I’ll be okay,” he tries to reassure me, his hands wrapping around my wrist.
“I know.”
Paxton might appear to be laid-back, but the man can more than hold his own.
He spars with my brothers on the regular.
He is actually pretty rough with them. I think it’s aggression that stems from them hunting me.
Even though they were and continue to do it to keep me on my toes, I understand how it could be a double-edged sword for Paxton.
The thought of anyone trying to hunt him has the same feelings stirring inside of me.
“But would you tell me if you didn’t think you’ll be okay?
” I peer up at him. His brows pull together. “Pax,” I whisper.
“I don’t foresee myself getting hurt, but that is always a possibility.”
“I don’t care for those types of possibilities.” A small huff leaves me.
“You’re pouting,” he whispers, fighting back a smirk. We’re off to the side, everyone getting ready to roll out.
“That’s your doing.” I don’t pout, or I didn’t before him. When I’m with Paxton, I get all soft and mushy. I don’t understand it, but I don’t hate it. It’s only when we’re alone or it’s just family around.
This tight coil inside of me loosens when he’s near me. There is a comfort I receive from him that no one else can provide. I feel safe and protected in all ways. I mean, the man always seems to know what’s coming next. It’s annoying, badass, and my brothers get a kick out of it the most.
“My apologies.” He kisses my bottom lip.
“Liar. You’re not sorry one bit.” I slide my hand into his to stroke the inside of his wedding band. I enjoy the sight of it on him as much as I do the tattoo.
“I think we’re about ready,” Mac says. My Aunt Marks is next to her. I take the two earpieces from them, slip mine on, and then put Pax’s on for him, wanting to touch him a few more times before he’s out of reach.
“Give us a second,” I tell them. They nod and step back around.
We’re in New Orleans at an old airfield that is no longer in use. Uncle Z had selected the location. It’s not on any map, but the man seems to know all kinds of things.
“Come here.” Pax doesn’t wait for me to move. He grabs my hips and pulls me flush into him. “Everything has been planned out. It’s the grand finale,” he teases, but it really is. Today will end the months of work we’ve done as a family to dismantle many of the other families.
We have finally agreed to the meeting with the Esposito family. The Severini family came in from Boston to be here as well. That was rather helpful. Two birds with one stone.
Z, along with my brothers and Cosima, went to Boston to wrap things up there after everything unfolded here. There are so many moving pieces.
“Keep your head in the game. I’ll be with War and Eros. We can handle ourselves.”
“I know you can.” It doesn’t make it any easier. “Kiss me,” I order, making him smile and give me my kiss before we join everyone else, going over all the details one more time before my dad, Eros, and my husband head out.
“You good?” my uncle Ronan asks.
“As I can be.” I do a check of my weapons before sliding on my coat, and Mac hands me over the USB drives I need. Jax and Damon are doing the same with a few of the men we brought.
We all load up into vehicles heading toward the Espositos. They live on an old plantation; the main house sits back far from the road, a gate blocking the front entry. I get dropped toward the back.
Ronan stops me before I can jump out of the SUV; his dark eyes lock with mine, and he gives me a firm nod that I return in understanding, and I shut the door and take off toward the wall.
“Check.” Mac’s voice comes through my earpiece.
“Check,” I say back before I scale the wall.
“We have their systems online,” Mac tells me a beat later. No other update comes through, letting me know that the Espositos’ men that patrol are in their normal locations. The first two are easy to take out.
I creep in on the property, closer to the house.
They have one of those giant bush mazes next to the garden and greenery that the back of the house overlooks.
The third guard patrols back and forth. The gravel that surrounds the outer part of the maze isn’t easy to walk on quietly, even with how light I am.
My foot slips off a rock, and the guard spins around to face me as I draw my gun on him. He’s twenty paces in front of me. I need a few more seconds so that Damon and Jax can clear out a few of the other guards that are in earshot.
“Don’t,” I warn him.
“Are you a fucking girl?” He steps closer, and I click the safety off so that he can hear it. “Right, you have to have a gun to come and play. Why don’t you fight me like a man?” he challenges. I want to roll my eyes at him, but inside I clock the time on my watch.
“Because I’m not a man.” I fire, the silencer muffling the sound of the bullet hitting the dead center of his forehead.
Sometimes I forget what a good shot I am.
Pretty impressive, if you ask me. I watch as he crumples to the ground with a loud thud.
That was the sound I was worried about. Those big fuckers land hard.
I grab him and pull him into the entry of the maze so he’s out of sight.
I start moving again and make it to the back of the house undetected. Everything is all quiet. I give a soft knock to the back door. It’s where servants come and go. The door creaks open to reveal a handful of women, and I slip inside. So far, everything is going to plan.
“How are you ladies doing?” I ask. Nina speaks first; she seems to lead the group even though Tommy’s wife and daughter are with her. She runs the house and all the other servants.
“Good, but we’re all antsy.” I nod in understanding. I reach into my coat pocket, pull out the USB drive, and hand one to each of them.
“Everything you need is right there.” None of them need to go into deep hiding.
Anyone that would hunt them down will be dying tonight, but it’s best for them to get out of the city and start over.
That’s what the USBs will help them do. Everything is already set up for them, including housing and lush bank accounts to help them establish new lives.
They all wanted an out, and we’re giving them one.
In this world, you’re often born into this life, never given a choice.
We are simply giving it to them, and they gave us all we needed to help make sure no one follows after them.
The very women that the men in these families used and abused are now their downfall. Loyalty is not given; it’s earned.
“Thanks for your help getting us out.”
“There is nothing to be thankful for. I thank you,” I tell them. “I know this was hard and likely scary, but it’s over now.” I look to Nina. “You know the way. There is a van waiting. You won’t see them, but I promise we have eyes on you.”
One girl suddenly hugs me, and I stiffen but relax and give her back a pat. “Go ahead,” I say as I hold the door open for them. With that, they head out in the direction of the waiting van.
“The birds have flown the coop.”
“You were so sweet,” Mac says, and I roll my eyes. “Don’t roll your eyes at me.” I glance around.
“There are cameras down here?” I look again. This was a blind spot, or it was supposed to be.
“No, I just know you.” There is no missing her smugness.
“I want ears,” I tell her, and she clicks it over for me so that I can hear. I keep moving through the basement and stop, checking each area as I go, making sure it’s clear.
“I want Luigi.” Paxton’s voice comes through loud and clear, and I know he’s speaking to Tommy. The head of the Esposito family. He’s a piece of shit. It had been so easy to get his daughter and wife on our side.
My internal alarm goes off. With how he worded that, it makes me think Luigi isn’t in the room with them. We know he’s on the property. I press my back to the concrete wall and keep listening.
“You’ve been married one day to a Marino, and you think you can issue demands?” Tommy scoffs. “We weren’t even invited. The marriage was bullshit. None of us are even going to recognize it. You’re not one of us.” He spits out the last part in Italian. “This isn’t our way.”
“I have been telling you for years things needed to change,” my father says. “You think I don’t know the dirty deals you were trying to run through Paxton’s father?”
“You’re a fucking rat,” Tommy bellows. I catch a slight slur to his words that I know are aimed at my husband.
“Maybe I am.” I smirk at the casual lack of care Paxton speaks with, knowing it’s going to enrage them. It works because I hear a clatter before Gerardo, the head of the Severini family, tries to cool Tommy down.
“Everyone needs to calm down. Put your gun down, Tommy,” Gerardo says.
Those motherfuckers. All these rules, and even they aren’t living by them. No one is supposed to be armed in that meeting. Eros, my father, and Paxton would have been patted down.
“Why? That’s the plan, isn’t it? To kill them.” My heart sinks, and my blood boils with anger.
“Look who it is.” My head snaps in the other direction to see Luigi and that fat fuck he always has at his side, Carlo.
“Kill her,” he orders Carlo. “I want to watch.”
Carlo charges toward me, and I try to pull my gun out, but he’s too close; he slams into me, and the gun goes skittering across the floor as I land on my ass.
Carlo almost loses his footing, and I roll, trying to create space between us.
This isn’t my first rodeo, and I know without a doubt this is life or death.
I don’t plan on being the one dying tonight.
Luigi leans up against the wall, watching. I can hear shouted conversation in my earpiece, but I can’t focus on what is being said.
I spring to my feet as Carlo charges at me again. I have nowhere to fucking go, which forces me to backpedal and corner myself even further in a wine cellar. I shift to my left and use the wall as leverage with one foot to kick out, launching myself high enough to nail him in his giant-ass head.
As I make contact, he swings out his meaty arm, nailing me in the side as he stumbles backward, and I hit the ground again. With a grunt, I expel all the air from my lungs, and the taste of blood fills my mouth.
I suck in a deep breath.
Get up! I hear my father’s words in my mind. All those times we sparred together, and he held nothing back. I push up, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand to see a smear of blood right as that fat fuck charges again. The sound of gunfire breaks out overhead.
“Ahh!” I shout as I barrel right toward him.
I push my foot out as I drop, sliding between his legs as I pull my knife out and swing as I spin back around.
The blade of my knife slices through his Achilles tendon, making him scream as he falls into a giant wine rack, taking it down with him.
My free hand lands on the gun, and I train it on Luigi.
The shatter of glass is loud, and I’m sure it’s heard even over the still ringing-out gunfire. He too now has his gun out and pointed at me. I already know he’s a shit shot.
“You think you’re so fucking smart.”
“You don’t think at all.” We both fire, but my aim is shit because I have to move. There is a loud crack as the bullets hit the concrete and chunks fly. I aim my weapon at the spot where Luigi was standing, but he has disappeared.
Paxton was right. He didn’t think Luigi would be at the meeting. That over the past few weeks, my brothers’ games of fucking with him have made him extra paranoid.
Carlo tries to get to his feet, but I shoot him, and he falls back onto the shattered bottles of wine and spilled alcohol.
“Paxton?” I ask through the mic. “Mac?” My heart is racing, waiting for someone to respond.
“It’s chaos.” Mac replies.
“Paxton?” I repeat, a fear I never knew I could feel creeping in.
“I don’t know.” Eros speaks, and I hear more gunfire. “Naomi.” The way he says my name turns my blood to ice; my vision dims, and blackness eats at the edge.
“I’m sorry,” Mac whispers.
Rage unlike any I’ve ever felt floods me. I walk over to the barrel in the corner, seeing a stack of cigars, and grab the box of matches. I strike one and toss it toward the hole on the floor. Flames instantly break out. The walls and floor might be concrete, but the ceiling is not.
The heat of the flame is nothing compared to what I’m feeling.
I kick another one of the wine racks, making it fall, the wood splintering as the bottles shatter.
I grab a few pieces of wood, pull off my shirt, wrap it around the top, and light it with the flames before heading for the stairs, not paying as much attention as I should.
As I go, anything that is flammable I touch, sending it up into a blaze. I’m going to burn down everything in my path. Whoever is still alive from the two families will wish they had died after I get my hands on them.
A man appears at the top of the stairs when I’m halfway up, and I fire before he can. I step to the side as he stumbles down the stairs past me; I let the flame catch him along the way. I drop my clip and reload it, wanting a fresh extended mag as I hit the first floor.
I don’t hold back as I unload one after another, heading in the direction of where I know the office is. My mind is only on one thing.
My husband.
If he’s dead, I’ll burn this whole fucking city to the ground.