Chapter 19 Vaughn
VAUGHN
The drive to Primm normally took around an hour. We made it in forty minutes.
We’d taken my car. I didn’t want to raise red flags, driving through a reportedly abandoned housing development in a car which didn’t belong to me. Let them think I’d come alone.
“Your earpiece working?” Grayson held a pair of binoculars to his eyes as we traveled the last few miles before reaching the gated community that had gone nowhere.
I grunted, nodding. He would be talking in my ear, telling me how to position myself in case he had a chance to get a shot off on Nico or anyone else he might have brought with him.
A trio of Grayson’s most trusted, experienced freelancers were a few miles behind us, prepared to come in once I’d announced my presence and, ideally, distracted anyone inside the house.
“I can see it from here. Two cars outside,” he reported.
It meant going against my instincts, but I eased up on the gas pedal to give him more time to assess the situation.
If it were completely up to me, I would have gone straight in, but we couldn’t afford to take chances. There wouldn’t be a second try at this.
“Two cars?” Immediately, the hair on the back of my neck prickled. “Why did they need two?”
“One is a van. The other is a Lamborghini.” He lowered the binoculars, whispering, “Fuck.”
“What?” I snapped.
“The license plate reads M-A-N-C-I-N-I.”
It would be a miracle if I didn’t snap the steering wheel. “Motherfucker. What, does he want to be a witness?” I demanded, hearing the strain in my voice, unable to do anything about it.
“Breathe,” he urged. “Calm your shit down. Even if you don’t feel like it, you have to push all of it behind you for her sake.”
I heard the truth in his words while picturing Nova’s face. Her smile. That light dusting of freckles. Those deep, dark eyes, so easily wounded. She tried so hard to be brave. She only cared about what was right.
My pulse slowed to something closer to an even rate by the time I rolled to a stop outside the tall, open gates.
There was a concrete wall to either side, winding around the community’s perimeter, giving Grayson cover to step out and follow on foot.
“I’m right with you all the time,” he reminded me.
“But are you sure you want to do this? We could wait for the guys, go in all at once, take them out.”
“You know we can’t take that chance. If Nico or Riccardo catch a whiff of what we’re doing, they could blow her away.” I found it hard to imagine a father doing that to his own daughter, but desperation was an ugly thing—that and greed.
I was alone by the time I entered the development.
Bleak and sad with nothing but the light from the moon to illuminate the ghosts of what were once luxury homes.
A shit housing market, not to mention an overvaluation of the area’s potential for growth, had left the place empty.
Dark, broken windows were like eyes watching me as I wound down wide, curved streets whose pavement had long since cracked, allowing weeds to breach the surface.
A pair of coyotes loped nearby, one of them carrying a carcass in its jaws.
That was the most life I observed by the time I reached the block where the Mancini house stood.
Sure enough, two vehicles were parked alongside it, and the front door stood open. Why not? There was no one around to hear what was going on inside. A faint glow emanated from inside, like candlelight.
What mattered more was the tall, thin man with the dark ponytail who stood on the front porch, a pistol in his hand. Message received.
He didn’t try to stop me as I parked yards from where he stood.
Like I was expected. He stared at the car, unable to see me through the tinted windows.
She had to be in there. She was probably waiting for me, praying for me to come if she was still alive.
I needed to believe she was. That Nico would not have killed her until he was convinced she hadn’t shared her secret with anyone but me.
After an eternity, I opened the door, showing my hands all the time. I couldn’t give him an excuse to fire. “I’m unarmed,” I assured him, looking toward the open door when I should have been watching him. What was going on in there?
“Yeah, I’m gonna have to see for myself.
” He stepped off the porch, joining me beside the Maserati, tucking the gun into his waistband to free his hands for a pat down.
It was incredible, really, the things that would come back to a man at a moment like this.
The old instincts, born from years of being the rich kid everybody wanted a piece of.
That was the one thing Dad had never understood.
I never asked for it—the fighting, the trouble.
I had only ever defended myself or someone else.
I was defending someone now, waiting while a man’s hands traveled down one leg, then the other, checking me for hidden weapons.
It was when he reached my ankle, bent at his waist, that I pivoted. Turning my hips, I took him by the back of the neck with my left hand and freed his gun with my right.
So many things could go through a man’s mind in the final seconds before he took a step he could never take back. But it was either him or me, and it sure as fuck wasn’t going to be me as I aimed at the back of his head. Still, I couldn’t bring myself to pull the trigger.
Until he reached for his ankle, working his hand under his pant leg. He had a holster there.
He’d made up my mind, so I squeezed the trigger.
The worst part was I barely felt anything.
The gun’s silencer meant his death went undetected.
I wasted no time hiding the gun under my suit jacket, the way Grayson had instructed.
It wouldn’t take long for him to get here.
I needed his eyes in case there were any surprises.
I couldn’t wait, though, taking the front steps silently, crossing the porch, approaching the doorway with caution.
Was I ready for what I was going to find? Did it matter?
“Please!” Nova’s tearful sobs floated my way and made the world go red. She was alive, yes, but she was in pain, pleading. “Dad, please! Listen to me!”
“He knows what has to be done,” Nico barked. “I am not dying for you, you little bitch. Too fucking stupid to save your own life.”
“That’s enough,” Riccardo shouted. “She understands.”
Stepping into the doorway, I surveyed the scene. Nova, tied to a chair, candles on the floor providing the only light. Riccardo and Nico facing her with Nico holding a pistol dangerously close to her head.
“Maybe you could explain it to me,” I called out, making the men turn as Nova gasped. “Because I’m sort of lost. Remind me why you have to kill an innocent woman.”
Nico barked out to laugh while Riccardo only stared. “This is perfect!” Nico crowed with another laugh. “Two birds, one stone. There I was, wondering how I was going to get to you,” he admitted. He seemed genuinely joyful, the fucking psychopath.
“Vaughn, please! Get out of here,” Nova begged. Even now, she thought it was as simple as that. Was there any situation that could make her abandon her goodness?
I couldn’t take my eyes away from Nico, holding the gun on her but looking at me. He had officially gone off the deep end, his eyes wide and wild, a patch of sweat blooming on the front of his shirt. “Do you want me to do you first, or do you want her to watch you die?” he asked me.
“I have a better idea.” I reached into my waistband and withdrew the gun I’d concealed beneath my jacket, aiming at Riccardo.
“How about I blow your boss away, and the mob has no use for you? Do you think you could get away before anyone could catch up to you?” I challenged, smiling into the face of Nova’s father while threatening his employee.
Nico snickered. “Go ahead,” he invited in a light, almost playful voice. A voice that took me by surprise, stealing my attention.
That was all it took for Riccardo to surprise me by withdrawing a gun of his own and firing.
Bright, white hot pain exploded up and down my arm while Nova shrieked wordlessly. I dropped my weapon, sending it clattering to the floor while I gripped my bicep. Like magic, a dark red stain bloomed on my light gray jacket.
Nico’s laugh was unhinged, high-pitched, while I dropped to one knee.
I had failed her.
No, I had failed her again.
“Vaughn!” Grayson barked in my ear. “Come in! What was that?” He was close enough to hear the shot—Riccardo’s gun wasn’t silenced.
“Shot,” I whispered through my teeth, my head lowered. “But okay.” Still, he needed to get his ass in here and fire a shot because I couldn’t. I never had a chance.
“Looks like I’m going to own your casino, after all,” Riccardo predicted with a laugh that made me grit my teeth in something other than pain. “In the end, I always get what I want.”
“Even at the expense of your daughter? And what about your wife?” I asked, finding my way to my feet, gratified by the way his mouth fell open. “Your daughter knows it was you. Tell him, Nova.” I invited Nova, who sat sobbing through all of this.
“Dad, please,” she begged. “I love you. Why are you doing this?”
“The question is, why does he not look surprised at the mention of your mom?” I asked her, still staring at him while blood began dripping from under my sleeve. The bullet must have gone through, but I was bleeding like a stuck pig. I couldn’t afford to lose consciousness. This had to end quickly.
“Daddy?” The pain in her voice was real, like a living, breathing thing. “Please, Daddy, tell me it’s not true. Tell me you didn’t have Mom killed. Please.”
“I mean, if she’s going to die soon, why not get it all out in the open now?” I suggested.
Where the fuck is Grayson?
He chose that moment to update me, his voice a rasp in my ear. “A few minutes,” he told me, keeping me tethered, levelheaded. I only had to stall until his guys were in place.