Chapter 25
RAFAEL
Dante stands at my side with blood splattered across his face and knuckles. He scratches at his scar with the muzzle of his revolver. “Enzo says we’ve got eyes on the Hungarians moving through the forest. We can drop them now.”
“Tell him to announce themselves. To explain their situation. And to give them the chance to give up their weapons.”
Dante tilts his head at me. “Uh, okay.”
I ignore his hesitation. Sometimes the soldiers, even the best, don’t understand this part of the game. Which name rings out? Who can inspire fear? They expected an easy massacre, but there’s more to being a leader.
“Are you in there, cousin?” I call. “You should make this easier on yourself.”
After Dante has barked into his walkie, I tell him, “Have half the men watch the trees, just in case. The others should watch the barn.”
He nods. “Boss.”
“Can you hear me, cousin?” I yell.
A beat of quiet, then Tony shrieks, “I can hear you and I’ll fucking kill you!”
“You believed that was my son,” I growl. “You thought it was… my child, Tony. You understand what that means. For you.”
He tries to sound tough, but I can hear the quivering in his voice. “I’ve got friends, Rafe!”
“I’m about to show you who your friends are.”
I grind my teeth, cracking my knuckles, glancing at the dead men on the grass. I dropped one with my bullet, and Dante dropped the other with that cruel knuckle duster he keeps at his side like a loyal pet.
A few minutes later, someone whistles from the tree line. It’s Enzo. He gestures behind him, and my men – the ones we hid in the forest – walk down with a line of Hungarians between them.
My men fan out, watching them, more watching the barn.
“Sergei Sokolov,” I say, addressing the man at the front. He’s lean and on the older side, with silver threading his temples.
“Hello,” he says shortly.
“Thank you for giving up your weapons.”
He clenches and unclenches his fists. “You had the drop on us. We came here too fast. We didn’t plan properly.”
Excuses, excuses…
“Your leader seems to think you’ll be loyal to him,” I say, raising my voice. “Don’t you, Tony?”
“Sergei, you out there?” Tony yells. “Shoot them down! Kill every single last fucking one of them!”
I shake my head. My own damn cousin. He thought that was the real Theo in there. He was going to use my son, hurt him, break his mother’s heart too. Ava would’ve been devastated, just like that one moment in the hall, when she saw me with the fake baby and thought it was Theo.
It was sick, I told her, because it is. I don’t want to even think of the idea of our son as bait, as part of a trap. But the fact he thought it was real and still…
I’m shaking, pumped with adrenaline.
“Well?” I snap at Sergei. “You’ve sided with this man, taken his orders.”
“I don’t take his orders!” Sergei roars in outrage. “We are in charge, us, not him. And after his little games, we were going to kill him!”
“Meaning, after you used his so-called connections to bring more drugs and people into your city.”
Sergei clenches his jaw, temples pulsing. “Business, Bellini. Business.”
I take out my gun and shoot him in the head. Blood sprays. He drops like a sack of shit. Maybe I’ll see him in a nightmare, but this is the only way to keep this place safe, to keep this city in line so Ava and Theo can live their lives.
I turn to the rest of his men. “This ends here. Crawl back to your family, and I’ll talk to your Don, explain you all turned against my cousin and Sergei at the end. Or you can stand by them.”
They all bow their heads.
I gesture at Enzo, who begins leading them away.
“You’re all alone, cousin,” I call.
“Do whatever you’re going to do!” He screams.
“I’m curious about your plan,” I snarl, shaking all over even when I think about it. “If that really had been Theo, what would you have done? You must have had something planned.”
He doesn’t reply. I wait for a few minutes, then wave at Dante. “Just burn it. Smoke the rat out.”
I back up, leaning against a hay bale, as the men light thick wads of hay and hold them against the barn from various places. Taking out my cellphone, I call Ava.
“Rafe?” she says, voice tight.
“I’m safe,” I reply.
“You sound… strange.”
I laugh hollowly, watching as the flames catch and begin to spread. “He thought it was really Theo, Avs. He grabbed him and ran into a barn with him. And I keep thinking, what would he have done? To our son?”
“It’s okay,” she says softly. “Theo’s safe. Mom’s just burping him now. Want to hear?”
I smile as the flames rise higher, making the blue country sky shimmer a little. “Sure.”
She holds the phone to my son. I laugh when I hear him burp. It’s so surreal, but that’s us, has been from the start… a surreal, magical night that changed everything.
“Are you coming back soon?”
“I’m almost done. But I’ve had to show the dark side, Ava. The other side of who I am. Do you know what I mean by that?”
“I think so,” she says quietly. “And if I’m right, I know it’s because you had a reason. It was for our family.”
“Yes,” I say, too eagerly. “It was, Ava. For our family.”
She gasps in a way I know well. It’s like she’s worried by my intensity, by how quickly I want to seize any opportunity to claim her. “You know what I meant,” she murmurs. “This little unit.”
“Yeah, I know,” I whisper, as the back door to the barn bursts open and Tony comes running out, aiming his gun at me.
“I have to go,” I say.
“Is everything okay?”
He shoots, the bullet missing me. He can’t aim with all the smoke rushing out after him, plus the soot in his eyes.
“Was that a gun?” Ava yells.
“I’ll see you soon,” I tell her. “I promise, I’m okay.”
I hang up, and Tony shoots again, misses me by a mile.
I shoot him in the left kneecap. He falls with a wailing cry. I approach him from the side, gun aimed. He’s lying on the ground, aiming in the opposite direction. I stalk up behind him, take aim, and blow his hand apart.
He squeals and drops the gun. I grab him by the scruff of his shirt and haul him up. He cradles his ruined hand, whimpering when his foot hits the ground and tweaks his wrecked knee.
I drag him to the front of the burning barn and toss him down.
Dante stands in front of me, my other men ranged out behind him. Riccardo grimaces and stares solidly at me.
On the ground, Tony is whimpering. Behind me, the fire crackles and something falls. Tony flinches and tries to crawl away.
“I want you all to remember this,” I tell my men.
“And I want you to spread this moment far and fucking wide. This is what happens when you try to cross me. This is what fucking happens when you think you can cut through what I’ve built.
What I’ve bled and killed for. If you’ve got a disagreement about dealings, or morals, or any of it, I want you to remember this. ”
I shoot Tony in the other knee, making him scream. A couple of my men take an involuntary step back.
Tony moans and tries to crawl away. He’s crying, begging, and I feel a twist in my gut. I feel a brief moment of love for my cousin. Perhaps I could let him live, give him a chance to repent. But then other men might think they can make a move.
And, and…
He was going to hurt Theo.
“Remember this,” I growl, aiming the barrel of my gun at his head.
His blood spatters the grass. His cries stop. I tuck my gun away and nod to Dante. “Clean this mess up.”
“Will do.”
“And good work.”
He nods. “Thanks, boss.”
I walk away from the crackling barn, toward my car. Behind the wheel, I just sit for a few moments, watching the fire consume the barn.
My cellphone rings. It’s Ava. The last she heard, there were bullets being fired at me. Then I hung up. I feel like a selfish ass for just sitting here while she’s probably worried out of her mind.
“Ava,” I say, answering.
“Rafe,” she snaps.
“I know, I’m sorry. But it’s over now. For real.”
“You left me one hell of a cliffhanger there.”
“I guess that’s my specialty,” I say sadly.
“Are you okay?” she asks, her voice soft.
A beam crumbles in the barn, then the entire roof caves in. Dante is carrying a body slung over his shoulder. The man’s head bobs up and down on his back as though he’s responding to a conversation.
“I’m fine,” I say.
“Things won’t be complicated forever,” Ava murmurs.
“I just need to come home, to see you and Theo.”
“Come to us, then,” she says. “What are you waiting for?”
“How long?” I ask, regretting it in the moment but still saying it anyway.
“How long what?”
“Do you both want me for?”
She sighs. “Rafe…”
“I meant what I told your father,” I say fiercely. “We’re bonded now, Ava. Forever. Me and you and the little man.”
“Just come home.” She swallows audibly. Is she trying not to cry? Am I putting too much on her? “We can figure out the rest later.”
“I can’t come back yet,” I tell her. “There are things to do.”
“You said you were almost done,” she points out.
“I know. But I was getting too excited. I shouldn’t leave now. I need to be here until the end.”
To send the right message: Rafael Bellini sees a job through to the end. Plus, it would be irresponsible not to follow up with the Hungarians and ensure they’re not planning anything else.
“How long, then?” she demands.
“A day, maybe two. Just sit tight. Please. We’re almost there.”
“Almost where?” she murmurs, then hangs up.
I let my head fall back on the rest, grinding my teeth, a bad habit I never seem to be able to quit. I’ve told her where I want to be, but she doesn’t want to talk about it… but then she ends the call like that.
She’s got my head spinning.
I step from the car, walk across to the remaining body, and pick him up. It’s one of the twins. He’s big and heavy. I carry him toward the car, aware of the men watching me.