Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
ANDIE
The west side of the city at night is creepy as hell. I look around at the decay and dereliction, the groupings of tents and trashcan fires underneath overpasses where the homeless gather. The scantily dressed women in thigh-high stilettoed boots who stand at the street corners, smoking cigarettes to pass the time while waiting for their next customer. Drug deals are being made right out in the open without a care in the world of being arrested by the police, whose presence is nonexistent here.
The stench of rot and hopelessness is everywhere, and it breaks my fucking heart. Human beings shouldn’t have to live like this.
“This place is disgusting. You could’ve picked somewhere else to meet that didn’t smell like a flaming bag of shit,” Rafe complains.
Tessa had scoped out the area earlier via satellite images and selected a spot in the city that would be quiet, deserted, and away from the main thoroughfares. The scattering of buildings around us are abandoned and boarded up. The grass hasn’t been cut in a long time and weeds have taken over.
“Deadman’s zone,” I explain. “No cameras. No police presence.”
“I don’t like it. Nothing that involves my father or brother is ever good.”
Rafe and I are leaning against Declan’s Range Rover that is more tank than anything else with its armored-steel plating and ballistic glass. Liam and a few of Declan’s men are situated in a perimeter around us, the scopes on their sniper rifles keeping a vigilant survey of the area. Tessa has a drone up directly above us. No one is getting within a block of here without us knowing, which is why I felt comfortable enough to stand outside the vehicle while we waited.
I check my phone for any messages from Tessa. She wanted me to wear an earpiece, but I declined. It was a knee-jerk reaction from having found out Max had implanted a tracker in my arm. Logically, I understood the difference between that and a tiny wireless speaker inserted into my ear, but how I felt about it mentally was a completely different story.
“You didn’t answer me in the car about Keane and Jax.” Rafe digs his hand into his front jeans pocket again. He’s been doing that for the past ten minutes since we got here.
“I didn’t answer because I’m not going to get into an argument with you.”
I know exactly what Rafe will say. He would want me to tell Keane and Jax about my plan to lure Julio out and kill him. Rafe would want the guys here with us. The three of them may be on opposite sides right now, but I know how deep and strong their bonds of brotherhood go. They’d have Rafe’s back against his family. And mine. But I also know how controlling Keane is, and this is my show. Not his. I can’t allow him to rush in, guns blazing, and take over. This is my fight with Julio and Alejandro. They think they own me. Bought me from Max like chattel. They’re about the find out that they’ve fucked with the wrong woman.
I tilt my head and look up at Rafe. We parked on the dark side of the street away from any streetlights. The crescent moon in the sky isn’t bright enough to cast too much light, but it’s enough for me to see the blue of Rafe’s haunted eyes. I can’t presume to know how he feels right now. There is no love lost between him and his father or Alejandro. Like me, Rafe was a pawn and overlooked by his family until they wanted something from him.
“We also need to deal with Rita,” I tell him.
At this point, I don’t even care why she secretly met with Julio. It doesn’t matter. Rita will go down along with the rest of them. My dear cousin is insignificant and holds no real power. Uncle Domenico’s men won’t rally around her or follow her. She’s been nothing but spoiled and pampered her entire life. Rita has no clue about what goes on behind closed doors in the ‘family business.’ All she cares about is her next pair of high heels, or which expensive sparkly bauble to drape around her precious neck and dangle from her ears.
When Rafe reaches into his pocket again, I lay my hand on his arm to still his movements.
“Hey. This is going to work. Then we’ll both be free.”
He looks down at where my hand is touching him, then back up at me. “And then what, Andie?”
“I don’t think I understand.”
When he takes his hand out of his pocket, he’s holding a very familiar bracelet. The one I gave him many years ago. The one I saw in his room at the cabin the day I went snooping around.
Lifting my wrist, he slides the bracelet over my hand and tightens the leather cording until it’s snug. The well-worn leather bands are soft against my skin. I stare at the trio of engraved silver bead charms.
Alexandria + Rafael
“Those two people don’t exist anymore,” I tell him, a great sadness filling me up as I experience all over again the loss of what we used to have.
“No, they don’t. The people we used to be were just kids. But we’re not kids anymore,” he replies, stroking the bracelet before letting my hand go.
Once upon a time, I loved this boy with everything I had in me. I still love him. But too much damage and too much time has passed. We’ve both changed. We want different things. I want different things.
“Rafe, I?—”
I hear a faint popping near my ear, kind of like how sound muffles when you’re underwater or when there’s a pressure difference and your ears decompress. I carefully turn my head and scan the area. Things are as dark and as quiet as they were before. If anyone had arrived, Tessa and Liam would have immediately alerted us.
“Did you just hear anything?” I ask Rafe, twisting slightly to look back in the direction Liam said he would be. It’s been over twenty minutes and Julio hasn’t shown. Taking out my phone, and seeing that there are still no messages, I open the contacts to text Liam, when Rafe grips my hand, crushing it tightly.
“Rafe, what the hell?”
Time slows as if it’s stuck in tar. It takes scant seconds for an entire lifetime to flash before my eyes. Image upon image, flying one after another. The first time I saw Rafe and fell in love with his sky-blue eyes. The first time he kissed me when I was thirteen. The first time we made love. Rafe tucking a single rose in my hair and calling me his dolce rosa . Us lying in the grass and looking up at the stars as we talked about our hopes and our dreams. It’s funny how you only remember the good times when something horrible happens.
I scream when I see a bloom of red spreading like a sunburst across his upper chest, the blood soaking his shirt.
“ Oh Jesus .”
Rafe’s blue eyes dilate black as he looks down at me, his mouth agape with shock but no sound comes out. Then he topples forward and collapses against me. I try to hold him up, but his weight is too much, and it takes us both to the ground.
“Rafe. Baby, please,” I beg, my trembling hands useless as I try to figure out where he’s been shot. Thick crimson coats my fingers as I cradle his lifeless body. He’s not moving.
“Rafe! Baby, wake up!” I cry, shaking him.
Not like this. Not like this.
“Kellan! Do something!” I scream at my dead brother as memories of hearing him shot and taking his last breath send me down a spiral of darkness. It’s happening again. I can’t lose someone else I love. Not again.
Whimpering, I plead, “Please, Rafael. Wake up. Don’t leave me. I just got you back.”
I kiss his still warm lips, wanting him to take my breath into his lungs. I would give up my life so he could continue to live his.
Shouts erupt all around me. Someone is calling my name. I turn my head to see who when I catch movement in the window of an abandoned and boarded up gas station across the street. Liam was right. It was a trap. Julio was already here, waiting for me. He shot his own son because of me. It’s my fault.
Rage like I’ve never felt detonates inside what’s left of my broken heart, incinerating it until there’s nothing left but hate and vengeance. A large body skids to a stop right next to me and without thought, I grab Rafe’s gun from his holster. I have the safety off and my finger about to pull the trigger before I realize it’s Liam.
I wish he’d stop yelling at me because I can’t hear a word that he’s saying over Kellan’s constant chattering in my head telling me to get up. To fight back. To make Julio and Alejandro suffer.
Liam tries to grab me, but I push him off. “Get Rafe to the hospital!”
I don’t wait. I’m up and running toward the gas station, my gun gripped and ready.
I’m an open target at this point. If Julio wants to kill me, I’m giving him a clear shot. I reach the cover of the gas pumps, breathless and already sweating profusely in the humid late spring air. And because I’m literally out of my mind, I dash toward the building and hurl myself through one of the broken front windows. Shards of glass and splinters of wood cut into my arms and back as I duck and roll when I hit the floor.
It’s a move, Cillian—my cousin on the McCarthy side and the man I called for help after Kellan died—had me practice over and over again. He told me that fighting was fifty percent skill and fifty percent of knowing how to pick your ass up off the floor and continue to fight. If there’s one thing the Irish are good at, it’s never backing down from a fight.
I remain on the floor to give myself a minute to control my breathing. Cocking my head to the side, I try to pick up the slightest of noise. All I need is a heavy breath or a scrape of a shoe across the dusty, trash-littered floor, and I’ll know exactly where the son of a bitch is. I never heard a gunshot, so Julio must be using a silencer. My fucking phone keeps vibrating like crazy in my back pocket, and I’m half tempted to hurl it out the window I just came through.
The inside of the gas station is too dark for me to make out anything other than the remaining metal shelving. The stale air clogs my lungs, but it’s the traces of animal piss and feces that has my nose wrinkling. The place is in no doubt infested with rats and other wild creatures.
When I don’t hear anything, I ease up off the floor, keeping my gun trained in front of me. The creak of hinges in the back of the store has me hurdling over a fallen rack and crashing through a door labeled Employee’s Only. I run after the blur of movement in a black hoodie. It’s definitely a man, and he’s carrying a rifle. But unless Julio found the Fountain of Youth, the guy I’m chasing isn’t him. His movements are too quick.
I fire off a shot, the bullet clipping the drywall inches from his head. I won’t miss again.
But then the man takes me by complete surprise by abruptly turning around and crashing into me like a fucking wrecking ball. We go down together, and I curse him as my gun flies out of my hand when my elbow cracks against the hard tile. Shit! I watch as both of our weapons slide across the floor to stop feet away from us. At least we’re on a level playing field now.
“Fuck!” I reach over my head and grab at the man’s hands when he pulls my ponytail and wrenches me back.
“ ?Estúpida puta! ”
“Fuck. You! ” I scream with effort, getting a solid grip on his forearms and flipping him over me. Thankfully, he lets go of my hair. I can only imagine the huge chunk he would’ve pulled out at the roots if he didn’t.
The guy whirls around and jumps to his feet at the same time as I do. His hood no longer shrouds his face, and I get to clearly see him for the first time. The man who shot Rafe. He’s Hispanic with dark eyes and a shaved head. A gang symbol is tattooed across his forehead, but not one I’m familiar with.
Taunting him, I snarl, “Where’s Julio? Too scared to face me himself?”
“Bella!” Liam calls for me from the front of the store. It’s enough of a distraction for me to take Jax’s knife from where I secured it to my calf and leap onto the man. My knees dig into his chest, and my feet clench his ribcage to hold me in place as my left hand clutches the hair on his head.
“I hope my brother tortures you in hell,” I tell him before slamming the knife into the side of his neck, then wrenching it out.
Releasing the tight grip of my thighs, I land on my feet just as he stumbles back, knocking into the wall behind him. And because my rage hasn’t dissipated, I rush at him, punching the blade into his stomach with an under grip, then twisting it sharply and pulling up. He makes a pained, gurgled grunt, blood pooling around his cracked lips, the light flickering out of his eyes. I stand there and watch, fascinated and completely emotionally detached.
A warm hand reaches around me and gently extricates Jax’s knife from my grip. When Liam pulls me away, the man slumps to the floor and chokes out one word with his last breath. “Alejandro.”