27. Liam
27
LIAM
A blast filled the air, but it wasn’t my gun that fired. Nor was it the burly biker’s.
Romeo grunted behind me, having rolled up onto his knees to shoot at the man who was about to blow my head off. “I knew you were a good shot, but…” he started as the biker groaned in agony.
The Devil’s Brother gripped his hand—or what was left of it. The bloody pulp leaked everywhere, and the gun that dropped was too slippery to fetch. “You motherfucking asshole!” Romeo got him right in the hand, disarming him.
I raised my brows and fired at the biker. Twice. His shattered kneecaps were beyond saving now. Screaming instead of cursing at us, he fell to the ground.
“But damn , are you a good shot.”
I nodded. “Thanks for the backup,” I quipped dryly. I wasn’t here for praise about my marksmanship. I earned the compliment from years of service, but right now, I wanted to get some goddamn answers from this fucker before we killed him.
“What were you sent here to do?” I let Romeo aim his gun at the man. Not his face, but at his cock. It seemed that the prince of the Constella Family wanted his victims to die emasculated. I kept my gun trained at the asshole’s face.
“Fuck you.”
Romeo pulled the trigger.
The man cried out loudly. And rolled onto his back. He covered what remained of his dick with his bloody hand.
“What were you sent here for?” I demanded.
“I was gonna take the baby hostage. Reaper wants her for leverage.”
My blood boiled hotter. I clenched my teeth so hard that my jaw ached like it never had before, but I refused to pull the trigger.
“Then what?” Romeo asked.
“Then I was gonna burn the goddamn house down. Reaper’s still mad about you motherfuckers having so much power.” He spat at us, still so vindictive even at our mercy.
I thought back through all that the mighty Constella family had done already. Dante took Nina and refused to let her honor that bet. Then Romeo killed the MC’s smarmy lawyer. I supposed they could claim a right to be mad, but I didn’t give a shit. They were bad people. When bad people did bad things, they only deserved it in kind.
“What about Giovanni?” Romeo demanded.
“He’s angrier than Reaper. Sounds like Dante and Stefan go way back, and he’s pissed that old friendships don’t last.”
“Tough shit,” Romeo replied. “Stefan isn’t half the man he used to be, when he was worthy of our friendship and alliance.”
The idiot laughed, as though he could actually experience anything other than pain until we finished him off. “We don’t need you fuckers now. No one does. That’s why we’re gonna end you all.”
“I doubt that.”
“No. If they combine, it’ll be too many to face at once,” Romeo said. “If they teamed up in attacking us, we would be outnumbered.” He looked at me with a grave scowl. “No matter how damn good of a shot you are, we would be outnumbered.”
“And we got an alliance that’ll keep us safe. From you. From the law.” He snickered. “We’re fucking immune like you’d only dream of.”
Immune? From being caught? “Congratulations on bribing a cop,” I drawled sarcastically.
“Like that’s never been done before,” Romeo replied.
“Not a cop. Reaper’s got us a middle man, a connection between the Devil’s Brothers and the governor’s office. He can put more heat on y’all.”
“Who is it?” I asked.
“Like hell am I giving you a name. Fuck you to hell. I’m gonna laugh in your faces when you can’t beat ’em.”
Romeo and I shared a look.
“All you’re going to do now is serve as another reminder for Reaper to think twice.” I pulled the trigger, killing him with one shot between his eyes.
I loosened my shoulders, but I was still too tense to come close to relaxing. I was glad and relieved that this man was dead. But the news he’d shared with us wasn’t heart-warming.
“What middle man?” I asked Romeo.
He shook his head, not pleased about this development. “I don’t know, but I don’t like the sound of this.”
“Dante and Franco haven’t heard about it?” I knew I was sometimes pushing the boundaries of my position. I wasn’t a capo. I was a new recruit. But the men confided in me in such a way that made me feel like I was “in” with them.
“No.” He rubbed his face and winced when he moved his arm too much. “But it’s nothing new. Bribed officials and all. My father doesn’t rely on it much anymore. Easier to deal with the commercial sector of funders.”
With the number of lobbyists out there, I wasn’t surprised. In or out of the government, corruption was everywhere, braided into the fabric of the economy.
“We need to secure the properties better. If they’re going to continue to come at us, this can’t be happening. No one can be sneaking in.”
I nodded. “Are you suggesting a lockdown?”
“Damn near it. We have to. If they’re banking on immunity and protection from the law with this middle man in the governor’s office, they’ll only get cockier and attack more.” Romeo looked up as more men rushed in. He gave them directions where the men were, but he dismissed them from offering to assist him.
“Just a graze,” he said of his wound.
I waved them off.
Before we walked back to the house, I glanced at the men I killed.
“We’ve faced worse,” Romeo said. “We can handle this.”
“Hell, I have too.” I'd faced many hardships and horrors over the years I served.
I checked that he wasn’t dizzy from blood loss as we walked.
“But that was in war, in the army. For the military.”
Now, though, the stakes were higher. Much higher. I was far more vested in this version of “war” even though the adversaries were Mafia men and motorcycle gangsters.
It wasn’t the time to get comfortable. With this dead biker’s news of a different layer of support they were leaning on, we had to buckle in for more danger.
And I’d face it head on. I would do anything to protect these people, but most of all, Eva and Olivia.
I was vested in them . In us. In the future we would have one day, but not while we had to fear more attacks.
As we walked back to the house, I saw the irony in the timing of this all. Right when I wanted to tell Eva that I wanted her to be my wife, to propose, I’d need to save that conversation for when it made more sense.
I went all my life not realizing I wanted a traditional family, not that the Constellas were a conventional family unit. A kid and a wife. But now that I’d had a taste of it, I would make it happen, one way or another.
I came here not knowing what direction my life would take me, but I knew now. And I’d never lose sight of where I belonged.