Monk and Teddy and Monk’s two capos took off after the gunman. Nikki started to run after them, but Mick pulled her back. “Come with me,” he ordered as he hopped onto the driver side of his SUV. Nikki hopped in on the front passenger seat, and Mick took off.
As Monk and Teddy ran through the woods that surrounded the safe house, Mick sped all the way around, down three streets, until he drove to the backside of those woods.
By the time he made it up to the opening where Teddy and Monk, along with Monk’s two capos, were running out onto the back street, the gunman had already jumped into his getaway car and was speeding off. Mick slammed on brakes, Monk and Teddy hopped onto the middle row with Monk ordering his two capos to wait at the safe house, and the Escalade sped off behind the gunman’s car.
But before they got to the end of the backroad, the getaway car slammed on brakes and did a quick U-turn in the middle of the street. Then the gunman, who appeared to be alone in the car, began speeding straight for Mick’s Escalade.
Mick pressed down both windows on the middle row and Teddy grabbed his gun and leaned out of the left side window, while Monk, with his gun, leaned out of the right side window. Both began firing on the gunman even as he sped toward them.
“Nikki, get down!” Mick ordered as he pushed her down himself.
“Hold on!” he yelled to Monk and Teddy as he swerved his SUV so violently fast and so sudden that it ended up leaned sideways on two wheels. But it was just the move Monk and Teddy needed to steer the SUV clear of the gunman’s path, and for them to take out the gunman.
The gunman was shot several times and slumped over the steering wheel. The now-driverless car sped across the street into the woods, went airborne when it sped into an understory shrub branch, and then it exploded when it slammed back down.
Mick slammed on brakes and waited for the second explosion. When it came, he knew there would be no surviving. And then he drove away.
Monk was grieving his men that had been killed on guard outside of that safe house.
Teddy and Nikki were grieving the fact that there was another element to this war that would never be as considerate as Monk had been.
But Mick was worried about Bella, and how in the world was he going to get her out of this mess too.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE
“Where’s Bella?”
Mick hurried into his penthouse ready to strangle her ass if she didn’t give him the answers he needed. How could he ever help her when she was always hiding information from him? Teddy, Monk, and Nikki were rushing in too because they wanted answers as badly as Mick did.
But Bella wasn’t there.
Mick frowned. “What do you mean she’s not here?”
Big Daddy, Roz, Reno, Sal and Robby were all seated around the living room when they walked in. “She’s not here,” said Roz.
“You didn’t tell us anything about keeping Bella here,” said Big Daddy. “What’s the matter?”
“She may be involved,” Teddy said.
All of them were shocked. “Get the fuck outta here!” said Reno.
Even Roz couldn’t believe that Bella would have a hand in Duke’s abduction. She loved Duke! “Why would you think she’d do something like that? She wouldn’t do that.”
Mick knew it too, but he had to find her. “Did she say where she was going?”
“No,” said Roz. “She just left like she always does. She never says where she’s going.”
“Did somebody pick her up?”
They had no idea. “You didn’t tell us to keep an eye on her, Uncle Mick,” Sal pointed out like Big Daddy had.
Mick was so flustered he felt as if he was going to explode the same way that car did. He hurried to his office. Everybody hurried behind him.
He went behind his desk, pulled up his computer, and then pulled up the CCTV cameras for the front of his hotel. “How long ago did she leave?” he asked.
“Less than ten minutes after you left,” said Reno. “We figured she left because her sugar daddy had left.”
Mick cut a glance at Reno. “Say it again and I’ll kick your ass,” he said.
