"I'll play wheelman, if you like," Jack volunteers. "And backup, if needed. I'd recommend Freddie Lazzaro as well for the team. He's good in a tight spot."
Leo nods his thanks. "We'll do it tonight.
"Tonight?" It slips out of me.
"Word will get out fast," Sandro says, almost gently. "And I have no wish to terrorize. Only make right what has been done wrong."
And I swore an oath to serve and protect the Family. No matter the cost. "Yes, Boss."
"You have your team, Leo," Sandro says. "So get to work."
The meeting breaks up, and I follow the others out, heart pounding. We're really doing this. We're taking the war to AJ.
I know what he's done. I hate him just as much as the next Castellani. AJ's men have killed men I knew, personally.Goodmen.
I just wish I could shake this ominous feeling that something still isn't right.
I find Darian in his break room, standing right in front of the display cabinet at the other end of the small room, staring at it. He whirls around at my approach.
"Oh," he says with a relieved smile. "It's you."
I take a deep breath. "I have to go out tonight. Family business. It's...complicated." I run a hand through my hair. "Dangerous. And it's better if you don't know the details."
"Raffi—"
"I need you to promise me you'll stay in tonight." I grasp him and make him look straight at me. "Promise me, D."
He searches my face. I can see the worry in his eyes, the questions he won't voice. Finally, he nods. "I promise." His hands come up to cover mine. "Just—be careful. Come back to me."
This is a lot more compliant than I expected Darian to be. I pull him into my arms, holding him close, and I look over his shoulder at the cabinet.
Was he in the passageway behind it, listening in? Maybe. Possibly. Or he was thinking about it, at least. But there's no point arguing about it, so I just hug him tighter.
"Always," I murmur into his hair. "I'll always come back to you."
Now all I have to do is not make myself a liar, and survive this job taking out AJ Bernardi.
CHAPTER 47
RAFFI
This partof the Port is eerily deserted at this time of night, though the ships are still coming in, going out from the other half. But this section is where AJ and his boys like to hang out. An unusually chill wind blows in from the sea, winding its way among the shipping containers.
"Like old times," Julian murmurs to Leo with a sharp smile. He pulls a black balaclava over his head, pale eyes blinking through the eye holes. "Shall we?"
Leo checks his gun, shuts it again, and nods. He looks over at me, Freddie and Oz. "You three, five minutes, then head in and make some trouble, like we talked about."
The plan is for us to draw Bernardi attention while Leo and Julian slip into the main building. We watch Leo and Julian disappear into the darkness. Beside me, Oz Santarelli shifts from foot to foot while Freddie peers through a set of binoculars, surveying the activity on the docks ahead.
"Lotta Bernardis down there," Freddie says. "But AJ should be holed up in that warehouse." He points to a building.
Oz spits on the ground. "Intel better be solid. I'm not busting my nuts out here over nothing."
I check my weapon one last time, the cold metal reassuring against my palm. "Leo's sure. We wouldn't have come out otherwise."
Still, there's an itch I can't scratch, a restless nagging that something isn't right.
Doesn't matter now. My job is to back up Leo and Julian, help them reach AJ. All my worries and suspicions don't matter. It's time to go to battle for my brothers.
