“How many?” Vee asked shortly.
“Everyone invited is there,” he replied quickly. “Except for Wilson.”
Vee didn’t appear worried. “I never expected him to show when there’s so much heat around. He’s always been smarter than the others. As long as my family is there, we can proceed.”
It surprised me that my father had been issued an invitation, and I figured Vee hadn’t mentioned it to keep me from overthinking it since she hadn’t expected him to show up.
“Your parents were the last to get on,” Tom confirmed, “and…” He looked again closely, nodding like a fuckwit. “Yep, your guy on the inside has set sail already. He should bail out in a few seconds.”
A smile that was one part joy and two parts evil lit Vee’s face. “Perfect. Now it’s time for part two.”
The yacht was out on the lake now, drifting along slowly. Music playing on its deck grew fainter as they sailed away.
Vee kept a close eye on everything through her binoculars, until she eventually turned to Giana. “It’s time, love.”
Giana shrugged a small backpack off her shoulders and slowly unzipped the top.
“They’re moving out onto the main balconies,” Tom said, leaning forward like that might help him see better through his binoculars. “I think they’re starting to realize that there’s no staff onboard, just a soundtrack playing across the speakers.”
Vee laughed darkly. “Finally, their arrogance in thinking they’re the tops of the food chain is coming in useful. Bastards never even saw it coming.”
I was distracted by Giana as she pressed a button on the small device she’d pulled from the backpack. It reminded me of a video game controller, and I wondered what she was doing as a whirring sound reached my ears.
Giana handed the device to Vee, who took a final glance through her binoculars before she pressed another button on the controller.
“Boom,” she said softly.
Grayson wrapped his arms around me and yanked me back away from the hedges. He turned his back toward the docks so that he stood between me and—
The world exploded.
The sudden burst of noise shocked my senses, and I screamed as my mind tumbled back to the last explosion we were in. To that gut-wrenching fear that I’d lost my boys once and for all, making me momentarily forget where and when I was.
A second explosion followed the first, but Grayson held me the whole time, shielding me from any fallout.
When the noise and light subsided, I turned back with my ears ringing to find nothing but debris and flames left of the yacht. And half the damn docks.
There was no way Vee’s family or any other person onboard had survived.Murder partymade a hell of a lot of sense now, and I admired her cold calculation in taking them all out at once like that. Nothing personal, no need to face them one last time. Just a bomb dropped by a drone, and the justice in that, when they’d tried to kill us with a bomb, wasn’t lost on me.
The murder party was over, and now we only had Tom to deal with.
twenty-nine
ANGELO
The echo of the explosions faded quickly, leaving burning debris scattered over the dark water, and that slimy shitTomwhooped with laughter.
“Yes! That’s what I’m talking about! Fuck yeah!” He danced around like an idiot, grinning from ear to ear like he’d just won the lottery.Oh. I see.That’s how Vee had secured his assistance in this… he thought he was in apartnershipwith my ruthless wife. I almost felt bad for the little skunk when she cracked a sharp right hook across his face to shut him up.
“Very dramatic, Vee,” I commented with a shake of my head. “We should get out of here before authorities turn up. What’s your plan for that?” I nudged Tom with my boot where he lay whining on the ground.
Our mafia queen just grinned. “I thought maybe you guys would want a chat with him. Little Tommy let slip a few details about your former bandmate that might warrant further questioning… After that, I have no use for him. Chuck his body to the pigs or something.”
“What?” Tom screeched in outrage. “You said—”
His protest cut short with a solid hit from Grayson that knocked him clean out. Thank fuck for that; we didn’t need his noise drawing attention.
“Take him to the warehouse,” I told Gray with a nod. He knew what I meant; we had tortured plenty of assholes in my secure facility after the farmhouse attack. It was a fitting place to extract some information from the snake Vee had just handed over. Tom wasn’t strong enough to withhold the truth under pain, even if he wanted to.
