“How progressive of him,” Kiernan drawls.
I chuckle darkly. “Elias believed that he’d have less trouble with a woman in charge than a man,” I elaborate. “Said thatmen think with their dicks, but a woman thinks with her bank account.”
My father laughs. “I’m putting that on a T-shirt,” he snorts, and I can’t help the laugh that follows. We spend another hour going back and forth on why Lina would take Bailey in the first place. Kiernan and Seamus believe that Bailey was set up long before she caught them in the alley.
Elias has a history with the two women that goes further back than any of us anticipated, and I dread the moment my brothers have to tell Bailey the truth about her mother. In a way, it would be a relief for her, but there is a darkness to that truth that will taint her forever.
It doesn’t matter. We are her family now.
Once we all decide on a course of action, we plan well into the wee hours of the morning. Sometime in the middle of the night, I bring in Vas and Maxim to assist in our coordinated attack. Me and my men hit Drew at Bailey’s old penthouse while the twins and father take out the brothel where we’ve learned Bailey is being kept.
Lina is smarter than her coconspirator.
Sarah Eriksen is dumb as a box of rocks. She led us straight to Bailey with her car GPS system backlog. My father told me he always takes those out of every vehicle he and his men use. They are easy to hack and easy to subpoena in a court of law.
“I’m sorry,” I murmur to my brothers as we leave the confines of the room to head upstairs for a few hours of sleep before the raid.
“For what?” Kiernan asks, perplexed.
“I should have been here with you sooner,” I admit sadly. “Bailey is important to you and maybe, if I had tried to help sooner, she would have been back here already.”
Seamus, the hugging hippie that he is, wraps an arm around my shoulders and pulls me tight to his side. “You,” heemphasizes. “Have nothing to apologize for. We know your pain and how hard it is to lose someone you love. The gala was one big fuckup after another. It is our fault we didn’t do better research on the attendees or on Lina. Our gut told us not to take her down there, but we ignored it. Plus, I don’t think we could have stopped her from going even if we tried.”
Kiernan snorts. “She probably would have climbed out the window and gone anyway,” he points out, eyes dancing with amusement. “Bailey wanted to save her friend. There was no stopping her once she put her mind to it. No matter how well we tried to dissuade her.” He nudges my shoulder and winks obscenely.
Oh gross.
“I think I threw up in my mouth a little.”
The twins laugh merrily, and I find myself joining in. God, it feels good to laugh and let go. I haven’t done that since Matthias is shot. Family has a way of healing you no matter how deep into the darkness you sink.
The building is easy enough to clear out with our fire department contact who slips door to door, warning everyone of a possible hazardous leak. Each floor only holds two penthouse style condos and the one across from Bailey’s is thankfully vacant.
Looking down, I double check the safety on my Smith & Wesson M&P, making sure it is off, before giving Vas the go ahead. There are only four of us. We don’t need an entire contingent of men for two measly people who are a threat less than zero.
Maxim is posed in front of the door, his gun aimed at the lock, waiting. Vas counts down quietly from three. The manbarely reaches one before Maxim shoots out the door and Leon kicks it in. The three men create a barrier around me with Vas taking point at the head of their little ‘V’ shape safety net.
It is frustrating going from being the protected and constantly guarded wife of a mafia boss to being the protected and guarded mafia boss. It’s like nothing has changed besides my nameplate.
Oh, I should get one of those.
Wood breaks, followed by a shrill scream that rends the air.
“What the fuck?” That is Drew, Bailey’s ex-fiancé. I recognize his voice from the schmoozing he did at the gala when he found out my last name was Ward. Matthias had me revert to my maiden name, which was easy enough since I never officially changed my last name when I was forced to marry him.
No papers or ID.
Mark is currently working on that for me just to make things easier. I doubt they will be real, but that doesn’t matter. As long as I have something, that is what I need.
“Oh, I could have lived without seeing this,” I grumble, scrunching my nose up at the two naked bodies before me. We interrupted sexy time.
Gag.
None of the men look happy about it, either.
“Okay, let’s get this over with so I can stop having to look at the Amityville horror show before me.”
The girl, Sophia, I believe is her name, sniffs the air like she is miffed I insinuated she is ugly.
