BEN
“That’s organized. The helicopter will be waiting for us at the airport,” Leo confirms, placing his cell on the walnut table situated between us. Leaning back in the seat of the private jet, I swirl the bourbon in my glass, but I can barely stomach drinking it. I am sick with worry even though I know Sierra and Rowan are safe at her dad’s place.
I got my personal plane in the air in record time, and we should arrive at the Lawson estate in less than an hour, but it’ll still be almost three hours in total from the time of my call with Sierra before I reach her and Rowan. That is three hours too long. I don’t know what I was thinking leaving them there after the Russians were poking around last weekend. I should have insisted they return to New York with me, but I let my reluctance to have Sierra close impair my judgment.
Never again.
I will just have to learn to control myself around her because there is no way I’m leaving my family in Chicago after this.
“Are you sure we can trust Joseph Lawson?” Leo asks, sipping slowly on his scotch. “I know you don’t like him.”
“I don’t have to like him to trust him in this scenario, and it was my only option.” It would have taken me too long to get my own crew to Chicago. I needed someone to get Sierra out of her place of work ASAP because I didn’t know if the Russians had more men outside. “This whole thing is fishy. I know the Russians are getting more organized—their successful attack on Vegas proves that—so why send in only one guy?” Lawson called me after his men picked up Sierra and Alessandro to confirm there were no other assailants found. He also arranged for removal and disposal of the dead body.
“The guy could’ve gone rogue.”
I nod slowly. “Perhaps, but it’s not their latest MO.” The Bratva were notoriously disorganized until a few years ago when they started getting their shit together. They are definitely more structured now and a much bigger threat considering their numbers across the US rival ours. They snuck up on Vegas and snatched the territory right out of Salerno’s hands. No one noticed anything was amiss until it was too late.
However, that doesn’t mean they are a well-oiled machine and they don’t still have a few loose cannons running around with their own agenda. Maybe the guy planned to take my girl and use her to gain an in with the Bratva leaders or he needed to make amends for something and she was his meal ticket? Or he was acting on orders but instructed to keep it below the radar? I don’t know, and I won’t rest until I find out.
“At least they don’t seem to know about Rowan,” Leo says.
Air expels from my mouth, and I rub the tight pain in my chest. “Thank God they haven’t discovered my son; otherwise, they would have gone for him instead.”
“Or targeted both of them at once, like they did with the Vegas attack,” Leo says, accepting the sandwich from the flight attendant when she materializes at our side.
I dismiss her with a wave of my hand. I couldn’t force a morsel down my throat right now. She offers the sandwich to Ciro who is seated in the seat behind Leo, and he accepts it with a grunt. I’m not enjoying having a new bodyguard, but I can’t fault Ciro’s professionalism. He’s damn good at his job, but he’s a surly bastard, and I miss Alessandro’s easygoing manner.
I refocus on Leo. “It’s not adding up, and I’d like to know how they got to Alessandro and why they only drugged him.” Most mafioso would have used a silencer and put a bullet in his skull.
“He’s going to be so pissed when he wakes,” Leo says in between mouthfuls of his sandwich.
I nod because I have no doubt Alessandro will see this as a personal failure, and he will beat himself up over it. But that is the least of his concerns. This shouldn’t have fucking happened on his watch, and I want answers as to how he let himself be drugged. Maybe I made a mistake assigning Alessandro to guard Sierra. Maybe he’s having as much trouble as I am staying focused around her. The thought does nothing to quell the murderous intent swirling in my gut.
“What are you planning on doing when we get there?” he adds, stuffing the rest of his sandwich in his mouth.
“Getting my family the fuck out of Chicago,” I snap. My patience is in limited supply, and I have no time for stupid questions.
“Woah.” Leo holds up one hand. “I know you’re mad. I’m furious too, but I’m trying to help. We’ll find the bastards and make them pay.”
“I never should have left them in Chicago. I should have taken them to Greenwich last weekend—even if I had to drag Sierra kicking and screaming.”
“It’s not your fault.” Leo leans forward, uncapping a bottle of water. “You got the intel from those Russian scum on Saturday night, and we took care of their base. You couldn’t have known there were more of them hanging around or that someone went rogue. He must have spotted you with Sierra outside the hotel and decided to target her.”
“I am going to find every last one of those scumbags and hang them by their entrails until they bleed out.” I crack my knuckles as a red haze coats my eyes. “No one fucks with my girl and gets away with it.”
Leo’s lips twitch.
“What?”
“It’s just nice to hear you acknowledging it.”
I realize what I said. “Stop. I don’t have time for this now.” I scrub my hands down my face, stifling a yawn. I have barely had any sleep the past few days, working around the clock with Gifoli and The Outfit to hunt down the rest of the Russians, to ensure the city was safe. I would have stayed in Chicago if I didn’t have pressing business in New York. It’s a miracle I’m even able to stand, but the need to protect my family is driving me forward. I just want to take Sierra and Rowan and hole up in my house for a few days.
Leo wisely drops the subject. “You’ll have to admit the truth to Lawson, if he hasn’t already guessed.”
I unbutton the top button of my shirt and loosen my tie—I feel like it’s choking me today. “I know. He was peppering me with questions on the phone, and I told him we’d speak when I arrive. I messaged Sierra, telling her to say nothing. She has been through enough trauma today without being the one to break the news to her father. I want to be there with her when her family finds out.”
Her father has always been a prick to her, and I don’t want him mouthing off at Sierra when I’m not there to protect her. I have no clue how Joseph Lawson will react when he discovers I am Rowan’s father. He was civil and respectful to me at the gala event, with no hint of the derision he used to hold for me in evidence, but the man is a master manipulator, and who’s to say it wasn’t all an act? Gifoli would have told him who I am, and he isn’t stupid. He has provided a service to The Outfit for long enough to know how things happen in mafia circles. He would know to disrespect me places a target on his head and his family by default. So, he could have been playing an expected part.
