Lev takes a walkie-talkie from the glove compartment and barks something into it. A voice responds, one of my lieutenants, speaking in Hungarian. Lev nods, then turns to me, switching to English. “We think we can wait here for ten minutes, set up, but then… we go in.”
And that’s your decision, is it?I almost say, but that would just give the game away too. I can’t let them know I’m not on board with any of this. I still need them for my plans.
“Hmm,” I say, waving a hand. “Let them know.”
He looks at me strangely, and I think about killing him, but not yet.
Ten minutes to make something happen. I lean forward and look at the farmhouse, the parked cars, the faint movement in the window. From this angle, a glimpse of the yard, the cars, and a barn on the far side of the house. There doesn’t seem to be anybody at the barn.
Lev drums his fingers against the steering wheel, whistling softly.
I try not to fidget as I think about how I’m going to play it when Rafe is dead. They expect me to skip on home and tell everybody the good news. Tell them I’m king. I need Rafe and his little shit at my side.
At the five-minute mark, I believe in God again for the first time since I was a kid. A smile spreads over my face as Dante walks out, the bundle in his arms. He turns with his back to us, cigarette between his lips.
“The big boss told him to give the kid some fresh air, and he’s smoking in his face,” I grunt, making the brothers laugh. Then I almost bellow when the idea hits me. “You two, right now. We’ll go and grab the kid. Just the three of us. Ten thousand each. But we have to gonow.”
“Now,” Lev grunts, reaching for the door.
“Ten?”
“Ten,” I yell at Dom.
He nods. “Now.”
We slide out of the car, my heart hammering. I know there’s a manic glint in my eye without even having to look. I can feel it. The burst of electric excitement. This is really going to work.
We stalk through the trees, then across the open landscape. The brothers have already got their weapons out. I take mine out as we reach the farmhouse. Nobody is at the windows facing us. Dom and Lev peek around the corner, then nod to me and step out, their guns raised. I quickly follow, staying at their shoulders.
Dante is humming as he smokes. We move quietly, but I’m shocked he doesn’t turn. We’re all ready for it, tensed, set to shoot if we have to. But the ideal situation is for me to get my hands on the little shit and get him away from Rafe.ThenI’ll really be king.
Dom and Lev leap on Dante. Dom clamps his hand over his mouth, and Lev drags his arms behind his back. The kid falls to the ground. I duck, meaning to rush and catch it, but then a bullet explodes through the glass from the nearest window of the house.
I gasp as hot fire licks the tip of my right ear. But the bullet only grazes me.
Lev collapses face down on the grass, blood oozing from the back of his head. I cover my mouth and let out a sound I know the men will hear about if we survive this.
Dom roars and spins toward the window, raising his gun, letting Dante go. Before the shooter can drop him, Dante knocks hislegs out from under him and whales on him. He rains down blow after blow, scar puckering around his mouth, blood splattering his face.
Instinct makes me duck to the ground. Just in time. A bullet whizzes at the ground behind me. I scramble across the floor, wrap my arm around the bundle, and stumble to a crouch. I crouch-run across the clearing as bullets wiz by me, as Rafe proves he’s not the man he claims to be.
He’s shooting at me when I’ve got his son.
I end up in the farmhouse, my right ear pulsing in agony, but no other injuries. Outside, I can hear Dante grunting and Dom crying out. Then, a beat of nothing before Rafe bellows,“Surround the barn.”
I pace, clutching his kid to my chest, unable to believe…
“The rat will have to come out…”
Unable to believe he cares so little about his son’s life. My heart drops into my stomach. My whole fucking world has just changed.
I lower the bundle so I can look at the kid’s face. The precious child that he left out in the open, defenseless. I unwrap the blanket only to see it’s a fake baby, plastic, actually fuckingplastic, swaddled up to look real. It only hits me now that I didn’t hear it crying.
Its lifeless face stares at me. The lips twitch slightly, as if to smile.
“Go fuck yourself,” I scream.
I take out my cellphone and call Sergei. “Attack,” I snap when he answers. “Dom and Lev are dead.Kill them all!”
