I led the men to enter the club, heading not through the entrance they expected us from, but by coming in through the adjacent building. Our alteration took them by surprise, but it didn’t change their fates.
“Where is he?” I demanded of the Giovanni asshole who greeted me with a gun aimed at my head.
“Fuck you.” Before he could pull the trigger, another man shot him. We’d arranged for our plainclothesmen spies to pose as part of the Giovanni force, and they revealed that deception now.
In a flash, they proved that they’d never intended to talk. To negotiate. To discuss anything. Most telling of all was the fact that Roberto Giovanni hadn’t shown up.
You fucking coward.
My father and I suspected he’d pull a stunt like this. To set me up on his turf to have me killed.
That was why we’d been ready for it. All the Giovannis were killed. We’d come with too many. We’d already had our men hiding among them. As the gunpowder settled and I caught my breath from the bullet that had caught me in the shoulder, the same one I had the stitches from when Sofia helped me almost three months ago after I was shot there, I gritted my teeth and assessed the damage.
At close range, it was inevitable for someone to be hurt. I was wounded, but alive.
“All accounted for,” Oleg said after my demand to know how many casualties we had.
No Orlovs were dead, but the groans and winces of pain on my men’s faces proved they weren’t getting out of here unscathed.
“Civilians?” I asked next, limping toward the door.
“None,” Oleg answered, holding his hand against his arm where blood leaked.
We’d had a couple of our soldiers go downstairs and clear out the guests at the club. It wasn’t necessary, but when I stopped to consider how upset Claire and Sofia likely would be to know that innocent bystanders had been killed by an act of violence that had nothing to do with them, I asked for the building to be emptied when we arrived. Natalie, too, would appreciate it, since her first husband had been killed when he was innocently caught in the crossfire of a confrontation that hadn’t been relevant to him.
A couple of Giovanni thugs cursed and protested as my men dragged them out. A thick stream of blood followed them in their wake. They were hit but alive. Weakened but slowly dying. I imagined they’d hang on long enough for the men to question them for where their cowardly leader was hiding. We’d make sure of it, but I wasn’t leaving anything to chance.
“We’ll remain on the lookout,” my father said, connected to the comms unit all of us were wearing.
I nodded, exhaling a harsh breath as Oleg and I got into the car to leave.
“We will.” Roberto Giovanni could think he would get away with tricking us like this, agreeing to meet up then backing out. But he wouldn’t succeed. He’d written his own death sentence the second he harmed Sofia at all. “There’s nowhere he can hide on this earth to evade me for good,” I replied as the driver pulled away from the failed meeting that aggravated me to no end.
I’m coming for you.
And you will pay with your life for what you’ve done.
I gritted my teeth and breathed through the anger and disappointment that I couldn’t be coming home to Sofia with good news, with the report that she’d never have to fear her uncle ever again.
I owed her this.
I loved her too much to fail her.
But this time, I wondered if good things really did come to those who waited. My patience to wait for Roberto Giovanni’s death frayed with every passing second.
38
SOFIA
As soon as Andre left, I called Esmeralda. It had already been so long since I’d talked to her, since I’d seen her. Missing her was something I had to face in the present and in regard to the future. She was here on limited time, and now that I’d embraced Andre’s love and knew he wanted to support me, I had the freedom to be reunited with her.
Once my uncle was dead.
Worry and fear filled me as I watched the car pull away. Andre was heading into danger—for me, for our baby, for us—and I was tense with dread that something could go wrong.
It was a necessary risk to take, though, and I tried to distract myself from anxiety that he could be hurt by looking forward to how I’d thank him and show my appreciation when he returned.
Talking to my cousin was another distraction, and I enjoyed the chance to see her with my own eyes. To hear her voice.
