“Tane, I hate to break up Gun Safety 101,” Alex said, peering through the semi-obscured window. “But we’ve got a posse of Cardini men across the street. And… yup… they’re headed right over here. They’re fully loaded, and they mean business.”
Tane felt his body and mind focus in a way that it hadn’t needed to in a long time. This was far beyond any kind of pressure that came with a big game for the Enforcers. This was life and death, and it was time to make sure that whatever else happened his darling boy was safe.
“Jacob, get into the staff room at the back,” Tane barked. “Keep your gun ready and don’t hesitate to fire if you need to. But I want you out of sight.”
“I want to help though!” Jacob said, his voice full of fear and bravery in equal measure. “I know I can do it.Seriously. I’m not some dumb kid. You can count on me.”
“Fine,” Tane replied. “But stay low behind the counter. You’ll have cover there.”
Along with Jacob, Tane, Connor, and Alex took their positions and waited for the Cardini henchmen to enter the launderette.
Tane calmed his heartbeat and went through the exact same process as when he had an important shot to make in hockey.
See the goal.
Shoot the shot.
Reap the reward.
What followed was a blur of gunfire, blood splatter, and three vets showing the Cardini men that they had more than enough deadly aim off the ice as well as on it.
“Fucking retreat,” the lead henchman called out, his bleeding shoulder and the fact that four of his men had fallen proving one step too far.
“Tane, should we follow them and finish them off?” Jacob said, poking his head up from behind the counter. “I shot one in the leg!”
“No, we’ve done what we needed to do, boy,” Tane said.
“I think you might have trouble on your hands with this boy, he’s deadly,” Connor said, reloading his shotgun just in case the Cardini clan were bluffing in their retreat.
Tane laughed, but his most burning desire was to get over to Jacob and check that the boy was alright. While Jacob may have seemed to be fine, this was a totally new situation to him and there was every possibility that he was in a state of shock.
“You go to Jacob, I’ll cover the window,” Alex said, advancing with Connor by his side.
Tane wasted no time in retreating to the rear of the launderette and wrapping his arms around Jacob.
“You good?” Tane said, feeling that Jacob’s heartbeat was going at a thousand miles per hour. “You don’t need to be brave with me. I’m your man, you can tell me if you’re scared.”
“I’m fine, I promise,” Jacob replied, looking up at Tane with his bright blue eyes. “I might be young, but I’m not naïve. I know what would have happened if we didn’t defend ourselves We did what we had to do.”
Tane kissed Jacob on his forehead.
The boy was brave, maybe too brave for his own good.
Tane wanted nothing more than to take Jacob home and give him a nice, soapy bath, and then put them both to bed for a long, sensual fuck.
But before even contemplating that, Tane had to deal with someone else…
“Better late than never,” Tane said as he turned and saw Antonio Cardini enter with his men.
“We had to make a detour to take out the Tito Cardini,” Antonio replied, a bloodthirsty look in his eyes. “It turns out that Tito went against his family’s orders and was behind the recent troubles, including the attempted hit on Jacob. The Cardini family agreed that we could take Tito out, and as it stands there is no longer a problem between the families.”
“We nearly fucking died,” Connor said, angrily slamming his fist down on top of a washing machine.
“And you will be compensated accordingly,” Antonio said, his voice severe but also with a hint of apology to it. “But it doesn’t look like you’ve lost any of your shotgun prowess, Connor. Thank you. As I say, you will all be compensated. And I must convey that your loyalty is appreciated by the family.”
“When you saycompensated,” Tane said, standing up and walking toward Antonio. “Thereisone thing I might request.”
“Yes?” Antonio replied, arching his eyebrow.
