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A dark feeling swirls in my gut and I turn and stride back to my vehicle, climbing in and starting it before I’ve even shut the door.
I pull a U-turn and head toward home as I dial Nero.
“What’d you find?” he answers.
“Do you remember a guy that would torch buildings by lining the perimeter and doorways with gasoline?”
“Shit, that sounds…” Nero is quiet for a long second. “Are you talking about The Hand?”
The Hand.
Donnie O’Reilly.
Nicknamed for his preference of strangling.
It all slams back into my memory. The Irish piece of shit that worked for the same family as I did, before Nero and I wiped them out, along with the Russians, to form The Alliance.
He was a psychotic bastard. About my age, grandson of the Boss, and second in line for taking over as head of the family. He was full of entitlement and evil as they come.
“Did we not kill him?” Nero questions.
I shake my head as I accelerate down the road. “Asshole was arrested two days before our hit, for killing a family of four. And I think he burned their house down, just like this. Which is why it felt familiar. But he’s in prison. He got a fucking life sentence, no parole.”
“Hold on,” Nero starts typing on something.
“He’s in prison,” I repeat.
“Fuck,” Nero’s curse chills my blood and dread fills me, because I know what he’s going to say. “He’s out.”
I press the gas pedal all the way to floor. “How?!”
Nero is moving too, filling the line with noise. “Technicality. Evidence thrown out.”
“I didn’t put any alerts on his name because he was supposed to be in prison until he died. Fucking stupid! And why the hell would he torch…”
I trail off, the weight of the world pressing against my chest.
“I’ll be right behind you,” Nero says through the line.
Volcanic rage flows through my veins, pushed through by fear.
“Savannah.” I can hardly get her name out. Can hardly make myself say it.
He’s going after Savannah.
This madman is going after my family, because I murdered his.
“Right behind you.” Nero’s words remind me that I’m the closest.
That I’m the one who needs to save her.
CHAPTER79
Savannah
The floor creaksand I let out a sleepy moan.
I can hear King on his side of the bed, finally home.