Page 121 of Bellini Born

“What now?” I groaned.

“Nothing. I’m just wondering how that’s gonna work with you being snipped and all.”

The man knew how many weapons I had on my person, so clearly, he had a death wish.

“One,” I held up a finger. “That’s none of your damn business. And two”—a second finger joined the first—“we already have the girls.”

“Yeah, but—”

My head dropped back. “For fuck’s sake. But what?”

“She’s young. You don’t think she’ll want a baby of her own?”

Honestly, I hadn’t given it much thought. Summer had been aware of my inability to father more children before she agreed to marry me, so she had to be okay with not having any of her own, right?

That, or she loves you and your girls enough to make that sacrifice.

A lead weight of guilt settled in my gut. Enzo was right. Summer was young; she deserved a chance to experience all life had to offer. It didn’t matter that we hadn’t been together when I made the decision to have a vasectomy; I’d stolen her freedom to choose whether she wanted a baby, nonetheless.

I was jarred by a hand clapping down on my shoulder. “Sorry, didn’t mean to fuck with your head right now. But in my defense, if you’d told me about this development when it happened, I could have gotten all these questions out of my system days ago instead of minutes before we go to war.”

Grunting, I shook him off and grabbed my bulletproof vest, slipping it over my head.

“Right,” he agreed, even though I hadn’t said anything. “Time to go kill some Russians.”

Enzo and I were holed up in an abandoned apartment situated across the alley from Ballistic, waiting for the sun to set so we could raid the club and take out Popov before he learned that I was back and went underground. Or worse, ordered another attempt on my family’s lives.

“We’ve got two snipers on the roof to cover us upon entry.” Enzo held binoculars up to his face. “Infrared shows ten guys on the inside, including the two in Popov’s office.”

“How many do we have?”

“They’re outnumbered two to one.”

“Good.” I scrubbed a hand over my jaw, sporting a decent bit of stubble considering I’d been awake nearly twenty-four hours at this point. “Let’s do what we can to minimize casualties on our side.”

Enzo turned to me. “Don’t we always?”

“Yeah.” There had been a persistent tightness in my chest since Summer begged me not to make her a widow this evening. While I was fairly certain I would be returning home to my family, I hated knowing that not all of my men would. Sure, this was the job that they’d signed up for, and we always took care of the families left behind, but it hit differently now. I’d witnessed how losing a parent impacted children and had experienced the soul-crushing anguish of believing I’d lost the woman I loved.

“You all right?” My cousin assessed me carefully. “Like I said before, I’m fine if you want me to handle this.”

“No.” I shook my head. “He sent his goons after my family. I need to be the last face he sees, so he knows how badly he fucked up.”

“Yeah, I get it.”

Darkness descended around us as afternoon transitioned into night, and we had a small window of opportunity to take out those Russian fucks before Ballistic opened to the public. Though not all who frequented the nightclub were innocent—most being associates of the bratva—I wasn’t willing to risk any civilians getting caught in the crossfire.

“We’re ready on your signal,” Enzo said.

“Let’s do this.” I pulled a gun from my holster, and we made our way to street level.

Pausing at the open door to the alley, I spoke into the com system, which linked the team via earpieces. “On my mark. Snipers take out the guards at the back entrance in three, two, one.”

There was a sharp whooshing zing through the air before the thud of bodies hitting the pavement sounded.

“All clear,” one of the snipers relayed, confirming what I already knew: the guards were down.

“Keep an eye out in case they call for backup,” I ordered. “Ground team, move out.”