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48

MAEL

It was past midnight as I walked under Driprock Arch, one of the many bridges in Central Park.

There wasn’t a soul in sight. I quietly walked under the bridge and stopped, looking at my surroundings.

It didn’t take long for a shadow to come into my line of sight. I knew he wasn’t alone. He would be stupid if that were the case, and Special Agent Jacob Keller wasn’t a stupid man.

Theo and I had been on his radar for a while, not that he knew we were the ones he had been hunting for the last several years. Our anonymity had served us well.

The same couldn’t be said about this man. He didn’t bother to cover his tracks well enough. We knew the moment he started to suspect there was more going on with the killings—the jobs I had taken—around the area.

We’d left him alone, mostly because he was nowhere close to catching us, but I knew when we needed to take down the entire mob, this man would be the one to help us.

Keller stopped when he was about five feet away from me. I took a step toward him when he spoke. “I think this is close enough.”

I smiled, wondering if he could see it in the dark. The streetlamp nearby wasn’t enough for me to see him clearly. I had the hood of my sweatshirt pulled up over my head, just in case. A red dot appeared on my chest.

“A sniper,” I said casually, changing my voice up a bit. I hadn’t had to change my voice since I spoke to Lia as her stalker. How this brought back fond memories. “I came here in good faith.”

“Is that so? Then why don’t you come down to headquarters with me? And tell me your name while you're at it.”

I laughed. “That isn’t how it works, and you know it.”

I waved my hand, signaling to Theo. A similar red dot appeared on Keller’s head.

He stayed where he was.

“Want to see which one of our guys is quicker?” I asked.

“Is this a game to you? Did you just call me out for that?”

I laughed. “You had your guy point his gun at me first.”

“Cut the bullshit. I’m sure your guy has had me in sight since I stepped foot in Central Park.”

I didn’t refute him. He probably felt Theo following him for the past couple of days.

“Do you want to talk about this in a civilized manner? And don’t even try to stall for your men to find my guy. If he doesn’t want to be found, you won’t find him,” I said.

He was quiet for a moment. “Is he even close by?”

I shrugged, not that he could see me. “Let’s talk, Keller. I have a business proposition for you.”

“What business proposition?”

“A chance for you to take down the Tacchini family.”

“Why would I want to do that? Sure, it would be nice to put all those fuckers away, but here in New York, they are nothing more than a small fish in a big ocean.”

“Because you think the Abbiati family has control right now? They have been scrambling since the death of Dean Abbiati, making them perfect pickings for the Tacchini to take over. And the shit that family is in goes beyond what you could imagine. A skin trade happening right in your backyard. And I don’t think you know that, do you?”

I could feel him tensing. The air shifted, getting heavier. “What are you talking about?”

I shook my head. “It’s not only the Abbiati family scrambling. The Camorra as well, since both Miguel Gallo and his son Salvatore are dead.”

“I haven’t heard anything about that.”

Of course he wouldn’t have. The Camorra wouldn’t want the world to know that both the head and the heir were dead, and the Tacchinis were holding onto this information until it would benefit them to expose it.

“So who do you think is going to be the big fish in this ocean now?”

“Why are you telling me this? What do you get out of this?”

“Let’s just say we have a common enemy. You’re better off working with me on this than veering off on your own, and you know that.”

“And I’m supposed to believe you’re not just using me to take down your enemies so you can take over New York? Who’s to say you’re not the bigger monster?”

Oh, he had no idea.

“Me? I’m simply a concerned citizen. I have no need to take over anything.”

He didn’t respond, obviously thinking. “You think I’m supposed to take your word on it?”

I shrugged, pulling out a card with a row of numbers written on it. I threw it to the ground by Keller’s feet, the white of the card standing out in the dark. His head bent down as he took it in.

“A way to contact me,” I said. I walked away, the red dot never disappearing, not until I turned the corner, at least. And despite what Keller said, I knew he would call. His ambition wouldn’t allow him to ignore this opportunity, and he might be wary of me, but he believed me.

I sensed that much, even if I knew he was going to walk away from this meeting and have his men confirm my words.

* * *

A week passed, and Tacchini’s “favors” kept me busy.

And with each call that got me nowhere only ticked up my anger.

It was a fucking week spent away from Lia, considering I usually left early and came home late, a time in which she had already fallen asleep. I know she tried to stay up and wait for me, but sometimes, the hours got to me, and we hadn’t talked all that much, let alone fucked.

How I missed her. Not just the feeling of being inside her, connecting with each other, but I missed just being by her side, having no expectations on us.

The elevator doors pinged open, and I walked inside the apartment, seeing she had left the lamp on for me, like every night since I had been coming home late.

This time, though, she wasn’t in bed like she was supposed to be but fast asleep on the couch, her body angled to one side and her head braced up by her hand. That couldn’t be comfortable, and I knew she would feel that come morning. Silently, I walked over to her, letting my fingers run gently up and down the side of her face before leaning down and pressing a tender kiss on her forehead. Doing what I did, there needed to be a part of me, the human part, that I could turn off at will—or hell, perhaps it no longer existed. Whatever the case might be, it made things easier for me to accept. I knew Theo had a harder time with it than I did, though not too hard.

But looking at her…

She made me want to be a better man. She made me feel almost… regretful over the fact that I couldn’t be better for her. That I wasn’t sure if my humanity was beaten out of me long ago, and I didn’t know how to get it back, or if I was gone forever, and that was all there was to it.

She deserved better. I knew that. I never claimed to be a selfless man. In fact, I was downright greedy when it came to her. So it didn’t fucking matter that she deserved better. I was never letting her go.

I picked her up in my arms.

She mumbled something in her sleep and turned her head toward my chest, seeking me out. Even when she wasn’t conscious, she still sought me out. I felt something in me soothe from the move.

I paused in my step and took her in for a moment, marveling over how, sometimes, it didn’t feel real that she was right here with me. That it wasn’t anything more than a dream.

I pulled her closer to me and walked over to our bedroom. I gently laid her down on the bed and pulled the blanket over her before quickly washing up and getting ready for bed.

When I climbed back in, I was in nothing but boxer briefs. I pulled her into my arms, feeling her on my bare chest. My heart ticked harshly inside my chest for a quick second before returning to its normal rhythm.

I felt her stir. “You’re back.”

“I’m back,” I said.

“I missed you,” she mumbled sweetly into my chest, her hot breath warming my skin.

My heart jumped wildly once more. What the fuck was happening to me? “I missed you too.”

“I love you.”

My heart stalled at those three simple words. I didn't think there would ever be a time when I would get used to hearing them from her.

“I love you too,” I said softly, trying and failing to get my heart rate to go back to normal.

It was getting almost painful.

Was I having a heart attack?

Impossible.

I checked my pulse. It was racing. I inhaled deeply.

I felt her press a kiss in the center of my chest, making my breath catch.

“Sleep, baby,” I said, keeping my voice level so as not to scare her. “I’ll be here to keep all the monsters away.”

“I know,” she said, sounding confident in my ability to protect her, no matter what.

Fuck.

Everything was fine. I knew it.

I knew I wasn’t having a heart attack. I didn’t know what the fuck was wrong with me, but everything was going to be fine.

Even if I felt like I was dying.

* * *

I threw the stack of photos on Tacchini’s desk in his house.

He didn’t ask how I had gotten in again, and I wouldn’t have answered him if he did.

He looked down at the photos. “What, no heads?”

“Too many,” I said, baring my teeth. Plus, I was getting fucking sick of lugging heads around. The first two had been symbolic. I always had a flair for dramatics.

Tacchini sifted through the photos, letting out a small whistle. “I’m impressed. You’ve obviously killed before if you can hunt down the head of the Camorra like it was child’s play, but this?”

He took in all the photos, the evidence of all I’d done to his supposed enemy.

“Don’t test my patience, Tacchini, or I’ll let you personally experience how far my skills go.”

His eyes flared. “Is that a threat, boy?”

I shook my head. “I don’t make threats. Those are usually empty. This is a warning. Do you think there would be a place you could hide that I wouldn’t find you? Do you want to test me on that?”

I pulled out the seat and sat down, leaning back casually.

He swallowed. “You’re in my house. I have at least twenty men standing guard nearby.”

“And it’ll only take me five seconds to kill you. I let you live because I thought we could benefit from each other. But I’m not your fucking errand boy, and you’re really pushing my patience.”

I indicated the panic button he had installed under his desk. “Go on, push it. How long do you think it’ll take them to get here? And do you think I would have escaped by then? Not before slitting your throat, of course. How old is your boy? Is he ready to take over?”

His jaw clenched. “There is no need to talk like this. You’re right. This relationship can be beneficial for both of us.”

I stood up and leaned over the desk. I tapped his cheek. He flinched.

“Smart man. Why don’t we get started?”

* * *

I followed the fucker to a warehouse. Theo had already been alerted and was tracking my car and relaying the information to Agent Keller as it happened.

I wished I had more time to prepare for this, but it was all happening quickly. If the fucker strayed off somewhere else, I was going to fucking kill him with my bare hands, even with the FBI coming.

Once we take down the Tacchinis, Leo and Luckas would have no backing and no made men guarding them, protecting them from us. They would be forced to come out of whatever hole they were hiding in. Theo wouldn’t care if I went after the fuckers once we have all the women and children safe from out of their hands, and there really wouldn’t be a place safe enough for either to hide from me.

I clenched my fists around the steering wheel.

There hadn’t been a sighting of either of those fuckers in weeks.

They went underground as soon as Lia managed to escape her father’s house after taking the book. My suspicion that they knew something was up got stronger. That’s why they were hiding. But if the entire operation they had been working on for years went up in flames…

This had to work.

It was time to put all this shit behind us, once and for all.

I pulled my car to a stop behind the black bulletproof town car. My car was much more… ordinary.

It was unmarked. There was no way to tie this car to me, and I planned on abandoning it here when everything went to shit.

I got out of the car and walked up to where the fucker was standing.

He grinned and looked at the place proudly. I narrowed my eyes at the sight.

“This is the real moneymaker. Drugs and guns work, sure, and some would argue women are much harder to control, but I find they can be… accommodating , given the right incentive.”

What a piece of shit.

I smiled at him. “Then why don’t you show me the moneymaker?”

He shook his head. “Not until we talk about your role in all of this.”

“My role?” I asked.

He nodded.

“A partnership.”

He shook his head. “I am taking a risk bringing you on. We’ve done all the work. You can’t expect to be handed a partnership.”

“Alright,” I said slowly. “What’s my role?”

“Anything I need.”

“So like a fucking errand boy.”

He clasped my shoulder as if we were close friends about to walk into a bar. I looked at the hand touching me, then back to him. He smartly removed it. “Don’t think of it as an errand-boy job. Think of it as a consultant with many, many benefits. Money, drugs, power…” He pointed to the warehouse. “ Women .”

“Then what are we waiting for?” I said. “Why don’t you show me these women you’re promising me?”

“Now, I can’t promise them to you completely. They still need to make a sale. But there's no reason you can’t try out the merchandise.”

He turned his back to me and led the way to the warehouse. I followed behind, resisting the urge to pull the knife I had tucked inside my boot and plunge it deep into his back.

I could see why it had taken so long for the Tacchini family to leave its mark in New York.

He was flailing without the Cosa Nostra in Italy.

He didn’t know what to do with himself without Dante Giordano, the capo dei capi of the Cosa Nostra. I might be one of the few men to believe he had never betrayed Dante by putting together an uprising. He was too fucking stupid for that. Too bad for the fucker that he was exiled. He would never be able to return to Italy.

When we got inside the dimly lit place, the stench hit me. It was both familiar and unfamiliar.

Unease unfurled inside me, and I didn’t know what to make of these emotions. I clenched and unclenched my fists, wondering why the fuck I was suddenly feeling so much. It had never been like this before. I had always been able to detach myself from any situation I was in. It was why I was so good at what I did, but I was feeling uneasy now.

What in the actual fuck?

Giovanni led me to the upper level of the warehouse, where they kept the women. They managed to stay quiet, but I could hear the occasional sniffle and whimper, especially when we got close to the cages.

Reality started to mingle with the past, and I worked hard to keep my childhood monsters at bay, but fuck, it was hard.

The cages were made from the same material they had kept Theo and me in. And this fucking scene…

All those fucking similarities. It seemed Briggs had been in bed with these fuckers far longer than I thought. We stopped in front of a cage that held three women. Giovanni turned and grinned at me, as if he were showing off purebred ponies he had raised for years. I resisted the urge to take him hostage and bring him back to the crematorium for my own brand of fun.

“My favorites,” he announced fondly. “It’s a shame I need to part with them soon. They still need to make me money. After all, I spent a good amount keeping them fed for the last month or so.”

I forced my smile to be natural when he threw his head back and laughed. Why was this suddenly so fucking hard?

It shouldn’t be.

I stalled until the FBI arrived so they could shut this entire organization down. Then, Leo and Luckas would be forced out of hiding, and the women would be saved, a promise I had made to both Theo and Lia.

So why the fuck did I feel like I was on the verge of either killing every single one of these fuckers personally or burning them alive?

“Are you listening to me, Beckett?”

I shook my head slightly and turned to the man. “Yeah. Just thinking about how you looked almost like a proud breeder of horses.”

He laughed harder and slapped me on the shoulder. I glowered at the move. At least the fucker’s survival instincts were still intact when he took a small step away from me.

“What an apt description. Come on, I’ll show you the rest of the place.”

I followed the fucker around, trying to feign interest when what I was doing was making a note of all the exit points. Three in the back on the first floor of the warehouse, one in front and two on the left side. We stopped when we got near the front door. I didn’t think Tacchini took a breath the entire time.

I had never met a man who talked as much as him.

Perhaps Dante Giordano knew Tacchini had never formed a rebellion against the Cosa Nostra. Perhaps he was just using that excuse to push the fucker out of Sicily, not wanting to hear him talk anymore.

I knew I was fucking tempted to go through drastic measures to get the fucker to shut the fuck up.

I could think of a few ways.

My hand twitched at the thought.

A man who came here with Tacchini walked into the warehouse and whispered something into Tacchini's ear. I didn’t know what was being said, but I heard the word “FBI” pretty fucking clear.

I closed my eyes briefly and cursed Keller in my head.

He had one job, and what did he do?

Got himself and his men noticed.

Tacchini turned to me, suspicion clear in his eyes. I kept a neutral expression.

“Yes, I got it,” Tacchini said to his man. The man nodded and walked away. I waited until he was out of sight before I reacted. I reached around Tacchini, my hand going to the waistband of his pants and grabbing his gun. I held him against me, my front pressed to his back, and the gun aimed right at his temple.

“You fucker! You’re working with the FBI!”

I laughed as his men came into the warehouse, guns drawn. Now was the time to see just how much they valued their capo dei capi . “I wouldn’t call it working for them. More like a mutual benefit.”

“What the fuck are you talking about?”

I pressed the gun into his temple. “Call off your men, or I’ll blow your head off.”

“You do that, and they’ll kill you. You won’t be able to escape.”

“Then let’s all go to hell together,” I said, reaching into my pocket for a small bomb Theo had insisted I bring with me if I was going to be walking into the lion’s den, so to speak.

I pulled off the safety pin with my teeth and threw it in the front. His men recognized it for what it was and scrambled off to safety.

“Some loyalty they have to you,” I said, pulling him back toward one of the three exits just as the bomb went off. It wasn’t a big one. Not enough to cause any real damage to the structure of the warehouse but enough to create a diversion for me to leave.

Tacchini struggled against me when he realized no one was coming to help him. I let out an annoyed grunt and hit him on the back of his head. He went down. I looked at him, releasing an annoyed breath before hauling him up in my arms and leaving the place… just in time for the FBI to push through. I was sure most of the men on the premises would be arrested, and the women would be safe.

And Giovanni Tacchini was coming with me. I had a feeling the fucker had helped set up the fucking factory where Theo and I were trapped for four fucking long years. Theo would want to have his fun.

I busted out to the back, pushing the fucker a little more up my shoulder when I felt him slipping. I looked around until I found west and walked in that general direction. I was probably about a mile out when I caught sight of a familiar white van. Theo stood in front of the hood, his arms crossed over his chest.

“I can’t believe you willingly walked in there by yourself with nothing more to protect you than the fucking bomb.”

“I also have my knife tucked in my boot,” I responded.

He pinched the bridge of his nose as if I was giving him a headache.

He looked at the man hanging over my shoulder. “Why’d you bring him?”

“I’ll explain everything later. Right now, we need to leave, as I am sure our friends at the FBI are doing a perimeter check.”

He nodded and opened the side door for me. I dropped the fucker in the back as Theo handed over some zip ties. I made quick work, and then we were off. We took the main road, considering there were more cars there, and we could easily blend in.

We were silent on the ride out. I didn’t know if this was enough to get Leo and Luckas out of hiding, but I knew this would have Keller looking into all the locations associated with Tacchini, trying to locate him, and that would no doubt draw them out sooner or later.

We were about half an hour from my apartment when my phone beeped in my pocket. Not my phone.

The phone of the guards Leo had put on Lia.

I opened the screen, and a bad feeling came over me.

A text message.

The fucker sent a picture.

And the message was clear.

A buzzing sounded in my ears, and I felt my heart drop. I squeezed the phone, trying to control the violent rage mixed in with the unbridled fear filling up inside me.

“What?” Theo asked when he noticed my expression.

I handed the phone over to him.

“What the fuck? They have Lia?”

I closed my eyes and let out a deep breath, but all it did was bring forth the picture from the message.

Of Lia, tied up on a railing, tears streaming down her face.

Fuck, but they had my girl, and I didn’t know where the fuck they had taken her.

* * *

I splashed cold water on Giovanni. He sputtered out a broken gasp of air as the water hit him, waking him up.

I watched his eyes move about, taking in his surroundings and making sense of the situation.

It was dire.

That was his situation.

He wasn’t going to get out of this alive. But whether or not he went quickly depended entirely on him.

“What the fuck? Let me go, Beckett!” he shouted, struggling against his restraints.

“You think making demands will help?” I asked calmly. I watched as water dripped down from his unsightly mustache, the drops dotting his shirt. Was this really the man who was able to form an entire organization from the ground up? It didn’t fucking make sense. The more I learned about him, the more the picture didn’t add up.

“What the fuck do you want?”

“Me? I want lots of things. For my girl to make it back home safe to me, to get married to her, get her to have my babies. Oh, and I want Leo Briggs’s head.”

“Leo? What the fuck does he have to do with this?”

I leaned forward, resting my hands on either side of him. He flinched when I got in his face.

“He has everything to do with this. And you’re going to tell me where the fucker is hiding, along with Luckas Whitlock.”

He shook his head. “I?—”

His screams pierced the air as I shoved my blade into his side. Not deep enough to kill him, but enough that it would hurt.

I tsked him. “Don’t lie to me. I know you’re hiding them. And now they have my girl, and I want to know where the fuck they are.”

“I really don’t know. I let them stay in my cabin up in the mountains the last time.”

I shook my head. I knew for a fact they weren’t fucking there.

I pulled out the cell phone, showing him the fucker’s message to me. “Don’t focus on the girl. Take a look at the surroundings and tell me where the fuck this is.”

His eyes looked around. I watched him carefully, trying to gauge if there was any recognition there.

His eyes flared for a moment before he forced his face back to how it was.

Bingo.

“Where?”

He shook his head. “I don’t know— fuck !”

I twisted the blade deep into his insides. “Try again. And remember this: You’re not the first fucker I tortured here. These walls have heard all sorts of screams and pleas. And I can keep you alive for days and have my fun with you.”

He laughed. “Are you sure the girl will last that long?”

I shook my head at him for bringing Lia into this. I reached to the table on the left for a pair of pliers. He swallowed noticeably when he saw them in my hand. I pinched one of his fingers between the jaws. “You think you can last that long?” I asked.

I tugged roughly on his finger, feeling a sense of satisfaction when I heard the bones dislodging. He let out a bloodcurdling scream, tears streaming down the side of his face. I moved on to the next finger and the next and the next, enjoying his screams with each bone I broke.

I moved on to the other hand. “Are you ready to talk? Because I can do this all day. I can fucking make it last.”

I made a move to dislodge his finger from its socket when he pleaded with me. “Wait, please. I’ll tell you.”

“Where?”

“In the old, abandoned factory just east of the city.”

I narrowed my eyes at him. “That’s not possible. I burned it down.”

He shook his head. “Not all the way. The structure still stands, and most of the inside survived.”

I looked past Tacchini’s head and to where Theo stood in the shadows.

I couldn’t see his expression clearly, but I could feel the tension in the room. After all these years, we would have to go back to the one place that had been nothing more than a literal hell on earth for us.

I never thought we would have to go back, but Lia was there, and where she goes, I go. And where I go, Theo follows.