Page 43 of Single Mom's Mafia Daddies

“It means they’re willing to pay. It means every mercenary with a gun will be on your tail.” I didn’t have to tell her the rest, that they wanted him dead. She knew what it meant, and she clutched Leo tight to her chest.

22

ALESSIO

“Ready?” Renzo pitched his voice into a whisper so quiet it almost disappeared into the night.

I eyed the church. The tall spire pierced the sky and blotted out the half-moon. I tracked it down to a ramshackle roof. Singles flapped in the wind, several of them sliding off as I watched. They crashed and shattered on the ground.

Renzo hunkered down in a crouch, his weight on his non-injured leg. The night vision goggles made his face appear misshapen, but I’d become accustomed to the look after all our years traveling together. “There are heat signatures underground. I count five.”

No way to know who they belonged to. I shifted the gun belt around my waist, a nervous tic as I reassured myself my weapons were easy to reach, and tapped his shoulder twice in our signal to lead the way. We rushed from the alley to the side door locked with a heavy chain and padlock. Renzo had already scanned it for lasers or other traps and found it clean. It worried us both enough to sit back an extra fifteen minutes and discuss the implications.

Either the Verduccis were sloppy, this wasn’t their hideout, or they anticipated I’d come for them and left me a way in that led straight to a trap. Renzo and I agreed on the last option, but with no other way of gaining entry, we risked it. It had taken a direct order to get Renzo to agree, but I knew once we broke the lock and were inside, I’d find what I needed. Renzo watched my back no matter the situation, leaving me with nothing to worry about except getting us both out alive.

Musty air burrowed into my nose when Renzo snapped the chain and opened the door. He motioned for me to stay behind him and crept into the black crypt. I pulled my night vision goggles down and followed Renzo down an empty but cramped corridor.

He raised his hand in a closed fist then pointed to the left at a closed door.

I tapped his shoulder once and moved past him. “Keep watch.” The door had a keypad lock similar to what we used. It would take too long to break through, so I motioned for Renzo to join me. We continued down the hallway, turning left when we reached the corner, and slipping through an unlocked door.

“Definitely a trap,” Renzo hissed in my ear.

“Then let’s make it worthwhile.” A soft light filtered through the upper half of the glass door. I crept over to it and peered through. “There’s your five men.” I didn’t recognize any of them.

Renzo grunted and removed his goggles. “What’s the plan?”

“See what you can find.” We were in an office of some sort. The desk and chair were almost exact replicas of mine, and a snarl raised my lip. Luca. Only he was ridiculous enough to try and copy my style as his own. Vincenzo couldn’t care less about shit like that. Though how he knew how I styled my office was a more worrisome problem.

“Here.” Renzo nudged me toward a filing cabinet. “I saw Lila’s name. You read. I’ll keep watch.” It was the reason I’dbrought him, but it sent shards of glass through me to realize he thought of himself as a lesser part of our operation. No time to argue about that. I grabbed the files and scanned them in rapid succession. Most were business receipts similar to what anyone would find if they looked at my books. One stood out, and I held it closer to the light. “Luca signed this one. It’s a request for an extraction point near the harbor.”

Renzo turned to stone in a blink. When his mouth moved, the heat of his anger raised the temperature ten degrees. “That’s my code. That rat bastard taught them my code.”

“What does it mean?”

“It means they’ve been watching Lila a lot longer than we thought. Extraction point means they’ve had eyes on her for six months. Harbor is a code word for taking hostages as leverage…or killing them if it’s better leverage.” He snatched the paper from my hand and scanned it. “Are there more of these?”

“I don’t know.” I handed him the small sheaf of papers. “You check these. I’ll look for more. Are you sure it doesn’t mean that Luca has set up an escape route using a boat at the harbor?”

“Positive.” He flipped through the papers in rapid succession. “The wording is too perfect. Shit.” He sucked a hard breath through gritted teeth. “My men are compromised. We can’t trust any of them until this is over.”

“We’ll worry about that later.” I checked the desk again and discovered a hidden chasm behind a drawer. Photos spilled out and covered the floor. Goosebumps prickled my skin. Photos of me with Lila back in college stared up at me. How long had they known? Were they biding their time until I returned?

The lights turned on, the sudden brightness blinding me. I dove sideways behind the desk, the pistol in my hand before my shoulder crashed into the cold concrete.

Luca strolled in, his cold, calculating gaze landing on me. He clicked his tongue with atsking sound. “Poor, poor Alessio. Lookat you.” He pointed a Ruger at my head. “I told Vincenzo you’d come. You wouldn’t be able to resist. Even when you knew it was a trap. Even when you knew we’d take everything from you. It’s almost sad how predictable you’ve become.”

Predictable? Hardly. I grinned around gritted teeth and fired a shot at his chest.

He leaped and spun, his body a blur of motion. No one should have been able to move that fast, but there was a reason everyone knew Luca as “The Ghost.” The ethereal glow on his skin made him appear otherworldly. According to all my information, he’d never been shot, stabbed, or injured in any way during any encounter with rival syndicates. It was a terrifying thought, and one I tucked away to consider later. Survival mattered more than figuring out how I’d missed an almost point-blank range.

“How’s that for predictable?” I rolled to my feet and aimed again, firing off two more shots.

“You’re as boring as ever.” Luca yawned and returned fire.

I dove behind a filing cabinet, aiming around it to provide Renzo with cover fire as he ducked into the corner and shot into the hallway. Shouts of pain and surprise crashed over me.

“They’re trying to close us in.” Renzo gritted his teeth and rushed the door. Bodies collided with a sickening thud.