Page 10

Chapter 10

Constantine

If anyone ever wanted to know if Hell was real, I could now confirm it was, and it was a place on earth. In SoHo. More specifically, in a crowded factory with electronic music blowing out my eardrums, neon lights flashing everywhere, as twenty something -year-olds danced (jumped? gyrated?) around me. If one more girl half my age grabbed my ass or hit on me, I was outta there, leaving the mission up to Hudson and my sister.

“They’re all high as a kite,” I grumbled, assuming they could still hear me over comms thanks to the high-tech noise-canceling feature they came with. However, the DJ was testing the sound barrier, so maybe not.

I searched Izzy and Hudson out on the crowded dance floor. She had her arms over his shoulders, grinding up against him. Perfect. I rolled my eyes and looked away from the two of them.

“I still can’t believe you used to go to raves,” I huffed out. The fact that Izzy had once hung out in places like this while in high school, and I’d been a half a world away on a sub, made me physically ill. Being in this place was a harsh reminder of that reality.

“I don’t want to imagine Bella was ever at a place like this and not without one of us having her six.” Hudson was on the same page of fuck that shit as I was, confirming they could hear me.

“That was forever ago when I was in high school, and I was only at raves to dance and for nothing else,” she shot back. “Anywayyyyy.”

“Sure, you better deflect.” I shook my head, redirecting my focus to the VIP area and the reason we were there in the first place.

Daniel and his boss, Jamie, and a few other unknowns sat at one of the tables in the roped-off section by the dance floor. I needed Jamie to get his ass moving so this op could end, and I could go back to thinking about all I currently cared about—my son and my . . . well, the mother of my child.

I was two seconds away from changing my mind and returning to the original plan to snatch and grab Jamie so we could exfil when Jamie and Daniel finally got up. I shoved away from the support beam I’d been leaning against and alerted Hudson and Izzy to the fact they were on the move.

“Roger that,” Hudson transmitted back.

“They’re—” The words and the blood flow to my brain stopped at the same time. My heart needed reviving as well because that couldn’t be Colin on the dance floor, lip-locked with a blonde.

Shock had me tethered to the floor, forgetting how to be an operator with my son in a room full of people on drugs and gangbangers.

“We have him in our sights,” Izzy shared.

I was too distracted to remember the “him” she was referring to. The only “him” that mattered now was Colin.

“We have a problem,” Hudson said. Did he know about Colin? “Check the stairs on your left.” At Hudson’s direction, I forced myself to rip my gaze away from my son to locate whatever problem he was actually referring to. “That who I think it is with them?”

What the hell were the Irish doing with the mafia? I didn’t personally know the two men following our marks upstairs, but the ink on the backs of their necks clearly indicated they were in league with the Sicilians now running things in the Triborough area.

“What are we doing?” Izzy asked. “You think he set us up, knowing they’d be here, too?”

“Or are they the ‘you have no idea who you’re messing with’ people he was referring to the other night?” Hudson tacked on his theory, and Daniel’s interrogation now felt like five fucking years ago.

I barely remembered what Daniel had said to us in the basement. And as of right now, I gave zero fucks. Because my too-young-to-be-there son just punched someone on the dance floor.

No one stopped dancing or seemed to care that a fight had broken out.

After executing a brilliant palm strike to the man’s throat that I shouldn’t have been proud of but was, Colin fisted the guy’s shirt, snarling in his face.

My guess was the guy had bothered Colin’s girlfriend, and Colin reacted how I would have back in the day. Swing first, ask questions later. Hotheaded and overprotective.

“I have to handle a situation,” I told them over comms, already on the move.

“What situation? A different one than why we’re here?” Izzy asked as I stopped mid-pursuit when two other men surrounded Colin.

Not just any men. Sicilian mafia. What the hell did Colin just step into?

Colin was about to resist and fight them, but one of the assholes pulled out a gun. The man pressed the pistol to Colin’s side, and Colin immediately lifted his hands in surrender. It was dark enough that no one would notice what was happening unless they were trained to.

Anger curled into a tight fist inside my stomach, moving up into my chest. I had no choice but to block the pain and the rage so I could think straight and map out an execution plan.

Snap Guy One’s neck first. Once there was no longer a weapon pointed at my son, headshot for Guy Two. Then , I’d let my son go ahead and knock out Guy Three, the original asshole.

I started for Colin again, navigating the crowd without losing sight of him. One side of my brain warned: Don’t kill them. Colin doesn’t need to see that. Just take them down. But the louder voice demanded: No one puts a hand on my family and walks away without dying.

Before I could execute any plan, I realized the Sicilians wouldn’t handle things in public. They were carting Colin toward the stairs, which was where our HVT presently was, dammit.

Deciding the best plan would be to handle this out of sight from the crowd, I waited for Colin to reach the top of the stairs.

Once they were no longer visible, I pursued. “I have to help him.”

“Wait, what? Help who?” Izzy transmitted back. “Why?”

Once upstairs, I turned in the direction they’d taken my son, finding the first hall empty. “I have to save him,” was all I gave her as I rounded another corner, finding only another empty hall. “Do we still have eyes on our marks? Bodycam active?”

“Shit, no. It’s offline,” Izzy said what I didn’t want to hear. Now I had no eyes in the room I assumed my son was heading to. “Are you trying to save our targets from the Sicilians? Or are they also now our targets?” Izzy fired back as I turned down the last hall.

My breathing labored. My fear ratcheted higher. Worry that I’d be too late took over.

At the sight of two men by a closed door, relief took back over.

He has to be in there.

“This area is off-limits,” one of the guys said at the sight of me, flicking his wrist to deter me from going any farther.

“Save who ?” Izzy repeated as I drew my Glock before the man had a chance to break leather and return fire.

“My son,” I finally answered her as I shot him in the shoulder, then squeezed off another round to his leg. “I have to save my son.”

I dealt with the second problem in the same way, incapacitated but not dead, then muted my comm to prevent my sister from distracting me from what I had to do next.

I choked out the two men, putting them to sleep. They had no idea how lucky they were I was trying damn hard to be a different person and hadn’t put them to sleep permanently.

Once they were down, I didn’t waste time opening the door they’d been guarding.

I eased back, weapon drawn to check for threats and to do a quick headcount. Ten, including Daniel and Jamie. Eleven, including the reason I was there.

Colin was on his knees and in the process of getting punched. His face flew to the right, bone connecting with flesh, and our gazes clashed.

“Who the hell are you?” someone called out.

Distracted by making eye contact with Colin, I didn’t see the asshole at my right come for me.

Getting the drop on me, he knocked my Glock from my hand and pointed a knife in my face.

I blinked and recalibrated, remembering why I was there and who the fuck I was.

I couldn’t be a worried father, concerned about my son seeing blood and death. I had to become the man I once was for the United States government who could handle these men playing roadblocks to my son’s safety.

Muscle memory took over, allowing me to become a trained killer again. I shot both hands up in prayer position to trap the man’s wrist, then twisted the blade from his hold.

When two more targets came at me, I swung Asshole One around to use him as a shield. He caught the two rounds in the chest meant for me. I flung his body against the two as cover and took a knee to get my 9mm.

I missed a round nearly clipping me in the neck and had no choice but to shoot from the hip and take down the two men trying to kill me.

Standing tall again, I dropped the next guy who came at me with a wrist lock technique, twisting his arm before throwing him over my shoulder, my hat flying with him.

“At your nine o’clock, I got you,” Hudson told me as I dealt with another problem in the least gruesome way I could, knowing Colin was watching.

“Enough!” someone called out. “Hold your fire. Everyone.” My blood went cold at the realization that someone was pointing a pistol my son’s way.

I had no choice but to back off the next target. “Don’t hurt him.”

Two men coughed up blood near my feet, then started to army crawl away from me, leaving a trail of blood on the floor.

“What do you want?” the asshole with the gun pointed at my son asked me.

I kept my Glock drawn and aimed at the idiota daring to point his weapon at Colin. “Trust me when I tell you I’ll get a round off before you can fire. Right between the fucking eyes. You do not want to play this game with me.” I kept my voice steady and deep. “Lower. Your. Weapon.”

Hudson remained at my side, two weapons aimed. One pointed in Jamie and Daniel’s direction, who’d yet to budge from the couch, the other on the prick who’d punched my son, still standing near Colin.

“Look in my eyes.” I jutted my chin forward, never backing down. “Look at my face,” I hissed. “Do you not know who the fuck I am?”

The Sicilian I assumed was in charge of the others had to have a spark of recognition, or he’d have already come at me. Instead of answering, he focused on Jamie and Daniel. “Is this a setup?”

Jamie shook his head. “I’ve sure as hell never seen these men before.” He cast an anxious glance at Daniel, waiting for his response.

Oh, Daniel knew. He for damn sure knew who we were now. But he hadn’t expected it to go down like this. He’d been waiting for us to walk into an ambush and get our asses handed to us.

No, kid. Your plan failed.

Daniel swallowed hard. “No, uh . . . clue.” His voice wavered, his acting skills subpar at best. That’d be his shit luck later when he had to explain himself to his boss.

Not my problem. “I’m here for the boy.”

The Sicilian in charge hesitated, his extended arm trembling ever so slightly. He was putting the pieces together. “Who is he to you?”

The slight quiver in his voice said everything. The pieces weren’t just clicking into place. He already knew the answer.

“Who he is doesn’t matter. All that matters is who I am.” My patience was wearing thin the longer he kept his Sig aimed at Colin. “My family is not an enemy your boss wants to have.”

While this guy wasn’t in charge of their syndicate, he had to be high up in the ranks. High enough that the other men in the room had fallen back, deferring to him.

“Your name?” He was trying to hold it together in front of his men, but he was seconds away from pissing himself.

I tilted my head slightly, voice calm and deliberate. “Constantine Costa.” I let it hang before adding, “Of the Sicilian Costas.”

He swallowed hard, his tan skin visibly paling. Eyes closing, he exhaled a slow, shaky breath. Then, his arm dropped to his side.

I could finally breathe again.

“We do not want a problem with you or your family.” His chest expanded as he drew in another breath. He let it go and opened his eyes, his entire demeanor shifting.

“You won’t have one if you let me take him out of here and you never come near him or my family again.” I didn’t need to attach the “or else” there. He knew what had happened to the mafiosi who’d crossed my family in the past. The majority were six feet under or cremated.

I finally looked at Colin, and he was staring back at me with wide, what-the-fuck eyes.

Yeah, yeah, I know. This was not how I planned to introduce myself to him as his father.

“You have my word. My men will let you walk out of here. They will never come near you or the boy,” the Sicilian assured me, his accent much thicker than mine.

My family had taken down two Italian crime families here in New York in the last few years, but mafia-types were like cockroaches. Take one out and three came in their place.

“Get up,” I told Colin, stepping around one of the men I’d used as my bulletproof vest. I offered him my free hand, and his gaze darted to my Glock, then up to my face.

I had to remind myself I was a stranger, a guy he’d mugged. He had no clue why I was there or who I really was.

But when he looked over at Jamie next, and I glanced back to see Jamie nod at him, an unexpected flutter of pain filled my stomach. I shook off the hurt and worry, needing to get him to safety. I’d yell at him later.

With Jamie’s permission, Colin stood but rejected my hand.

“Take him in the hall, will you?” I asked Hudson after we’d navigated the room littered with injured, groaning men.

I opened the door and waited for them to step out before turning my attention toward Jamie.

“Tell your boss who I am. And if he doesn’t know me, make it clear to him his life will be much better if it stays that way.”

Jamie stood quietly alongside Daniel, his gaze warily shifting between the Sicilian in charge and me.

Fear, a whole fuck load of it, filled Daniel’s eyes when they met mine.

Yeah, I’ll be coming after you. You better believe it. I let him read the silent warning in my stare before shifting my focus back to Jamie, since he was the one in charge of him. “Stay away from Colin and his mother.” I tucked my 9mm at my back, concealing it beneath my shirt. “If I even find out you’re breathing within a three-block radius of them, I will come for you. And I will kill you. Do you understand me?”

Jamie shoved his hands into his pockets, forehead creasing. His Irish accent cut through the tension as he bit out, “I suggest you tell that kid to stay away from me fuckin’ sister, then.”