Page 47 of Toxic Revenge, Part Two (Mafia Omegas #2)

Chapter

Forty-Two

TALIA

“There’s no other way.”

Emilia’s words struck me with a sense of fear. And relief, maybe? A combination of things that I couldn’t quite place. I wrung my hands together, focusing on breathing as emotions washed through me.

She’d worked all night looking into the information Violet had gotten. In the bright, mid-morning light we were huddled around her computer screen in her bedroom, waiting for her consensus.

“See here?” Emilia played a video feed of a hotel hallway, and we watched four men walk down it and into room 217. “Mercenaries. He has hired protection, and they’re not going to be easy to take on in a confined space.”

“We could manage it,” Mercer said.

Emilia shook her head. “I’m not done.”

She switched the camera feed to another, showing the extravagant hotel lobby.

She didn’t hit play, only pointing out a series of figures that stood along the edges of the room.

“Each one of these guys work for the O’Connors.

When they catch wind of a conflict in the hotel, you won’t make it out of there.

And they’re not just in the lobby—they’re out in the back alleyways, roaming nearby streets, everything. ”

“How did Benjamin make it in there to hide out if his cousin doesn’t know he’s alive?” West demanded. “There’s gotta be a gap somewhere.”

Lavinia laughed dryly. “He probably walked in like a hotel guest, wearing a disguise and hiding his face from the cameras. To get him out, you’ll be starting a gun fight and committing a kidnapping. The situations aren’t the same.”

West growled. “We can fight our way out.”

“Maybe if you were highly trained lethal assassins,” Emilia said. “No offence, but you’re just bikers. Getting Benjamin out alive would require a level of stealthiness that you guys don’t have.”

She was right, as much as my mates didn’t want to admit it. We had to draw Benjamin out if we didn’t want to risk his life and theirs—and I would rather let Benjamin run free forever than put my alphas in that much danger to get him.

“Looks like I’ll go to the Jubilee Harbourfront Hotel, then,” I said.

I kept all hesitation out of my voice, somehow.

“We can draw him out another way—” Mercer started.

I cut him off. “How? He knows by now that we know who he is. I bet Brooks knowing he’s alive completely ruins part of his plan, so if I go talk to Brooks O’Connor, it should piss him off enough to pull him out of hiding. Then we only have to create a plan to get him before he gets me.”

Saying it out loud made it sound so simple. Do A, then B, followed by C.

It wasn’t, not really.

I’d have to rely on myself not to break under pressure. We’d have to trust that Benjamin didn’t have an ace hiding up his sleeve. Anyone else joining the game last minute could throw us into turmoil. Brooks O’Connor could ruin it all, too.

“I’ll contact Brooks and set up a meeting,” Lavinia said.

“You have contact with him directly?” I asked.

She avoided eye contact. “He’s the leader of our biggest rivals. It only makes sense.”

“If Talia goes to meet him alone, he could target her too,” Conrad said.

“He has no reason to.” Lavinia got out her phone, clearly already set on her task. “She’d be giving him valuable information, and believe me—that man has enough problems already without needing to deal with a pissed off Jurah. None of his guys will touch her.”

Emilia spun in her chair to face the rest of us. “I agree with her. I’ve been keeping an eye on Brooks, and he’s not volatile. Very level-headed. I wouldn’t say it’s safe for him to meet Talia in person, but it’s the best out of a bunch of bad options.”

“There you have it, then.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “This is the plan. Lav, make the call to set it up.”

She nodded and left the room before my alphas could complain more.

Emilia yawned, waving her hands at me and my pack. “Time to leave. I need sleep, or I’ll be useless as backup when it counts.”

“Thank you, Emmy.”

“Don’t mention it. I’m here for you, no matter what.”

I gave her a small smile and a nod. We were all in it together; not only because Benjamin was out to get the family as a whole, but because helping was what family did. I’d lost that for a while in my desperate desire to be ‘normal.’

Grabbing Conrad’s hand, I dragged him out of Emilia’s room with me, knowing the others would follow. Once we were out, he ended up being the one leading me around. I followed along behind him until we reached my bedroom again.

Inside, he pinned me to the wall and laid his forehead against mine. “God, I wish you were more willing to let us do things,” he mumbled. “I’m not even the one who worries, usually. West and Mercer are basically going insane with worry at this point.”

I brushed my lips against his. “I have to face him.”

“I know. I respect that. It doesn’t mean I like it, and I won’t let you face him without us.”

My hands slid up his chest and around his neck until I was hanging off my huge alpha. “Having you there will help me make it through.”

Fuck, I hoped the plan worked as intended. I didn’t want Benjamin to find me before my mates found him, but I knew that was a risk.

My phone buzzed in my pocket as Mercer and West stomped through the door. I took it out, staring down at the text from Lavinia.

The day after tomorrow. Jubilee Harbourfront Hotel, 2pm.

That was it.

My meeting time with the head of our mafia rivals, which was somehow the least intimidating thing about the ordeal.

Mercer shoved Conrad away in order to steal me, pulling me into a tight hug. “Any chance I can talk you out of this plan?”

“None whatsoever.”

He sighed, loosening his hold on me enough to pull back and look me in the eyes. “Talia, are you absolutely fucking certain this is the best plan?”

I chewed on my bottom lip and gave a small shrug. “I don’t think there are any good plans. Benjamin really screwed me over. But this one… it could give me my life back. It could let me bond you.”

West grabbed me next, coming up behind me and wrapping his arms around me. “As much as I want to bond you, it’s not necessary for us to love you and be with you.”

Leaning back into the embrace, I sighed. “I want him gone. He’s taunting me. Threatening me. He wants to ruin my family, and the longer we stay bonded, the more chances he has to do it.”

“We could go to your fathers, get them to send a team,” Mercer suggested. “That’s always an option.”

“No.”

I closed my eyes, taking a second to breathe. There were so many decisions to make, I was getting fatigued, but this one had been lingering in the back of my mind for a while. His call had cemented it.

“I don’t just want you to bond me,” I admitted. “I want him gone. Forever. I’ve decided that I have to take the risk to get rid of him.”

West cursed softly, his wool and smoke scent gaining an edge of distress. I hated to upset him, but I wouldn’t change my mind.

A ten percent risk of dying was nothing compared to a lifetime with Benjamin haunting me. Even if he was imprisoned in a hole so deep no one would ever find him, I’d never be able to forget him, and he’d always have sway over me.

Until he was dead, he’d never be gone from my life.

“Will you trust me?” I asked in a small voice. “I know it’s a risk for you too, to bond me and then watch me go through the pain of a broken bond. But I’ll fight for you, always. I won’t be in that ten percent.”

West buried his face against the side of my neck, his hold on me tightening. His lips were close to my tainted bondmark, but I found it affected me even less than the last time.

He was my chosen mate; I was convinced he would have been my second chance scent match. One day soon, his mark would be on me too, and I’d have positive memories to erase the trauma of the night I’d been bonded by Benjamin.

Mercer came closer too, laying his hand on my side and pressing his forehead to mine. Conrad came up last, completing my chosen pack by wrapping all three of us in a giant bear hug.

“We’ll do whatever you want, princess,” Conrad claimed.

I clutched his shirt in one hand, my other resting on Mercer’s chest, right over his heart. Tears beaded in the corners of my eyes.

“If that’s what you need to do, I’ll support you,” Mercer agreed in a pained whisper.

West stayed silent, and I leaned more heavily back against him. His scent hadn’t settled yet, still sharper than usual.

“West? If you can’t, I…”

I didn’t know how to finish that sentence. If he couldn’t trust me, what? What was I going to do? A few tears dripped down my cheeks.

“I’ll do anything for you, Talia,” West whispered. “Thought you knew that by now.”

“I’m asking a lot this time.”

“You could never ask too much of me. I’m yours. And I… I trust you to be able to fight for a life with us.”

I gave in to the urge to sob, covering my mouth with my hand. My alphas herded me over to the bed, laying me down on West’s chest with Conrad and Mercer splayed out on either side. I was under a heated blanket of my mates—the perfect place to break down and build myself up again.

Crying my eyes out, I didn’t stop until there were no more tears left to shed. Until I’d felt every emotion under the sun, letting them course through me in all their glory.

I’d even let down my walls a little, allowing Benjamin’s black hole of negativity to creep closer to me. I could handle it. I could handle him , the bondmate I’d never wanted, and I could be strong enough to bring him down.

For my future with my pack, I could do anything.

Focusing on my breathing, I kept each inhale and exhale at a steady rhythm. West matched it, his chest rising and falling beneath me.

“I have something I want to do with you tomorrow,” West mumbled after a while. “Is that OK?”

I rubbed my cheek against his chest, sniffling. “Yes.”

“Leave time for me to steal her away,” Mercer ordered.

“And what about me?” Conrad complained. “Do I not get time with our omega tomorrow?”

I laughed. A full day of activities would be nice. I wouldn’t be able to overthink it, and while I was with each of my mates, the others could go over the plan with Lavinia. “I’ll have time for everyone.”

“I’m first,” West grumbled.

No one denied him the right.