Page 27 of De Luca: The Saint

Tomorrow, I need to call and check on my mom and my friend, Emily, who has been blowing up my phone, asking where I am.

Damian has taken all my attention over the last few days. I’ve not been a great friend, but I already know she won’t hold it against me. Especially, when I tell her where I’ve been and what I’ve been up to.

Normally, I fall asleep easily, but not tonight. Every time I begin to doze off, Damian pops into my head. When I’m awake I tell myself he can take care of himself and will be just fine, but my unconscious brain doesn’t see it that way. Images of him bleeding to death keep me awake most of the night. Only when I'm so exhausted that I no longer have control does sleep pull me under.

Chapter Sixteen

Damian

The last thing I wanted to do was leave Kat. I would’ve preferred to spend my entire night buried deep inside her, but this is not a choice. When Max calls and says he needs assistance rescuing a woman from a trafficker, it’s what I do. I’m the only one of my brothers that has this need. I think it’s what my mom would’ve wanted, Dalia too. No woman should be sold like fucking cattle to only spend whatever’s left of her life getting beaten and raped.

Domenic doesn’t understand what he calls my ‘superhero complex.’ He thinks my time would be better spent working for our family.

I do that, too, but not enough in his eyes. He says my loyalty is divided, which it’s not. My family will always be priority number one. If there were an urgent matter, I’d be there. Today, this woman’s life is the most pressing matter. I text Domenic so he won’t expect me at Devil, today.

Working with Max today. I won’t be in.

Of course you are.

I roll my eyes at his irritation and pocket my phone before I put my car in drive. Normally, I have a driver, but not when I go to his safe house. I trust my employees, or they wouldn’t have a job, but it’s an extra precaution I take when I do these jobs. I won’t risk the operation, his team's lives or the life of victims by chancing a traitor.

Max has various safe houses between New York and Pennsylvania. This is the one he’s been working out of a lot lately. So much so that he bought a house in New York so he could have his wife and kids close by. After a short thirty-minute drive, I’m at his gate while security verifies that he’s expecting me today. Once he talks to Max, he allows me to enter.

Max is an assassin, as is his entire team. He eliminated whoever he was hired to eliminate until, unknowingly at the time, he rescued his missing sister, Mia, from a disgusting religious trafficking ring. That was before I knew him, which is unfortunate because I would’ve liked to have been in on killing those fuckers.

His wife was the victim of the same assholes. That’s the funny thing about religion. You would think religious people would have a higher moral code but in my experience, they don’t. If anything, it’s used as protection from the truth being uncovered. Nobody would possibly think the bishops and cardinals of their diocese would do this to women. Even after the multitude of little boys molested by priests became front-page news, it didn’t change anything. It still happens. This isn’t simple sexual assault. We’re talking about the extreme abuse and selling of people unable to protect themselves. This particular church was created for the sole purpose of keeping girls and women as prisoners. The entire story is insane. Most of it I heard secondhand from Domenic, but during a night of heavy drinking, Max filled in the holes. His life has been far from easy, but it pales in comparison to the nightmare that Willow and Mia survived.

After parking in the underground garage, I get out of my car and make my way to the first floor, where Max’s office is located. When I walk in I’m taken aback by the sound of children playing.

I spot Willow first, sitting with her legs crossed, playing with their youngest on the floor. She tosses her head back, laughing as the little boy climbs onto her lap.

Suddenly, my thoughts turn to Kat, I want this. I never imagined wanting to become a family man, but I do. Fuck, the thought of Kat being my wife and the mother of my children makes my chest squeeze tighter.

Shaking my head, I try to clear my thoughts. I need to be focused on what we’re doing, which means I need to push my angel from my mind.

“Hi Willow,” I nod as I turn the corner to go to his office.

Through her laughter, she returns my greeting, “Hello Damian.”

I lightly knock on Max’s door before opening it and walking in. His team is already there, sitting on a sectional sofa while he sits behind his desk. He hands me a folder and waves me to the sofa. I sit beside Mia, whom my brother affectionately calls the crazy one.

I open the folder in my hand and scan through the photos as Max begins to speak, “We’re looking for the woman as well as these three men. They take little girls under the age of seven and force them into sex slavery. This woman, Melanie, has been held against her will since she was five. She’s now twenty-three and set to be auctioned off. If we don’t find her before the auction, we probably never will. Most of the bidders do not live in the United States. Once we’re dealing with an international situation, it becomes nearly impossible to locate the victim. Let’s not allow that to happen.”

I glance at Max and then the photographs, “Only three men?”

He shrugs, “I’m sure we’ll come across more, but these guys are at the top of it. If we eliminate them we’ll get rid of this ring. Any man we encounter in the raid is dead but these three, there or not, must die. If they aren’t there tonight they still need to be found. The only higher priority than these men is getting the women and children out safely.”

I sit back and cross my legs as I run a hand through my beard, deep in thought, “What’s the plan?”

Max takes a sip of his coffee before raising his eyes back to me, “John is the main guy. He is in charge. The hotel where the auction is being held is owned by his family. Benji will disable the cameras when we arrive. Nobody enters the hotel until we have confirmation that it has been done.”

Max glances at his team, “Mia, Trevor, and Nash you’ll be team two. Hunter, Jade, and Damian are with me on team one. This is not a usual job for us. These men hold more trafficking victims than we are used to. We won’t know the exact number until we’re there. No one and I mean no one,” he nods to his sister, “is to take off alone. Cockiness will get you killed. Understood?”

Everybody nods in agreement except Mia. I glance at her, catching her rolling her eyes as she blurts out, “Fine. Whatever.”

This woman is a spitfire, to say the least. Again, my mind wanders to Kat before I quickly shut it down. Distraction is not an option. I promised I’d be back, and I won't break my word.

The De Luca brothers are all honest to a fault. If we say we’re going to do something, we do it. We get the violent side from my father, but anything good comes from our mother. She really was a saint. The woman lived and breathed good. Maybe that’s why I was immediately drawn to Katherina. She reminds me a lot of my mother.

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