Page 42 of Mine to Tease

“Fuck!” I slam my fist against the table and stand, my chair toppling over behind me. As the veins in my arms throb with lethal rage, I pace the room. This doesn’t make sense. Of the capos in New Orleans, only one decided to take the deal to work with the mob, bringing his associates and soldiers with him. But the number of bodies on that screen reflects a lot more than that. And even though they’ve had three months to plan this, are there really that many capos from the other territories who would go to these lengths for Angelo? To overthrow the mob? Maybe. But this isn’t about the mob, because they should be smart enough to know that’s a war they can’t win. So where the fuck are all these people from?

“There’s a reason there’s only three of us here tonight,” one of Aidan’s men pipes up. “We believe some of our own have been working with the rebels to get rid of Mr. Cross.”

“And what makes you think that?” Gio asks.

“Rumblings of displeasure. They want to be reassigned to Boston and they think getting rid of Aidan will make it happen. Plus the men who Aidan was with when he went missing just so happen to be missing too along with fifteen others for no good reason. We didn’t know who we could trust, so it’s just us.”

Gio nods. “And if their plan is successful, they can blame the whole thing on us or rather the rebels as we no longer claim them as our own.” Aidan’s men nod in agreement.

“Well, that’s just fucking great,” I say. “We never wanted them here and they never wanted to be here and now the woman I love, my fiancée, is being held captive by men who only want to use her to prove a point!”

“Damon, we’re going to—” Gio says. As the place in my chest where my heart used to reside burns as if it were carved out with a flaming-hot knife, the blood rushing to my head drowns out the sound of Gio’s voice. What’s happening right now is my literal worst nightmare. The woman I love, the woman I was afraid to love because I was afraid to lose her, has now been taken and is at the mercy of these animals who have clearly abandoned any manners, any code they used to operate by. For so long I was afraid of hurting her, of leaving a mark on her perfect ivory skin. To see her as she is now has broken me beyond repair. In her, I see my mother. In them, I see my father. In all of this, all I see is my failure all over again and a loss I don’t know if I’ll survive. If I lose her, I lose my family. I lose myself, my humanity, my desire to live. I lose everything. But Ana. She stands to lose more, not to mention what they’ve already stripped from her—her innocence and feeling of safety I’ve worked so hard to instill in her over the past few months.

I close my eyes at the thought and take several deep breaths. I can’t lose my shit, not now, not until I know she’s safe. Returning my focus to her, I stop my pacing and look at Gio. The longer she is with them, the more damage they have a chance to inflict—physically and mentally. And I won’t stand by much longer giving them a chance to do so.

With my attention, Gio continues. “The warehouse does have windows, so I was able to capture some digital images using one of the drones. The images let us know that Aidan and Anastasia are being held on the third floor of the four-story building. Without revealing the images, I can tell you that Aidan is restrained. It’ll take time to remove the restraints and make our exit, which means it’s best we eliminate all the threats in the room before attempting the rescue. But, again, we’ll only have a few seconds, maybe a minute max before more hostiles flood the space and have us trapped. Our strategy has to be on point for any of this to work, so let’s brainstorm.”

I narrow my eyes as Gio purposely leaves out anything about Anastasia. He avoids eye contact with me, and my gut twists as I consider the reasons why. If she was dead, he’d tell me. Wouldn’t he? He wouldn’t just let me walk onto that battlefield to find her like that. That would be beyond cruel and also stupid, considering I wouldn’t be able to function at the sight of her. So if she’s alive and he’s avoiding discussing her, avoiding displaying a clear digital image of her, which would only make our strategy that much stronger, then it’s because what’s depicted in those images is so awful it will derail the entire meeting. I will derail the entire meeting. The thought steals the air from my lungs.

“Gio, what aren’t you saying? You didn’t mention one word about Anastasia.” I cross my arms over my chest and watch as Gio considers his next words carefully.

“Damon—”

“Gio, what’s happened to her?” The words taste like blood as they scrape through me. My throat aches all the way down to my core as if I’ve been sliced from the inside out with razor blades. “Gio,” I say once more. My voice is barely above a whisper.

He nods as a solemness overtakes him. “I don’t feel comfortable putting them on the screen, but if you’d like to review them privately?—”

Before he can even finish his sentence, I’m halfway around the table. As I take in the images of Anastasia—naked and hunched over on the dirty floor—I know exactly what they’ve done to her. I can see it in the bruises on her body. They are shaped like fingerprints. I can see it in the bite mark on her breast and in the way she presses her hand between her legs as if to stop the pain. I can see it in her eyes. In the one image where they are open, they are empty. It’s as if she’s not even there anymore. For her sake, I hope she’s not. I hope she went somewhere far, far away in the depths of her mind, and I hope she stays there until she’s safe in my arms again.

I take a step back from Gio’s laptop and stand tall. Gio was right. These images change everything, because I’m not waiting one more second to rescue the woman I love. I look to the men in the room and speak more calmly than I ever have before. One, because that’s what Anastasia needs. She needs me to be strong. She needs me to be focused. She needs me to get to her. And two, because this isn’t a debate. I’m not taking no for an answer and I’m not following anyone else’s lead.

“We will leave no survivors,” I say then. “And we will take no prisoners. The men who did this die tonight.”

Zane, Xander, Killian, and Milo nod in solidarity. “We’ve got your back, Damon. Just tell us what to do,” Zane says. Without a word, Gio stands and allows me the head position at the table. I step to the center but do not sit. There’s no time.

“Normally, we’re quiet. We avoid drawing the attention of the FBI and we clean up our messes. But with this many hostiles and this widespread, the only way to take them out is going to be loud. And I’m going to have to disagree with Gio on one thing. We’ve seen enough to know where they’re holding Aidan and Ana and we can’t afford to leave anyone behind. So we’re going to go in blind and leave in a blaze.”

“Bombs,” Milo says. I nod.

“We’re going to come at them from the air, two ways.”

“Two? We only have one combat helicopter,” Gio says.

“I may have acquired another one for personal use,” I say. Gio nods, his lips drawing up into a small smile.

“Xander, you’ll fly the transport plane, and Killian, you’ll handle the other one. Zane, Gio, Milo, and I will rappel off Xander’s directly into the room they’re holding Ana and Aidan. If you three aren’t afraid of heights, you’ll join us,” I say, addressing our Irish counterparts. They nod, letting me know they’re with us. “Your priority will be getting Aidan out alive, but ours is Anastasia.” I look to Gio, Zane, and Milo, and they too nod in agreement.

I take a deep breath and pause for a second as the rest of the plan comes to me. I watch the battle like a movie playing inside my brain. I see flames, dust. I hear bullets. It’s chaos. And then there’s her—waiting for me. She gives me clarity.

“The second we crash through that glass, Xander and Killian will light up the perimeter on opposite sides of the building. This will alert the cops, but it’ll also cut down on the hostiles who could potentially make our ground mission harder. Those of us on the inside will wear bulletproof suits. Expect to take a lot of hits, but don’t get distracted. We don’t have enough men or enough time to lose focus. Anastasia makes it out alive—period. Understood?”

I look each one of the men in this room in the eye and they all fall in line. I nod and rest my hands on the table before me, my muscles flexing. It’s then that I direct my attention solely to my two pilots, Killian and Xander. “Once we make it out and we clear the perimeter, I want that fucking building and everyone left inside it blown to a million pieces and I want you to watch it as it burns. Anyone hobbles out, you take them out. Tonight, we end this.”

“Yes, sir,” Xander says.

“There’s just one thing you’re forgetting, Damon,” Gio says then. I look to him, my brows crinkled. “If they’re bombing the place, who’s waiting to get us out of there? With all that firepower, we’ll have five, maybe ten minutes from the time the first bomb drops to the first police car. And I’m fine with drawing attention, but not at the risk of killing a cop to make our escape.”

I nod. “I hear you. And I have a plan. The only reason I’m not sharing it is because you won’t like it. But it’s happening, Gio. I just need you to trust me.” Gio hesitates, but finally nods in agreement. “Alright then, everyone set your watches. Suit up, stock up. We leave in fifteen.”

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