Page 124 of His Tesoro

The sound of three gunshots echoed around the tiny room, followed by the thud of three bodies.

Adrenaline rushed through me, allowing me to stand without pain. I carefully stepped around the bodies and carefully opened the door. I was sure someone must have heard the gunshots, but no one came running. The light from the hallway spilled in the room enough for me to see that all three of the guards were dead. I’d hit each of them in the forehead. I was rather impressed with myself. They’d been standing so close it wasn’t like it had been a difficult shot, but to hit them all with dead accuracy in the dark was still pretty good. Dimi would be proud.

I grabbed the other guards’ guns off them, tucking them into my waistband. Blood pooled on the floor, soaking into the knees of my jeans. My hands shook as I searched their pockets to find a phone. When I fished one out, my heart sank to see there wasn’t any service. I would need to get to a better spot and call Matteo.

66

MATTEO

Istared at Sofiya’s unmoving dot on the tracker app. She’d been inside the warehouse for forty-five minutes. Every second of the wait had been agony, but we didn’t know how many of the Irish were inside, and we had to be strategic.

At least, that’s what Romeo kept telling me.

The warehouse was in the middle of nowhere. A long gravel driveway cut through open fields to reach the entrance of a gray building. There was an abandoned outbuilding within sight of the warehouse, and that was where we waited for Rustik. He had landed at the same small airport we used and was on his way.

A call came up on my phone. My finger hovered over the answer button, but it was an unknown number so I sent it to voicemail.

“Rustik is three minutes out,” Romeo said.

“Let’s get into position.” We’d planned with Rustik while he was on the plane. My men and I would take the east side of the warehouse and he would take the west. We would work our way to the middle to free Sofiya and destroy the Irish and Albanians.

The warehouse was quiet as we approached. I met Romeo’s equally confused gaze at the lack of guards. Hopefully, that meant they weren’t expecting us and we wouldn’t face much opposition.

“Rustik is in position,” Romeo whispered.

I nodded at my men. Twenty of them had come with us and I looked each of them in the eye now. These were men who had been loyal to me and, for the older ones, loyal to my father. The Mafia, these men, were Family, but my family would never be complete without Sofiya.

“Thank you for standing with me,” I said. A few expressions of shock flashed across the faces before me. “There’s no one else I would trust with my wife’s safety.” Their faces turned serious and their chests puffed up with pride. I turned back to Romeo. “Let’s go.”

The inside of the warehouse was dark. Shadows from the small, barred windows played across the concrete walls. I led the way through a small, quiet room until we came to another door. Romeo tested it and it creaked open, and we all moved into a pitch black windowless space. There was a soft thud as the door shut behind us. Before I could reach for my phone to turn on the flashlight, the room flooded with lights—blinding, bright lights that illuminated a massive room with endless pallets of stacked boxes.

And a line of uniformed, armed men facing us.

At the front of the line stood Domenico.

A very alive, sneering Domenico.

A moment of confusion was followed by a lightning bolt of rage. I raised my gun. “Give me one reason I shouldn’t kill you.”

Domenico’s smile was something sick and twisted. “My very good friend is with your wife right now. Anything that happens to me will happen to her.”

The puzzle pieces fell into place, each one highlighting what an absolute fool I’d been. I’d been trying to figure out who the Albanians had allied with, and all along it was Rustik fucking Ivanov. Who had worked with my enforcer. And framed the Irish to distract me.

“I see you’ve finally figured it out.” Domenico stretched his arms, looking completely at ease, knowing that I couldn’t do anything to him and risk Sofiya. “It’s been exhausting having to bow and scrape to you all this time. I supported you all those years ago, but you’ve grown weak. You’re nothing compared to Arben and Rustik.”

Romeo snarled beside me, and I pressed my hand to his chest. My heart was pounding. I had no idea how we were going to get out of this.

“Now, time to use your pitiful brain cells and surrender. You, of course, will have to die, but I promise to be gentle,” Domenico said.

I clenched my jaw, resisting the temptation to shoot him in the mouth.

“But if your men surrender, I’m sure we can find them a place in Arben’s new empire.”

“If you think we would ever serve you—” one of my men growled.

“Fuck, the idiocy runs deep in the Family,” Domenico said. The man next to him snorted.

I flicked my eyes to Romeo, trying to weigh the odds.

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