Page 231 of Forced Vows

They filed a flight plan. A real one with genuine names and airport destination.

The fucking arrogance. Or stupidity. I can't decide which one applies more.

As predicted, Mordecai takes longer to break, but in the end, he tells us what we want to know. Including the names of the men inside Shaughnessy's syndicate that are on Gabriel Lion's payroll.

The mob boss is livid there are two.

"Look at the positive side." Angelo wipes the blood from his blade on Mordecai's bicep. "Only one of them managed to infiltrate the detail assigned to your estate."

Brogan's scowl says he doesn't find that too much of a consolation.

Mordecai gives a hoarse yell causing us all to look at him again.

Angelo's blade is now sticking out of the bicep he'd used to wipe it off with. He shrugs when we all look at him and pulls it out. "Guess I wasn't quite done yet."

I'm not either.

I walk over to Cleatus's form dangling from the wall.

"You tried to take my heart from my body. Now I'll take yours." I shove the blade in, piercing the organ and then twisting until it's destroyed.

Piss mixes with the blood on the floor around Mordecai.

I don't bother repeating myself. He knows why he's about to die. Angelo might be our top assassin, but today I'm dealing the killing blows to our unwilling and fucking unwanted guests.

Mordecai manages a pretty good scream before his heart stops, but it does nothing to abate my fury at the AOG and its cult leader.

I fix steely eyes on Brogan. "Gabriel dies the same way, at my hand."

The mob boss glares at me. "He killed my brother."

"That was Jed and I'll let you kill him," I offer generously.

"Take the compromise. I don't want one of my new allies killed on an op because he got in the way of my brother's knife." Sev's tone doesn't invite argument.

Brogan shows his superior thinking skills to the AOG leaders when he nods in agreement.

After Brogan interrogates and kills the rats in his mob, we turn all the information over to our capo and his team of hackers.

Less than twenty-four hours later, we have the op planned.

We use low-flying helicopters to transport our teams to Pennsylvania. No fucking flight plans.

When we get there, allies have vehicles waiting for us.

In stealth mode, we hit the compound one hour after the moon sets, taking out the perimeter guards with two snipers and the gate guards with stun-and-kill techniques.

Domenico disarms their electronic alarm and surveillance setup once he has access to the computer at the gate. There will be no digital record of the carnage tonight.

The only soldiers living in the compound were hand-picked by Gabriel Lion. They're so far up his ass, he trusts them to protect him with their lives.

Well, tonight they'll pay that price, but they won't be able to protect him. The cult leader signed his own hit order when he tried to take mi vitù away.

We have six squads of five men. Splitting into two and three-men teams, we hit the key building in the compound simultaneously. My orders are to kill all AOG soldiers on contact with the exception of Gabriel or Jed. According to their now dead men, the leader and his lieutenant should be asleep in their own beds.

But I take nothing for granted.

Allessio and two more of my men make up my team. Our target is Gabriel Lion.

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