Page 83 of This Thing of Ours

“Always.”

“I’ll give Fred a kiss from you.”

Marco chuckled, “You do that.”

“Goodnight.”

“Goodnight, cara mia.” Marco clicked the end button and stared down at his phone, wishing he was saying goodnight to her in person while she lay sprawled on top of him after he’d gotten her off two or three times. If he closed his eyes, he could almost feel the weight of her head as it rested on his chest and the warmth of her breath coasting over it. Almost smell the clean, fresh, floral scent of her hair with its stray strands that would tickle his chin. Almost hear her breathing deepen and steady as she drifted off to sleep.

“You ready?”

Marco turned. He hadn’t heard Nico come up behind him. Not a good thing. He powered off his phone and pocketed it. “Yeah.”

Nico nodded and gave him a meaningful look, “Let’s get this shit over with so we can get back with our women.”

Sounded like a fucking good plan to Marco.

From the outside, the place looked deserted. Marco hoped that wasn’t the case and Derek hadn’t lied. He was fucked if he had. In more ways than one—if he hadn’t told the truth or if things didn’t go well for them.

At that very moment, Derek was sitting in a locked room, heavily guarded, and only Nico had the key—metaphorically speaking. In other words, his life depended on Nico’s survival, so he could hold up his end of the bargain. And if Ivan Volkov wasn’t there or they’d been played, well, Derek was just fucked.

Personally, Marco didn’t give a shit what happened to the guy. He didn’t care that he was trying to redeem himself, he’d always be guilty in Marco’s eyes. Setting up Gabriella, there could never be enough good graces given for Marco to ever forgive the prick.

They were parked on the outskirts of a rundown strip mall in the middle of fucking nowhere. Their target? A mechanic shop in the northeast corner.

The place was a ghost town. As he watched, even a fucking tumbleweed rolled through the empty lot. And fucking dark. Nothing was lit. Not the neighboring street lights, not the light poles in the parking lot, not any of the business signs. Thank God for the full moon, or they wouldn’t be able to see jack shit.

He looked over at Nico, sitting in the passenger seat, texting on his phone. “Everyone in position?”

“Got confirmation from Sal. Just waiting on Johnny.”

Marco turned off the headlights and pulled into an alley that ran along the back of the mall, stopping the car about fifty yards from their destination. Coming in from the other end, another car stopped about the same distance away. That would be Ricky and Tony.

Derek had given them a key to the back door of the garage along with the security code. A set of stairs located directly to the right of the door led up to living quarters and the supposed whereabouts of Ivan Volkov. They’d been told, if they hit the place late at night, only a couple of his men would be with him.

The whole thing sounded way too fucking easy.

“Johnny’s on the roof,” Nico said, sliding his phone into his pocket. “We’re ready to go.”

Marco opened his door and stepped out. He did a sweep of the alley, noting nothing looked odd or out of place.

Nico came around the front of the car, and they made their way to the door and waited for Ricky and Tony to join them.

“You know the plan. I want this shit done quickly and silently,” Nico said, pulling his stiletto from his pocket and hitting the switch with his thumb to flick it open. He turned to Tony. “When we get inside, you let Sal in and do a sweep of the garage while we go upstairs and take care of Volkov. Any of his men get past us and escape downstairs, that’s on you to take care of.”

Tony nodded. “Got it, boss.”

Nico slid the key in the lock. It opened the door. The security panel was right where Derek said it would be. Marco punched in the code. The soft beeping stopped, and the armed light changed from green to red.

They waited a few seconds in silence, unmoving, waiting to see whether anyone was alerted. So far, so good.

Nico gestured to Tony to get a move on, and Marco watched as he carefully made his way across the garage, moonlight shining through the many, large overhead windows guiding his way. He stopped at a smaller door next to a large bay door, opened it, and let Sal in. All without sounding any additional alarms.

Nico whispered, “Let’s go.”

The lighting on the stairs was murky, but enough filtered in from the garage they would be able to see where they were going. Though it did get darker toward the top landing where a hall led to office space that had been converted into living quarters. At least that’s what Derek claimed. Three rooms in all, with Volkov in the last one at the end of the hall.

Marco double checked his gun before hitting the stairs. He went up first with Nico behind him and Ricky taking up the rear. He didn’t like that they had to walk up single file, but at least Nico was protected.

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