Page 65 of Escape You

Manny glared at me. “Yes, our security is top notch. And just for the record, us decrypting Rossi’s data wasn’t easy. We’re badass.”

“I hope you’re right about that. We’re gonna need badass for this.”

“Care to share?”

“Rossi doesn’t know there’s a secret entrance to the warehouse. He knows we use it to store guns, but he doesn’t exactly know where it all goes or how it goes in and out.”

“This is sixty people you’re talking about, Mia.”

“I know. We’re going to need two really big buses.”

20

Guilty or Not

Tyler

The pain shot straight to my chest. This was a different kind of ache, the kind meds couldn’t help. I screamed her name, though I knew she couldn’t hear me through the hospital walls. She was gone. And that was the right thing. Our entire relationship had started out in a bad place, one lie after another. It had nowhere else to go from there.

I understood Mia had betrayed me to save our child, but that hadn’t lessened the blow. It still hurt like all hell. She knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that Rossi would have me killed the second he found out I wasn’t his grandson. Even if it was as he’d said and she did plead for my life, she knew him better than that. Rossi left me in the middle of a deserted parking lot to die. Mia couldn’t have guessed how lucky I’d get on this one. Even if Rossi had only shot me to unload some of his anger and disappointment, he could have killed me.

The fucking bullet could have ricocheted off my shoulder blade and caused all kinds of problems, or nicked an artery and made me bleed to death. There were a hundred different scenarios where I would end up dead, and only a handful where I came out of there alive. Jesus Christ, even if her intentions had been noble, when she chose to turn me in, she’d decided she was okay with me dying. I glanced down at my bandaged shoulder and arm sling, which only helped to make the pounding in my head intensify.

Squeezing my eyes shut, I rested my head on the pillow and let the memories of Mia flash in front of me. Like an idiot, I tried to put myself in her shoes, see things from her vantage point. What did I think would happen? That Mia would fall so hard for me she would give up her life to be with me?

If our daughter was the motivation for her recent actions, then she should know that I was the best shot she had of giving her baby a good life, a life outside of all this Mafia stuff. Assuming that was what Mia wanted. Truth was, we never talked about that. I’d been so happy that Mia was finally with me and that she wanted to keep our baby I didn’t think to ask what kind of future she envisioned for us. I was too blind with love to realize that one, Mia wasn’t really my wife. And two, she loved her crew more than me. They were her responsibility.

My eyes flew open. Mia would do anything for her crew. With her daughter safe from Rossi, she only had one thing left to do: get rid of Rossi and the threat he held over all their heads. I never should have let her leave tonight. I’d bet anything that she was somewhere out there with Vic planning some kind of hit on Rossi. Jesus, Mia was going after that asshole all by herself. That was a suicide mission. Did she not see that? Goddammit, Mia.

I grabbed the pills the doctor had left on my tray table and swallowed them. The Rizzo brothers had said the new shipment was due to cross the border in three days. Add another three days to get the people to one of Mia’s warehouses here, and that meant she had about a week to mount this operation. I sat up, and the room swayed a few rounds. Shit, this was the worst time to be convalescing. I needed to get to Mia and stop her.

The door opened, and my brother Wesley peeked inside. “Is it safe? Or should we let you scream for her some more?”

Just fucking great. “How did you find me?”

“Your girlfriend’s driver called Dom, who called Derek. Matt and I talked them into letting us handle the situation. You know, since you’re here because of us.” He let the door swing open, and Matt strolled in, big smile on. It seemed these days he couldn’t stop smiling. The love of a good woman would do that to a man. He’d been fortunate to move to New Orleans and find his fiancée, Ela. For two amazing days, I thought I’d found that too with Mia.

“Ela and I were in Atlanta visiting. How did this happen? You’re lucky Dom’s friend thought to call him.”

I gripped my hair with my good hand. All these questions were making my head spin. “Okay, first of all, please whisper. I feel like shit.”

“No kidding. You got shot.” Wesley raised his voice, then put his hands up in surrender. They were worried sick for me. I’d feel the same way if I got a call from a friend of a friend to tell me one of my brothers had been shot.

“First things first, what did you tell Mom?”

“Nothing.” Matt stuffed his hands in his pants. “Ela is there covering for us. If we’re not back tonight, she threatened to come after us in the morning.” He faced Wesley with brows furrowed. “Come to think of it, Dom and Derek said the same thing. Do they not think we can handle our shit?”

Wesley shrugged. “What I want to know is why Tyler didn’t think to ask for our help. Asshole, you were in Atlanta for two weeks. And what? You forgot to mention the kind of deep shit you were in?” To his credit, he used his inside voice.

“One, all this got started after I left Atlanta. And two, I did text you to check on Rebecca. If I knew things were going to get out of hand this fast, I would’ve called.”

“He texted, and you didn’t tell me?” Matt hit Wesley’s arm with the back of his hand.

It seemed Wesley hadn’t thought to tell Matt that I had a lead on the guy who’d been doing business with Rebecca’s boss. Smith and Marcel were dangerous men. Rebecca had turned against them to save her brother. In the end, it had all gone to shit. We owed her. The least we could do was do everything in our power to keep her safe.

“Can we all agree right now that this thing with the Venezuelan cartel concerns all of us?” He slapped Wesley’s upper arm. “Wesley?”

“Yeah. Agreed.” Wesley met Matt’s gaze. “Sorry, man. You looked so happy. I didn’t want to kill your buzz.”

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