Page 34 of Unsettled
The two of them wear matching grins, and I wish those in their paths luck on dying a quick, painless death.
“Keep the fed alive, unless your life is in danger. I want him to experience the best we have to offer before Dad and Il Padrone dispose of him,” Roman tells everyone.
He gets a quick round of agreement, before exchanging a look with Emilio, and then the two of them are directing their Families to move out.
A sense of calm washes over me as I get into place. The bloodlust that usually hides just behind the surface of my façade is now out to play, and I couldn’t stem the small smile on my lips even if I wanted to.
Everything, even Hollis in my ear, becomes white noise, as the need to spill blood, and be the weapon Cristian turned me into, crashes over me. It’s easy to let go of everything that makes me human, as if those parts of me don’t exist—which sometimes I’m convinced they don’t.
“Ready for this, Little Prince?”
Roman’s smile is only slightly unhinged, though I can see the tinge of worry on his face as well. “As we’ll ever be.”
I look at Jude. “Don’t do anything stupid. Listen to Killian and Dmitri.”
He huffs. “I even got permission from Jayden to be here. I’m fine.”
Dmitri, the little spitfire of a bodyguard we stole from the Russians—who has been appointed to Jude’s guard, simply because he knows ASL—meets my gaze with an intense look of his own. “I got him,” he signs. “You don’t have to worry.”
I don’t bother to respond to that. I will always worry about my lovers, but I also trust them, and the people around them—as much as I can, but that has to be enough.
“Let’s go,” is all I say.
Roman and Emilio do a count, and the moment the word is given, chaos erupts. Being descended on by not one, but two mafia Families will cause a bit of commotion, and the resulting pandemonium feeds the bloodlust running through me. As does getting to shoot someone as soon as we’re through the doors on my side.
This entry point is the largest, allowing for us to push a bigger group of men in, right off the bat, but we're also a larger target. No matter, that just means the other parts of our forces should have less resistance at their entry points. I don’t mind making a nuisance of myself for a good cause.
The first few people we encounter are easy to take out, and I shake my head in disgust. You’d think, after all of this time of keeping off the grid, they’d have better trained people in place to protect themselves.
“We’re in,”Hollis says over the comms.“Molly’s fee is high as fuck, but what’s important is…I can track the Bosses down. Give me a moment.”
Knowing my Tesoro has eyes on us eases some of my tension. I don’t have to worry about being everywhere at once when Hollis can be.
“Looks like they’re being held together in a room on the east side of the building. There are guards along that corridor, so be careful. It’s a fucking deathtrap down there.”
I grimace, because the last thing we need is them getting spooked and killing the Bosses before we can rescue them. Carter will kill me if that happens. Especially after I argued he’d be more useful babysitting for Keegan and Marcus, since he’s still injured.
Across the room, I meet Roman’s eyes. His face is oddly bloody, but since Benji doesn’t seem worried about it, I chalk it up to him getting a little personal with his kills. He nods and directs his attention somewhere else—I’m assuming, he's getting some kind of signal from Emilio—so I focus on getting away from the main section of the warehouse we’re in, to where we need to be.
“Middle door on the left will take you through some smaller processing room, and then it’s a straight shot to where you need to be,”Leandro directs.
Signaling to a few of my men, I head in that direction, trusting those who need to be, are following me.
The other room holds a few adversaries, but these ones are using overturned tables, and the machinery that was left behind from when this was a functioning manufacturing warehouse, as cover.
“Got eyes on our friend Tom?”Roman asks over the comms.
“No, but he’s still there. Neither my spies, nor Antonio and Nario, have seen him leave. Fucker is probably holed up in a closed off room that doesn’t have a camera. I can’t look into the previous feed, because wherever they’re storing the data is off-site; they’re transmitting their feeds somewhere else. H isworking on tracing it, but right now, I don’t have time to mess around with that.”
“Agreed. Let H deal with that for now.”Roman barely sounds breathless as he speaks, still shooting at his targets.“What’s happening in the Bosses' room?”
Hollis is quiet for long enough that concern starts to bleed in through the bloodlust.“They’re being left alone, but they might be injured.”
Fuck.That was…the wrong thing to say to Roman and Emilio.
Cursing, I switch magazines, uncaring that the empty one drops to the floor, and follow quickly behind the two acting Bosses.
Benji and Dante cover the boys as they storm across the room. Bullets fly everywhere as the door leading to the corridor where the Bosses are supposed to be opens, and the men standing guard there reinforce the ones already in the room.
