Page 71 of From My Past
“We’ll take more. And then,” I say, taking a step back and pointing to one of the blank spots on the wall “we put our favorite right here.”
Talia smiles at me, bringing some of that light she had before comes back into her eyes. “I’d like that.”
* * *
Call me through the encrypted line. We need to talk.My father apparently had something damn important if he wanted to talk through the encrypted line.
I pulled my laptop out of my go-bag, closing the door to the bedroom but leaving the door cracked so Talia could see me when she wakes up. After giving her a quick tour of the house, I offered for her to lay down and rest in my bed. Our bed. I’m surprised my stubborn woman took me up on it and she took her sneakers off and climbed right into the king-sized bed.
I reluctantly crawled out of the bed after holding her until she drifted off, after getting the message from Kellan.
Booting up my computer and plugging in the address to the deep, dark website that we used to hold meetings when we couldn’t be together. His face appeared on the grainy screen, and then another box popped up with Trenton and Bryan sitting together.
“Kieron. Trenton. Bryan.” My dad greeted us all before leaning back in his desk chair. He was in his honky-tonk, backwater town safehouse. It was his favorite one for some reason unknown to me, but the security pros were undeniable. It just wasn’t my taste. Literally that house had nothing and no one around the small shack for fifty miles. Nothing around, nothing to look at, just open space and fields. It was like going out to a bunker.
“Skipper. What was it you needed to tell us?” I ask, leaning forward with my elbows on my knees. “Is there any new information on headquarters?”
“Preliminary sweeps are good so far. There has been no news of other explosives anywhere, and thanks to your report about the phone in the air vent I have made sure that the men doing the sweeps are extremely thorough. Every single nook and cranny is being swept. It may take us a bit longer to be able to move into headquarters but I’m working on a temporary place. Luckily, our businesses aren’t reliant solely on the one property.” Kellan opened a desk drawer and pulled a file out.
“The missile that we recovered, or the debris from Talia’s window, show that the explosive was definitely Italian made. We have to assume that they knew that our windows were reinforced bulletproof glass. They don’t want to kill Talia now, otherwise the phone would have been laced with an explosive as well.”
I nodded and saw Trenton do the same.
“They don’t want her to die with you. Luca is a sick motherfucker and has made it very known that the only harm to come to Talia is from his hand.” Trenton speaks up and as the flames of my anger burned brighter in my chest. I could only imagine the terrible, awful things he wanted to do to her. I couldn’t let that happen.
“Trenton has made progress through the rankings and earning the Garzino’s trust.” My father stepped in. “However, due to the attacks, I wanted another inside man and Bryan volunteered to have Trenton’s back. Which I approved. Bryan is going to be looking into their financial situation more as Trenton is still climbing the solider rankings.”
“You both are okay with that?” I ask. I know Trenton was all for it, he wanted to take the Garzino family down as badly as I do, but as much as I trusted Bryan, I wanted to make sure that he was okay with this change of this magnitude. Bryan hasn’t had to go undercover before and with as stressed as I was about keeping Talia okay, I needed to take care of my men,my friendsas well.
“Hell yes, man. I want to take these cocksuckers down.” Bryan said, his enthusiasm making me feel better about sending him into the lion’s den. Nodding, I looked to Trent, one of my oldest friends, who looked exhausted. He had dark circles under his eyes and his red hair was disheveled.
“One hundred percent.” He said, through the obvious exhaustion through the stress and anxiety he no doubly was feeling, Trent knew what this means for me and he had my back.
“Have you discovered anything of importance?” Kellan asks, pulling the papers from the file.
“The things that Talia told me Garzino said on the phone correlate to what you’ve said already. Taunting, abusive, trying to put doubts in her head.” I explain, the frustration clear in my tone but I do my best to keep my mind clear and focused on the problem.
“Lorenzo has pulled most of the underlings that haven’t been sworn in onto surveillance. They’ve been tasked to your old apartment, the sisters place, the parents, any and all places of business and personal for the Irish mafia. If we thought they were watching us before, it’s nothing compared to now.” Trent ran his hand through his hair pulling slightly at the roots. “It took a lot of fucking convincing to get Bryan into the fold. They have absolutely no trust in anyone anymore.”
No one said anything, knowing just how gnarly and condemning our own tests for new recruits are, I don’t want to know what Trent and Bryan had to do. I’m sure they didn’t want to explain it, nor should they have to.
“You know what I’m going to say, Kieron.” My dad looks at me through the camera, his eyebrow arched and his head tipped to the side.
“I’ll take care of it and let you know when it’s done.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Talia
Iknow the moment I wake up that Kieron’s been out of bed for a while. The bed at his house is amazingly comfortable and I thought the mattress back at headquarters was great. The setup at his house was more about comfort and ease than aesthetics and it was just what I needed. I felt safe. A feeling I was quickly associating with only Kieron.
Climbing out of bed, I pushed open the bedroom door and see the man in question. He sat with his back to me, hunched over his laptop. I didn’t even know he’d been able to grab his laptop in the mad dash out.
“I’ll take care of it and let you know when it’s done.” Kieron said strongly and slammed the top to his laptop down. He ran his fingers through his hair, the dark waves free from the tie. He seemed so stressed out.
“What do you have to take care of?” I ask, moving to sit next to my burly, tattooed, man who looked like the world was resting on his shoulders.
“I need to ask you something. I don’t know how you’ll feel about it.” He says quietly, resting his chin on his clasped hands.
