Page 91 of Depraved
“Who the fuck told you to go there because it wasn’t me. I was here. By myself…left open to be fucking shot. Declan played us. Who helped him?” I roar.
“Matteo,” Antonio states cautiously. “The text came from his phone to all of us.”
“Then they took his phone,” I shoot out. “Matteo’s no rat.”
“Agreed,” Vin and Antonio say in unison.
Sarah buries her head into my chest as I start giving directions.
“We need to get everyone to the safe houses. The city isn’t a good place to be right now.”
“I already took care of the kids.” Antonio nods to my brothers, and Gretchen lets out a breath, walking straight for him and wrapping her arms around his neck.
“Thank you.” She nods, pulling back and rubbing his shoulder.
Nico comes in from the back entry of Church with a few of the guys and interrupts her gratitude. “Boss. What the hell is going down? We’ve got the cars out back and ready.”
I rub Sarah’s back and look down at her.
“Go with the girls, Billy. I’ll be there soon,” I say softly, but she raises her eyebrows and shakes her head. “I don’t have time for this shit. You need to park your ass where it’s safe.”
She grabs my tuxedo jacket and pulls me close to her. “I walked into this family eyes wide open. It’s not perfect, but we take care of each other, and that means you, too. You take care of everyone else, but I take care of you. I can’t do that burning a hole in the carpet from my pacing in some safe house.”
My entire body dips to wrap my arms around her waist, picking her up to level her face to face with mine.
“I love you, Billy. Just give me twenty-four hours. I can’t think straight if I’m worried about you. I need to sort out my next move, and I can’t do that with you here.”
She plants a kiss on my lips, her hands cradling my face. “Then I’ll burn a hole in the carpet, but if you wait longer than twenty-four hours, I’ll set the place on fire.”
I wink and jut my chin for her to kiss me. She does as she’s told, and I pull back, placing her back to her feet.
“I love you,” she calls out to me, walking backward.
“It’s not enough,” I answer back, smiling reassuringly as she turns and takes Nico’s arm. “Take care of my girl.”
“With my life.” Nico nods and walks them out the way he came in.
My eyes stay fixed on the hall she disappeared into until I know she’s gone, feeling the weight that’s on my shoulders. Dom comes up beside me and pats my shoulder. “This is the part you weren’t looking forward to. But you’ll always have enemies, and they’ll always try to hurt you where you’re the most vulnerable.”
My palms press against the table as I bow, letting my head hang down between my shoulders as I take in a deep breath and let it out.
“Dante,” Luca says lowly, pushing a tumbler of amber liquid under my face on the table. “We need to sit down and plan a war.”
I nod from where I’m bowed, taking one last moment, then straightening up. “First, we find Matteo. If he’s alive, we keep him safe. If he’s dead, we bury his body, and then we make sure to take twenty of theirs as payment.” My head swings to where Antonio and Vincenzo are standing, “Vin, call the doc…have him check the hospitals.”
“Done.” He pulls his phone from his pocket and walks away.
“Office,” I say to my brothers, waving Antonio over to walk with us.
The rest of the night travels by in a blur. More of my men file into Church as the four of us hole up in the office to strategize how to take down the entire Boston crew.
We sit around the desk, me behind it, and listen to Luca as he works out each life we’ll take like a puzzle piece for the bigger picture. He’s detached and calculating, but this is always who is he; just like when he hugs his with wife and child, that’s who he is, too.
We’re the most dangerous when those two purposes intersect. Declan has threatened those who matter most to us. And now he gets the worst versions of who we are.
Dom pushes some papers out of the way to place his drink down on the desk. “What I don’t get was why the family was doing work for him…his reach far exceeds theirs. They were unneeded. If he wanted her all these years, he could’ve taken her. I don’t buy the ‘I just found you’ bullshit he was spewing.”
I nod. “Yeah. I hear that. He’s a sick bastard, that’s clear, but there’s a bigger reason.”
