Page 22 of Sugar, Sprinkles, and Secrets
“My contact said he’s been wanted for over eighteen months. Serrano gave them the slip, and they haven’t been able to pin down his location since.” Liam pulls his drone back briefly.
“Well, it might help the case against him if they had him in custody—or no longer breathing. To-may-to, to-mah-to,” I reply.
“Not opposed to either but might be easier for Cara’s brother to go home if this asshole is in jail where he belongs,” Ace adds in a hush tone. “I’m not opposed to the guy catching a bullet, but it’s Liam’s call.”
“Copy. Let’s try not to kill the assholes, but general pain is acceptable,” Liam says and now I wish they had given me a drone with the ability to shoot. It’s challenging to shoot a gun if one were to have a bullet hole through the middle of their palm. “Ace and Colt, I’ll draw them to the northern exterior and secure potential threats then move for retrieval from your location. Sophia, can you get closer to get eyes on the kids and keep an eye on the perimeter in case anyone else tries to join the party?”
I hate when a mission includes kids; it makes me irrationally angry. “Copy, I’m on it. All seven heat signatures on the first floor are positioned near the stairwell in the northeast corner. The two littles on the second floor have not moved locations.”
“Let’s change that, hmm?” Liam is like a cat that plays with his food before eating it. He brings the drone close to the building and a few keystrokes has him shooting out a couple windows on the first floor. These drones are so elite, it likely looked like a blur zoomed by the building to the naked eye. Like moths to a flame, all seven morons run toward the gunfire.
It’s like reaching out to see if a fire is hot—but play dumb games and win dumb prizes. The seven goons fire a few shots toward the drone, but none of them touch Liam’s maneuvers.
“Did you contact your alphabet people in Memphis?” I ask Liam. Unless I need to know, I just lump all the various agencies together. Liam handles all contact with them anyway, and honestly, how many acronyms does someone need to say in a single day?
“Yes. Our U.S. marshal friends should be rolling up within fifteen minutes, but I’d rather have the kids out of there by then so we can get them back to their aunt tonight,” Liam replies as though we’re talking about the weather and he didn’t just shoot a guy in the shoulder and another in the thigh, as I move my drone in closer to have a better view of the kids through an upstairs window.
“Rabbit out the front door,” Liam says as he repositions his drone to follow the figure escaping from the building and gunfight. “I’m on it. Focus on the interior.”
The other four are now aware of Ace and Colt’s presence and are attempting—and failing—at returning fire.
“Ace and Colt, two of the seven assailants are immobilized. Be advised,” I mention.
“Thanks, Soph,” Colt chirps. Two quick shots echo through the comms. “Two more down.” One heat signature is moving toward the front door when I hear Colt add, “One … more … down.” His last word timed with the bullet taking another goon down.
“Give me a minute,” Ace says before a quick pop causes the one standing heat signature to bend at an awkward angle before collapsing.
“Where did you shoot him?” I cock my head, trying to figure it out.
“I think I’m becoming partial to a kneecap shot. It does a lot of damage and is exceptionally painful to recover from,” Ace explains as I watch their heat signatures scale the stairs.
“We have eyes on the kids.” I hold my breath, waiting for Colt to say more. “They’re breathing, but lethargic. I think they’ve been drugged with something. Let’s get them out of here.” Watching Colt gently pick up Dante and Ace position Mila in his arms like an oversized football against his chest has my heart seizing.
“It’s only a thirty-minute flight or so to Forrest Falls. Let’s just get these babies home. Liam, do you have someone that can meet us at the airport?” Colt asks.
“Yeah, one of my sister’s friends is a doctor I trust. I’ll have her there, and if she’s not available, she’ll send her husband.”
“Oooo, two doctors, fancy,” Ace quietly says as I watch him cradle the little three-year-old Mila against his chest. “It’s okay, baby girl, we’re going to get you home,” he murmurs to the sweet little girl who could have woken to a nightmare.
As they make their way to the truck, I circle back to overwatch and provide backup to Liam in pursuit of the rabbit—the one and only Salvatore Serrano.
“Why does it not surprise me that he’s the one that bailed on his men?” I deadpan.
“Assholes love to act like assholes. But watch this…” Liam swiftly shoots out the two tires on Serrano’s passenger side, causing him to spin out. He overcompensates his correction and the idiot flips his G-Wagon on its side.
“Heat signature indicates movement within the vehicle, the collision didn’t kill him,” I inform the team.
“Perfect timing,” Liam chimes in as multiple vehicles zoom down the road and surround the flipped vehicle, while a handful of other vehicles continue to the warehouse.“I sent a text to my contact, and they know the package they really want is in that tipped over vehicle. But they’ll gladly take all of the assholes in, which means less work for us.”
“Good work, guys. Thank you for stepping up today,” Liam adds. We usually have a much larger team, but we were all spread out on what was supposed to be a break from action—but that’s not really a thing in our world. Evil doesn’t sleep, so unfortunately, some days neither do we.
As soon as Colt and Ace load them into the plane bound for Forrest Falls, I’m finally able to exhale and let go. I turn off all the comms and curl up on the couch along the back wall with tears running down my face as my trusted Cane Corso watches over me. Bruno leans slightly into my body to let me know he’s there. I hate when kids are involved in our cases, but I’m so grateful this story had a happy ending.
Chapter seventeen
I kiss Dante’s and Mila’s heads one more time before leaning against the bedroom wall and sliding down to the floor as I rub my temples with my fingers. I haven’t fully exhaled, but I know I will—and it won’t be pretty when all my emotions hit me at once. When Liam called to let us know that not only did they find my niece and nephew, but they had them and were on their way home to me, I would’ve collapsed to the ground if Max wasn’t there to grab me and hold me up. I have never experienced such terror in my life, and we’ve been hiding from the head of a mafia family for over eighteen months.
Liam suggested we stay somewhere else for the evening until things settle down, and I was more than happy to get out of my apartment over my bakery. Someone stole those babies from right under my nose. I don’t know if I can ever sleep soundly in that space ever again. Max insisted we stay at his loft, and I didn’t have the will to fight him, so he was more than shocked when I just nodded in agreement.
