“What happened?”
“Someone tipped off the feds. They are en-route now to raid multiple stash houses,” Monk nearly yelled through the phone. In the background, I could hear other men calling out to one another.
Closing my eyes, I inhaled through my nose….
Breathe Ethan.
Breathe.
“Sir?
“How long until they get there?”
“Ten minutes if we are lucky.”
“I make my own luck,” I replied, rising to my feet. “Call everyone back. And tell them to take half and burn the rest to the ground. Then meet me out front.”
“You want to burn half?”
“Did I fucking stutter?”
“Yes, Boss—”
Hanging up on him, I glanced back to the three men on the wall for a second before dialing. It didn’t even ring twice before she answered.
“I was just coming to find you—”
“The FBI is about to raid my stash houses. As you know, because of Miguel Muncha, we’ve been on a freeze. There is over a billion dollars’ worth of product just sitting there and not enough time to move it.”
“What do you need?” she said to me.
I checked my watch already on the move. “I need a distraction. The men you demanded, I need them now.”
“If they shut down Link, Southie, and Camden-bay, the backup should buy you all an extra thirty minutes.”
“Exactly what I was thinking,” I said, grabbing my coat off the chair. “Meet me when it’s done. I’ll send you the location.”
“Our first official job as an official couple. I have butterflies.” She giggled.
“Don’t worry, they will die within a week.”
“You just had to ruin it.” She sighed loudly and dramatically. “What happened to working on your romance?”
“Now really isn’t a good time, Calliope.”
“Make it a good time,” she replied before hanging up on me.
Smirking, I glanced back at the phone. “If you want a date, all you had to do was ask,” I muttered to myself…then froze as a wave of déjà vu washed over me.
And so, the cycle continued.
CALLIOPE
Our first official job as an official couple, as Mr. and Mrs. Callahan, was going to be a failure. I was sure my grandfather was the one that tipped off the feds, and he did so with the information I gave him. On top of that, Ethan was waiting for men to shut down Link, Southie, and Camden-bay, and those men wouldn’t show up. I knew that as I spoke to him, but I couldn’t tell him. Today had to fail, or else my grandfather would know I had stopped him. And stopping him was akin to open treason.
Part of me wanted to say it wasn’t all my fault. Big Tillio canceled my men. But that was a lie.
As I looked around the Tillio family house, the lie was even more apparent. I should have been by Ethan’s side; instead, I was in this very charming and cozy house far too goddamn early in the morning for house calls. The walls were covered in photos of friends, family, as well as graduation certificates, karate and gymnastics medals. They were even the type of family that kept their grandkids’ drawings on the refrigerator. Looking to the corner walls, I checked for those markings people made to track how tall their kids had gotten…and sure enough, there it was on the wall beside the front door.