All conversations of weddings and marriages fall away as Roman’s hands fly under the bar, pulling out weapons and handing them to his brothers. A shitty little gun is placed into my hand and I glare at Roman. “Sorry,” he says before launching himself over the bar and landing right beside me. “That’s all I got left under here.”
He grips my hand, and as one, the four of us fly out of the living room, Marcus in front, leading the pack with Levi behind, protecting our backs. “So, ahh … I’m assuming I need to make the call?”
“Huh?” I grunt, far too preoccupied with whoever is trying to break into the mansion.
He rolls his eyes. “To amend the paperwork. To officially become married.”
“Oh yeah,” I say as my eyes dart from left to right, certain that someone is going to jump out at us at any second. “Make the call, but for the record, I’m going to need some shiny diamonds to go along with that bullshit non-existent proposal, and they better be brand spanking new. I don’t want any of your twisted ex’s hand-me-downs.”
Roman groans and rolls his eyes as both Levi and Marcus scoff. “Fine.”
We storm through the mansion, more than under prepared for this particular attack, but as we enter into the massive foyer and Marcus moves toward the front window, his brows raise before he starts shaking his head. “Fucking hell,” he mutters, not pleased by whoever stands at the door.
He lets out a frustrated groan and just like that, Roman and Levi seem to relax as we watch Marcus move to the front door and tear it open without even a hint of warning. His gun remains up, holding steady and strong, making him look like the twisted psychopath that I’ve come to love. “What in the ever-loving fuck do you think you’re doing?”
Well, well … speaking of Roman’s twisted exes.
Ariana’s hands snap up, her eyes going wide as she takes in Marcus. Fear sweeps through her stare as she watches over his shoulder, taking in the scene behind him, Roman’s hand in mine, the weapons, and Levi to our left.
A hint of jealousy courses through her eyes and I smirk, wondering just what she’d think of Roman’s very untraditional proposal. Hell, the whole vow ceremony. After all, Ariana lives by the theory that any DeAngelis dick is good dick. Fucking cow, and to think I actually wanted to help her.
She closes her mouth, unsure of how to respond to this welcoming, as by the looks of it, she assumed she was coming to an empty house. Marcus moves forward, the barrel of his gun pressing against her head. “I’m not going to ask you again, Ariana. What the fuck are you doing here?”
She swallows hard, indecision in her eyes. “I know where Giovanni is.”
And just like that, Marcus lowers the gun and welcomes her into the mansion.
33
Ariana lasted all of three minutes before Roman had every bit of information out of her and sent her straight back out the door with a reminder of what was to happen to her if she ever showed up here again. She cried like a whiny little bitch and was sent away without even a second glance, and I’m not going to lie, I was all too smug during the whole thing.
Best three minutes of my life.
We stand in the training room of the Moretti private residence with the best Moretti soldiers around us. They aren’t exactly thrilled to have Roman, Marcus, and Levi standing in their space, and they were even less thrilled to learn that we’d invited the best of the DeAngelis men to join us. But that’s the beauty of being in my position. What I say goes, and they can either learn to accept it, or find out what kind of leader I will be when they step against me.
Agent Davidson has quietly slipped away, not interested in being involved with a war that he doesn’t have to be a part of, especially now that Gia is dead and his assignment is officially coming to a close. Though I’m sure it won’t be long until the Moretti men begin to notice his absence.
The boys are busy searching through the armory, checking over what kind of weapons we have access to when they step out as one, leaving the other Moretti men behind to finish cataloging everything we have. “They’re here,” Marcus says, nodding toward the elevator.
I nod and let out a nervous breath. The last time I saw these men, they weren’t entirely down with the idea of working side-by-side with us, but we all have a mutual enemy who needs to be taken out. After that, I have no idea what’s supposed to happen, but I’m sure whatever it is will be ugly. I’ve come to learn that nothing is easy in this world, and when asking grown ass men to play nice, it generally doesn’t go as planned.
We take the elevator up to the main floor and step out into the foyer just as the DeAngelis men make their way through the front door. “What is this place?” the little Roman-look-alike asks with his henchmen, Trevor and Julio, at his sides.
“This,” I say, spreading my arms out wide as Mick and his tech team file in behind them carrying boxes of tech that I can’t even begin to understand, “was Gia Moretti’s personal residence, and this here,” I add, pointing out the crack in the marble where the chandelier fell and eliminated Gia for good, “is where the bitch died.”
Eyebrows shoot up into hairlines while others just simply gape, staring at the spot on the expensive marble as though it’s some kind of magical place that will offer them the supernatural powers of the gods.
“Okaaaaay,” Marcus says after a moment of awkward silence. “Fighters with me, tech dudes with Roman. Everyone else … fucked if I know. Figure it out yourselves.” And just like that, Marcus saunters off with a handful of fighters following behind him.
I look up at Levi and Roman. “Is it really such a good idea to have Marcus do the introductions between the DeAngelis and Moretti fighters? He’ll probably encourage some kind of bloodbath.”
Levi presses his lips into a hard line before cursing. “Fuck.”
He turns on his heel and jogs after Marcus as Roman glances down at me. “Guess you’re stuck with me,” he says before turning to Mick and his team. He indicates with a nod of his head and the group of overqualified men follow us through the mansion.
We lead them through the maze of hallways until finally pushing through to the massive tech room Gia had set up. The Moretti team is already busy doing their searches, and when Roman steps through the door, they barely glance up.
The team leader is Lennox who stands at attention, waiting on instructions from me, which only manages to send a wave of unease through my system. I’m not used to this kind of attention, but I have to get used to it. “Lennox,” I say, indicating to Mick, “this is Mick and his team. He’s the DeAngelis tech dude. He’s a computer wizard so I’m sure between everyone, it shouldn’t be a problem finding the information we need.”