“Boss—”
“They have Esme,” I snap, cutting Adrik off. “They have my son.”
Adrik stares at me for a moment and grabs his phone. I know who he’s trying to contact, and I also know that no one will pick up.
“Don’t bother,” I tell him. “Alik and Gennadi are gone.”
“It’s not too late,” Adrik says quickly. “Budimir wouldn’t have captured them just to kill them. He’s using them as bait.”
“I know,” I reply, and the tone of my voice silences any further discussion.
The moment we get to the safehouse, I head inside. My weary men follow behind me. They all look tired and uncertain, but my determination has just reached new heights.
I turn, just as Ronan’s men file into the safehouse behind us.
“I appreciate the help,” I tell the main soldier. “What’s your name?”
“Kian,” he replies, extending his hand out to me.
“How many men were you sent with?”
“A hundred.”
It’s impressive, but not even close to the number we’d need to take on the entire Bratva.
Still—it’s a hundred more men than we started with.
“What made your boss change his mind?” I ask.
Kian shrugs. “You’ll have to ask him that,” he says. “I just follow orders.”
“What were your orders, exactly?”
“Come here and help you take the Bratva back from your uncle.”
I raise my eyebrows. “I haven’t done that yet.”
“Well, then, I guess we can’t go back home until you do,” he says with a grin.
I don’t let the surprise show on my face, but in essence, Ronan has transferred command of a hundred of his men to me. It’s a gesture that tells me a lot.
He never forgot about you, Cillian.
He never stopped thinking of you as his son.
I don’t believe in an afterlife or an after-anything. But in this one moment, I actually hope that I’m wrong. That there is such a thing.
If only so that Cillian could know that his family hadn’t abandoned him as completely as he’d always believed.
I nod and turn around, so that it’s clear I’m speaking to all my men. “We have to move fast,” I announce. “And this time, we’re pulling no punches. We’re going to attack in full force. All our men. We’re going to take back my father’s compound.”
“We’re still going to be out numbered,” Adrik points out.
“Yes, we are,” I agree.
I stand my ground and wait for someone to tell me that I’m insane.
That this plan of mine basically amounts to a suicide mission.