“I’ll go to Stefano’s and fill him in. As soon as we have a departure time, I’ll update everyone.” Marco rose, pulling El to her feet.
Mia and I followed my brothers and sister to the door, saying our goodbyes. Then it was the two of us, and Mia turned to me with excitement shining in her beautiful eyes. I felt it too. It was the beginning of the end of a part of her life and had been a long time coming.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
NICO
Mia’s hand was tight in mine as we hurried from the car to the waiting jet. Evening was fast approaching. Marco had conferred with Stefano, and our plan was a go with a few modifications. Fine by me. What mattered was that it happened soon. And even though I would have preferred that Mia stay back in Chicago, safe and far from the Tucci family, I knew she needed to do this. I would be there every step of the way.
We took precautions not to be followed. Multiple cars had left our condo’s underground parking, all going in different directions. When we were sure there wasn’t a tail, we’d circled back to the airport and parked in the private hangar. Stairs were already waiting, and we climbed them and entered the jet. The cabin was packed with Trey, Marco, El, Sofia, Enzo, Stefano, and Emiliana. Even Tony, Max’s brother, had decided to join us. Another plane contained our captains and guards. We were bringing enough manpower that I hoped nothing would go wrong.
Then we were taxiing down the runway. The sound of the wheels filled the cabin, increasing in volume until we lifted off. Mia slipped her hand into mine, and I could practically feel the nervous energy radiating off her.
Soon, we would be in New York.
* * *
“We’re in position.” Enzo’s voice sounded through my earpiece. He was with my sister and Tom, Marco’s captain, who was often in charge of keeping Sofia safe. Once Tom had started dating Nicole Caruso, Gerardo, also present, had stepped up, training to take many of Tom’s duties.
One by one, everyone else on our team sounded off with their established locations for our mission to intercept the incoming truck that would bring more women and girls into the prostitution ring. Since Mia didn’t know which direction the truck would come from, we’d split up. Each team had five people. Mia, El, and Sofia would be the decoys to get the truck to stop. None of us liked it, but the plan was solid. Next to me, Mia wore a short, sequined club dress, four-inch heels, and a faux fur coat wrapped around her slender frame.
We waited on a sidewalk, pressed against a building with people milling about, not far from a club. The two guards with us and I were in dark clothing, jackets, and hats. We blended into the shadows. Mia, when she shed her coat, would shine. Her hair was styled and sexily mussed. Smoky eye makeup and deep-red lipstick completed her look. For the time being, she was tucked in the shadows with us, wrapped in my embrace to stave off as much of the bitter evening chill as possible.
“There.” Mia pointed a gloved finger at a black van half a block away.
She removed her coat and gloves, which I handed to one of the guards. In the long-sleeved, low-cut dress that hugged her curves, Mia stepped into the better lit part of the sidewalk. Wobbling unsteadily, she worked to sell an intoxicated party-girl look. She raised one hand and pushed the hair from her face, ensuring that the guys in the truck would get a good visual. She pivoted, weaving away from the sidewalk and toward the perfect place to get abducted. She purposely bumped into a man, stumbled, then waved her arms, shouting a few words before dismissing him and heading down the alleyway, away from the sidewalk.
Her small scene and solo entry into the alleyway weren’t missed. Two minutes later, the van followed. Headlights illuminated Mia in a halo effect. Staying clear of the van’s side mirror trajectory, the guards and I slipped into the alleyway. The stench of garbage increased as we went farther. One of the guards went around to my left. He would be the first point of contact.
The truck slowed about a foot from where Mia, seemingly oblivious to the approaching vehicle, swayed her way down the center of the alley. Anger swirled in my gut. This needed to end quickly.
The van’s brake lights flashed as it slowed to a stop. Then the passenger side opened, and a man got out without closing the door. Tucci’s soldier never searched the area, trusting that it was still empty, staying focused on the prey before him. That was his first mistake.
Mick, the guard who had taken position in front of me, sprinted to the passenger door and launched himself inside. There was a dull thud, and the van rocked from side to side. The soldier who had rounded the front of the van gripped Mia’s arm like a vise.
As his gun swung toward her, she yanked out the knife sheathed to her thigh under her fitted dress. I could see the surprise in his eyes as she went from inebriated to alert and fighting in a second. Then he spotted me coming in hot. The angle of his gun rose to block her blade’s thrust. My hand clamped on his arm. Applying pressure, I twisted it away from her.
Mia rotated her fist and thwacked the soldier in the temple twice then grabbed his gun and hit him hard in the back of his head. With the last strike, his eyes rolled back in his head. I twisted him with a hard pull, bent my knee, and tossed him over my shoulder in a fireman’s carry as his gun clattered to the pavement. Mia bent and swooped it up. Mick met us at the back of the van with the keys. When it was unlocked, he drew the doors wide. Inside, three young women huddled together, fear a beacon in their wide eyes.
I bent and threw the soldier off me. He landed in a loud thud at the girls’ feet. “You’ll be fine,” Mia whispered to the girls, but the terror remained on their faces. Mick made quick work of zip-tying his arms and legs before shutting and locking the back doors.
Our two soldiers climbed into the van’s front seat and pulled away, heading to the motel where we would stage the next part of our plan. Once Mia’s coat was back around her shivering shoulders, I passed the information that we’d caught them through our communication links to the rest of our teams. With my arm around her waist, we hurried back to the parking garage and our car.
The sidewalks were just as crowded when we rejoined the pedestrians heading home or out for the evening. When we got to the car, I cranked the heat to chase the chill from the bitter winter wind. After the car started, we quickly headed out and onto the busy streets. Mia turned to me at a light, the air crackling with intent.
“I have a confession to make,” she whispered, tucking a few strands of midnight hair behind her ear. “It’s not the best time to bring this up”—she grinned—“but we have the time.”
The way her eyes shone, the cornflower-blue flecks sparkling like stars in a purple haze, made everything in me sharpen in awareness of what she would say next.
“I’ve been attracted to you for a while now.”
“We’ve only known one another a handful of days.” Even as I said it, I felt the connection that’d formed. There had been an undeniable spark the moment we’d first touched. Some part of me had recognized her as the one even in our standoff on the beach.
She shrugged. “Maybe in the typical sense. You already know that my father required me to study the Five Families. There was something about you that kept pulling me back. He thought you, Trey, and Tony were the least likely to be a threat.” She shook her head. “I knew he was wrong about you.”
“Did you, now?” I linked her hand with mine, the need to touch her too great to deny.
“Yes. It was the intelligence that shone through your eyes, the calculated decisions… and you have the same unshakable power radiating from you that the other bosses do. My father hadn’t noticed how quickly you process things and mistook the quiet aspects of your personality for weakness, not the conviction and strength that they are. I would sneak into his office at three in the morning and search it for any other intel he had on you but wouldn’t share with me. I found so many pictures, details about the war with the Russian Bratva, and”—she glanced down, breaking the intimate connection between us—“a few more.”