“I said alone.” My voice boomed across the space.
Joey snorted, a sneer pulling his slightly sagging features taut. “Yet you brought soldiers with you too.”
I said nothing, waiting for him to close the distance between us. As he neared, I noticed he’d stayed in shape. I wouldn’t underestimate him, despite his advanced age. With added years only came experience. He wore a trim beard spiked with gray and a black beanie. He stopped a foot away from us, sizing me up. I searched, but there wasn’t anything in his features that resembled Mia’s. She’d said she took after her mother.
“If you’ve come to return my daughter, you still owe me something.” He wouldn’t even glance in her direction.
“We’ve already been over this. I’m here to deliver a message once more, but this time in person. Mia is my wife. You have no right to her.” He opened his mouth to speak, but I held up a hand to stop him. “She has something to say to you. After that, you won’t hear from her again. And if you try to contact her, you’ll answer to me.”
“You’re just a pup. No real power.”
I didn’t rise to his bait. He wasn’t worth it. And ignoring him would further enrage him.
I felt rather than saw Mia bristle beside me at the way her father was behaving, but it didn’t concern me. What did was that he had yet to look at her. It didn’t stop her from delivering her message.
“How could you?” Her voice shook with barely suppressed rage. “You killed Mom—why?”
Joey’s silence only fueled Mia’s temper.
“Ricco told me all about how you ordered the captain of the guard, his father, to kill my mother.”
That got Joey’s attention, and he whipped his gaze to her. “Shut your mouth about things you know nothing about.”
I launched my fist at his face. The satisfying crack and jerk of his head proved I’d found my mark. As he swiveled toward us, I was ready, my gun already trained on him just as he raised his. We were at a draw, or so it seemed. Blood trickled from the cut on his swelling lip, but he paid it no attention.
“Do not speak to my wife with such disrespect. Her position is greater than yours.”
“Bullshit. She’s nothing. The wife of an underboss, one who’ll probably remain a second for the whole of his life.”
“You’re a fool. An underboss in the Chicago Mafia trumps a New York boss. I could kill you here and now without repercussion, whereas you would answer to the Five Families and, if a commission is called, Italian royalty as well.”
Red infused Joey’s cheeks. We’d anticipated his next move. As he shifted the barrel of his gun to Mia, seven red laser dots appeared from our soldiers’ guns—six divided to target his forehead and chest. But it was the seventh one, aimed at his eye, that got his notice.
“Do you think I would underestimate you?” I tilted my head, studying him. He was desperate. Mia was his prized possession after he’d killed his wife, and I knew he’d thought he would cash in on her beauty and presumed innocence to the highest bidder to increase his power tenfold. But no one in the Mafia was innocent. And Mia was stubborn and highly intelligent, which was a deadly combination against someone like Joey.
“What’ll you do now, Father? You have no claim to me, and Ricco outed your secret—the murder of my mother. Is there anyone you can trust?”
Joey clamped his lips together, and instead, he turned to me, dismissing her by action if not words. “This isn’t finished.”
“It is.”
I jerked Mia to my other side, away from the potential trajectory of his bullet if he was able to fire it. He didn’t get the chance. Instead, a shot rang out from one of my men, and a hole appeared in the center of Joey’s hand. The gun fell from his useless grasp as he cried out in pain.
“Let that serve as the one and only warning you’ll ever get.Neverpoint a gun at my wife.” With that promise, I led Mia off the bridge.
Her laughter filled the air and my heart. This sound, so full with joy and freedom, was why I’d gone to all the trouble of meeting with Joey Tucci. I drew her close as we strolled through the park until we were ready to go back to the hotel.
We weren’t finished with our plan, not even a little bit.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
NICO
Mia and I pulled up to a hotel far from Central Park but close to the building where the Tucci soldiers held the abducted women. She hadn’t said much after the shit show with her father, and I couldn’t blame her. The way he treated her still made my blood boil. When we exited the car, guards following, I kissed her temple and drew her close as we hurried through the lobby and to the rooms that one of the men had secured. I glanced at my watch before quickening our pace. The rest of the guys would be calling any minute, and I preferred we were someplace private when they did.
The room was on the first floor, so we took the stairs. I pressed a camera the size of a fly to the top of the doorjamb of the stairwell. I put another atop our door to view anyone who stood in the hallway. Both cameras would connect to my phone and eliminate the element of surprise if we were followed.
After we were inside, I pulled her into my arms and kissed her. She matched my urgency. I couldn’t get enough of her. She was beautiful both inside and out, and I wanted her—always. Not one second of a day passed when I wasn’t itching to run my hands over her soft skin, my thumb on her plump lips, or to feel her slender body in my arms, safe and warm.