He looks between Liam and me.
“But you’d know all about that, wouldn’t you, boys?”
The shackled monster inside me breaks through his cage and crashes forward. My gun sounds in the large empty room, the sounds reverberating off the concrete walls as I fill Martinez’s body with holes. But I am careful to not deliver a fatal blow, so Liam can end the man that has brought him so much pain.
Tawny and Martinez have been watching the mansion grounds without any of us realizing. I had upped security when that federal agent helped Tawny escape her cell. And she was still able to keep an eye on us. Through tech or in person, it needs to be dealt with immediately.
I turn to stalk out of the room, pulling my phone from my pocket to call my son and let him in on this information. My Little Bird and her friend need to be with someone at all times until we end this.
Stopping I turn to the boys who are looking at me like I have lost my mind. Which I feel like I have. My control slipped and I snapped, only able to reel myself back in so Liam could finish the job.
“I will have Hazel find out where Elio is with Malia,” I say, then focus my attention on Liam. “If he does not look like ground beef by the time you are done, then you are not fucking done. My priority is Malia and Chantelle right now. Make him suffer. Am I clear?”
“It’s like Christmas,” Liam taunts, turning back to his prey and tilting his head.
“I want my baby girl in my sight in less than twenty-four hours,” I add as I turn to leave, but Lion approaches me.
“What is it, Lion?” I ask.
He shrugs, an amused smirk pulling at his lips.
“An order of mangled meat, Uncle?”
He gives me a knowing look, dropping his chin and looking at me through his dark lashes.
“No wonder Mal and I are insane.”
I bark out a laugh at that.
They know a lot about me, but not everything.
Hearing the stories of the terror I was back in the day is different from seeing it. The calm and patient man today only makes them seem like exactly that.
Stories.
29
Liam
Withhertech-wizardskills,Hazel was able to quickly locate Elio. He has been hiding with Malia in Italy at his family’s estate. I don’t know what had Martinez singing like a bird about Malia and her captor, but I can’t bring myself to question it too much, hoping he hasn’t sent us on a wild goose chase as a last hoorah.
It definitely seems like something he’d do, but it’s the only lead we’ve got.
Whether it ends up being a game in the end, we did get one thing out of this.
Rico Martinez, the man who tore my life apart with bared teeth and sharp talons, is dead. It seemed only fair to return the favor and I can’t help but relish how glorious it felt.
We’ve been on the jet for hours now.
Lion found us all clothes to change into after we showered in the air. With his cousin Nico’s help, he talked Akila into staying behind, knowing damned well this is too dangerous for her. Whether or not she can handle it isn’t the issue. The Riccis have single-handedly run the largest sex trafficking ring on the east coast—maybe even in the whole country—without a single person knowing they were behind it. They’ve held Malia in their grasp for going on five months.
Akila’s life isn’t worth risking, and I agree with Lion and his decision there.
Something shifted between Lion and me after the warehouse, and he now sits next to me, furiously typing away at his phone. He’s sitting next to me, despite having other available places to sit.
Nathaniel has isolated himself in a vacant part of the jet, talking with both Donovan and Hazel to get ahead of this Tawny situation. Caine took the second shift sleeping in the bedroom. The tension might have eased with the anticipation of being so close to getting Malia back, but I’m not playing snuggle buddies with any of these motherfuckers.
I’d pay to see Byrne and Lion in matching pajama sets as they braid each other’s hair, though. I smirk to myself and as if on cue, Lion drops his phone into his lap and looks out the window with a heavy sigh.