The guys have all come down for our meeting. If we end this, we do it together. Killing Romano has been on the forefront of my mind for ten years. Yet, I can’t concentrate on anything else except this gaping hole in my chest, which only fuels my hatred further.
“You okay, boss?” Jax asks, handing me a coffee.
“Fine. You?”
The dark circles under his eyes, the messy hair and outright misery that seeps off of him tells me he’s not.
“I’m fucking lost.”
I wrap an arm around his shoulders, pulling him against my side.
“I can’t take away your pain. All I can tell you to do is use it. Every ounce of it for Kai, we will destroy them all. Do you hear me? I fucking promise you. Don’t let this kill you; we need you, Jax.”
He sucks in a breath. “I can do that.”
“Make that your focus. We’ve got your back. You are our family now.” I pat his back.
The rest of the crew walks over, taking their seats at the dining table.
“Frankie, you ready?” Luca asks, pulling out a chair at the end for me.
“The meeting starts when Zara arrives.”
My heart stops as I see her pad down the stairs in a pair of ripped black jeans and a tight cami top that hugs her curves perfectly. Her eyes meet mine and she gives me a devious smile.
“I’m here!” she says, taking my seat at the head of the table.
With each tap of her nail, her intense gaze never wavers from me.
Grayson wears a wide grin, clearly entertained by Zara.
I rest my hands on the back of her chair, the scent of her perfume lingering in the air, and lean down, brushing my lips against the delicate contour of her ear.
“You’re sitting in my seat, baby,” I whisper.
She turns her head to face me, the first time I’ve seen any light in her eyes since we lost the baby.
“Fine, I’ll sit on your lap.”
I bite on the inside of my mouth. As distracting as that may be, I need her with me. She slips out of the way and I take her place, sitting back so she can perch on my thighs. Wrapping my arm around her stomach, I pull her against me so her ass is rubbing on my dick.
“Well, who has a plan? Because I’ve spent ten years hunting this fucker.”
Zara clears her throat. “I do.”
Pride fills my chest. Of course my girl has a plan.
“Let’s hear it.” I nod to her.
“Well, I was thinking, what if we use Mikhail to proposition Romano using the girls we saved? Obviously, we would never give them back.”
I scratch my beard, taking in her suggestion.
“We can do that,” Grayson says.
“He has an inside track with George. He will still be getting money. We have to stop all other routes for him…”
I trail off.
“My dad is the answer,” Zara says calmly. All the guys at the table look at her.
Romano always thinks he can outsmart anyone. I need to get ahead of him and cover all bases to end this.
“And I know just the man who can give us that information.” I look to Jax and Grayson.
“Alex. Once we get to George, we use him to cut Romano off completely. That way, he will jump at Mikhail’s offer. He’s in this life for one thing only; money. Are we all in agreement?” I look at each of them around the table.
“Yes,” Grayson replies.
“I’m fucking in,” Jax says, slamming back a scotch.
I narrow my eyes to Grayson. He has to get a handle on Jax.
“Luca?” I ask.
“I’m in. For Keller, Mom and Rosa.” He deserves his revenge just as much as I do. I want him by my side for this.
“Good. Any improvements with Keller?” I know Luca has spent nearly every free moment at the hospital.
“They’re going to try to wake him up from his induced coma tomorrow. We won’t know more until that.” He stretches back and runs his fingers through his hair.
“So, after we finish this, your break is over?” He looks like the time away was good for him.
“It’s looking that way.” He bites back a grin.
Zara turns in my lap, and her warm hands frame my face, demanding my attention. “You deserve your revenge.”
I suck in a breath.
“We,” I answer. This is no longer just about me. “We will never be able to get back what we’ve lost. But we will burn the fucking world down to get ours, dolcezza. That, I promise you.”
Fire starts to emerge in her eyes, and a smile creeps up on her lips; the first one I’ve seen in days.
I’ve missed it.
“Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s make them pay. I want to watch them begging for their lives. I want them to feel even just an ounce of our pain.”
My chest fills with pride. This woman is truly everything.
“Fuck, I love you,” I mumble against her mouth.
The sound of Luca’s cough to my right forces me to reluctantly break away from Zara.
“Won’t taking out the commissioner of the NYPD raise questions?” he asks.
“Not if we clean it up good enough. Me and Enzo can work on that. They’ll replace him in no time, especially if information was to be leaked on my dad. They’ll cover up that he ever existed,” Zara replies as she wriggles in my lap.
“Now this I’d like to see,” I say, tightening my hold around her.
I tap her ass, and she stands.
“Well, are you guys coming?” she asks.
“Come on, she might be able to teach you a thing or two.” I step behind her, wrapping my arms around her.
“You’ve got this baby,” I whisper in her ear.
“With you by my side, Frankie. I’ve got everything.”
“Rise and shine.” Grayson bangs against the door, and Alex sits up on his single mattress in the corner.
His eyes fill with fear as we approach.
“Z-Zara?” he croaks out.
“Get up, Alex. Take a seat.” She gestures to the metal chair and Luca pulls another one across the room.
Alex scrambles out of bed, his face swollen and purple. Jax obviously took some of his anger out on Alex’s face.
He sits down, and Zara rests her hands on the back of her chair as Luca ties up Alex.
“You don’t look too good, Alex.”
“No thanks to your family.” He spits out the last word.
I keep my feet rooted in the ground, with Luca, Jax, and Grayson by my side. This is her time to shine.
Alex’s eyes flick to me.
I return his glance with a furious stare.
“Don’t look at me, Alex. Zara is talking to you,” I say, crossing my arms over my chest. I’m too busy watching my woman pick up a knife from the tray Jax bought in.
“I need you to do something for me, Alex.” She holds the blade up to the light. “Wow, this is clean.”
Alex pales, and Grayson shoots me an impressed look. I keep my eyes zeroed in on Zara. Fuck, I’m proud of her.
“I suppose this would feel similar to the glass that sliced into my flesh, don’t you think?”
Shivers run down my spine at her words, leaving a cold ache in my chest.
“Zara, what the fuck has gotten into you?” Alex splutters.
“Nothing. This is who I am. Do you want to know what happened to the last guy who hurt me?”
“What?”
“I ran him over, killed him.” She pauses, tapping the knife on her palm as she smiles sweetly at him.
“You’re all fucking crazy,” Alex hisses.
“No, we aren’t. We are just sick to death of being betrayed, and of people taking things from us. Things no one can ever replace.”
She steps towards him and his fists clench. As I go to move forward, she presses the knife against his throat.
“You have a choice though, Alex. Make the right one, you can live a happy life. The wrong one and we will send you and your family to your graves. I know how much you love your dad. It would be a shame if he paid the price.”
Sweat beads on Alex’s forehead as he looks up at my girl.
“What do you want from me?” His eyes plead with her.
“I need you to tell me where I can find my father.”
“How the hell would I know? I’ve been in here for days. He could be anywhere!” He wipes his hands on his thighs, leaving a damp trail.
“Use your fucking brain. You’re telling me you don’t know about his other properties, his meeting spots? Hmm?” She pushes the knife in further, this time enough to release blood down the blade.
“Zara! Okay, okay. Give me a second!”
She releases the pressure, wiping the blade on her jeans.
“He had an apartment not far from our office. I met him there once to drop off some keys?”
Zara looks over her shoulder to me.
“What do we think about that one?”
“I can have Enzo check it out.” I shrug.
She turns back to Alex, who’s now the same complexion as the gray flooring.
“Actually, I have a better idea. What if you just called him? Maybe you can tell him how he needs to hide from me, because I am after blood for him killing my baby. We will give you the location to tell him,” she says, with no emotion in her voice.
I know deep down that hurt her worse than any wound ever could.
“W-what?” Alex says.
Zara’s gaze unfocuses to some place on the wall in front of her.
“Dolcezza, concentrate.”
She takes a deep breath and returns her attention to the bruised and beaten man in front of her. “Yes, Alex, that’s what happened, and that’s exactly what you’ll tell him. He knows what I am. He will believe you and he will run there.”
“I’m sorry, Zara. Truly. You don’t deserve this. I can do it.”
“Maybe you should have thought about that before you decided to help the men who did this to me.” A flush of red works its way up her throat as the pitch in her voice raises.
He leans away from the knife point she brandishes inches from his nose. “I didn’t have a choice.”
I step forward, place a hand on Zara’s shoulder and squeeze.
Her body is tense beneath my touch. “That’s bullshit, and we both know it.”
Grayson hands me Alex’s phone.
“What’s his number stored under?” I scroll through his contacts list.
“Dad New.”
Zara laughs. “Of course it is.”
George’s croaky voice fills the air, causing my fist to tighten.
“It’s about fucking time, Alex. Tell me you’re okay?”
Alex coughs, looking up at Zara, who presses the knife against his skin to remind him.
“Yep, look. You need to get somewhere safe, George. Zara’s on a rampage. She was in the explosion, and she lost her baby. She’s out for blood, yours specifically. Do you have somewhere to go?”
“H-how do you know that?” George stutters.
“She came to me looking for you. I’m lucky I only ended up with a black eye. She’s crazy.” Alex swallows hard and looks up at Zara.
“I know. Shit. Okay. Where?” The stress oozes out of the speakers of the cell.
“I’ll send you the location. It’s not safe over the phone.”
Clever. Maybe he isn’t as useless as I first thought.
“Well, hurry the fuck up. I’ve got Romano breathing down my neck, asking questions. Do you know if Frankie survived?” George sounds almost frantic.
“I-I don’t have a clue, sir. She seemed really upset, so I don’t know.”
“Text it over now. I need to leave.” George cuts the call.
Alex’s eyes widen as he leans back, and she follows his throat with her blade. “I did what you asked!”
Her hand quivers and she chews on her lower lip.
I cup her elbow and bend to whisper in her ear. “Take a few steps back, baby.”
With a slow nod, her knife slips from her grasp, making a loud clatter as it hits the floor. She then steps back in line with my guys.
We can’t move on until every single one of them involved is dead. Alex is no exception.
His part in our devastation weighs just as heavily as the rest. He had his chances for redemption. Now it’s too late.
Alex’s eyes plead with me, but it’s pointless.
I feel nothing.
I unholster my gun and pull the trigger.
Zara’s eyes dart back and forth between me and Alex’s lifeless form.
“You did a good job there,” Grayson says to Zara, squeezing her on the shoulder.
“Thank you.” She returns with a smile.
I toss Grayson the phone.
“Send the location to George. Get Mikhail on the line and be ready to move as soon as we tell him.”
“Will do, boss.”
“Jax, Luca, go with G. I’ll be up in a minute.”
Once Grayson is out of sight, I grab her and hold her close.
“I’m so fucking proud of you, angel.”
I can feel her tears soaking through my shirt. I withdraw and brush them away with my thumb. “They’re going to pay for this, Zara. We are going to win this.”
“It still doesn’t bring our baby back, though, does it?” She sniffles.
I sigh. “No, Zara. I’m sorry.”
“Maybe when I watch them all die, I’ll feel better.” She hiccups as she laughs.
I can’t help but chuckle with her.
“Yeah, I agree.” I press a kiss to the tip of her nose. “Together, we can get through this.”
“I hope so.” She sniffles.
“I know so.”
We have a lot to do to pull this off.
