Chapter 11

CHAPTER 11

GIANNI

"It's party time," I said under my breath.

Damon glanced at me like I lost my mind.

I grinned back. We both knew he enjoyed this shit as much as I did.

He shook his head and pushed past us all to the front of the house. He teased open the space between two curtains and peeked outside.

"Fuck," he said softly. "There's four cars out there. All facing the front of this place. They're not making any effort to hide. They want us to know they're there."

"I'm going to kill my mother." Angelina marched to another window and yanked open the curtains. She glared outside before unlocking and sliding the window open. "Fuck off, Carlos!" she shouted. "We don't want any of what you're selling."

Carlos stepped out of the vehicle and onto the front lawn. He held his hands behind his back like they might just have a pleasant conversation.

"I'm not leaving without you, hermana," he called back. "I won't touch Enzo if you just get your ass out here."

"Bullshit, hermano ," she spat. "The moment I'm inside that car, he's dead."

Damon pulled out his phone and started to tap on the screen, giving orders for our people to get themselves here for backup. As awesome as we were, we were boxed in here.

"I'll check the back," Mina said. She slipped away down the corridor to the back of the house, moving silently. If I couldn't see her silhouette in the light from the bedroom, I wouldn't have known she was there. She was beyond incredible. My heart swelled with love for my gorgeous little assassin.

She returned a couple of minutes later. "There's people waiting for us to sneak out that way. At least another eight of them."

"Nothing we can't take care of," I said. "Right, boss?" I glanced over to Reuben.

He seemed to be weighing up his options. I had a feeling fighting our way out was at the very bottom.

"Boss?" I pressed.

"If they want her that badly…" he said slowly.

"I won't let you hand her over." Enzo's hands were in fists, ready to take a swing.

"Don't do anything you'll regret," Damon warned. "We're on your side. No one wants to give Angelina to Carlos." He turned his face toward Reuben, wanting agreement.

Reuben didn't agree, but he didn't disagree either. Top of his agenda was us getting out of here alive. Whether or not that included Enzo and Angelina was less important to him.

"We're going out the back." Enzo grabbed Angelina's hand and started to lead her that way.

"Last chance, Angelina," Carlos called out. "Otherwise, I might be forced to do something drastic." He gestured to the car behind his.

The door opened and one of his men pulled Bianca out onto the street.

Angelina stopped and stared in horror and disbelief. "You'd kill my mother?" she called out the window.

Carlos shrugged. "She's not my mother."

"She raised you," Angelina hissed. Her eyes shone with tears. "You're the devil himself."

Carlos raised a gun to Bianca's temple. "I'll count to ten. One."

"Angelina…" Enzo said softly.

"Two."

Angelina shook her head. "She's my mother."

"Three."

"I can't let you go," he pleaded.

"Four."

"I can't let him kill her." She wiped tears from her cheeks.

"Five."

"But I love you." He pulled her to him and held her tight.

"Six."

"I love you too." She squeezed him, but pulled away. "But she's my mother."

"Seven."

Angelina stepped over to the door, unlocked it and wrenched it open. "Stop!"

A shadow slipped past me. Past Angelina.

Mina pulled out a knife and aimed it. She threw with deadly precision, the knife slamming into the gun in Carlos' hand. It flew out of his grip and clattered onto the road.

Bianca dropped to the ground and rolled under one of the cars.

"Fucking hell." Carlos rubbed his hand.

"The next one goes into your brain," Mina said coldly. She already held another knife in her hand. I hadn't even seen her pull it out.

"This is none of your business," Carlos said, trying to pretend he wasn't rattled.

She could have killed him, but she hadn't. She was smart enough to know that would provoke a war between the Brantley family and the Vipers. That would get ugly and bloody very quickly.

Although, getting in the middle of a transaction like this also might. In my opinion, it was totally worth it. I was with Mina, women were not possessions.

"I'm making it my business," Mina said. "Enzo is family. That makes Angelina family. We take care of family. Tell Salvador to look elsewhere for a wife."

"There's a shit ton of dating apps out there," I said helpfully. "Or he could try one of those dating shows. Maybe— Asshole Wants a Wife. I'm sure that's a thing. If it isn't, it should be. The ratings would go through the roof."

"We aren't done," Carlos said, his tone icy. He nodded to his men and climbed back into the car.

Bianca rolled out from under the one she was hiding under, and bolted for the door.

Angelina grabbed her hand and pulled her inside. They both stepped back, growling at each other in Spanish. Something along the lines of, "How the fuck could you let him bring you here? You knew what he'd do. He's an ungrateful piece of crap." And so on.

We all waited until the cars pulled away before closing the door and collectively exhaling.

Enzo shoved his hands in his pockets and shuffled his feet. "Thank you," he said to Mina. "Those are some sick knife skills."

"I don't like bullies." She slipped her other knife away. "If I was you, I'd take his warning seriously. He will come for you again."

"They will," Damon said, stony faced. "The only reason he left now was that he doesn't want trouble with us. If we weren't here, this would have ended differently."

"We would have handled it," Enzo said. His voice held more confidence than his eyes did.

"Let's go," Reuben said. "We've wasted enough time here." He didn't bother to hide his irritation at Enzo and his continued stubbornness. He waited until Damon opened the door and stepped out again, before he followed him, leaving the rest of us to fall in behind.

"It's going to be a tight fit," I remarked as seven of us headed out to the SUV. "Mina, you can sit on my lap."

She leaned over to snatch up her knife from the road and tuck it away. "Better than being in the boot."

I caught her hand and pulled her to me. "First of all, we'd never put you in the boot. Second of all, the way you dealt with Carlos was hot as fuck." I whispered in her ear, "When we get home I'm going to fuck your pussy with my tongue until you scream."

"Is that a promise?" she asked. Her voice was husky, like throwing a knife at Carlos turned her on as much as it did me.

Death and violence were an addiction neither of us needed, or wanted, help for.

Lucky for us we had the jobs we did, or we'd get our rush by doing things which were more illegal than the things we already did.

"You can bet your cute little ass it is," I said. I cupped her ass cheeks and squeezed, while pulling her closer still. "I can't wait to have the taste of you on my tongue."

I pressed my quickly growing erection against her leg. I wanted to push her up against the SUV and fuck her, here and now.

I kissed her mouth, thrusting my tongue between her lips as though it was my cock pounding into her pussy. Her mouth was warm, her plush lips tasting faintly of coffee and something sweet that was uniquely Mina.

"Get a room," Enzo called out.

My hands still on Mina's ass, I flipped him off with two fingers. "You can talk. We've all seen your cock, remember?" The guy had absolutely no shame. Not unlike me. Life was too short to care about shit like that.

"Only because you broke in for a look." Enzo grinned.

Damon shook his head at all of us and raised the seats in the third row of the SUV. He gestured for Enzo and Angelina to sit back there. "Don't fuck in the back of my SUV."

"That hadn't occurred to me until you suggested it." Enzo grabbed Angelina's hand and pulled her into the back of the vehicle.

"We'll make a stop at the Vipers’ headquarters to leave you there if you do," Reuben said.

That was both a threat, and a promise. I suspected he wouldn't lose much sleep over it.

On the other hand, Mina was right. Damon's brother was family and we took care of each other. Reuben would tolerate Damon's brother, even if he, and Angelina, pushed him too far.

"Don't you fucking dare," Angelina hissed.

Apparently Reuben didn’t intimidate her. Or maybe she knew Mina would never let him do that. Women's intuition and all that.

"Have some respect for the boss," Damon told her. "What happens to you now is up to him."

She gave him a look that suggested she didn't agree, but she flopped back against the seat and fell silent.

I followed Mina into the car, where she settled between me and Bianca.

Bianca looked weary and more than a little pissed off.

"I thought I raised Carlos better than that. He really would have shot me." She rubbed her temple where he'd had the barrel of the gun pressed.

I got the impression she might shoot him the next chance she got. That was her prerogative. If Vipers wanted to kill Vipers, that was up to them. As long as they left us out of it.

"I wouldn't have let that happen to you." Angelina leaned forward over the seat in front of her, and kissed her mother's cheek. "Even if I had to marry Salvador. But now, thanks to Mina, I can marry Enzo."

Bianca groaned. "Can't you find yourself a nice boy?"

"I'm nice," Enzo said. "You just need to get to know me."

She looked as though that was the last thing on Earth she wanted. He was better than Salvador, whoever he was, but apparently not by much.

I had a sneaking suspicion she’d have to get used to him. He wasn't going anywhere if Angelina had anything to say about it.

I caught Mina's eye and grinned. The three of them made our lives look easy and peaceful. For a while, they'd taken my mind off Kurt Lasalle. Now, I wondered if he had a hand in all of this somehow. Like he'd set this up to distract us. I wasn't sure how, but if he had, it worked.

"You think Kurt paid Martina to do all of this, don't you?" Mina asked softly. "The fact she was pissed off with Enzo was an added bonus."

"The thought crossed my mind," I admitted. "If I had to bet, I'd say if we went back to her house, she'd be long gone by now."

"Without doubt," she agreed. She looked tired too. But something else. Satisfaction at keeping Angelina away from her brother and a life she didn't want. She seemed to have made it her mission to save women from a dark fate, even if she had to do it one woman at a time.

"I'll send the twins to check anyway," Damon said. "She might have left some sign behind."

We all knew that was unlikely. People like her knew how to disappear without a trace. At this point, she didn't matter all that much. What mattered was, what was Kurt up to while we were looking in a different direction?