20. FRANKIE

As soon as I was let free from that basement, I made a decision. If my family would turn their back on someone I loved, then I had to turn my back on them.

I got back to my apartment, set my nose, and got dressed for business. I'd managed to track them down with Sutton's help a couple of miles inside of New Jersey. Apparently, my family hadn't been lying when they said they made a deal with Grant for him to leave the state. Plus, after what I revealed about Sandro, my father was more than willing to deal with his other son, the one he trusted with business.

Sutton had traced the plate of the car through road cameras from the address in Philly. I tried to go in without blazing my guns in every which way in search of answers. But old habits die hard, and I shot up the house just in time to see Grant run off with a couple of his men and Cal in the back of their van.

In an earpiece, Sutton was telling me to stay calm.

I read the license plate to him. "I want to know where it goes."

‘Aren't you following them?'

"No," I said, straightening my tie. "Cal is in the back of that van. One wrong move and the car turns over and he's dead. I'll wait until we know their next location."

‘Gotcha!'

"I'm gonna occupy myself with some of these men in here." I turned in the doorway of the house to see a man writhing in pain. I'd blown both his kneecaps. "Some of them are still alive."

‘I'll monitor the police scanner to let you know if any of the neighbors have reported the shooting. And try and divert them if possible.'

"Great. You do that."

I headed inside to the man on the floor. I rolled him over onto his back and pulled away that stupid face covering.

"Please," he sputtered, blood on his lips. "Just kill me."

I wasn't fucking Santa Claus; I didn't give people the gifts they wanted. "Where did they go?"

"Kill me."

I grabbed his face by the chin and squeezed hard. "Tell me where they went, and I'll think about ending your suffering. Don't tell me where they are, and I'll make sure you suffer longer."

He sputtered; I watched the blood get on the clean white of my shirt. "No."

I gave him a punch square on the nose. "That's a warning. I'll be back."

There were other people around that had been shot, some more fatally than others. I hadn't exactly been thinking about keeping any of them alive. I'd gone in there with the intention of killing anyone who had played a part in kidnapping Cal.

Nobody was talking. It didn't surprise me. What did surprise me was how much money Grant must have had if he was going through all this effort to get to Cal. He had houses and men on his payroll.

The house was quite bare, except for the one room upstairs which had the clothes that Cal had been wearing when he was taken from me. I collected them and took them out back to put into the bag I'd brought with me. I was stocked with guns and ammunition, as well as a couple smoke grenades that I hadn't had to use yet.

Sutton came through in my ear. ‘I think I've got them. And police were called. You've probably got five minutes before they arrive.'

That wasn't much time, but I didn't need to interrogate anyone else if Sutton had an address.

I had a car parked a couple blocks away and I'd taken my bag on foot to get here. I knew the risk of parking too close, so I had to keep my distance. Once I'd finished my sweep of the house; putting bullets through any of them who continued to fight for the lives, I had to head out.

There was no saying what they might've said to the police if they'd been found, I knew once they started to drop my name, if they lived long enough, they might not have even seen the inside of a jail cell.

The police arrived minutes after I left. I drove by in my car to see what had happened. They'd already started to tape off the area. The other location was fifteen minutes away, or ten if I put my foot down hard on the peddle.

Knowing Cal, he would've been searching for any way he could to try and gut him. I wondered if he'd used any of the training. Assess your situation, look at what you can use, and do you best to give them hell.

"You can survive this," I grumbled, tapping my fingers on the steering wheel. I glanced to the passenger seat where my supply bag was. I wished Cal had been in that seat instead.

Sutton's voice came back through the earpiece. ‘You know, I hear you sighing. Cal is going to be fine. In fact, I would put money on it.'

"I'm not gonna bet with his life," I said. "I need you to pull up the house they're in and look for any cameras in the area so that I can tell where the best spots are to get in without—"

‘Without you going in like a wrecking ball,' he said before breaking out into song and laughing. ‘I know, I know, I should be messing around. But I'm just trying to lighten the mood here.'

"It's fine," I grumbled. "I'm just—I'm worried. And if you tell anyone I said that, I'll make sure you're eating through a tube."

‘Calm down. I know I might be desperate for a man's touch, but I'm not that desperate that I'm looking a death wish in the eye.'

I had to give him that, it was funny. "Just tell me what you see about this house. Tell me if there are any neighbors near and keep an eye on the cop situation that we just left."

He scoffed. ‘You're lucky I have undiagnosed ADHD. I think. Whatever it is, it means I'm good at doing seventy different things at the same time.'

Mentally planning what I was going to do differently, I tried to visualize where to enter from. I only had the address and however Sutton described the property in mind. He went into detail, but off on tangents constantly, I wondered how he and Cal ever got any research done together. They must've been ping-ponging off each other.

I knew they would've beefed up their security protocol. It felt silly even calling it a protocol considering they would've been an underground operation if it hadn't been for my brother. He practically gave him all these resources and all so he could get a kickback of some of the profit.

"I think I see the van," I said. It was a van with a plumbing logo on the side. I drove right passed it to double check the address. It was a small house with a long walkway up the front yard. "Yeah. This is the place."

‘Ok! Now, let's remember. Make a plan before you go in. Cal's life is at stake.'

I didn't need that constant reminder in my ear. I knew what was at stake here, and I wasn't going to let whatever fear Sutton had cloud my thoughts. "Ciao for now," I said, pulling the earpiece out.

The one thing that worked last time was parking a block away and going in for a surprise ambush. That would have to work this time as well. I couldn't afford it not to work. But I didn't need that thought on the edge of my mind right now.

I assumed they had a third and fourth property to hit up if I came for them here. I couldn't let it get to that. They could leave again. I went around the back of the houses behind their fences. My suit getting snagged at all corners from the brambles. I pushed on forward.

Cal was my entire life, and what my family had told me about losing my edge cut me. I hadn't lost my edge; I'd just stopped going into places thinking I was immortal. It also made me realize just how much they pushed me into the line of danger constantly.

But I was through with them. My family could fend for themselves now.

My cellphone inside my suit pocket buzzed against my chest.

It was Sutton.

—Um. You took out the earpiece. What if I needed to tell you something important?

I was a couple of houses away from being behind the one Cal had been taken into. I dipped my head slightly below the fence and replied to Sutton. He was starting to grate on me.

—It's fine. I'm doing this the way I've always done this. Thank you for everything, but you're a distraction. I thought you got that when I said bye.

The bubbles appeared as he typed, probably a rant about being underappreciated.

It was a row of laughing emojis.

—I thought you just meant you were going in. Anyway, I wanted to tell you that I managed to find someone's Ring door camera that faces directly at their house. It looks like they're taking something from the house and putting it into the van.

That didn't make sense as I read it the first time.

And then it hit.

He'd been hiding the cocaine at all these different locations. He'd split them up so that even if one location was found, he still had enough to go back to and sell. It was going to be a shame when I—

I froze in thought. My first instinct had been to take it back to my family, but after everything they'd done to try and push me and Cal apart, I didn't even know if I wanted to do them this favor.

There was a lot that could be done with it. I could always sell it myself, and use whatever money came from it to start a life for me and Cal. Maybe pay for that beach wedding and a honeymoon somewhere hot where he didn't have to wear much.

I continued ahead, lugging my bag on my shoulder. This was probably going to be the best time to use one of the smoke bombs, or one of the expensive gas ones that knocked everyone out. But I didn't have a mask. It was a rookie mistake while packing the bag, but it would've solved my problem of getting in without being shot at.

Outside the fence of the house, I had a view from the yard into the house. Most of the curtains were closed. One window was boarded up. I wondered if that's where they would keep Cal, especially after I'd seen the metal bars on that one window in the other house.

There was a man standing at the back door, all in black with a rifle in arms.

It took everything in me not to shoot at him. If I did that, my cover would be blown, they'd know I was here, and then they'd just throw Cal into another van, and we'd start this cat and mouse chase all over again.

Watching for fifteen minutes, I noticed the man leave and then come back, or he was replaced with someone else. I didn't know how many men Grant still had working for him, but it must've been enough for him to feel comfortable, especially after I'd already killed several of them back at the other house.

Reloading my guns and making sure I had a couple of knives to throw if it came to it. I was prepared.

A flurry of gunshots pounded out inside the house, the bang and white explosion of each shot illuminated the darkness behind the curtains.

I pulled myself up from over the fence and before the man at the door could respond to either the sound inside or me running at him, I took a shot and fired it in his head. He went down. I didn't let myself think about what I was going to find inside. I just knew I needed to be in there to see it for myself.