Epilogue

Epilogue

Tomas

It was more than windy in Chicago; it was freezing.

No one would be out in this weather by choice.

Which was probably why the Bianco guards were huddled in the guardhouse, rather than doing regular rounds. They were relying on the dogs to let them know if there was someone who didn't belong on the grounds.

Starving the guard dogs made them mean, but it also made them easier to bribe.

The Biancos weren't expecting trouble; that much was clear.

I made it across the grounds and to the house with no difficulty while the hungry dogs chowed down on fresh meat. I could see the lights from the guardhouse at the front of the drive, as if they expected the only intruders to come in from the road rather than the back of the house.

Then again, in this bitter cold, the assumption was probably that only a mad person would take such a long route to the house.

A mad person or one who had been given a specific mission.

I let myself into the house by the back door, keeping careful watch for any guards.

None appeared, as expected.

Shaking my head at the arrogance, I carefully closed the door behind me, keeping the sound to a minimum. I ghosted through the rooms. I already had the floor plan memorized, so it was no great difficulty.

There was some noise from the kitchen—the guards inside the house had gathered there for a late-night snack and a game of cards the same way they'd done for the last three nights.

Pathetic.

I let them be. No point in possibly alerting anyone else in the house to my presence.

Moving up the stairs to the second floor, there was no one to be seen in the darkness.

Easy pickings.

I could do anything I wanted.

But Hailey and Jack had been specific in my mission.

Don Bianco. As quickly and quietly as possible. Don't be seen. Don't harm any innocents.

The idea there were innocents in this house made me snort. I had kept an eye out to ensure no one had been brought in during the past few days. There were no children, I'd learned that very quickly, and no one other than the Bianco men had gone in or out. They didn't even have any women going in and out of the house.

Maybe Don Bianco was too old to want one.

Or too worried about his missing heir, though I didn't know if Don Bianco knew Leonardo was ‘missing' yet. I'd left New York City before his body had even been dumped in the Hudson, and Leonardo had claimed he only sent his grandfather a letter once a week to update him.

It was very likely Don Bianco didn't know yet.

Down the hallway I went, counting the doors. Don Bianco's was the third on the left.

There was utter silence from the other rooms. Even with the doors closed, I could tell there was no one behind them.

The third door on the left was the exception. I could practically feel Don Bianco's presence before I reached it, like a dark cloud hovering outside it. I paused outside it, one hand on the knob, listening.

I could hear his snoring through the door.

Shaking my head, I carefully tested the knob.

Unlocked.

More arrogance. I shouldn't have been surprised. His heir had practically oozed with it before he'd broken. Too bad I couldn't take the time to break Don Bianco, but Jack had been specific.

He'd prefer not to be tied to the fall of the Bianco Familias.

There would likely be suspicion, but no proof.

I opened the door silently, squeezing my bulk through the smallest opening I could manage.

Not that I needed to worry. The cadence of Don Bianco's snores didn't falter.

I closed the door behind me.

My eyes were already adjusted to the dark, and his room was actually lighter than the hallway had been, as moonlight filtered in through the windows. It was easy to see the huge bed on the other end of the room, the four posts reaching up to the ceiling, sheets rumpled in the middle of it.

I moved forward, slicing through the darkness as I pulled the gun out of its holster.

Don Bianco lay in the middle of the bed, still snoring. In the pale moonlight, he already looked like a corpse. Now, it was my job to make him one for real.

Picking up one of the spare pillows, I put it over his face with my left hand, cutting off the snoring as I pointed the gun down at the pillow. He was just starting to move, hands lifting, a muffled noise of shock, when I pulled the trigger. The hands dropped, his body going slack.

Job done.

I turned around, ready to make my way back out the door, when movement out of the corner of my eye caught my attention.

Immediately, I whirled, gun out in front of me.

For a moment, I couldn't comprehend what I was seeing.

A cage, a big one, on the other side of the room.

A pile of rags lifting up…

No, not rags, a woman.

Dingy blonde hair hung around her face as she clutched a dirty sheet to her chest. Her shoulders were bare.

She blinked in the darkness, staring at me, her mouth open as she focused on the gun, then looked up at my face.

"Please," she whispered. "Kill me."

The End

Thomas and Ivy will return in Daddy's Problem, dive into the series with Jack and Hailey in Daddy's Mad Love