24. Julian

"We"re two minutes away, get a drone in the air and have a cleanup crew on standby." Edward speaks into his phone to men, soldiers of the Marzano Crime Family, whom he commands effortlessly. The drive down to a warehouse that"s not far from the marina irritates me, but how were we supposed to know?

Bonnie"s watch has a GPS locator tag in it for emergencies just like this. The first thing abductors do is take cell phones to destroy them. Her protocol is to give the watch to Claire. While I hope they"re still together, at least I know the beacon we"re following is leading to Claire.

The instant we pull down a wide street without a name, I can tell we"re approaching a strip for trucks to load and unload into a string of warehouses. A car with its driver side door wide open, has someone standing a few feet beside it.

I can make out a lump on the floor, someone sitting on the ground and two people standing close to the loading bay. It"s only when we get closer that the car"s headlights reveal a disturbing scene.

Edward hops out of the car first, insisting I hang back, but I can"t, not with what I see.

"Mother, what are you doing here?" I ask her, my eyes shifting toward Claire and Bonnie, whose leg is bent in a weird angle as the gruesomeness of her injury splays across her pain ridden face.

Bonnie"s gun is trained on my mother, but it"s only when I step closer that I see the gun in Bianca"s hand.

"I came to help you," Bianca blurts out.

"Claire? Are you okay?" I ask as Edward takes cautious steps toward her the man lying on the floor with a bullet in his leg.

"I"m okay. A little banged up," Claire replies. "There"s two more inside."

"You and Danny get in the car," I tell her but the sound of my mother"s gun racking a bullet into the chamber causes everyone to stop moving.

"I came here to help you, Julian. This has got to end." Bianca"s words are cold as she lifts the gun and points it at Claire. "It"s time."

"Time for what?" I ask her, angling my body in a way that Bianca can"t see me signal to Claire and Danny to make their way to Edward. The closer I get to the car, the more things click into place. I see the huge duffle bag of money in the passenger seat. "Why do you have the ransom money, Bianca?"

The hurt in her eyes as she snaps her face toward me shifts into anger. "You dare call me by that name? I am your mother. I have sacrificed so much for you and all you want to do is throw it away for some adolescent who probably doesn"t know the difference between a bill and an invoice. It was bad enough you hired her, but now? I saw it the night of the party. You"re just like your father and she"s going to poison you against me."

I step between her and Claire, putting myself in the path of the gun. "Edward, get the girls out of here and take that guy to one of Armande"s meat lockers."

Edward sighs. The pause before his words tell me he"s ready to protest, but he doesn"t. "Whatever you say, Julian."

Claire, on the other hand, isn"t being as compliant. "What the hell is she talking about?"

"She thinks I"m going to—" I pause because I truthfully don"t know either, turning to my mother. "Wait, how am I like Charleston? I"m not married. I"m not cheating on my wife. Claire"s not some mistress to poison me against you. She"s the love of my life."

Bianca shoots a round into the air. "Say it again and I"ll put a bullet through that thick skull of yours. I love you, but you can be so stupid. You"re ruining everything. Claire cannot leave here alive. Charleston had one fucking job. Make sure the bitch goes out with the trash. You would have gotten your money back over the course of the race through the campaign contributions."

"This is not about the money," I tell her. "This is about you and Charleston always trying to manipulate me. What makes you think that killing Claire, taking one of the few people who bring me joy—What made you think killing her was going to benefit either of you?"

Kill Charleston.

I take a step closer to Bianca, ensuring she puts all of her attention on me because I believe in my heart that she won"t shoot me. If she went through all this to protect me, she"s not going to kill me now. Or maybe she will? She"s going to protect me from myself.

"I have the perfect woman for you, Julian." Her words come out quickly, erratic and make me worry about her descent into madness. "Everything would have worked out perfectly. She"s beautiful, you"ve already been working together, and she can be paid."

One more step brings her focus to me and only me, forcing her to aim her gun square into the center of my chest.

"Was this your plan, Mother? You"re going to shoot your only son because he loves a woman who isn"t you?"

She sobs uncontrollably. "You always picked someone else. Just like Charleston. You always picked someone else. He owed me and so do you. You owe me this."

I hold my hand out. Men like my father are the reason this is happening. Men like my father drive women like my mother to madness.

"I never picked anyone over you, Mother. You left Charleston, and I paid for that week after week, broken bone after broken bone. He would have killed us both back then. He nearly killed me. Give me the gun. I"m not choosing anyone over you. I"m choosing you."

I can see her resolve wavering as she lowers her gun, but in an instant, changes her mind. Bianca raises the gun. The thud of a bullet hitting her in the shoulder from off to my right has me whirling to see where it's come from. The zip of it silently knocks her back, forcing the gun to fall from her hand while sparing her life, is the sign of a phenomenal marksman.

Her screams of pain breakdown into sobs as she sinks to the ground, leaving a trail of blood from her wound down the side of her car.