CHAPTER SEVEN

CONNOR

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“I thought we were getting rid of the headquarters.” Mack asked, flopping down on the sofa and kicking his feet up on the table.

Then he cracks open a can of soda and begins to chug it down.

“Can’t. It’s my mancave now,” I tell Mack, cracking open mine and doing the same.

I love Mia with every breath I take, but my two hundred-million-dollar penthouse in Manhattan now has pink cushions, and it’s a threat to my masculinity.

Even if it’s just one cushion.

Which, she says, adds life to the room.

I can add life if that’s what she wants. I’ll impregnant her sweet, sexy ass in a second. But she’s still recovering from being shot at our wedding, and I’m still trying not to go on a one-man mission to destroy every single crime family left standing in the United States.

Think Rambo.

They are, after all, responsible for nearly killing my wife, and successfully killing my entire family.

In front of me.

Although my father hid me away and no one knew I was there. Which is why I’m sitting in my mancave, or the Dark Kings headquarters, with my fellow Marines who joined me in their own quests for revenge.

Which we have now done.

We destroyed the man who killed my family. Decker and Nathan spent six long years undercover in both the Italian mafia and Mexican cartel respectfully. And Mack has been reunited with Summer, who’d been controlled by a mafia don keeping them separate all their lives.

Then Braxton, our newest addition, saved his cousin from the Baldassare human trafficking ring...and fell in love with the mafia princess.

Who am I to judge—I did the same thing.

Mack tosses his empty can and it lands smack in the middle of the trash can, and smirks.

The angle isn’t right from where I’m sitting. No fucking way I’m going to attempt it. He’ll ride my ass for a week if I miss.

“You have over four thousand feet in your penthouse.” Mack pulls out his phone, checking a message and then dropping it on the cushion next to him.

“It’s all pink.” I grumble and he snorts out a laugh.

“It’s not fucking pink. I was there two nights ago.” Mack laughs.

Feels like it is.

I bet we’ll have a girl when we finally decide to get pregnant. Twins. Probably triplets. All girls.

More pink.

My lips twitch. I imagine three little Mias running around. My heart would fucking burst with that much love.

I’d also triple their personal security.

“So, are we all meeting at city hall this Friday for the nuptials?” Mack asks, standing and pulling another can of soda from the fridge.

Braxton and Gianna are tying the knot.

I told him he was smart, doing it quick and fast. Not to keep his girl—she’s clearly madly in love with him—but any wedding to a member of a mafia has risk.

No one has seen or heard from her brother since we busted the Baldassare trafficking ring with the FBI over a week ago now.

His father is dead, making Dante the new head of the family. If he learned the man who betrayed him was marrying his sister, I have no doubt there would be trouble.

“Yeah, two in the afternoon.” I spin the chair and lean my arm on the desk.

“I’ll have the team clear the area the day before, then again in the morning.”

I nod.

No one except the Dark Kings and our girls know that they are getting married. But Gianna could have told someone. She’s the greatest risk.

I trust Braxton, but I don’t trust her.

Unlike Mia, who was seeking a way out, Gianna doesn’t seem to have had a desire for a crime-free life. As far as I can see, anyway.

She just fell in love with our boy, Brax.

Of course, all the girls have taken to her. Mia knew her growing up, so the two of them are bonding. That makes me happy. She lost a lot of people—hell, her entire family—on our wedding day. So anyone that makes her happy makes me happy.

But it’s my job to stay vigilant and protect her, so if I sense something is going wrong and have to be the big bad fucking wolf, then I will.

That we can’t find Dante Baldassare is rattling me, I’ll admit.

I mean, his father gets shot in front of him, his sister is gone—as far as he knows—and the FBI is after him.

Yet he remains hidden.

Braxton walks through the door and strides over to the fridge.

“What’s up?” he asks.

“Shouldn’t you be trying on suits or doing wedding shit?” Mack asks him.

Braxton turns, cracks open a soda, and downs it.

Even though the air conditioning is working its ass off, it’s not making up for the heat outside. Our New York summer has been humid and hot.

“It’s city hall, not a destination wedding.” Braxton burps, excuses himself, then does it again.

Mack chuckles.

“Anyway, Gianna is out with the girls choosing dresses, and I’ve got a suit. She’s doing all the rest. It’s keeping her distracted.”

Mack and I nod.

We know what he means. I might not trust her, but I know what it’s like to lose a parent. She’s grieving Frank Baldassare. He might have been a cruel gangster, but he was her dad.

“She wants to ring her mom.” He shakes his head and leans against the kitchen bench. “Wants her at the wedding. I fucking hate this for her.”

“You’ll hate it more if you have to go to her funeral and not your wedding on Friday,” Mack says. “I grew up with the mafia, trust me.”

Braxton nods and pushes away from the bench, moving to one of the armchairs.

The furniture in the Dark Kings headquarters is expensive as fuck but looks like a typical guy’s garage. Rugged and somewhere you can put your feet up. We have a pool table and a room next door where all the vehicles are parked.

And of course, there’re a few locked cupboards with weapons and shit.

“Yeah, well, I could also be hearing that she’s being married off to fucking Leo Baldoni.” Braxton growls, leaning forward on his knees. “You think that’s where Dante is?”

“Fuck no.” Mack shakes his head emphatically.

We both stare at him in question.

“Carlos Baldoni will look to move in on the Baldassare territories now Frank is hanging out with his buddies in the south.” Mack clarifies by slicing a finger over his throat.

Right.

In hell with all the other gangsters.

I want to snicker, but it’s probably not appropriate. After all, the guy is Braxton’s deceased father-in-law.

“I dunno, it sounds like the Baldassare’s and Baldoni’s are close—as far as crime families go. Where the hell else could he be hiding for this long?” Braxton asks.

I kick my feet up on my desk and lean back in my chair.

It’s a good question.

And the crazy thing is, he doesn’t need to be in hiding.

“It’s not like the feds are looking for him. Surely he’s worked that out by now.”

They couldn’t get a search warrant for Dante Baldassare. The evidence Braxton gathered only incriminated his father and the warehouse which was busted.

Agent Scott, a friend of mine, pushed hard, but the judge told him to go away and come back when we had something more.

Which we don’t have.

Braxton only spent a few days undercover compared to the six years Decker and Nathan did. But it still takes a toll on the human psyche, and it was an enormous risk to his life.

I know he’s disappointed.

Especially after what he saw.

“At least I got Amy out,” he says, referring to his cousin who’d been taken from the streets and was days away from being shipped out of the United States into sex slavery.

“Yeah. Fuck. Poor girl.” Mack shakes his head. “You did good, Brax. Remember that.”

“Yeah, but Dante is still a free man.”

I study Braxton as he stares at the floor. There’s a question I want answering. One I don’t think anyone has.

But I ask it anyway.

“Why didn’t he shoot you?”

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brAXTON

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Why didn’t he shoot me?

Good fucking question.

That moment has played out in my head a million times in the past week and a half.

When I asked Gianna, she was no fucking help.

“My family isn’t all murderers!” she snapped.

Well, yes, they are. But she’s grieving for her father and desperately wants her mother, so I zip my lips. Now isn’t the time to be talking bad about them, and I need to respect that.

We need to find him.

We need him behind bars.

He doesn’t know who I am, but he’ll soon find out. I betrayed his family and caused the death of his father. He isn’t going to forgive me for that. As the new don of the Baldassare crime family, he’ll want me dead.

But when he learns I’ve married his sister, he won’t be able to kill me—technically—and he’ll be even more furious.

There will be no hiding from them unless I ask Gianna to never see her family again.

I haven’t decided.

So yeah, that’s keeping me awake.

But I don’t know why he didn’t kill me.