Chapter 185 185

Chapter 185 185
I laugh. “Well, then. I think it’s time for you to do the polite thing and deliver your present.” I make a hand gesture to the rest of the men outside, warning them to hold back for a moment.

Dom pulls the pin from the grenade and chucks it into the open warehouse door. We duck down, hands over our ears. The explosion nearly knocks me on my ass. Heat floods out of the warehouse, and from inside, there is a cacophony of screams and groans.

“Go!” I yell.

We flood into the building while its occupants are still reeling from the explosion. Gunshots crack through the air as we take out one after another, after another. A couple of my men fall down and don’t get back up again, and that only makes me more savage in the delivery of my justice.

“Come with me,” I say to Dom. “We’re going to find Lynch.” To Antonio, I yell, “Cover us!”

Dom and I slip through the carnage, down a row of crates, and then finally to the set of offices at the end of the warehouse. It’s quieter back here, but I don’t let that fool me. If Lynch is back here, he’s protected.

Dom tries the first door, but it’s locked. He launches his stocky form against it until the lock breaks, and the door swings open. A shot rings out from inside, and Dom crumples in the doorway, hissing in pain, before angling his gun and shooting at the person inside.

I press my back to the wall next to the frame and grab Dom’s arm, tugging him out of danger.

“There’s two in there,” he murmurs, squeezing his eyes shut in pain. They shot him in the leg. “I think one’s Lynch.”

My heart picks up. This could be it.

“Can you get up?” I ask quickly, knowing that any second now, one of the assailants will come out to finish the job.

Dom shakes his head. “I’ll shuffle into the door and cover you though.”

“You’ll be a sitting duck,” I argue.

He takes a breath, nostrils flaring. His mud-brown eyes meet mine. “Better me than you.” He starts to drag himself into the doorway before I can say anything else, and I know I have to act quick, or my capo will be dead.

I dart into the room just as one of the men inside takes a shot at Dom. He roars with pain, and the sound is like nails on a chalkboard.

I take quick stock of the situation. There are two men, just like Dom said. One is standing at the back wall, gun drawn. He’s the one who shot Dom. The other I immediately recognize as Kevin Lynch, despite half of his face being obscured by the desk he is crouched behind. Fucking coward.

I duck and charge the standing gunman, who fires at me but misses. I slam him into the wall behind the desk and start to wrestle the gun from his hand. He’s smaller than me, but his movements are quick, and he manages to slide out of my grasp before I can get the gun.

I turn and aim, but notice Kevin raise his arm in the periphery of my vision. Shit. I swing around and shoot, hoping to hit him in the arm. No such luck. Blood spurts from the wound in his throat.

I hear another gunshot, and when I look over, the other gunman has fallen to the floor, dead. Dom groans and lets his hand fall to the side. His face is ashen. I need to get him help, but if I leave Lynch, he will die before I get a chance to question him. I have to think quickly.

Lynch is sputtering, facedown on the floor. I flip him onto his back and press the heel of my foot against his neck.

“Tell me if it’s true,” I demand. My voice comes out wild and desperate. I’m running out of time, and we both know it.

Lynch coughs, black blood staining his lips. I can only see the whites of his eyes. “Is what true?” he croaks.

I repeat what Silvano told me. Lynch coughs again but then smiles. “It’s true.”

I am so angry that the only thing I can think to do is put a bullet in his brain, even though he would have been dead in minutes anyway. Lynch goes limp.

I race over to Dom. “Where are you shot?” I say.

Dom doesn’t open his eyes. “My chest and my leg,” he answers faintly.

The wound in his leg seems to be bleeding more, so I start to apply pressure there.

“It’s okay, boss,” Dom says. “Now that the shooting has stopped, it’s quite peaceful.”

The shooting has stopped. I hadn’t even noticed. I hear footfalls approaching and whip my gun up, hands shaking from the adrenaline searing through my veins, but I’m relieved to see my own men jogging toward me and not Lynch’s.

I turn my attention back to Dom. His skin is pale and waxy. “Dom. Open your fucking eyes.”

He does, though his eyelids seem heavy. He has always been a good soldier.

“We’ve been through far too much together,” I hiss. “You don’t get to throw in the fucking towel now. Do you hear me?”

“I hear you,” he says in a gravelly voice.

Gio kneels down beside us and presses on the wound in Dom’s chest. “We’ve cleared the area,” he informs me. “The rest of them ran off when it became obvious it was a fight they wouldn’t win.”

“Felicity?” I ask.

Gio shakes his head. “No sign of her.”

“Fuck.” My head swims with everything that I’ve learned, everything that has happened. I can hardly believe that Lynch is actually dead.

Before I can think about anything else, I need to gather up the wounded and get my men out of here. It could be only a matter of minutes before the Irish return with reinforcements.

“Can we move him?” I ask Gio, who has some medical training.

He nods. “We have to.”

The two of us carry Dom out while Antonio pulls out the rest of the men, coordinating the removal of the dead and wounded and setting fire to the warehouse once everyone is out. Dom groans and hisses the whole way to the waiting SUV, but I take that as a good sign. He’s going to make it. He has to.

I can’t lose anyone else.

Gio manages to stanch the bleeding in the car, and we drop him and Dom off at a private medical center for further treatment. On the way, Antonio reports three dead and five more wounded, though none as bad as Dom. All in all, the attack was a success. I wish we had been able to take Lynch alive though. Felicity will go into hiding now, and without her lover’s help, I doubt we will be able to find her.

That’s a problem for another time. Right now, all I can think about is getting home to my family.

When we reach the mansion, I hop out of the SUV before it has even come to a complete stop. I rush up the front steps and into the foyer. For the first time, I regret having such a large house. Is she upstairs in the nursery? Or downstairs in the living room?

Angelo and Clara walk into the foyer from the direction of the living room.