This was it.
Déjà vu.
The same day all over again, only seven years later. Same story, same motives.
Cora had called us in this morning, and I’d heard it all.
Goliath’s plan.
The envoy had left from the military base in Lake County an hour ago. According to my eyes in the air, the truck carrying the nukes was going to pass by here in two minutes.
I was stationed on the bridge overlooking the flow of traffic below me. At the intersection was a van with the gas company logo on it. Two men dressed in black and orange suits had the road dug up. It had been like that already when we got here. All plans were set out to look like the everyday occurrence.
Little did anyone know that those men weren’t from the gas company. They were Antonella grunts who’d been stationed there with Goliath lying in wait with the dupe nukes they were going to swap the real things for.
That was what I’d heard live and in living color on Cora’s recording. They were going to take the nukes, and since plans fell through for the shipping company, they were going to find some other way of getting the nukes out of the country.
They planned to do that and deal with me and mine later.
Deal with me, as if I was some kind of disobedient child.
The setup was similar to seven years ago.
Below me were three guys on bikes who were going to decoy the envoy truck. Guys like me seven years ago. Ahead on the road adjacent were three more bikers. They were the lookouts.
I had Dante down below, ready to take on the decoy bikers, and Gio several roads ahead, ready for the other guys. Pa was my eyes and ears. He was with Cora back at the office watching on the setup she’d done. The secret squad and my other men would be ready for action on my word.
The plan was this: Goliath was after the nukes, and we were after him.
To get him, to draw him out, we’d piss him off the best way I knew how.
Mess up this little plan of his.
That’s how.
Right now, he was in the sewer waiting for the truck to come by. The bikers were supposed to stop it, and he’d get to do whatever it was he was supposed to do.
Like hell.
That fucking bastard was about to get a rude awakening.
I tightened my grip on the handles of my bike when I saw the military truck coming to my left. It was right on schedule.
“It’s on the way, son,” Pa said.
His voice sounded raspy on the little device in my ear that allowed us to communicate with each other. We each had one.
“I see it.” I pulled in a breath. “Dante, Gio, you ready?”
“Ready, boss,” they both chimed.
It was time.
The truck rumbled down the street, and the bikers geared up to go. The truck proceeded on its way, and there, just as it was about to turn, the bikers made their move.
The three of them pulled out at once with the type of skill I’d only seen on extreme biker shows. But they were no match for my guys.
The bikers thought they had the truck where they wanted it when it stopped, and the bewildered driver looked like he was about to shit himself. There was a beefy-looking guy next to him who would have gotten out but stopped when Dante charged out of nowhere like a demon from hell. I couldn’t resist the urge to smile.
With a steady hand on his bike, he maneuvered his way out and pulled out a machine gun and fired it. He didn’t have to aim at anyone to show he meant business. He just held it up and fired into the air , making the men scatter like mice.
There were another two trucks behind the truck carrying the nukes. Trucks with soldiers, possibly guards. Our little action had just alerted them to the trouble that could have happened.
The three bikers on Gio’s path tried to intervene, but he had them before they could even pull out.
I smiled when the envoy passed on by with the nukes.
Dante and Gio wreaked havoc, and the bikers scattered. That left Goliath and the two idiots dressed in the gas company suits, who’d cowered when they saw shit going down.
It was my turn now.
I rode down there, hopped off my bike, and made my way to the manhole.
“Hey, you!” One of the idiots cried and fired a shot at me.
I dodged it and whipped out my gun, shooting them both.
I spared no time. Goliath was down in the sewer, and I’d be damned if I was going to allow him to escape.
“Go to the left, Claudius,” Cora cried, making my ear piece buzz from the hurriedness in her tone. “He just made a run for it. If you go left, you’ll meet him at the bend. Quickly!”
I ran, doing exactly as she said.
“There!” she cried, and oh yes, he was there. The bastard ran straight into my awaiting fist that connected with his stupid shocked face as I jumped up and whacked him.
The asshole wet down and dropped his bag. I didn’t let him recover. I was on him like the plague. Fists flying in his face as I allowed the anger to take me.
That was my mistake. I should have shot him and blown his head right off his miserable body.
My anger blindsided me, and I underestimated his strength. They didn’t call him Goliath for nothing.
He flipped me over, and I knocked my head on the concrete floor. The dirty green and brown sewer water that flowed around us splashed all around me.
Goliath growled and landed a powerful fist in my face.
“Fucking mobster, it’s you again. Wow. I though the message we sent you was loud and clear, but no, the greedy mobster came after me,” he taunted, eyes wild and feral.
The punch made me see stars, and I couldn’t see straight.
“You’re dead, motherfucker.” Anger might have been my downfall, but it was also my strength. It gave me the force to get him off me with a headbutt that sent him reeling backwards. Blood spurted from his nose.
Didn’t stop him from coming after me. This time, I reached for my gun, whipped it out, and shot him. But damn it, I only got him in his shoulder. His fucking shoulder. And… that only slowed him down.
I fired another shot in his chest as he came for me, but it didn’t stop him. That should have stopped him. That should have got him. I aimed for his heart.
Why the fuck didn’t it stop him?
He stumbled but regained his footing and laughed, pulling back his shirt to show what I knew in an instant to be a fucking bulletproof vest.
“Cheater,” I snarled.
“Didn’t you wear one?” he spat. “Anyone with common sense would.” His bulbous eyes bulged, and the vein at his temple popped as he laughed.
I had to aim for the head. It was always the head with these guys. I’d cut Victor Pertrinkov’s head right off his miserable body. With this guy, I was going to blow it off.
I held the gun up high, ready to pull back the trigger, then something hit me hard in my head.
Felt like a damn baseball bat. Right to the back of my head. Fuck. Another blow to my back sent me down, and another flat on my face.
“Aren’t you going to kill him?” a voice said from behind.
That voice… who was it?
It sounded like Alex, but it could have been Jude. Sometimes they sounded the same. It was weird.
Fuck…
“No yet. I have a better idea. Let’s play a game,” Goliath snarled and sent a kick straight to my face.
My head snapped backwards, and I instantly blacked out.
Ava “Are you okay?” Amelia asked.
She’d joined me out in the sun room. I’d been out here since we got back.
Sitting around, watching.
She sat in front of me and brought her hands together, placing them in her lap.
She looked worried for me. Her hair was down today, and it gave her a younger appearance.
“I’m not okay, Amelia. I wish I could say I was, but I’m not. I can’t just sit here being babysat by you guys. No offence.”
“None taken. I know how you feel, and believe me, you’re in the right place. We don’t know what’s happening.”
“Is that we as in a collective we, or just us as in you and me?”
Her shoulders slumped. “All of us. Luc is trying to reach Claudius.”
“Wait… so, he hasn’t heard from him? Amelia, this man… Goliath is crazy. He kidnapped me and killed my sister. I’m sure you know the story.”
“I heard it, and it’s awful. It’s truly awful and heartbreaking.”
“It was the most terrifying experience of my life. His men grabbed me in broad daylight from outside my house. Took me and my sister to the docks and put a bomb on her. That is the man Claudius has gone after. This crazy person. I understand why he’s doing it, but damn the—” My heart jumped into my throat when I lifted my head to continue my tirade and saw a man standing in the garden. A man in a black suit with a scar running down the side of his face. He held a machine gun. “Amelia, get down!”
“What?”
I didn’t repeat the warning. I just leapt onto her, knocking her to the floor when the man raised the gun and started firing.
Bullets sprayed through the floor-to-ceiling glass windows, sending shards everywhere.
Amelia and I screamed, keeping low and close to the floor.
There were voices, voices from inside and outside the house.
Something dug into my skin. It was glass. It was all over my hair and my shoulders.
Amelia shuffled from underneath me, trying to help me to move to the corner where the door was, but I was shaking so much I couldn’t find my feet.
Then in came the men.