“What now, Claudius?” Luc asked with a tentative expression.
I was helping him sweep up some broken glass.
Everyone was milling around doing stuff to fix the place. I felt like I should be doing it all.
Luc continued to stare at me, obviously expecting more than the nothing of an explanation I’d given him. I just didn’t know where to begin.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry this happened in your home.”
“Claudius, just tell me what happened.”
I pulled in a deep breath, looked ahead to the glass doors that were all smashed up, then back to him, and filled him in.
“You never saw who hit you?” he asked.
I shook my head. “Alex. Had to be him. But I thought it was Jude. Luc, I was out of it. To me, it sounded like both of them.”
“Maybe it was.” He quirked a brow.
“Jude’s here. I’m certain I saw one person with Goliath. One other voice asking if he wasn’t going to kill me.”
When I’d come to, it was Dante and Gio who stood over me, trying to wake me up. Cora had told them where to find me. We came straight here. I rode as fast as I could because I knew what was going to happen.
I just knew.
“He’ll strike again. I say we go after him before that happens. We can’t sit around here.”
“Luc, I can’t drag you into my mess.”
“I’m already involved, Claudius. They knew to come here. They knew I live here, and yet they came. I have a wife and a child. When they stepped on my property and shot up my house with my wife and my child inside it, they declared war on me. So, I’m asking you, what now?” Luc eyed me dangerously, and I frowned. This was exactly what I’d never wanted to happen, but then, what did I expect?
I must have expected something when I’d asked Luc to step in and take care of Ava. I must have known on some level that things could go south and he’d have to get involved.
“I don’t know.”
“Guys.” Amelia ran down the stairs looking panicked. “Did Ava come down here? She’s not in her room.”
I shot up and glared at her. “No, I left her up there five minutes ago.”
My phone started buzzing in my back pocket. Amelia instantly looked nervous.
I looked at the phone screen and saw it was an unknown number calling. Immediately, a chill ran down my spine.
I answered it though. “Hello, who is this?”
“A friend,” Goliath cooed and laughed. The sound made my blood heat in my veins. “Isn’t it funny how people have that saying? The enemy of my enemy is my friend. But is he really? What’s to stop that guy from being your enemy too, and in the end, who can you trust?”
“What do you want, Goliath?”
“Well, thanks to you, I have one seriously pissed-off client, and my nukes are on the way to the bongo, bongo dimension. So, I came up with a way of how you can fix this.”
“You can go fuck yourself. When I find you, I’ll cut your head off.”
“Thought you might say that, mafia boss. You see, you underestimate me. Again. While you were busy running off to your princess, I took the next best thing. Your second helpless. Your father looks just like you. Although he doesn’t carry the bruises so well. It’s old age.”
God. Nooo.
No.
“Pa. You fucking bastard, you took my father.” I looked at Luc and couldn’t breathe.
Luc gasped, and Amelia’s eyes widened.
“Yes, and your girl too. Jude sends his regards. He took her the first time way back when and specifically requested he do it this time again.”
Everything inside me stilled. Everything. Jude. It was Jude. I’d been right. It was Jude.
But the first time? God, no. What the fucking hell?
I stared at Luc, feeling helpless. Again.
“What do you want?” I asked Goliath, my voice weak sounding like the shadow of myself I’d become in those few seconds. Nothing like the leader I was supposed to be.
“I want everything. It kind off worked out very well. Your little plan. The Manellos and Antonellos have wanted the power you people own for a very long time. You’re going to sign the business over to me. Everything, money and assets. Meet me on the roof of the warehouse in forty minutes. You know the one.” He hung up, and I growled like an animal.
The fucking evil son of bitch. The warehouse, sure I knew the one. It had to be the one I never got to, to save Marissa.
Luc grabbed me and shoved me hard against the wall.
“What the fuck happened?” he shouted.
“He took Pa, and Jude took Ava. He wants the whole business. They’re at the warehouse. The one Marissa got blown up in. I have to get them. Both of them.” Again. Both of them.
Just like fucking last time and I knew it wasn’t going to be as clean as what he’d said. There’d be something else. Something more to the game. He never said I’d get Pa or Ava back when I signed over the business.
“We. Claudius. It’s we. Not just you. Now, let’s go,” Luc commanded, baring his teeth. He let go of me and faced Amelia, who looked beside herself. “Goddess, you take charge. Round up my guys and tell them to head to the warehouse but keep out of sight. We’ll take Dante and Gio for backup.”
“Luc, you better come back to me,” Amelia said, voice shaking.
“Goddess. You know I will,” he told her with conviction.
Guilt at its fullest and finest consumed me further when I looked from Amelia to Luc, but there was no time to waste.
It had to end here. Today, one way or another. I couldn’t allow this to happen again.
Pa and Ava …
I couldn’t lose them. Wouldn’t.
Failure was not an option.
***
The wind lifted the ends of my coat and my hair as I stepped onto the roof of the warehouse. Whenever I came to the docks, I never ventured this far because to me it was a tomb. Marissa’s tomb. Her grave was bad enough, but this was the place she died. What we buried of her was…
No… don’t think …
I had to stay focused. I had to.
There, Goliath was with another two guys. The guys had their guns at Pa’s head, and Goliath stood beside them with a smile that widened when he saw me.
I was looking at Pa though. They’d messed him up real bad. His face was black and blue with bruises. And swollen. Blood stained his white shirt.
The sight made me sick, and the guilt washed over me.
I stopped paces away from them and held up my hands to show I had no weapons.
Luc and the others were stationed around on the roof of this building and the two warehouses opposite us. Knowing Luc and the others were here gave me hope. It wasn’t like last time when I’d had no one.
As I looked at Pa, I was reminded of the meeting Dad, Luc, and I’d had with Raphael years ago. Raphael had chosen Luc to take over the business, and it had pissed me off because I’d felt I deserved it more. I’d wanted it bad because I saw myself as a leader. I saw myself as the kind of man who could run the show and have a handle on the vast expanse of what the business covered. Then Luc gave me the business. He gave it to me, and I had that dream all over again.
When Goliath had told me his demands, it felt like nothing to give the business away.
But would it be in exchange for Pa and Ava?
That played on my mind the whole way here.
“Claudius and Marcus Morientz. You know, seven years ago, I didn’t know who I was in the company of.” Goliath laughed. “Thought you were just a grunt looking to make an extra buck. But maybe back then you were. Look at you now, all grown up and mafia boss. You did good, kid.”
“Don’t fuck with me!” I roared. My voice carried across the way. “You’re only alive because you have my father. I’m here, we’re doing business. Now, let him the fuck go.”
Goliath laughed. “You must be mistaken making such demands. From where I’m standing, looks like I’m the one who calls the shots here. Not you, boss.”
“Just out of interest what do you get?” It was curiosity.
“Wow, you concerned about me? Don’t worry I’ll get my prize. It just so happens to be whatever I want.”
“Let’s just get this over with. Give me my father first, then I’ll hand you the business.”
Now, he roared with laughter. Of course, he would.
“You really think you’re running this show, don’t you?”
God, the plan was for my guys to move or do something the minute they saw a chance.
Right now, the men with Pa had their guns too close.
They could shoot him. I had Dante stationed on the water tower to my right with a rifle. He was a good shot and would have taken the shot by now if he’d seen a chance.
Goliath was mine to deal with in whatever way.
“I’m making my demands. At least get the fucking guns away from him.” My heart started galloping when I thought this might not work.
It might not work. Then what? Fuck.
“He has nothing to do with this. It’s you and me, and I’m here, aren’t I?” I added.
Goliath pulled out a shotgun from the bag on his back. He whirled around to face Pa, but at that moment, I heard a sound. A motorcycle. But up here? Why did it sound so—?
Fuck.
It came out of nowhere. A powerful Kawasaki engine boomed over us. Then the bike and the biker were in mid-air. Zooming from the warehouse roof to the left and sailing across to us. You’d have to pay good money to watch a stunt like that.
Then with the precision of a real natural, the biker leaned over and fired two shots from his hand gun. Two shots that landed straight in the two guys who stood next to Pa. Right in their heads.
The fuckers didn’t even have time to register that they were dead.
Goliath rushed over trying to aim at the biker as he landed hard on the concrete, but Pa got him good when he whipped out his leg and swiped him, knocking him over.
Pa looked to me.
“Go!” I cried. While he made his escape, I moved to Goliath. In the meantime, the biker continued in his blaze and jumped the bike to the next building.
The only person I knew who could do shit like that was Alex. Just before I grabbed Goliath, I saw a woman who looked like Cora hop on the back of the bike as it landed on the roof of the warehouse.
Again, no time to process. I threw several punches in Goliath’s face. It did nothing but split his lip. Fucking bastard.
It was time to end him. I was still suffering from earlier, but rage fueled me. The man had tried to take Ava, he took Pa, and he’d killed Marissa.
Now was the moment of reckoning.
Now was the time to get him for all he’d done to me and mine. Now was the time to avenge them.
A kick to his chin snapped his head back and knocked the gun out of his hands. But he regained his footing, dove on me, and we rolled from the impact. Him throwing punches at me, me giving back as much as I got, but fuck, we were too close to the edge. There was a rail, and I could see his aim was to get me closer.
“You’ll die for pissing me off, Morientz.” Goliath sent a punch to my face that made me see stars, and he shuffled his way on top of me, holding me in a lock that made it difficult to break. His thighs secured my head while he pummeled me into the fucking ground.
He could kill me like this. Beat me to a bloody pulp until there was nothing left of me but blood and bones.
Ava…
I hadn’t told her I loved her before I left her.
I didn’t know this was going to happen. That she’d get taken again right from under my nose.
My Angel Doll. I called her that because that was exactly what she looked like. When I looked at her, that white mass of blonde hair seemed to brighten like pure light. Like a halo.
Then there was her beautiful soul. I swore to God I could see it every time she looked at me.
I’d loved her from that first day I saw her.
I loved her like nothing else.
It felt like an eternity passed as Goliath beat me to death. Then I heard it. The words Marissa had spoken.
Take care of my sister. That was the last thing she’d said to me. Her last request.
So, what was I doing?
The memory gave me new life, and all I had to do to gather strength was think of Ava.
Goliath was holding my upper body down, but I had my legs.
Raising my knees and using all my strength, I kneed him hard in his back, pushing him forward.
That split second gave me the opportunity I needed to flip him over my head. He crashed into the rail, but it didn’t stop him. Him reaching for the rail didn’t stop him either.
He went straight over. I watched him go straight over and down. Falling, falling to his death.
I had to look. Despite my injuries I rushed over to the rail and saw the exact moment Goliath hit the ground with a loud smack. Right on the tarmac he landed. Dead.
No way had he survived the fall. It was a good thirty feet down.
His body looked broken from here. He looked dead. Dead on the same grounds where he killed Marissa.
That was all I gave him, a look and a thought. This wasn’t over yet. Jude still had Ava.
I had to save her.