The Gambler (12 page)

Now here he was all these years later
, and he was finally crawling out from under the cloud of darkness, under which he’d been living for so long. She’d come into his life and changed everything. He wouldn’t say he was back to who he once was, but he didn’t feel that stone cold hate as deeply.

“Baby, did you see the girl in that picture today?” He was still speaking to her like they were having a normal conversation and not discussing her conversation with his dead sister.

“Alice.” Her soft voice sliced through his gut, this was real, this was happening.

“How did she…” He couldn’t go on, it was too much for now. Later he’ll take it out and think about it, for now she needed her rest and he needed to get shit done.

“Where’s her medicine doc?”

“It’s right here.”

“Give it to her and then you can sit downstairs with gramps in case she needs you when she wakes up.

“I have to…I’ll be downstairs with your grandfather.” What the fuck was it with people today? That’s the second time he had to glare the doc into submission.

He poured her another glass of water and gave her the pill the other man had given him. She took her medicine before curling herself around him and holding on tight. He held her close to his heart and whispered softly to her, until she drifted off again. “Sweet dreams my flower, I love you.” Shit, he hadn’t said that to anyone in a million years. It felt good, felt…clean.

He had a lot of shit to do before the day was done. He had no doubt that Bonata knew about the hit and rescue by now and he wasn’t about to wait for them to come after him again, he was taking the fight to them
. Now he had to deal with the fact that his woman is talking to, and seeing his dead sister. And he still didn’t know what she was trying to tell him about the senator.

His boys were waiting for their orders when he made it back downstairs, and to fill him in on what they’d found. While he’d been busy looking after her and dealing with her fuckwit mother, they’d been trying to find Petridis’ hideout and where the Bonatas were at this moment.

A hit like this had t
o be carried out simultaneously; he wasn’t planning to just end the head of the family. His aim was to wipe out every member, from capo to the fucking pizza delivery boy. Anyone who had any part of fucking with his baby was living on borrowed time.

“Okay
, please tell me you found that fuck.”

“Uh you’re not gonna like it boss.”

“What, he skipped?” Lily livered fuck, even if he went to hell he’d go find his ass.

“Nah, it’s worst, somebody got to him first. We think Bonata finished him. Word is it was because of your…Jenna.”

“How’d they do ‘im?”

Garrett made the sign of a shot to the head.

“Fucking slackers, he got off too easy.” He personally would’ve cut his throat and pulled his fucking tongue out of his neck the fuck.

“What about the others
, where they at?”

“Senior is holed up at his place in The City, Junior’s at the beach with his wife
, and the others are pretty much bunkered down planning their next move.”

“Why the fuck would he have all his goons on one job?”

“Uh boss, I think they think you’re nuts.”

“Your point?” Garrett hid a grin as his boss moved on.

“We leave the best here with Jenna and gramps…”

“I’m coming with you boy.”

“No I need you here.”

“Stef…”

“She’s here, you’re here. I would leave Garrett and Jameson here but I know you’ll never agree, you hired them to do a job, trust them to do it.” He knew the old man would have a hard time with this, letting him go into battle alone. His fear has always been outliving his son and his grandson.

Andros walked over to the old man and clasped him behind the neck so he could whisper in his ear. “I trust no one else with her, I need to do this
, please stay here. I’ll be safe, I won’t take any chances.” Five minutes it took the old man to nod; stubborn fuck.

“Okay boys, who we got on the middlemen and the son?”

They rattled off the crews that had been dispersed; ever
yone pretty much knew that Bonata senior was his. He’d missed out on Petridis but he wasn’t gonna miss this one. He still had no idea where her father was. Hopefully he’d be with her godfather and he could kill two birds with one stone. Literally.

He went to the kitchen next
, to order Sue back upstairs to sit with her after he left. Next he told Vito to make sure the mother didn’t leave the room where he’d had her sequestered. Gramps was in charge while he was gone, so he had no worries that his orders would be carried out. He made sure Sue took a shit load of chocolate upstairs with her before he left.

He headed back upstairs where she was still asleep. Standing over her he smoothed her hair away from her beautiful face. His heart felt lighter now, not as constricted as before. He accepted the love that he felt for what it
was. Fate, destiny, redemption! Bending low, he kissed her lips softly, before kissing her forehead. With one last look of longing, he turned and left the room.

“The plane ready?”

“Yeah, the boys got back a little while ago.”

“Who we got on the ground?”

“Sal and Lou got the place covered in case there’s any movement.”

He gave himself a minute to think about the girl he’d left in his bed, as he sat back in the car. A girl he’d only met a few short days ago, but who’d been a part of his life for much longer; if only as a specter. Her mother’s words played over in his head.

She’d known him from a picture, but how? Alice? Whatever, however, she was his; he got a strong sense of peace with the realization. A peace he’d never felt before, along with a certain joy that he suddenly had something to look forward to. Could it possibly be that life had finally decided to cut him some fucking slack after dicking with him for so long?

His heart ached at what she might’ve faced before he found her. How often had they used his little flower? And what the fuck else did they make her do? To take such advantage of an innocent such as she was the lowest thing he could think of. It took a black-hearted asshole to do a thing like that. That’s why he was going to cut the heart out of the fuck that’d been responsible, right after he dispatched him to hell.

He had the mother in his house and he still wasn’t sure what he was going to do with her. He knew he wasn’t of a mind to let her anywhere near her daughter ever again, but would that be best for Jenna? Maybe he’d let them spend some time together, under his careful watch of course; and see how they interacted with each other. Any sign that she was anything but fucking motherly and he’d send the bitch to meet her bastard of a son.

“We’re here boss.” He looked out at the tarmac where the plane sat waiting. Hopefully this shit would be over by the end of the night. He wanted it out of the way so he could concentrate on just her. He had so much to learn about her; what she liked besides chocolate. He started to smile at her obsession and then he remembered her mother telling him how they’d paid her with chocolate. Maybe he should just gut the bitch and be done with it after all.

He put home and hearth out of his head as he took his seat on the plane. Everything about him changed in that instant. His two shadows saw the change and said nothing, just a shared look passed between them. They knew what that lo
ok meant, this shit was gonna be up-close and personal.

Which meant they had to be on their toes, because when Andros got like this
, there wasn’t a leash strong enough to hold him. This was the kind of job that made sure they earned their pay. It didn’t happen often, but when it did, it was a fucking nightmare on their end. Hopefully the fact that he had the girl back home waiting for him would calm him down a bit, but there was no guarantee of that.

Andros meanwhile
, was organizing his play in his head. As soon as he hit the ground he had to move fast. He didn’t want word getting out that he was in The City. He didn’t want his enemy getting even a whiff of his presence until he was standing over the fuck. Shit, he couldn’t remember if he had a change of clothes on the plane. He couldn’t go back to Jenna with blood all over his shit. And he had no doubt it was gonna get bloody. He intended it to.

No one spoke as the jet touched down on the helipad atop the hotel casino. Their target was in the penthouse suite. The Intel said he had four inside with him. They were using some kind of thermal gadget to find where each body was located inside the room.

Another one of gramps’ deals that he’d somehow hoodwinked from his buddy in the pentagon. If the government ever knew just how much of their high tech shit fell into the old man’s hands
, it would turn into a national security event. Whatever!

“Call the others, let them know we’re in place. Radios off.” He wanted the father and son to meet in hell at the same hour. They made their way down the stairs that led from the roof. He wasn’t going in blind
, but there was no telling what these fucks were prepared for.

He couldn’t very well shoot down the door; the other patrons might get antsy and fuck up shit. Instead he was going to release something under the door into the room, and hope it worked in time for them to make entry
, before the security cameras picked them up loitering outside in the hallway.

He had a
very narrow window of time in which to get in and out, someone had been paid off to tamper with the cameras for that short space of time. Still, he didn’t want to risk anyone catching a glimpse of him there. He wanted to be able to live out his golden years with his flower, not rotting in the cell of some stinking hellhole on account of this piece a shit.

He stopped Garrett with a hand on the shoulder. “Only enough to daze him I want him awake and aware when I do him.” The other man nodded once before opening the door and walking through. The hallway was empty at this time of night. Most people were downstairs at the tables. Too bad the noise from downstairs didn’t carry all the way up here, but there was a good chance the place was sound proof anyway.

He watched as Garrett walked past the door looking casually around, around the corner and then back again. He took what looked like a rolled up note from his pocket and slipped it under the door before walking back to where the others were waiting. Andros checked his watch. He’d been told it would take less than two minutes to do what he wanted. It was a long fucking two minutes standing there, twiddling his thumbs.

It was an easy thing to pick the lock and slip into the room. He had the lower half of his face covered, as did his men. There was no smoke or anything unnatural looking in the room, yet the five occupants seemed disoriented, good, the shit had worked.

“Take care of them.” He walked past the first guard who tried to reach for his piece
, but whose arms seemed weighed down. Alphonso Bonata was sitting in a high backed chair at the table, about to have his dinner it looked like. His eyes widened when he saw the younger man and he tried to call out but all that came out was a croaking sound as he flopped back in his chair.

He thought for sure he would be cool, but nah. He shot out one kneecap first just for the hell of it. “That one’s for being a fucktard and sucking up my airspace.”

He’d intended to question the other man, but it was obvious he couldn’t speak and he didn’t have time to fuck around and wait for that happy occurrence. He’d have to get what he needed some other way.

“And this is for my wife and the hell I’m sure you put her through
, you fuck.” He shoved the blade into the pigs’ wide girth starting at the navel and pulled up until he’d opened him down the middle.

Alphonso’s eyes and mouth widened in terror as the shock and pain hit him. By the time Andros reached his hand inside his chest and pulled out his still beating heart
, he was dead.

Too fucking easy, he should’ve busted down the door after all. At least then the fuck would’ve been able to put up a fight, which is what Andros craved. This way seemed too fucking easy and was over way too fast. He squeezed the beating mass in his hand before dropping it on the floor and stepping on it. “Asshole.”

“Toss it, I want anything that even looks like a computer; any papers, and whatever’s in the safe. We’ve got five minutes left.” He walked away from the carnage and pulled his phone to call the house and check up on her.

They were in and out with two minutes left, not bad for a hit this size. He was going to have to look into his and Jenna’s security more strenuously. If it was that easy for a motherfucker to off you these days
, he needed to be on his star player game. Then again, it’s like Garrett had said, everyone thinks he’s a crazy fuck anyway, so he maybe might take chances others won’t. Their lost!

He used his silk handkerchief to clean off some of the blood from his hands as they walked up the stairs to the helipad. The pilot already had the shit going, probably never turned it off. “Hurry the fuck up yous, I’ve gotta go find butterflies.”

He had a flash of the old places where he used to find them for Alice, places he hadn’t been to in years. Maybe he’d buy some for now, no. She’d asked him to catch her a butterfly. He found his first real smile then as his heart lightened if only a little. If she was taking instructions from his lil sis she was going to be a handful. He couldn’t wait.

His step was much lighter as he pushed through the door and jogged to the plane. It was the perfect time to go butterfly hunting.

They became more quiescent at night, making it a little easier to trap. He’d get her one or two for now, but he had an idea of how to keep her happy if butterflies were her new thing.

It was something he’d been working on for his sister while away at college that fateful year. He wondered what he’d done with those plans he’d drawn up? Probably destroyed in his dark rage like everything else on that night.