Page 51 of Bound By A Promise
I’d take a thousand cuts from my enemies’ weapons over the terror in my new wife’s eyes. When I find out who caused her this distress, I’ll gut them, one by one.
“You’re not alone,” I reassured.
Rapid popping of gunshots came from outside the house causing Camila to jump.
“I can’t leave you, Dante.”
I kissed her hair. “You’re not leaving me. I’m not leaving you. Be safe.”
Father Gallo took her hand. Reluctantly, they both joined Mia in the safe room, followed by Viviana. Mia closed the bookcase. I turned off the closet light and closed the door. As I came around the corner, back into the living room, I saw the helicopter, hovering in the dark vastness beyond the pool.
“Fuck,” Aléjandro roared.
Three men were in the helicopter. The side facing the house was open with a door gunner armed with an MP5 submachine gun. They were fucking close enough to make out their identities if their faces weren’t obscured with ski masks. Bullets rained down over the pool deck, where we’d just been.
“The windows are bulletproof,” Silas yelled as they quaked with the repeated impact of 800 rounds per minute, shredding the pool furniture, planters, and anything in their wake.
“Goddamn them,” Aléjandro cursed.
We watched as the door gunner was struck, the bullet coming from the area to the side of the pool from the darkness. The helicopter wobbled. If not for his seatbelt, the damn door gunner would have fallen.
“Who the fuck are they?” I asked my brother-in-law.
“Border agents stopped a shipment of MP5s from coming into the US a few weeks ago.”
“Yours?”
“They tried to link them to us. They belonged to Kozlov.”
“Fucking Russians,” I said through clenched teeth.
“Our guards don’t have the firepower to bring down a chopper.” As Silas spoke, the chopper turned to the darkness of the ocean and disappeared.
“This wasn’t about the wedding?” I asked.
“I don’t think so,” Aléjandro answered. He turned to Silas. “Changing these windows saved our lives. Find out if any of ourmen were hit.” He looked at me and Emiliano. “We’ll get the all clear from the guards before we risk the women and collar.”
I turned to the large clock. “Fuck, it’s almost midnight.” We had less than fifteen minutes. The hands were ticking upward.
Aléjandro went to a tablet on the kitchen counter and handed it to me. “Go, take this. Father Gallo will make your marriage legal.” Next, he pulled his phone from his pocket. The conversation that ensued was not in English, yet I could tell it was upsetting him in the way the veins bulged in his neck and how his jaw tightened.
Holding the tablet, I waited.
Once he finished his conversation, he roared, a feral sound reverberating through the house.
“What else?” I asked.
“Rei’s house in Sacramento was attacked tonight. Simultaneously. Timed to hit us both when we should be sleeping.”
“That means this attack was against the cartel, not specifically our wedding.”
Emiliano came to my side. “Is Rei all right?”
That was probably the question I should have asked.
Aléjandro’s stare darkened, his pupils dilating. “Gerardo didn’t have bulletproof glass. Rei is fine. He wasn’t home. Two of our men on his patrol are dead.”
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