Page 42 of Forced Mafia Bride
“Get Aiden on the line. We need an update.”
Ineeded one.
His heavy sigh breached the silence, but he did as I instructed. Seconds later, his eyes stole a glimpse at my face again.
“No answer.”
He redialed, but Aiden remained unreachable. Aiden was always at Ronan’s side. That must have been the reason he was unable to answer calls.
My fingers picked up the pace, drumming faster by the window.
I was the only one in the position to explain how hot the fury heated my blood.Iwas the one with the unexplainable, irrational aching to have her in my arms again. Not another fucking person could get it, so I didn’t blame him or my men for oftentimes whispering behind my back that I’d lost it.
I might have.
“How many more fucking minutes, Anatoly?”
At this point, everything that proceeded from my mouth was more or less a growl through gritted teeth.
“Two minutes.”
My hand went to the customized black-silver GLOCK tucked between the belt hoops of my pants. I pulled out the cold steel, lightly brushing my finger above the trigger. Today was a trigger-happy day, and if I didn’t get the answers I sought, a lot of people were going to have to pay the fucking consequences.
As we turned onto 5th and Main, the Nova Clinic’s sleek glass façade came into view. Anatoly pulled up to the entrance. He killed the low purr of the engine and leaned back, scanning the area through the windshield. “It looks deserted.”
Aiden wouldn’t send a message that was an unnecessary lie. And even if he fucking did, I wasn’t leaving here without her.
I nodded. “Let’s move.”
We stepped out of the car, the warm noon breeze enveloping us, and my men, who followed in the cars behind us, jumped out as well. I surveyed the clinic’s perimeter, sensing an eerie stillness. Anatoly was right; the place looked deserted. And we might have turned back except for the couple dozen men that stood guard outside the building. Sighting us, two of the men stepped forward, yelling something solid in Irish. Something I didn’t give a fuck about.
Anatoly looked at me, and I questioned with a brow.
“He said we shouldn’t take any step further.”
“Since when did you understand Irish?”
He chuckled. “Since he spoke Gaelic, and my Gaelic is pretty solid.”
“Why the fuck would he speak Gaelic?”
Anatoly shrugged. “Probably to scare us? I don’t know. People do crazy things these days. Fucking amateur.”
I rolled my eyes and shoulders. Then, I looked at my gun, and the bastard that thought he could boss me around.
“Yeah, well, who do you take orders from?”
Anatoly smiled and followed me when I took more steps forward.
“THIS IS A FINAL WARNING!” the idiot yelled louder in a broken thread of what was supposed to sound like English. Of course, I wasn’t going to listen to him. We kept walking. “YOU CHOOSE TO—”
An empty bullet shelltinkedon the concrete, and his body dropped to the floor with a heavy thud, a trail of red quickly forming a pool under his head. I aimed my gun at another willing victim. “He talked too much. Who’s next?”
The shock on their faces said they were stunned that I’d snuffed out the life of their colleague faster than they could blink. But soon, the reality dawned on them that we’d started a war, and anger quickly replaced the shock on their faces. Man after man, the weapons came out: guns, sticks, and daggers. But this was a war I intended to win.
“Anatoly?”
“Boss?”