“Are you ready for this? It’s just going to be the ten of us, you know,” Edison asked as he popped the trunk of the car and yanked his jacket off, pulling out one of the bullet-proof vests from within.
Not including Romey Chandler, we’d brought three of our men to back us up once we were inside.
“I don’t know how the fuck you think this is supposed to work, Keane. Ranieri’s heat mapping of what he could see was showing at least thirty warm bodies just walking around inside of the house. That’s not to mention whatever the fuck Volkov has going down in the tunnels underneath it.”
“We’re not going to need to worry about that overly much.” Edison’s chuckle was dark as he checked his pistol over. “Seeing as we’re going to have some very pissed off company of the federal kind joining us in about thirty minutes.”
Elio gaped at my packmate, his mouth open. “You snitched to the fucking FBI?”
When we’d been trying to figure out a game plan earlier we kept running into a wall. We didn’t want to lose any of our men if we could help it—especially if we were going to try and go head-to-head with the older generation of the Keane family soon—and both Saito and Cheng were reluctant to loan us any of their people to save one woman.
So, Edison decided on the nuclear option.
“Do the Chinese and Japanese know about this?” Elio asked as he helped Nicolo get into one of the vests. “Or are you just going to let the entire empire the five families have built burn to the fucking ground?”
I was all for that option at this point. Our lifestyle had brought nothing but death and destruction, quite a bit of it at my own hands, for as long as I could remember. It had also put Perrie in her current predicament in the first place.
But no that wasn’t Edison’s intention.
“Both Cheng and Saito are currently cutting and destroying any ties they have with the Volkov crime family and any of its affiliations. My people are doing the same,” Edison explained, slamming the trunk shut and nodding to me that it was time.
“Well what about our fucking family? You weren’t going to warn us?” Elio snapped, clearly pissed.
Edison slanted a glance in his direction, his face expressionless. “Consider this my warning, pup. Sounds like you should hurry to get your girl back so you can go back and close off those loose ends before the FBI follow the threads back to you, huh?”
With that, Edison strode away flanked by our men. His silent command was obvious: follow.
I turned and pointed a finger at Romey. “You stay in the fucking car. If you decide to make a run for it just know that I will hunt you to the ends of the earth. I’d also suggest you start trying to figure out a good apology for when we bring your sister back. You’re gonna need it.”
Then I hurried after Edison, the sounds of Pack Ricci’s footsteps following close behind.
The inside of the house was just as dilapidated as the outside. Upon stepping through the front door there were three men watching football on an old TV and they barely had a moment to register what was happening before our men took them out with silenced pistols.
Luckily for us, the element of surprise was on our side because every room we stepped into was an easy clear.
They must not have thought we’d ever even figure out where this damn place was, so they didn’t put any of their best men on it.
No. The good men were probably gearing up for the war that they’d orchestrated behind our backs for months.
Volkov’s goal was clear. The last war had seen the Serbian’s wiped completely off of the map and everyone gained power. This time I think he was hoping the rest of us would blow each other up so that he could stand on our pile of ashes like he was King of the fucking Hill.
Boy were they in for a surprise tonight when the FBI systematically raided all of their little hidey holes.
“Is that an elevator?” I heard Elio whisper as we came up to a pair of closed metal doors.
“Yep,” I growled as I dug through the pockets of one of the guys we’d just taken out, finding an ID badge with a picture of his fat face glaring up at me. Tapping it to the scanner above the elevator button I jammed a finger on the button and we waited.
“How big do you think this place is?” I heard one of my men ask.
“Scans were showing a pretty intricate tunnel system,” Elio answered with a shake of his head. “The whole thing is a damn concrete maze.”
Edison lifted one of the walkie talkies he was carrying. “We’re going to split up and try and find where they’re keeping the girls. You find them first and you call it in, understood?”
There was a chorus of nods just as a red light began to flash in the elevator.
“Is that them warning the people below about us or the FBI?” I asked, staring up at what looked to be a camera in the corner of the elevator. Reaching up, I shattered the dome with the butt of the rifle I was carrying before turning back to the group.
Edison glanced down at his watch with a frown. “Hard to say. My contact in the bureau’s last communication said they were thirty out, but who’s to say he’s not also trying to catch me up in the process of all of this shit. I wouldn’t put it past him.”
I frowned at that. I hadn’t even known Edison had a contact with the FBI in the first place until he’d made the call to someone named Vance earlier today.
He was getting sloppy in his quest to get our omega back, risking getting both of us thrown into prison if we were arrested tonight. That was something we would need to discuss later, but for now we just needed to get to Perrie and get her the fuck out of this hellhole.
“All right boys,” I said, as the elevator began to slow. “Press yourselves into the sides, I have a feeling we’re about to have a welcoming party waiting for us.”
The sound of sirens filled my ears as we jogged down the hallway, ducking behind a corner to check if another group of Volkov’s men was waiting to ambush us.
Twenty minutes had passed since we split up with our men and Pack Ricci, sending them off into the bowels of this never ending beast to try and figure out where Perie and Luscinia were being kept.
“This place is a maze,” I managed around a gasp as I tried to catch my breath, accepting a swig from the water bottle that Edison had clipped onto his vest.
“We’ve looked through most of it,” Edison said, pulling out the poorly sketched paper map we’d forced one of the men to scribble out before ending him.
“The FBI has to be here by now,” I told him. “Maybe we should start making our way back. There’s no telling if she’s even here, Edi.”
“No,” Edison snapped, glaring at me. “She’s here. I can feel her through the bond. I just can’t figure out where she is.”
