Page 22 of Under His Watch

“Tess!” I said, shortening her name and raising my voice to cut through the utter panic clouding in her eyes. She was terrified, breathing so fast. And alarmed as she stared at Nina still held back by my father. He glared at Tessa, not trusting her with that welcome.

“Nina?” Tessa asked from my embrace. “Is it really you?” With a slight shake of her head, she gasped before Nina could speak. “Hurry!”

Now she pulled at me, forcing me inside with haste. Franco was on alert, staring at her, then scanning our surroundings. She seemed to be wary of something, prompting us with grabby hands to tug us into the house. Franco wasn’t our best capo for the hell of it. He was quick to realize she was scared for us standing out here.

“There’s a man.” She sniffled and inhaled deeply. “Two men. Bikers.” She frantically pointed out the door with a trembling finger as she pulled at my arm to get me inside.

“What?” My father lost his skepticism of Tessa as he joined Franco in looking around. “Bikers?”

“Oh, fuck.” Nina lurched toward Tessa and wrapped her in a hug, backing away from the door. I pulled my gun free, as did my father and Franco. “You’re sure?”

“Who—”

Tessa cut off my father. “Bikers from that club. The Devil’s Brothers.” She shot a worried look at me. “I saw them out the kitchen window and I thought?—”

I squeezed her hand. “Stay here.”

Nina nodded at me as Tessa watched me.

“Be careful!”

Her words would be heeded. I was always careful in this dangerous lifestyle.

“Stay in here,” I repeated as I hurried out the door with my father and Franco. “Don’t come outside until we’re back.”

Tessa grabbed my hand, furrowing her brow. “He’s got a knife.”

I responded to that by picking up the steak knife she’d dropped and handing it to her. “Stay inside.”

Then I ran out with the other two.

“I thought you had Joseph patrolling here,” Franco said as we checked the perimeter of the house.

We all searched for him and the two bikers Tessa claimed to see. I believed her. She wouldn’t have gone to the extremes of using a knife for anything but defense. The fear in her eyes wasn’t an act.

“He was.” I hadn’t asked more than one man to guard the place because it wasn’t one of the properties anyone ever visited or stayed at. I’d only just started this process of renovating it as my project.

“What the fuck are those bastards doing here?” my father demanded.

I doubted his whispered growl was something he expected Franco or me to answer. It was rhetorical and full of anger, instead.

“I don’t see how they could’ve followed me here,” I said. I’d only brought Tessa here recently. And I didn’t have a large presence of a Constella force coming and going. Only Danicia. Franco. Joseph, and me. That was it.

“They’re getting bolder,” my father said. “When I told them we’d wage war against them, I counted on them to strike first after we killed their men at their clubhouse.”

Which means we already have hit them first. I grunted as we trekked around the house, looking near and far for the slightest disturbance in the weeds to give us a clue of where someone could have gone. The further we went from the house, I regrettednot staying back with the women. Tessa and Nina would be vulnerable if the bikers went toward the building.

Before I could suggest that we circle back and one of us stay, the roar of engines rose in the distance. One by one, the two motorcycles revved up loudly and then faded as they sped off.

“Dammit.” I lowered my arm, resting my gun at my side as we completed a full circuit around the house.

“She said she saw them where?” Franco asked.

“The kitchen windows,” I replied, leading them back toward that wall.

“They know we’re watching them,” Franco said as we looked around the area where Tessa spotted the men. “Even though our spies are hiding the best they can, those bastards have to know that we’re preparing to annihilate them.”

“Them and the Giovannis,” I added.

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