Page 37 of The Best of Us

“Tomorrow is in an hour, by the way,” Izzy said as the sole light burned out. She cracked a glowstick, creating a neon hue of green between us. “See, I knew they’d come in handy.”

“Then by all means, sis”—I gestured toward the main street—“lead the way.”

Chapter10

Constantine

If anyoneever wanted to know if Hell was real, I could now confirm it was, and it was a place on earth. In SoHo. More specifically, in a crowded factory with electronic music blowing out my eardrums, neon lights flashing everywhere, as twentysomething-year-olds danced (jumped? gyrated?) around me. If one more girl half my age grabbed my ass or hit on me, I was outta there, leaving the mission up to Hudson and my sister.

“They’re all high as a kite,” I grumbled, assuming they could still hear me over comms thanks to the high-tech noise-canceling feature they came with. However, the DJ was testing the sound barrier, so maybe not.

I searched Izzy and Hudson out on the crowded dance floor. She had her arms over his shoulders, grinding up against him.Perfect.I rolled my eyes and looked away from the two of them.

“I still can’t believe you used to go to raves,” I huffed out. The fact that Izzy had once hung out in places like this while in high school, and I’d been a half a world away on a sub, made me physically ill. Being in this place was a harsh reminder of that reality.

“I don’t want to imagine Bella was ever at a place like this and not without one of us having her six.” Hudson was on the same page offuck that shitas I was, confirming they could hear me.

“That was forever ago when I was in high school, and I wasonlyat raves to dance and for nothing else,” she shot back. “Anywayyyyy.”

“Sure, you better deflect.” I shook my head, redirecting my focus to the VIP area and the reason we were there in the first place.

Daniel and his boss, Jamie, and a few other unknowns sat at one of the tables in the roped-off section by the dance floor. I needed Jamie to get his ass moving so this op could end, and I could go back to thinking about all I currently cared about—my son and my . . . well, the mother of my child.

I was two seconds away from changing my mind and returning to the original plan to snatch and grab Jamie so we could exfil when Jamie and Daniel finally got up. I shoved away from the support beam I’d been leaning against and alerted Hudson and Izzy to the fact they were on the move.

“Roger that,” Hudson transmitted back.

“They’re—” The words and the blood flow to my brain stopped at the same time. My heart needed reviving as well because that couldn’t be Colin on the dance floor, lip-locked with a blonde.

Shock had me tethered to the floor, forgetting how to be an operator with my son in a room full of people on drugs and gangbangers.

“We have him in our sights,” Izzy shared.

I was too distracted to remember the “him” she was referring to. The only “him” that mattered now was Colin.

“We have a problem,” Hudson said. Did he know about Colin? “Check the stairs on your left.” At Hudson’s direction, I forced myself to rip my gaze away from my son to locate whatever problem he was actually referring to. “That who I think it is with them?”

What the hell were the Irish doing with the mafia? I didn’t personally know the two men following our marks upstairs, but the ink on the backs of their necks clearly indicated they were in league with the Sicilians now running things in the Triborough area.

“What are we doing?” Izzy asked. “You think he set us up, knowingthey’dbe here, too?”

“Or are they the ‘you have no idea who you’re messing with’ people he was referring to the other night?” Hudson tacked on his theory, and Daniel’s interrogation now felt like five fucking years ago.

I barely remembered what Daniel had said to us in the basement. And as of right now, I gave zero fucks. Because my too-young-to-be-there son just punched someone on the dance floor.

No one stopped dancing or seemed to care that a fight had broken out.

After executing a brilliant palm strike to the man’s throat that I shouldn’t have been proud of but was, Colin fisted the guy’s shirt, snarling in his face.

My guess was the guy had bothered Colin’s girlfriend, and Colin reacted how I would have back in the day. Swing first, ask questions later. Hotheaded and overprotective.

“I have to handle a situation,” I told them over comms, already on the move.

“What situation? A different one than why we’re here?” Izzy asked as I stopped mid-pursuit when two other men surrounded Colin.

Not just any men. Sicilian mafia. What the hell did Colin just step into?

Colin was about to resist and fight them, but one of the assholes pulled out a gun. The man pressed the pistol to Colin’s side, and Colin immediately lifted his hands in surrender. It was dark enough that no one would notice what was happening unless they were trained to.

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