Page 65 of Brutal Queen

“Whether you intended to offend me or not is irrelevant. What Max De Luca cares most about is not his father’s legacy. His organisation affords him the freedom to explore his depravities, but what he wants, what he needs more than anything else, is someone who can withstand him. He needsme.” Her voice is steady and I know she’s right, but the idea of risking her in any way creates a pit in my stomach that’s threatening to crack me wide open.

“That’s a weakness we can exploit to our advantage. Not only am I going to make sure we take him out, but I will cripple the entire De Luca operation too,” she declares, making eye contact with every capo at the table.

“What about the rest of his assets?” Etta asks. “Aren’t there multiple smaller laboratories, and what about the weapons side of his operation?”

Gabriella takes this one. “That’s where I come in. Once we’re clear of all De Luca locations, I’m going to send everything I’ve got on the narcotics side of things to the authorities, with back ups to the press to make sure they follow through. Etta, it will be your job to be thorough with the clean up so when the feds dismantle the supply chain we can’t be tied back to it.”

“And the weapons…” Luc chimes in. “I’ll be absorbing them and raiding the warehouses, while the cops are busy dealing with the fallout from the raid on The Knights.”

Everyone goes quiet. There’s a few exhales of breath and the odd hand gripping the back of a neck before Leandro summarises. “So we hit the big targets hard and fast, lure a psychopath into a trap, rescue thirty women, do this all in record time so as not to alert the authorities and then coordinate a hostile takeover of his remaining weapons stores, while destroying the largest drug supply chain in the city?”

“Yes,” I say at the same time as Aurora, Enzo and Stefano.

“And when are we doing this?” Dom asks.

Looking down at her watch briefly, she then looks him dead in the eye and says, “In six hours.”

For a moment, I worry they’ll all start shouting out the myriad of reasons why this can’t be done, but to my surprise,they all leap into action. Some are pulling out phones and calling their deputies, mobilising them into action. Gabriella is already opening her laptop and barking out orders to each capo so she can coordinate their teams. Dante stands and drags his chair across to me.

“You and I need to hack The Knights’ accounts,” he says, dropping down beside me. I raise an eyebrow at him, wondering what he’s thinking. “If we’re going to be funding and rehabilitating their victims, then those fuckers can pay for it. Plus, if any of the pricks make it out alive, I want to make sure they have nothing to help them claw their way back into the game.”

Looking over to Aurora, I’m entirely unsurprised to notice that she’s been listening to Dante’s suggestion despite the loud chatter going on around her. She nods her agreement and Dante and I get to work.

Aurora stands, everyone stopping what they’re doing and looking up at her. “You have five hours to make this happen. Tonight we end this.”

CHAPTER THIRTY

NICO

Ihate waiting. And I hate how long Benny has been gone. How long does it take to situate and arm four sets of explosives? Don’t get me wrong. I love the plan. The plan is solid. I just don’t like the part of the plan that has one of the loves of my life sneaking around on his own, setting bombs, and trying not to get caught. That part of the plan has my knee bouncing in the footwell of the car.

“Would you calm the fuck down. It’s his job,” Aurora snaps, laying her hand on my knee and forcing me to take control of my nervous energy.

“I can’t help it,” I reply, turning my head to search for him.

“We couldn’t send him with anyone. Our presence here has to be non-existent until we get the go-ahead from Gabriella,” Sinclair pipes up from the back.

Enzo, Sinclair, Aurora, and I are positioned about a block south of the small industrial unit they’re running their lab out of. From Gabriella’s intel, this one is mostly where they’recutting and pressing pills. Still chemically volatile but less likely than their meth labs to go up like a Roman candle. Our plan may be to blow the place when we’re done here with some of Benny’s carefully placed devices, but we need it to be on our timetable.

Glancing at my watch, I note the time. We should be getting word any minute now. I swear to God, that man of mine better get his ass back here before it kicks off at the other locations or I’m going to tan his hide raw with half inch thick leather.

A large hand comes from the back of the truck and rests over my shoulder, squeezing hard. “He’s got this. He’ll be back soon,” Sinclair whispers, his timbre deep and reassuring, barely loud enough for me to hear. I pat his hand, unsure of how else to respond.

Before I can figure out what to say, there's a flurry of vibrations that pulse from each of our phones. Aurora opens the message first. “They’ve made their move. Communications confirm that they’ve called in backup. Now we just have to wait till they get there.”

“What if Max leaves them hanging?” I ask.

“Then Nico, my darling, we’re fucked,” she replies before letting out a long breath, followed by a strangled snort. “I’ve mobilised an entire army against Max De Luca in the hopes that his obsession with torturing me trumps his desire to keep a generations-strong crime syndicate running. What the fuck was I thinking?”

It’s Enzo’s turn to lean forward now and have his say. “You were thinking that you know his crazy inside out, and the only way for our people to survive him is to destroy him. You may have raised an army against him, but the difference is, everyone who stands beside you has faith in what you stand for.”

“Tell me I’m doing the right thing? Tell me we can do this?” she says, not taking her eyes away from the inky black shadows on the other side of the windscreen.

“You’re doing the right thing, hummingbird,” says Sinclair, reaching between the front seats and running his fingers under the slope of her jaw, turning her to face us all. “Whatever happens tonight, he will not take you from us.”

Another sharp buzz snaps us out of the moment. “It’s Stefano. His teams are in position on the other three sides. He’s just seen Benny doubling back towards us,” Enzo relays. His expression is sombre, like Aurora’s words are running rampant through his mind. I can see him in the rearview mirror, hesitating to find whatever words he wants to say. Eventually, he finds them. “Max De Luca dies tonight, Don Bianchi. Have no doubt about that,mia guerrierotta.”

Aurora turns in her chair and her gaze wanders between us slowly. “That man will die, I have no doubt. But I need your solemn promise, right fucking now, that it will not be because you sacrifice yourself to make that happen!”

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