Page 19 of Soulmate of the Mafia King
“What the fuck, Stan?” I said.
“Not Stan,” Mostafa replied.
A new round of goosebumps shivered over my skin. I’d forgotten the Egyptian agreed to meet us at the other location. “Where’s Stan?”
Killian whipped around to look at me. Carp clutched his gun.
“Next to me,” Mostafa replied.
“Put him on.” I made my voice iron.
Mostafa sighed.
“Right here, Tommaso,” Stan said. “Mostafa just has a better angle.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. Paige’s worry had me anxious. I shook out my hands one by one. “Then give him the phone back.”
Killian shook his head. Carp whispered something that made the rest of the men relax, at least a little. Stan was fine.
“Hello,” Mostafa said. “I told you.”
I waved his words away, though he couldn’t see me. “You have news?”
“Yes. Zahur’s contingent is approaching.”
Approaching. Great. “How many?”
“Too many to count in this light,” Mostafa replied. “Easily a hundred.”
A hundred. If Zahur employed several hundred people total, and they worked in shifts, which we had to assume they did, that might make sense. If I assumed he was stupid.
“Do you see Zahur?” I asked.
“No,” Mostafa answered quickly. “You may have been right, and he does not march with his men. You should strike while he is weak.”
The goosebumps rose on my arms again. I thanked Mostafa and hung up. The Egyptian had been nervous for weeks, but now he was a war-hawk?
“Are we moving?” Carp asked.
I shook my head. “Just a little longer.”
CHAPTER 15
STAN
“They are approaching,” Mostafa said from his position on a hill. “From down the street. Like a ship in the night.”
I tried to lean out far enough to get eyes on them, but the little Egyptian hissed.
“No! They will see you.”
We needed the advantage of the ambush. Even with all the men we had, Mostafa said Khaled might’ve leant some additional security. We had no idea what we were really looking at.
I put a finger to my ear to trigger the communication device Tommaso had suggested for myself and the two other platoon leaders for this big group. We were each supposed to target one door, just as soon as Zahur’s folks closed up.
“Alrighty, that’s the signal,” I said. “Start moving. And don’t forget—you open any doors without me looking at you, you go in a mass grave with the rest of them.”
It was the best plan I’d come up with for making sure the attack was successful. I knew we needed the extra bodies, but shit, I did not trust most of these hired guns. The two other leaders radioed in affirmatives, and I turned to my men. I couldn’t see Zahur’s people at the door yet, so we had a second.
