Page 78 of Marcellus: House of Drakos
“Me, Alex, and Oz will go,” said Marcellus.
“What about me?” asked Scottie.
“No,” said Marcellus. “You hold down the fort here. That means he’s in charge, Olivier, not you.”
“No problem,” Olivier said, although they all knew it was.
“Just the three of us will go,” said Marcellus.
“So who are you?” asked Niko. “The Three Musketeers?”
“No,” said Alex Drakos. “Three brothers.”
The room went still. It was as if, by Alex Drakos acknowledging publicly the blood kinship, a shift had occurred. And Alex and Oz went from being hated outsiders to family.
“But what if she’s not at her house?” asked Freddy.
Marcellus exhaled. “Then we’ll be right back where we started from. At least this is something to try. Pray she’s there,” he added.
And Freddy nodded. But Marcellus could see the fear in his big eyes. “We’ll bring her back home, Fredrick. Don’t doubt that.”
“I won’t, Daddy,” Freddy said, although that look in his eyes said different. He and Kalayna were very close. Their mother saw to that.
“We need to get prepared,” said Alex. “Are you armed?” he asked Marcellus.
“To the teeth,” said Marcellus. “Follow me.” And Alex and Oz did just that.
And everybody else settled back down for the ride.
But for Savannah this whole time felt like a bumpy ride. She wondered, not for the first time, if she should get off now before it was too late. But she thought about Marcellus. He was worth every bump.
She instead called for the chef to serve some food. She, for one, was hungry. And as it turned out, so was everybody else.
And Chef, approved by Bernard, went to do exactly as Savannah had ordered.
Which shocked the baby mamas. “We asked to be served earlier,” said Juliet, “but we were rebuffed by you, Bernard, as if it wasn’t our place. But you had no problem taking orders from her?”
“That’s correct madam,” Bernard said without hesitation. “Mr. Drakos has made it clear to myself and the entire staff that Miss Richardson, whenever she’s in any home he owns, is the lady of the house.”
Kari smiled. Savannah, who had no idea such a directive had been issued, did too. Bernard inwardly smiled as he left the room. He didn’t care for any of those so-calledbaby mamas.
But smiles didn’t last long when they heard the front door close and the men leave.
Nobody was smiling then.
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
Under cover of darkness, the SUV stopped two blocks from Kalayna’s house. Marcellus, Alex, and Oz made their way along the back alley, behind an eight-foot wooden fence, to the back of Kalayna’s backyard.
As soon as they got back there, Marcellus pulled out his phone and made the call. “We’re in place,” he said in a low tone. “Do it now.”
Then he ended the call, nodded to Oz, and Oz placed his hand on the back gate outside of Kalayna’s property, and waited for the signal.
On the street on the front side of Kalayna’s home, a silver SUV pulled from the curb at the southern end of the street just as a black SUV pulled from the curb on the northern end of the street. Both SUVs sped up with increasing speeds until they collided into each other with a crash so loud that it reverberated throughout the quiet neighborhood.
As soon as the collision was heard, Oz swung open the gate and he, Marcellus, and Alex, their assault-style weapons ready, ran across Kalayna’s backyard to the backdoor.
As soon as the collision was heard, Zorbo, who had fallen asleep on the couch in the den, was awakened by the sound of a collision. It startled him so that he nearly jumped to his feet. Even Kalayna, who was still wide awake and had not fallen asleep, was startled.
