“I will protect your son with my life, Sierra. I promise you that. Ian is here, and we won’t let anyone harm him. Call Ben and hold tight until he sends reinforcements. Call me back if you need me.”
I hang up without a goodbye, instantly pressing Ben’s number. I have never called him before, and I don’t know how easy he is to get a hold of. All our arrangements are usually done by text or prearranged the previous week. My heart is racing like a Formula 1 car as the phone rings and rings. Eventually, just before it disconnects, he picks up.
“Sierra. Is everything okay?” he asks before I have said a word.
Brief relief rushes through me when I hear his voice. In a garbled tone, I tell him what has happened.
“Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine.” It’s not really a lie even if my wrist is hurting, my cheek stings, and my throat feels scraped raw.
“It’s going to be okay. I promise,” he says in a calm voice that offers much-needed reassurance. “Do you have your gun on you?”
I nod until I remember he can’t see me. “Yes. I have it.”
“Get it. Keep the door locked and your gun pointed at it. Fire at anyone who enters unannounced. I am going to send men to you, and I’ll contact Frank.”
“If they get to Rowan, I—”
“No one is touching our son,” he growls, and I hear movement in the background. His breath sounds uneven, like he might be running. Muffled conversation filters down the line as he talks to someone I can’t hear. “Leo is talking to Frank,” he confirms. “They are in the car en route to your parents’ house. No one appears to be following them.”
Air whooshes out of my mouth in grateful relief. “If anything happens to him, Ben, I will die,” I sob, as tears spill out of my eyes and down my cheeks.
“Sierra. Listen to me. Rowan is safe. No one is getting past Frank and Ian. I need you to stay calm, sweetheart, until I can get help to you. Can you do that for me, Firefly?”
I nod again. “What about the dead guy?” I whisper.
“I’ll handle it. Just focus on protecting yourself until Alessandro wakes or my men arrive.”
A sob rips from my mouth, and I feel so cold. I think it’s delayed shock. “Okay,” I whisper, wishing he was here and not miles away in New York.
“Sierra,” he says in a gentle tone. “You did good. You did real good, sweetheart, and you are going to be fine. So is Rowan.” I don’t know if he believes it or he’s just saying it to stop me from losing my shit. “I am coming to take care of you. I will be there as soon as I can, and I will keep you both safe. I promise.”
“Hurry,” I whisper before hanging up.
31
BEN
“That’s organized. The helicopter will be waiting for us at the airport,” Leo confirms, placing his cell on the walnut table situated between us. Leaning back in the seat of the private jet, I swirl the bourbon in my glass, but I can barely stomach drinking it. I am sick with worry even though I know Sierra and Rowan are safe at her dad’s place.
I got my personal plane in the air in record time, and we should arrive at the Lawson estate in less than an hour, but it’ll still be almost three hours in total from the time of my call with Sierra before I reach her and Rowan. That is three hours too long. I don’t know what I was thinking leaving them there after the Russians were poking around last weekend. I should have insisted they return to New York with me, but I let my reluctance to have Sierra close impair my judgment.
Never again.
I will just have to learn to control myself around her because there is no way I’m leaving my family in Chicago after this.
“Are you sure we can trust Joseph Lawson?” Leo asks, sipping slowly on his scotch. “I know you don’t like him.”
“I don’t have to like him to trust him in this scenario, and it was my only option.” It would have taken me too long to get my own crew to Chicago. I needed someone to get Sierra out of her place of work ASAP because I didn’t know if the Russians had more men outside. “This whole thing is fishy. I know the Russians are getting more organized—their successful attack on Vegas proves that—so why send in only one guy?” Lawson called me after his men picked up Sierra and Alessandro to confirm there were no other assailants found. He also arranged for removal and disposal of the dead body.
“The guy could’ve gone rogue.”
I nod slowly. “Perhaps, but it’s not their latest MO.” The Bratva were notoriously disorganized until a few years ago when they started getting their shit together. They are definitely more structured now and a much bigger threat considering their numbers across the US rival ours. They snuck up on Vegas and snatched the territory right out of Salerno’s hands. No one noticed anything was amiss until it was too late.
However, that doesn’t mean they are a well-oiled machine and they don’t still have a few loose cannons running around with their own agenda. Maybe the guy planned to take my girl and use her to gain an in with the Bratva leaders or he needed to make amends for something and she was his meal ticket? Or he was acting on orders but instructed to keep it below the radar? I don’t know, and I won’t rest until I find out.
“At least they don’t seem to know about Rowan,” Leo says.
Air expels from my mouth, and I rub the tight pain in my chest. “Thank God they haven’t discovered my son; otherwise, they would have gone for him instead.”
“Or targeted both of them at once, like they did with the Vegas attack,” Leo says, accepting the sandwich from the flight attendant when she materializes at our side.
I dismiss her with a wave of my hand. I couldn’t force a morsel down my throat right now. She offers the sandwich to Ciro who is seated in the seat behind Leo, and he accepts it with a grunt. I’m not enjoying having a new bodyguard, but I can’t fault Ciro’s professionalism. He’s damn good at his job, but he’s a surly bastard, and I miss Alessandro’s easygoing manner.
I refocus on Leo. “It’s not adding up, and I’d like to know how they got to Alessandro and why they only drugged him.” Most mafioso would have used a silencer and put a bullet in his skull.
“He’s going to be so pissed when he wakes,” Leo says in between mouthfuls of his sandwich.
I nod because I have no doubt Alessandro will see this as a personal failure, and he will beat himself up over it. But that is the least of his concerns. This shouldn’t have fucking happened on his watch, and I want answers as to how he let himself be drugged. Maybe I made a mistake assigning Alessandro to guard Sierra. Maybe he’s having as much trouble as I am staying focused around her. The thought does nothing to quell the murderous intent swirling in my gut.
“What are you planning on doing when we get there?” he adds, stuffing the rest of his sandwich in his mouth.
“Getting my family the fuck out of Chicago,” I snap. My patience is in limited supply, and I have no time for stupid questions.
“Woah.” Leo holds up one hand. “I know you’re mad. I’m furious too, but I’m trying to help. We’ll find the bastards and make them pay.”