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“How many people work for you?” I realize then that I’ve seen or heard at least a dozen voices in this house, and only Luca, Jaxon, Justine, Damon, and Markus…well, and me, live at the compound.
He looks up at Jaxon, who’s been unusually quiet, but answers my question. “Currently, there are forty-three people we would trust to call on if all hell broke loose, but we have over one hundred that say they’re loyal to the Monroe family.”
Another thing I find interesting. The Monroe family isn’t made up of blood relatives like I would have thought when considering a mafia. Luca has made it seem as though he’s the last living member of his family. No parents or grandparents or anything of the sort. Not that we’ve talked specifically about it.
Maybe that’s something we need to chat about soon.
Jaxon’s holding a purse in his lap, and because I can’t help myself, I ask, “Why do you have that bag?”
He winks back at me. “It’s to hide the bomb in.”
I want to reply, but my voice is stuck in my throat along with all the air in my lungs. The bomb is in the fucking car. With us.
Mother fuck fuck.
Instead of sharing my displeasure at that, I stare out the window and watch where we're driving. I know even if I say something, nobody else sitting in the SUV will share my concern. Nor would any of them do anything about it.
I let the scenery of East Portland distract me. There are patches of trees in this neighborhood, and I sigh, not remembering the last time I got out of the city and enjoyed the quiet of nature. I’ll need to rectify that just as soon as possible.
Tori and I used to enjoy drives to the coast and checking out the tidepools, taking bets on how many starfish we could find. The loser always had to drive home, and after being under the sun all day, driving was a bitch of a task.
Plans are already getting made in my head, distracting me from reality. I’ll have Tori back, there will be no more secrets between us, and we’ll enjoy a girls’ day like we used to. Except this time, Justine will have to come. I have a feeling the two of them will enjoy driving me crazy and get along just fine.
Once Tori’s initial rage has faded, that is. She’s the more innocent, polite one out of the two of us, but I’ve seen when she’s truly upset. It’s something I’ve been equally fascinated by and terrified of throughout our decades-long friendship.
Markus pulls into a driveway, and the garage door opens. I glance around, even more confused. “Where are we?”
“A house that’s only three away from Titan’s and on the opposite side of the street,” Luca answers, waiting for the garage door to lower before opening his door.
“And the people who live here just happened to not give a shit about letting you park here?” I ask, seeing the garage is filled with random totes and a few empty shelves.
“Technically, nobody lives here now.” He reaches out a hand to help me out of the back seat. “I bought the house two days ago and everything they couldn’t move out within twenty-four hours.”
Once again, I’m not sure what to say to him. Just when I think I’m settling into this mafia life, unconcerned with murder, he continues to shock the hell out of me.
“You just…bought it and kicked them out?” I ask, not hiding my surprise.
He shrugs, leading me toward the interior door that Markus and Jaxon have already gone through. “I paid them nearly twice the value of the home. They’ll be fine. And when this is all over, I’ll turn it into a rental and eventually make my money back. For now, it serves the purpose of letting us hide out off the street.”
The words all make sense. Shit, they even have logic, and while Luca basically said he was a billionaire the other day, my mind clearly hasn’t wrapped itself around the fact that he just throws money around without blinking.
Sure, the compound, as the others call it, is nice, but there’s nothing overly fancy about it. In fact, from the outside, it looks almost a little run down and more like a business building with underground parking than it does a home. I guess Luca has certain places he likes to spend his money, and his home isn’t one of them.
When we enter the house, there’s a short hallway that dumps out into a kitchen with light oak cabinets, all of them open and mostly empty. The fridge and even the stove are gone, and I can’t see a single place to sit as I peek around for a dining table.
“I guess they know how to clear a place out,” I muse.
“We won’t be here long,” Luca says, moving to stand next to Jaxon who not only has a small explosive device sitting on the counter in a brown and tan purse, but also has blueprints laid out over the granite counters.
Markus points to a spot on the page, but I can't tell what it is from where I’m standing. “We need to come in around this fence and place the bomb under this window. It should be contained to a twenty-foot radius, avoiding the neighboring houses and damaging everything on the left side of Titan’s.”
I push up onto my toes, trying to read the blueprint, but having no clue what I’m looking at. “Where is Tori going to be while all of this is going down?”
“Right here in the living room,” Luca says, showing me, but on that paper, without a size reference, I have no clue if it’s far enough away. “We have someone watching her now. She has the same routine nearly every day. About this time, she’s always watching something on the television.”
I glance at my phone and see it’s just after eleven in the morning, then start to laugh. “Oh, that woman.”
Luca raises a brow. “Do I need to know something?”
