big fat summer wedding with all the family if she helped me out tonight, so here we were.
She wrapped her arms around my neck and laughed loudly as we began to dance and I subtly sent messages to Rocco and Enzo, pointing out the positions of the men I’d spotted so that they knew where to direct our people. Groups of excitable partiers soon appeared as if randomly, some of them sporting masks with huge plumes of feathers which concealed the bodyguards’ views of our target as they stopped in the perfect position to block their sight of her.
It really had been nice of Duke to start squealing before he died. He’d told us all about Winter’s identity before he’d kidnapped her and how he’d been paid to get a code from her which led to something important. He’d even been good enough to explain how her husband was one of the higher-ups in the Dominguez Cartel and how their family was supposed to be untouchable.
My own contacts within the Santiago Cartel had already informed me of the war taking place between all of them, though most of it wasn’t conducted on American soil. But it turned out that there were a few things they knew about their rivals and Hernandez was on their radar. They’d been only too happy to relay information to me about him, hoping that we might just kill him for them and save them some effort in the matter. Turned out he was working on a major import scheme which he wanted to run through the Sinners Bay docks. To do that though he really needed to have some political sway around here and it just so happened the mayor was looking for donors tonight at this big charity event.
Couple that with the fact that I knew full well that Mayor Hythe was up for sale because he was well and truly in our pockets already and it hadn’t been hard to assume that Hernandez would show his face. To make it even better, the mayor was big on family this year after his opposition was caught fucking a hooker on camera and cheating on his wife, so he’d made this whole thing a family event and put a heavy emphasis on spouses coming to support the cause with their wealthy husbands. We’d hoped that our guesses would pay off and the moment I’d set eyes on Winter, I’d known that they had.
My friendly Santiago Cartel buddies had also kindly given me a run down of the way Hernandez’s security detail operated, so I was pretty confident that we could work around them assuming this all came together. It wasn’t like we could just come in here guns blazing and take her back by force with half of the state’s police in attendance and the press taking photographs at every opportunity either, so we had to be smart about his.
Donna excused herself to the ladies room with a knowing smile and I made my way to the bar, stumbling a little as if I was drunk and taking a spot right beside the big stronzo who was babysitting Winter.
Nicoli’s girl wasn’t looking my way, her gaze skimming over the people at the far end of the bar instead as she seemed to be focusing on anything other than the guy sat beside her. But that was for the best, because the last thing we needed was her recognising me and him realising it before I’d had the chance to take him out of action.
The moment my ass hit the bar stool, a seriously hot brunette appeared at my side, leaning in close and whispering into my ear suggestively, being loud enough to be overheard by the henchman who cast a curious look our way as she begged for a taste of my cock.
Natalia had spent a week fucking me last year and she was one of the best I’d had, so it was almost tempting to really take her up on that offer, but then I remembered the way she’d started to push for more than just sex from me and I easily dismissed the idea again. I didn’t need that drama in my life. This shit with Nicoli and Winter was only proving it. Falling in love with a girl while I was in my line of work meant putting her at risk. And I had no intentions of ever quitting the family business, so why do it to her or to myself? It