dad pushed my mother aside for work, yet I’m doing the same thing. I’d be pissed if my emotions weren’t being swamped with unease.
The crippling weight on my chest slackens when not an ounce of disappointment is heard in my mom’s tone when she replies, “I’m sure. Just promise me one thing.”
“Anything,” I answer without pause for thought.
Guilt rains down on me when she whispers, “Please be careful. My heart barely survived losing one son. I can’t lose another.”
I wrap her up in a firm hug before pressing my lips to the shell of her ear. “I’m not going anywhere. I promise you that.”
Recognition on how hard my vow will be to keep smacks into me when I give my mom one final squeeze before connecting Grayson’s call and squishing my phone to my ear. “Dimitri moved before we could. We have reports of multiple casualties.”
His words impact me like a punch to the stomach. I’m wholly and utterly shocked. “Dimitri agreed to wait. He fucking shook on it.”
“He got desperate. Can’t say I wouldn’t have done the same thing if I were handed the news he was.” He’s right. Doesn’t make it any easier to swallow, though. “We’re preparing to move in. You coming?”
“How far out?”
Grayson releases a chuckle between frantic breaths. He sounds like he’s running. “I’ve seen you drive. You could be here in ten.”
“That close?”
My stomach gurgles when he replies, “It’s practically in your back paddock.” If Castro is that close, my plan to catfish him with Isabelle was a woeful waste of time. No one lives in this part of Saugerties anymore. It became a ghost town not long after my family moved to New York, so Castro didn’t choose this location for no reason. He wanted privacy, and the many horrid reasons as to why he needs that privacy has me mentally suiting up for battle.
“Send me the deets.”
“Will do,” Grayson replies before disconnecting our call.
As I slide my phone back into my pocket, I pivot to face my mom, taking in Isabelle talking on the cell phone she refused to hand Hugo earlier. “I’m sorry—”
“Don’t.” Mom’s stern glare cuts me off better than her snapped reply. She doesn’t usually have the face to pull off snarky, but she’s got it down pat today. “Go do what needs to be done, then get back here. We have a lot to talk about.”
“All right. Thank you.” I press my lips to her cheek before lowering my eyes to her keys resting on the kitchen counter.
Smiling, she rolls her eyes before agreeing to my request to borrow her car with the dip of her chin. My trunk is filled with Hugo and Isabelle’s luggage. If the portions of their conversation I overheard while talking to my mom are anything to go by, they’ll want their belongings when Hugo forces Isabelle to the hotel I’m confident Isaac booked for them.
“I won’t get a scratch on it,” I promise while snagging up the keys and hotfooting it to my mom’s swanky new ride.
Much to my dad’s dismay, she purchased a brand-new Genesis G80 with cash so she could drive herself to her divorce attorney’s office. Its eighty-thousand-dollar price tag barely made a dent in my parents’ joint bank account, but my father is still demanding for the value of the car to be taken out of my mom’s side of the settlement before he’ll sign their divorce papers. That’s how cheap he is. He won’t give up anything of value. Fortunately for all involved, he has no clue just how valuable my mother is.
Eight minutes later, my mom’s car skids to a stop at the back of the surveillance van Grayson’s motorbike is parked behind. “I thought you were waiting for me to arrive?” I say to Grayson when the sound of heavy combat fire booms into my ears.
“That’s not us. It’s a turf war we’re about to break up, and we need to do it quickly. Word is CIA is honing in. If you want to speak with Castro before them, we need to move fast.”
I accept the bulletproof vest he’s holding out to me before joining him next to a table full of maps. With the CIA on their way, we have to storm the recently formed Castro compound via the front door. It’s the quickest and safest entrance point.
“Shoot to kill is activated, but the less casualties, the better. We want Rimi Castro brought in alive.” Grayson double taps his surveillance video. For a man