Reign (The Italian Cartel #3) - Shandi Boyes Page 0,1

for a rampage hasn’t been this perverse since a handful of my father’s associates decided to test the authenticity of my threat. We went in hard and fast and without mercy. No one was spared.

As they won’t be today, either.

“Give me a sec…” Smith punishes his keyboard as badly as I want to punish someone’s face, pissed as fuck I made him work from Roxanne’s family’s ranch. Roxanne wasn’t lying when she said the cell phone service here was shit.

My wish to kill is the highest it’s ever been. It is brewing inside of me, warning that when it’s finally unleashed, it will be explosive. I honestly don’t know if I’ll be able to control it. It has been building for years, so shouldn’t it take just as long to dispel?

As the thirst for a bloodbath dries my mouth, another disturbing thought enters my mind. “How did they know Roxanne was wearing a tracker? No one knew she was wearing one. We kept it between the three of us…” My words trail off as pure rage takes their place. Although I have all my men on this case, one outsider was brought in. She left a couple of hours ago. “You fucking little snitch.”

Smith appears lost to who I mean, but Rocco clicks on remarkably quick. While dragging his hand over his clipped hair, he growls out, “She’s been under our nose the entire time.”

“Don’t remind me just how long, or I’ll kill her before we get any information out of her.” The roughness of my voice exposes I’m not joking. I am about to kill a friend I’ve known for years, and although her daughter’s baby daddy isn’t dead, the three consecutive life sentences he was handed down two years ago will make it seem as if she’s an orphan. That messes with my head even more than wondering what’s happening to Roxanne at this very moment. She’s unconscious, naked, and in the back of a van with a doctor who sells babies for a living and a goon with an unrecognizable face. I could already be too late.

Rocco’s deep timbre draws me from my dark thoughts. “Where am I meeting you, D? Harbortown Penitentiary or are we going directly to the source?”

My smirk tells him everything he needs to know.

“Directly to the source. I’ll wait out back. Make sure the pool house is empty.”

He waits for me to lift my chin in thanks before he hotfoots it to his ride, but not before laying his boot into the man now housing four of his personally selected bullets, though. He’s pissed he got the jump on him. Not as much as me, but for now, I’ll let it slide.

Time is critical in these matters. The verdict of me waiting until the deadline for Audrey’s ransom exposes how dire things become when you leave them to chance. I took a risk my family’s reputation would pull me out of the wreckage unscathed twenty-two months ago. I refuse to make the same mistake today. This entire operation falls on my shoulders. If I fail, it fails. I can’t explain it any simpler than that.

“Have Rico keep a watch on my father. Until we find out exactly who has taken Roxanne, we can’t assume anything. This could still be about the bounty on her head.”

I know it isn’t, but I’d rather be cautious, especially if it comes with less bloodshed on my side of the field. There can’t be change without chaos, but can there be chaos without bloodshed? Up until a couple of weeks ago, I would have said there was no chance in hell you can’t have one without the other. Now I’m not so sure.

I will protect Roxanne and Fien no matter what. I just don’t want my victory to come at the ultimate price.

2

Dimitri

With traffic light and my foot heavy, I make it to a ritzy family estate in a well-to-do area within a record-breaking thirty minutes. I want to say my blood cooled a smidge during the commute, but that would be a lie. If anything, it’s more heated since the tail a secondary crew had on Roxanne was lost.

The van they transported her in has been dumped and burned, and the cameras in the area aren’t controlled by me. They’re owned by none other than Mr. Isaac Holt, and his security personnel isn’t playing friendly. Smith has attempted to reach out to Hunter numerous times the past thirty minutes. He’s yet to be successful. I’m tempted