Mancini
“Glad you two could make it, come on in.” I waited for Flanagan and his wife to get settled in their seats after greeting the others. I could tell from the way Lyon was sizing her up that he was seeing the guy pinned to the wall by the arrow. We still had no concrete evidence that it had been her kill, but I’d put bank on it.
She’s really good at what she is and has never left anything behind. But because the organization has had eyes on her for quite some time, it wasn’t hard to put two and two together. I wasn’t as worried about that as I was her husband and the lengths he’s been known to go to-to protect her.
Only a few players were missing now that they were here since I’d already clued in the kids from Cali. It wasn’t time to bring them all in yet, but soon I’ll have to make the circle complete. Other than Lyon and maybe Arianna, there was one loose cannon left in the bunch that had yet to be brought in.
He shouldn’t be a problem since he already knew the score and has been active for a while, though he may not know the whole story. It’s his nephews I’m a little bit worried about, one of them in particular, but that can’t be helped. The end justifies the means, and after dealing with this bunch, I’m more than qualified to deal with hotheads. At the end of the day, all that matters to me is the end game. If I get Roman Blair and Catalina Lyon together in a lab, there’s no telling what they can achieve for our team.
It’s always been that the organization had people on every level that specialized in all essential fields. Whether that be medical, combat, security, or otherwise, in the past, there has been no shortage of men and women from every walk of life being part of us, and now that we were ready to come out from the shadows, so to speak, it was time to rebuild.
It hasn’t been easy keeping track of everyone over the years, though Wilson and the others had done a pretty good job of it. Some had been lost along the way, and there were others who though not part of our history, would fit in perfectly with the organization. Before we moved onto them, though, we had to gather the descendants of our original leaders, some of whom were spread far and wide.
Now I studied the daughter of one of our most trusted allies in the past. I’m pretty sure her uncle hadn’t told her anything about us, or about her mother’s involvement. He himself had not been involved since it was his sister that had been chosen to carry on their family’s association with the organization. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t know, but for whatever reason had left her out of the loop even after she became an adult.
“My wife tells me that you’re part of some secret organization, is that what this is about?” Well, well, well, what have we here?
“Where did you hear this?” I addressed my question to her but kept my eye on him.
“My uncle mentioned something about it a while ago, that’s where I knew your name from.”
“I see. And what else did he tell you?”
“Nothing much, just that there was something he needed to tell me about it, but he never got around to it. Why? Is there something I should know?” I felt the tension from the others and felt her husband’s burning gaze as I formatted my words.
I can’t have her going off half-cocked, so I need to word this the best way I can to abate any kind of negative reaction. Even though her dad and later her husband had gone to great lengths to protect and shield her and keep the worst of what she’s capable of from the public, I’m well aware of her capabilities and do not fool myself that being on this island would curtail her in any way.
“Did you bring your kids with you?”
“What the fuck, why are you asking about my kids?” Shane Flanagan flexed his shoulders and his men, his two brothers in law and the two men who’ve been protecting his wife since the two of them met came away from the wall.
I held my hand up to keep them back while mentally rolling my eyes. The guy had gone legit years ago, but I guess you can take the man out of the mob, but you can’t take the mob out of the man—a billionaire thug in a thousand-dollar suit. You wouldn’t know it to look at him. Then again, no one would accuse Colton Lyon of being anyone’s noble uncle, but there you have it.
“What I’m about to tell you might be upsetting, but I need you to hear me out and try not to lose your cool.” I finally turned my attention to her. It sucked that I was about to reopen a wound that I’m sure had never healed, we find it hard to hurt one of our own. But there is going to be a lot more of that in the not too distant future. Most of the men in this room will have a lot of questions once the dust settles and things start to sink in.
“The night your mother died…” She moved to the edge of her seat, and I saw the light change in her eyes. “It wasn’t a mob hit. Your mother was part of the organization. She worked tirelessly to protect the innocent and to bring stolen children back home. Our enemies used your dad’s lifestyle to take her out. They knew about the conflict between Rossi and the other mob heads and used that to gain a lesser-known family their bones as they call it.”
“You fuck!” Flanagan was out of his seat, ready to strike. I didn’t react, didn’t move to protect myself if he did lash out, and waved off Lyon and Law, who made to come forward. My guys knew better than to interfere; they also knew I could protect myself if it came to that. “You had to do this this way?”
He didn’t come after me because he was too interested in consoling his wife, who had gone completely still. I didn’t take my eyes off of her once. “Who?” It’s the only thing she said as she turned her dead like gaze on me. If I were a lesser man, I must admit that between the two of them, I would’ve pissed myself already.
JASON
Whoa, too intense for me, time to go check on my family and get the hell out of dodge. Geez, you could cut the tension in that room with a knife. As usual, when things got sticky, and my family was anywhere around, I always made sure they were safe no matter what safety measures were in place.
I saw my nieces and nephews running around outside, and the men and women Mancini had there to watch over them. Though there was no way for anyone to approach the island without being seen and the water was a good ways away from the house, there was no guarantee that one of the million kids they had running around here wouldn’t head that way.
I went in search of my sister and found her in a roomful of women. The whole place went quietly still as soon as I walked in, and I wished I’d have looked in before stepping in there. I swallowed hard and tried to backtrack, but it was too late. There were about four or five pregnant women in there, and maybe that’s why the air was so rife with hormones. I felt like a piece of meat.
“Ooh, a live one. Who’s this delectable morsel?” a redhead with a tummy out to here grinned my way, and I felt like a specimen in a petri dish. “Uh, Ash, just checking in to make sure you’re okay.”
“Ladies, this is my little brother Jason. Jason, these are my friends.” She went down the line like I was going to remember the names of almost twenty damn women.
“Little, huh, he doesn’t look so little to me.” That one comment started off a barrage, and that was my cue to head out. I left to the sounds of raucous laughter and hoots and hollers. One of them commented on the shape and size of my ass, and I couldn’t get the hell out of there fast enough. My sister didn’t even try to save me. I’m not sure she wasn’t one of the ones laughing like a loon.