“That’s a lot more than one guy, Marco.”
“I know,” Marco hissed. “We’re gonna have to be stealthy about it.”
Rome groaned, mostly because he knew they were doing it whether he liked it or not, but also because he knew stealth wasn’t going to be possible in this situation.
They made their way outside, staying in the shadows as they tried to assess the situation. There were three cars out front and from what they’d seen so far, there were at least eight men inside the house.
“Where did he get all these men from? I thought you said he was doing this without approval?”
The look on Marco’s face hardened and he motioned with a tilt of his head to the house as he said, “There’s your answer.”
Rome followed Marco’s line of sight to the two men walking out of the front door. Rome felt his eyes widen as recognition sparked. Those motherfuckers.
Eduardo and Montez Brunetti. They were made men. Marco’s men. It was one thing for their business associates to turn on Marco, but this? Fucking insane.
Fuck. He’d trusted Eduardo. Had taken him to the container terminal. That fucker had been playing them. Playing him. He was so fucking relieved he’d decided not to trust anyone with Marco’s safety outside of himself and Neil. And Juno. He didn’t doubt Juno’s loyalty. He had no reason to want Marco dead. In fact, he had more reason to want Alvaro dead.
“Forget Alvaro,” Marco growled. “We’re taking out those traitors.”
Rome gave Marco a nod. They went back to the house they’d hidden in and walked out through the backyard which they’d come in through earlier. The car was parked on the other side, so they got in and followed the road until they ended up a bit behind the Brunettis. Marco kept a good distance to them as they drove, but Rome knew they’d be too cocky to even consider they were being followed.
When they turned down a road Rome knew well, his suspicions were confirmed.
“No,” Marco breathed with a shake of his head.
“Fuck. Marco…”
“Don’t,” Marco snapped.
Rome knew Marco wasn’t pissed with him, so he let it go.
Marco parked the car a few houses away from the one they knew Eduardo and Montez would be stopping at and got out of the car to walk there. They stopped at the neighboring garage, hiding behind it. Rome leaned out enough to see Montez looking through the small window in the next-door house’s garage door.
“Car’s here,” Montez said and they both unholstered their guns.
Rome leaned back and turned to Marco.
“They’re here to kill me,” Marco said.
It wasn’t a question. They were both certain now.
Montez and Eduardo went through the gate and they followed them as quietly as they could. Once they were in the front yard, they stopped and raised their guns, each aiming at one of the men.
“You have exactly ten seconds to come up with an excuse I might believe,” Marco growled.
The men froze in their tracks for a second. Then they whirled around with their guns out, but Rome and Marco were faster. Rome blinked with each shot he fired, the noise loud in the otherwise quiet neighborhood.
Rome stared at the men lying on the burned grass in front of them. The blood didn’t affect him much. The betrayal, though? That hurt too fucking much to even think about.
A creaking door had them both jerking their guns toward the front door of the house. Marco cursed and holstered his gun while Rome kept his aimed at Neil. The man didn’t seem to care as he had a shoulder leaned against the doorjamb, his gaze on Marco.
“I suspected someone might come for you,” Neil said, a slight tick of his jaw all the emotion he showed. “I didn’t much like finding this place empty and you not picking up your fucking phone.”
Marco crossed his arms and glared at Neil. “I don’t much care what you like.”
Neil straightened and walked with purposeful steps up to Marco. He raised a hand to grab Marco by the chin.
“We both know that’s a lie,” Neil said.
Marco clenched his jaw but didn’t say anything. Neil let go and took a step back, his gaze turning to Rome. With a sigh, he said, “Put the damned gun down, Rome.”
“I don’t take orders from you,” Rome said.
“Rome,” Marco said on a sigh.
Rome reluctantly lowered his gun.
“I’ll have this taken care of,” Neil said with a wave at the men on the ground. “Ain’t no one around here calling the cops, anyway.”
Neil was right about that. The people who lived on that road was either smart enough to stay the hell out of things like this or already involved and desperately trying to keep the cops away.
Rome didn’t want to stay, anyway. In fact, the only thing he wanted right then was Juno’s arms around him. All he wanted was to crawl into bed with Juno and hold him tight. So that’s exactly what he was going to do.
“Car keys,” Rome said and held his hand out.
Marco handed them to him with a frown.
“It belongs to the Kings. I doubt they want to be connected to this. I’ll take it back to them. I’m sure Neil can find you a safe place to spend the night.”
“Got somewhere more important to be?” Neil asked with a knowing look in his gray eyes.
“I just don’t want to be around you, spook.”
Neil shrugged. “Fair enough.”
Rome walked toward the gate, then stopped and turned around, his gaze on Neil.
“Anything happens to him and I’ll kill you.”
He caught Marco’s annoyed sigh, but he didn’t care. The gleam in Neil’s eyes had him narrowing his eyes at
