“And how will you manage that when you have no idea where she is?”
“I’ll find her. You can count on it, motherfucker,” I hissed, ending the call before he said anything else.
There was no way I’d let him have the last word.
My brothers stared at me as I slid the phone back in my pocket. Maybe they didn’t expect me to be this calm about it, but for Elsie’s sake, I wasn’t going to lose my mind. Not yet.
I needed to keep calm and execute our plan to perfection. There was very little room for error here.
Killian walked into Brendan’s apartment just then.
“We’re good to go. You have Dad’s blessings,” Killian said to me. It was exactly what I needed to hear.
I couldn’t do this without my family’s support.
Everyone else stormed out of the apartment, gathering up the other men who’d join us in the attack. We needed to act fast before the Barons got wind of what we had planned.
They had been one step ahead of us this whole time, which meant our walls had ears. We knew that already. There were leaks in our system, clearly, which we’d deal with later, once this was all over.
For now, we needed to eliminate a basic problem—Aldo Baron.
“You sure about this?” Nolan asked when we drove up to the back of the farmhouse. It was four in the morning, a few hours before sunrise. The sky was a deep violet color and it was only because our eyes had already adjusted to the darkness that we saw the scene around us.
We drove for close to two hours to get to this particular farmhouse. We’d already checked a few other potential sites and none of them were the ones we were looking for. But I had a feeling about this one.
Especially because of how unassuming this one looked.
It was a farmhouse nobody would take notice of. It wasn’t swanky, and neither was it derelict. It didn’t stand out at all. Just looked like the kind of place a struggling farmer and his family would occupy on the outskirts of town, close to a river and a forest trail.
The others were in their own vehicles and we’d driven up to a lookout point at the back of the building where we hoped we wouldn’t raise any alarms.
“I think this is the one,” I replied.
Nolan and I stared out at the house. The others were all in their cars, waiting for my signal. Killian had made it clear to everyone involved that I was leading the mission. This was going to be my first time.
Nobody else in the family had led a mission at twenty-two, but my brothers had faith in me.
Nobody else had come this close to finding Aldo either, so I was rewarded for the work I’d done. Besides, I had a personal interest in this mission. My girl was in there and I needed to bring her out safely.
Nolan drummed his fingers on his knees and I sensed he was nervous. This wasn’t his first shootout, but it was a big one. We all knew what we had riding on it.
I picked up my phone and called Killian. Two rings and I ended it. That was the signal. Within seconds, all the men from the Doherty family and our backup would be crawling up through the cornfields and into the premises of the farmhouse.
We’d find Aldo Baron and his men inside. We were going to find Elsie in there too. There was going to be blood. A lot of it. Too many guns would be fired. Knives would be drawn and arteries would be cut.
Things were going to balance off the edge of victory. It would become difficult to decipher who won. Some lives would be lost on both sides. Some of my brothers would come close to losing theirs.
It wouldn’t be until the last moments of the shootout that we would find out Aldo had made his escape. Aldo had gotten away. Once again.
We would come so close to getting him this time, but it wasn’t time yet.
Aldo would still have some time to run free, but we would get him eventually.
Nobody was going to knock us down.
Shots were fired everywhere, and despite the darkness, everything lit up because of our guns. It was too loud to hear anything.
We’d breached the exterior of the farmhouse, despite the scores of men Aldo posted just within the walls. From the outside, there wasn’t any sign that the place was so heavily guarded. But they saw us coming up through the cornfields and rained fire on us.
But we were equally prepared. We were heavily numbered too and it was a close fight until the last moments.
Killian was shot, so was Brendan. Some asshole pulled a knife on Colin but all my brothers fought back.
By the time I broke through the building, charging down the narrow halls with guns blazing, I was covered in blood splatter.
I hadn’t kept track of how many people were injured or died because of the bullets I fired. I would’ve burned this whole place down if I had to.
I made my way through the halls, checking each room, eliminating every man who stood in my way. I came close to death more times than I could count. I wasn’t even sure how I made it out alive. But by the time I found the door to the basement, there weren’t any more guns being cocked at me. It was almost over.
I distinctly heard my brothers’ voices outside the building, shouting orders, rejoicing. But I still hadn’t found Elsie.
My hand shook as I turned the handle on the basement door.
“Elsie?” I shouted in the dark, rushing down the steps. There was a muffled sound and I knew it was her.
I pulled out my phone and turned on the flashlight. I didn’t have the time to look for a light switch.
Elsie was sitting on a chair in the middle
