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“What’d you think about that?”
“I don’t know,” I admit, not sure why I brought this up. Maybe it’s just bothering me too much and I need to get it out. “I don’t think that’s my thing, you know? I don’t know if I could rebuild what my father built. I’m not even his daughter.”
“You’re his daughter,” Ronan says firmly. “Just because you’re not blood doesn’t change it. He’d hate hearing you say that.”
“You’re right.” I squeeze my eyes shut tighter. “I’ve just been feeling off lately, you know? Cut adrift and stuff. Like I’m lost.”
“You don’t have to be lost.” He says it very softly. I wait for him to say more, but he doesn’t, and I tilt my chin up to kiss his neck.
“I hope you’re right.”
He doesn’t answer. I’m not sure what I want him to say. It’s not like I can have a place in his family, even if that was something I wanted. I’m not even sure what our relationship means or whereit’s going. I’ve been too busy and too lost in my own issues to examine what we’ve been doing too closely, because I’m afraid the second I do, it’ll take away the magic we’ve built together.
Instead, I curl up tighter against him and breathe in his smell, and I let that be enough for a while.
Chapter 29
Ronan
Rocco hates the fucking plan. He makes sure to tell me every few minutes as we ride in a truck together through the South Side, going nice and slow, stopping at every stoplight, coming to a complete halt at every stop sign. Making a real show of it.
“It’s just gonna get me killed, you know?” Rocco’s glaring at me. The old Italian Capo is too used to sitting inside of his club and keeping his neck out of danger.
“You realize I’m sitting right next to you?”
“And you’re gonna get killed too then.” Rocco shakes his head, glaring out the window. “Fucking bait. That’s what I’ve been reduced to.”
I resist the urge to explain, for the fiftieth time, thatheisn’t the bait.
My fucking drugs are the bait.
That little detail doesn’t matter to a guy like Rocco. All he can see are his cars, his guys, and his ass in the seat next to me, and that means he’s the one in the fire.
He grumbles for a while, but I tune him out. I’m listening to the chatter over the radio. My guys are all in position and they keep checking in with each other to make sure everyone else is aware of their position. It’s very professional, and I feel a surge of pride. I worked hard to make these guys act serious when it comes to hits instead of like a bunch of jumped-up thugs, which they technically are. Now it’s paying off: we have a string of successful but dangerous operations under our belt, and I can’t imagine how this next one is going to go wrong.
It helps that Valentina planned it. I made sure she was nice and visible at Bloody Strike as we went over the details together. There was some grumbling, but I don’t think anyone can deny that she has a particular brilliance for coming up with these kinds of schemes.
“Lead team, check in.” I release the radio button and the static crackles.
“Lead team here, nothing to report. All quiet.” Niall’s voice sounds very calm. He’s the only person I trust to ride up front and he was willing to take the risk, but he’s in the most dangerous spot in this entire operation. I was tempted to throw Cormac up there, since if this went all wrong, losing him wouldn’t be the end of the world, but I’d rather not plan on getting my own men killed. Even if they don’t want me as their boss anymore.
“Keep your eye out. We’re in the danger zone now.” Matteo’s territory extends all through the deep southern part of Chicago,and he’s well known to hit any drug dealers stupid enough to bring product through his section of the city.
This has been in the works for a couple of weeks now. Rocco’s been loudly putting out the word that he’s got a shipment of pure cocaine coming through and ostentatiously looking for buyers. The only group willing to take on the full amount is a Chinese Dragons outfit running drugs and guns out of the southern suburbs, which means we’ll have to cross over a bunch of neighborhoods to make the deal happen.
And this particular Dragons gang owes me and my boys a bit of money, and just so happen to be willing to play along if that means it’ll erase their debt.
It’s a classic honeypot idea. I’m not sure if Matteo is aware of what we’re thinking, but there’s no way a guy like him is going to be able to resist a score like this one. My family has a reputation in the underworld for providing some of the best, most high-quality coke in the entire country, and I’m absolutely positive Matteo will kill to get his hands on a shipment of this size.
Frankly, I’m counting on it.
“Boss, this is Scout Five, we got some movement up ahead.” That’s from one of the flanking teams. They’re taking a route parallel to ours and keeping an eye on the surrounding blocks.
“What do you mean, movement?”
“It’s, like, a bunch of motorcycles, but not those loud fucking Harleys. These are like real quiet and smaller. Uh, Danny’s saying they’re electric dirt bikes.”
I curse quietly and tell them to follow close. “Lead Team, you have company coming.”
