Page 97 of Above ’N’ Beyond

“You good?” Kade asked, coming up behind him and resting a hand on his shoulder.

“Yeah.” Inside, his emotions were a pile of bloody mush. He stared at the doorway through which Bella had disappeared. Every instinct he possessed pushed him to go after her. But he had to let her go.

Just before walking out the door, he’d seen the pain in her eyes. Pain both he and Paola had put there. The only thing he could do now was to not add more pain to her life.

Jax pinned him with a stern expression. Normally, he knew exactly what his dog was thinking. Not today. He could swear there was censure there, or maybe he was projecting his own feelings on Jax.

He swept his gaze around the room. In all, he and his friends had secured more than two dozen men in less than two minutes. The only ones not already cuffed or zip tied lay prostrate on the floor, totally compliant, with their fingers laced behind their heads. They were all mobsters. They all knew the drill.

He looked at his friends. Matt and Nick, Eric and Dayne, Markus and Kade. Not that he’d doubted it. They’d all been there for him, no questions asked. “Anyone hurt?” Jamie asked.

“Nah, we’re all good,” Kade assured him.

It had been Kade who’d taken the kill shot at Tony that had saved Jamie’s life.

Smoke, Kade’s Belgian sheepdog K-9, guarded the two prisoners already cuffed nearest to where they stood—Salvatore Palumbo and his consigliere, Dominick Escalanto.

“I’ll have your badges for this,” Escalanto shouted. “You have no reason to barge in here and arrest us. Where is your warrant? I demand to see it.”

“Jax, you look bored.” Jax snorted. “Keep Mr. Escalanto company.” He hitched his head to the red-faced consigliere.

Jax padded over and sat between Escalanto and Salvatore Palumbo. The second Escalanto opened his mouth to spew more demands, Jax lowered his head and growled, shutting the man up instantly.

Kade and Markus chuckled.

Voices came from the kitchen, followed by shouting and heavy-booted feet.

Smoke lowered his head and growled just as Special Agent Jenkins entered the room, followed by an entire cadre of agents dressed in perfectly pressed suits that screamed “Fed.”

Jenkins’s face twisted with rage. “What the hell happened? I told you we weren’t taking this down tonight.”

“Plans change,” Jamie replied calmly, using the exact words Jenkins had used on him. “Bella Bianco’s life was at stake. Paola Mancuso had just ordered her execution. Did you really think I’d stand by and let that happen?” Over his dead body.

“I told you before, this is an FBI investigation.” Jenkins had the stupidity to actually waggle a finger in Jamie’s face. “You don’t make the decisions. I do. Do you have any idea what you’ve done?” Jenkins shook his head in disbelief. “You just destroyed what could have been the most incredible bust the FBI’s had in decades.”

Jenkins’s team of agents crowded in closer.

The rest of Jamie’s friends formed a protective semi-circle of six-foot-plus men around him. Ghost, Markus York’s enormous white German shepherd, and Sheba, Matt Connors’s Belgian Malinois, took point.

Jenkins had the smarts to take a few steps back. “The FBI director will have both our heads. The U.S. Attorney’s Office will want yours on a silver platter.”

Jamie prayed for a non-violent solution that wouldn’t involve embedding Jenkins’s body in the sheet rock. He leaned in so neither Palumbo, Escalanto, nor any of the other men on the floor would hear. “Between everything I’ve got, plus what’s on those sim cards”—he flicked his eyes to a corner of the ceiling—“you’ve got enough to put Paola Mancuso and her entire crew away for a long time. Human smuggling, conspiracy to commit murder, money laundering. She ordered the death of her own niece. She ordered the death of a federal agent—me. And it’s all on those sim cards. You may not have RICO charges on Palumbo, but you’ve got enough to end the entire Mancuso operation for good.” Jamie took a breath to steady himself. “That was the plan. That was the deal. Not Palumbo. I got you the evidence to take down Paola, now you get my father out of prison.”

Jenkins snorted and gave a quick shake of his head. “You blew it, sergeant. You didn’t play by the rules, and now one of my targets is dead.” He tipped his head to Tony’s body, beside which lay Paola Mancuso, cuffed and face down on the carpet. “Now I don’t owe you a thing.”

Jamie curled back his lip. The heat that had been building inside him soared to an inferno, then blasted out the top of his head. He grabbed Jenkins by the shoulders, backing him up until his head cracked against the wall.

“You sonofa—” Jenkins snarled, but Jamie rammed his forearm against the man’s trachea, cutting him off.

“I get it. The only thing that matters to you are stats. Your panties are all bunched up, because now you won’t get as many arrests to notch on your belt as you wanted.” Including Tony Mancuso. The FBI couldn’t arrest and charge a dead man. “Either my father walks out of prison Monday morning, or you’ll never see those sim cards.”

Jenkins struggled in Jamie’s grip, but he was no match. “You can’t stop me from getting them.”

“Wanna bet?” From the corner of his eye, he caught his friends and their dogs moving closer. They had his back. Literally.

“You’re insane,” Jenkins spat. “Stealing evidence, assaulting an FBI agent in front of a room full of witnesses.”

A deadly calm came over Jamie. Family was everything, and he’d give up everything to save his. “Get my father paroled, or you have no case. I won’t testify, and every second of recorded evidence will disappear. Forever.”