Luca’s pov
Thirty Minutes Before
“Don, we need to make a decision now.” Santino cautioned, flipping his gun in hand. “You said that Russian fucker gave you two hours, it’s been an hour and a half, we can’t wait any longer.”
I turned away from my living room window to glare at him. He was right but that didn’t mean I appreciated the disturbance. I took a second to take in the expressions of the other men present- Grigori, a few of his spies and my Capos, even Dante was here, leaving Gina back home in the safety of his assigned men. They obviously agreed with Santino but they weren’t as bold as him to point it out.
Not bothering with a reply, I went back to brooding, formulating ideas and discarding them in the same beat. Hating that no matter how I looked at it, involving Cara was inevitable. My mind was in chaos, another thing contributing to its disarray was the fact that Sergio was yet to arrive with Cara. It’s been over forty minutes since I told Dominic to contact him. And speaking about Dominic, he too, was absent. He’d disappeared right after giving some abrupt excuse of having to meet up urgently with our Columbian suppliers.
I didn’t worry about him, I didn’t have to. He was Dominic, he could take care of himself. But Cara… well it didn’t matter if she could look after herself as well or had an army protecting her. With her, I would always worry.
Sergio’s last text said they were stuck in traffic, the one before that said Cara left for Salato’s to see Diana. The commute from Salato’s to the penthouse was usually hectic as traffic was two times worse. It was plausible, reasonable to believe yet I just couldn’t shake up the feeling that something worse was up and Sergio was leaving it out. I’d tried to track down Cara’s location but she wasn’t wearing the tracker watch I got for her. Maybe I should track her phone instead.
“Don,” Santino pressed again.
I came out of my head. “I’ve thought about it,” I began, stepping around and going over to the vacant armchair reserved for me. “We’d have to dance to Mikhalov’s tune no matter how I see it.” I sat down and took a moment to scan the faces of the men. “He’s got my father, we have to make him think that we’re pliant.”
A few of them leaned forward in attention. “What do you say we do.”
I spared him a glance, his expression eager and waiting. I fixed my eyes on the wall ahead, mentally going over my plan one time before speaking. “We pretend.”
Santino’s face squeezed in confusion. “What?”
I faced him. “We pretend,” I repeated. “We make the bastard think that we’re doing as he asked and then we open a surprise attack and waste him and all of the men he brings along. No single one should escape.”
The men were sharing hesitant and reserved glances.
“Don,” Grigori tentatively began, his fists rubbing down his thighs. He cleared his throat. “That seems like a full out war.”
I said without missing a beat, my gaze unfaltering. “It is.”
A soft murmuring spread across the clusters of sofas.
I shut my eyes, wincing in irritation. “If you have something to say, spill it for God’s sake.”
“The plan is dangerous.” One Capo said.
“And so is everything we do.”
“A lot could go wrong.” Another piped up.
“Might happen, might not.”
“What if Alexei has predicted this and prepared a counter plan?” Santino asked.
“Then we make a plan for that. It’s why we’re holding this meeting.”
All of the men still looked unconvinced. “If you have a better suggestion, let’s hear it.” I bit out.
Grigori was the first to concede. “For this to work, we need to make sure the exchange is successful before we attack.”
I fixed him with a hard stare. “There isn’t going to be any exchange. I’m taking my father and keeping Cara.” No way I was going to let Alexei get his hands on Cara. Who is to say he wouldn’t put a bullet through her skull the moment he has her.
“We open fire the second we get the old Don?” Santino asked with an incredulous curl of his lips that pissed me off.
“Yes, that’s our golden moment.”
“But both your father and the Signorina would be in harm’s way. We can’t trust Alexei’s men to not aim at them when we open fire.”
A slow smile stretched the corner of my mouth. “They won’t if they can’t see.”
Everyone was looking at me in confusion for a second, then understanding set in. “Tear gas?” Santino asked. “Then we won’t be able to see either.”
I rolled my shoulders. “The tear gas is the distraction, we mark the Alexei’s snipers first, release the gas and take them out as Cara and my father are taken to safety. When the gas dissipates, we open fire on the rest.
Alexei would obviously have an advantage on snipers since he’s the one choosing the location and is going to be there first so that’s why our long range shooters are to mark his hidden snipers while we carry out the fake exchange, and they should be quick and precise since we won’t have the advantage of time. When the distraction starts, I want all of the sneaky bastards taken out.”
My gaze moved to Santino. “You mark the ones who’d be aiming at Cara and my father and make them your targets. After we deal with the snipers, we wait for the smoke to clear, then take out Alexei and his other men.”
I knew we’d be at a lot of disadvantage. Alexei’s snipers will have better covers than my shooters. It was all a game of precision and accuracy and I was betting on the skills of my men. I just had to trust in their abilities and hopefully we won’t all lose our lives to bullets.
Santino considered all I’ve said, his face grim and uncharacteristically serious. Grigori’s expression was one of thoughtfulness as well.
“Okay,” Santino’s face eased back into levity.
“Okay?” Dante asked him.
He shrugged. “A chance to smoke multiple men in a minute. Do you know what that would do to my portfolio? I’d be breaking my own record.”
“We should contact the pakhan now,” Grigori suggested as he rolled his eyes at Santino. He glanced at him vintage watch. “We only have ten minutes left to respond to him.”
The reminder grated on my nerves, infusing worry into it. Cara still wasn’t back. My plan might be finalized but I still wanted her consent. She was going to be bait, put in harm’s way and I wasn’t going to force her into doing it. Hell, I didn’t even want her to. If she refused, it meant I’d have to implement my far much dangerous plan but I’d gladly do it as long as she remained safe.
“While I do that,” I got up. “I want you guys,” I gestured to my Capos, “to assemble about seventy of our soldiers. We’d need that much for this operation.”
“Yes, Don.” They chorused.
“What about the Signorina,” Dante asked as I was about to head to my office. I needed to call Sergio again before I contact that Russian fucker. “When does she get here?”
When does Cara get here… that I had no answer soon and I was about to respond with a dismissive “soon” when a familiar male voice spoke behind me.
“She’s already here.”
I snapped around fast, meeting the faces of Dominic, Sergio and his men and “Cara,” her name left my lips in a coarse tone. She looked fine, very much and something in my chest loosened a bit.
“The star of the show finally shows up.” Santino joked like the joker that he was.
I paid him no mind, my hard gaze on Sergio. “Why did you take so long to arrive?”
Cara immediately stepped closer to her bodyguards, her lips parting, obviously about to jump to their defense but Dominic beat her to it.
“Traffic, Don. Also, some fucker crashed into another fucker and the two dickheads decided to fight like brutes instead of sorting shit out. Held us on the road even longer.”
“Yes,” Diana supported. I hadn’t even realized she was here as well. “You can look it up, it was quite huge.”
I ignored her, I ignored all of them. My eyes on Cara. She was looking at me pleadingly, silently urging me to believe them. There was also another thing to her gaze- concern, worry, sympathy. And I knew she knew about everything.
I stretched out my hand, “come with me.”
She obeyed at once, hurrying over to take my hand. I led her away from the living room and up the stairs to my office.
“Are you okay?” She asked once the door clicked shut, coming into my arms.
I smiled softly at her. “I automatically feel better now you’re here.”
I hugged her tightly for a moment, giving her time to relax before I launched into the serious matters. But she looked up at me, shocking me when she said, “I’ll help you bring your father back. All I need to do is go with the Russian boss right?”
The shake of my head was instant.
A sad smile appeared on her face, “it’s fine. I want to help.” She nudged me playfully. “You just need to save this damsel in distress later.”
I shook my head again. “No, Cara. You’ve got it wrong. I’m not exchanging you. Never planned to. We’re just going to PRETEND to. I have it all under control.” I can’t believe she thought I’d give her to Alexei.
Her beautiful face grew confused. “You’re not?”
“I’m not.”
The confusion slowly turned impish. “You’re going to trick him.”
I allowed myself a smile of my own. “I’m going to trick him.”
She kissed me hard and fast, breaking off to whisper, “tell me what I have to do then.”
I spent a few minutes informing her of the plan. I kissed her after that and vowed to keep her safe during the whole ordeal.
“I have to call Mikhalov now,” I said when it was exactly two minutes left for Alexei’s two hours to be up.
Cara nodded in understanding and she stood on her tiptoes to kiss my cheek. “I trust you.” She whispered then left.
I pulled out Alexei’s black phone.
“Salvatore,” the bastard drawled into that phone. “Just in time. Do we have an agreement or not.”
My fingers dug into my palm from how tightly I fisted my hand. “We do,” I said bitingly.
“Good,” Alexei responded irritatingly. “The old port, 7pm, don’t be late.”
I glanced at the wall clock across. That was in four hours. The fucker has just given me more time to plot his demise. I made sure to keep the excitement from my voice. “I hope there won’t be any funny games.”
Alexei snorted. “There won’t be if you don’t play funny.” He hung up immediately and I was left staring at the phone with hatred and dark excitement coursing through me.
There would be funny games, that I knew. And in four hours, we would all see how it pans out.