I’d been keeping tabs on my favorite nephew, but at a distance. He was young, smart, and still had time to escape this world. But keeping him safe while giving him some room to grow? That had been a balancing act.
With everything that happened to Rina, it had been far more difficult than I’d thought it would, to let him out of my sight. Even though giving him to Sapphire had kept him safe.
The Gomez Cartel was no place for the kind people of the world.
No place for a boy like Angel to live a happy life that he deserved.
Beau’s quiet words pulled me from my thoughts. “Yeah?” I asked, my voice softer than I intended. “He’s not getting in trouble with the girls, is he? Henley is rather beautiful and he’s mentioned Yumi, Yeva and Diamond a few times.”
It wasn’t like I thought Angel was going to be a player and run around breaking hearts. But I also didn’t entirely know what his thoughts about girls were just yet. Sure, he was fourteen, and maybe he wasn’t even interested in dating. But it was my job to make sure he was being smart and respectable if he was.
My job to make sure he took after his mother, more than anyone else.
“He’s fine,” Beau said, his eyes flicking to me briefly before returning to the road. “Keeps his head down. Stays out of trouble, but is the first to help when needed. He’s a smart kid and I think he’ll be happy with us.” He snorted. “And Yumi hates men, so the fact she even speaks to him is good. The same goes for Yeva; she tolerates him more than most of the others, and Diamond practically worships the ground he walks on.”
“And Henley?”
“They’re just friends. You have nothing to worry about. Like I said, he’s a good kid.” Beau paused. “I also think he’s been getting more into religion lately. So the whole playboy teenager thing you sound worried about probably won’t be an issue. He’s got more chance of being a priest.”
“His father was a whore.” I admitted. “Fucked around half the world and had more girls notched on his bedpost than there was in all of Vegas.”
“Is he a gangster?”
“He was.” I couldn’t stop my grin.
“Dead?”
“Nobody messes with my sister and lives to tell the tale.” My chest tightened at the thought of Rina. “Or at least nobodymessedwith her and lived. The same for thatpendejo.”
“Does Angel know?”
“Yes. I don’t keep secrets from him. He knew what his father was like and why I killed him, and he was okay with it.” I let out a slow breath, some of the tension easing from my chest. “I appreciate you keeping an eye on him, anyway.”
Beau nodded, a silent acknowledgment. It wasn’t a big deal to him, probably just part of the job. But to me? It was a lifeline. Rina’s death still weighed heavily on me, and protecting her son was the only way I knew how to make things right. I didn’t let it show—couldn’t afford to—but the relief was real to know I had managed to do one right thing by my sister.
I would keep her son safe, and I would always do that. From now until my last breath.
The hum of the engine filled the silence again, the road ahead narrowing as we neared the airstrip. My hand drifted to the Glock holstered at my side, fingers running over the cool metal. A habit. I’d done this kind of thing more times than I could count—raids, hits, firefights—but the anticipation still tightened my chest, sharpening my focus with each passing minute until we made it to the road near the airstrip.
It was a small, private airport, surrounded by nothing but fields and fences, the kind of place people like us used for smuggling, not commercial flights. A few low buildings andhangars dotted the horizon, lit by a few dim floodlights. It looked abandoned, but I knew better.
Cassie O’Malley was supposed to be here—or at least, she had been. And if she wasn’t, then ideally someone I could kill would be.
Beau slowed the car to a crawl as we pulled up to the chain-link fence that surrounded the airstrip. The convoy of vehicles behind us came to a halt, the air suddenly thick with anticipation that fuelled me more often than not. My heart pounded a little harder as I scanned the area, taking in the empty runway, the low hum of distant engines, and the faint smell of jet fuel hanging in the air that seeped through the slightly cracked car window.
“Looks like we missed her,” Beau muttered, his voice tight with frustration. His eyes scanned the airstrip, sharp and calculating. “No plane in sight.”
I cursed under my breath, gripping the handle of the car door. “The bitch is slippery, but there’s no way she left this place clean; she should have landed barely thirty minutes ago.”
Before Beau could reply, I saw them—figures moving in the shadows near the far end of the airstrip. A few dozen men, Vice Kings presumably, still milling around. Some were unloading crates from cars, others hanging back, smoking cigarettes and talking like they had all the time in the world.
“There are men still here,” I said, my voice low, the edge of violence already creeping into my tone. “Cassie might’ve slipped through, but her men haven’t, from the looks of things.”
Beau’s lips twitched into something resembling a grim smile, and I knew he was thinking the same thing I was. “Then let’s make sure they don’t follow her.”
He opened the door, stepping out into the cool night air, his gun already in hand. I followed, my boots crunching against the gravel as I joined him. The rest of our people were already pilingout of their vehicles—his Red Diamonds soldiers fanning out in tight, disciplined formation, while my men moved with a kind of quiet, lethal efficiency that I always expected from them.
After I muttered orders to my men, and Beau did the same for his, I took a deep breath, steadying myself. I’d killed plenty of people in my life, but I didn’t relish it. This was business—necessary, brutal, but business all the same. But a part of me was excited for the sheer fact that I was getting rid of people who didn’t deserve life.
