Eagle Elite: Elicit Part 9

Ten million. The number may as well have been written on my forehead.

d.a.m.n, they were going to have to do better than that.

I had two choices.

Let the chips fall.

Or maneuver each chip for my own purpose-for the family, for Mo, for blood.

The problem? I wouldn't come out looking like the hero, but the villain. In fact, I was pretty sure that if I took that step... if I stopped hiding in the shadows, I'd end up shot.

Dead.

Buried.

I looked back down at my phone, my heart hammering in my chest. If I did nothing, she was as good as dead, they all were. It would only be a matter of time before things came to a head.

Maybe not this month, maybe not next month-h.e.l.l, it could be a year before things progressed.

But again, the ending was always the same.

"Mo," I whispered touching the screen with my fingers, caressing the gla.s.s because the last time I touched her face, she'd pulled away, taking my heart with her.

The only time she'd given in to me -given in to us, was because she was angry at him.

I was her best defense then.

I was her best defense now.

"d.a.m.n it. "I closed my eyes and allowed myself a brief moment to imagine what freedom would be like. I could run away, knowing that each step I took was stained with the blood of my family.

Of the girl I've loved since I was five.

So, with shaking hands, I lifted the phone, dialed Nixon's number and said the words I never thought I'd utter again.

"What?" Nixon barked into the phone. "Everything good on your end?"

"I'm in."

"Sergio..."

"I'll lock up everything tonight, meet you at the house, stay as long as you need... time to retire the ghost, brother."

Nixon cursed, the phone went silent for a minute. "You do this, you make yourself a target. You've been in hiding for a reason, Sergio."

"Let me worry about it." My stomach clenched. "I'm back, get ready, a s.h.i.+t storm's coming and I'm pretty sure the wind's blowing straight from Sicily."

"Right." Nixon sighed. "I'll be waiting at the house."

"Okay." I pressed end, slowly dropping my phone to the counter. It rang, once, twice, three times.

I answered on the fourth, not bothering to say h.e.l.lo.

A voice rasped in my ear, "I will come for you. I promised I would if you ever showed your face again."

"Fine." I barked as dread filled my stomach. d.a.m.n I worked way too hard to protect a family who hated me so much. "What's the worst that could happen, Pops? I get shot?" No sooner had the words left my mouth, then the mirror in front of me shattered falling to the ground in slices of discarded gla.s.s.

A second gunshot rang out, ripping the leather from the couch.

I sighed, bored with his games already. And funny, they'd just begun.

"Tell Don that his shot is off by a half inch, I'm still standing. Oh, and next time you shoot at me, at least hit something worth shooting. I hate wasting ammo. So should you, considering I have all the family money and you have, what? Five dollars to your name? Then again, that's what happens when you make a deal with the feds. Tell Ma hi. Oh, and Pops?"

My father cursed wildly on the other end. "Do not call me that!"

"Good to hear from you." I grinned and ended the conversation. Yeah, I'd made my choice, it was probably the wrong one, but h.e.l.l, at least it would be entertaining.

The house was silent as I locked up, setting the security cameras so I could monitor what went on in my absence. I grabbed the keys to my BMW coupe and felt nothing.

No remorse.

No fear.

But perhaps... I looked down at my phone, a bit of regret.

Regret because she wasn't mine to protect. But I was going to do it anyway.

Regret because I was going to make her life h.e.l.l by trying to prove to her that I could be good for her.

After all, she didn't even realize that Tex was already a dead man, regardless of whether the planned worked or not.

He would always be a Campisi.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

Expectations are always greater than

we realize.

Tex SUNLIGHT STREAMED THROUGH the curtains, d.a.m.n near frying me to death and not making my headache any better. Cursing, I rolled to my side, trying to figure out where the pounding was coming from and who I had to shoot to make it stop. I officially had a hangover from h.e.l.l. As I rubbed my eyes, I glanced at the night stand. A gla.s.s of water was waiting along with two painkillers.

Mo wasn't in the bed with me anymore. Not that I blamed her. Lying next to her was torture anyway. Feeling the curves of her body. Even when I was too drunk to do anything about it? Sheer h.e.l.l. Swear, I almost grabbed my gun and ended myself right then and there.

But Mo had given me such a loving look, and though I pretended to pa.s.s out. She'd touched my face.

d.a.m.n we were bad for each other.

Like an addiction we couldn't quit.

I wanted to put her on the shelf and walk away, but that's the thing about perfection. The sinner in you wants it so desperately, hoping it will make all the dark go away, that instead of walking away, like you should, you take it, you stare at it, and you devour it until there's nothing left. I wondered if Mo realized how much I was doing that to her... how I used s.e.x with her as a way to make myself feel whole, less tarnished.

Groaning, I rose to my feet, popped the pills in my mouth and slowly made my way towards the door.

I opened it softly and glanced down the hall.

Sergio was standing in the kitchen talking to Nixon in hushed tones. Mo was in the corner eating cereal, her eyes about as big as the Cheerios she was trying to choke down. Great, someone probably died.

Cursing, I stomped down the hall, fighting the urge to ram my body into Sergio's causing him ma.s.sive blood loss, and grabbed a bowl from the cupboard.

"Someone's not a morning person,"

Sergio said in low clipped tones. The fact that the b.a.s.t.a.r.d was still speaking with his slight accent, which frankly made him sound like a giant a.s.s, didn't help matters.

"Yeah, well..." I stretched my arms above my head. "I had these weird nightmares where I was holding a really sharp knife to someone's neck and then all of a sudden he'd p.i.s.s his pants. I never did see the guy's face, though he screamed like a b.i.t.c.h, had a slight accent, six-foot one, with the tattoo of a cross on his left hand."

Sergio rolled his eyes.

Nixon glared at me.

Mo coughed next to me.

"What?" I shrugged. "I can't share my hopes and dreams with you guys?" I poured the cereal into my bowl. "Some family."

"Ten million,"

Sergio said smoothly. "Makes you feel like less of a man, doesn't it? To think, that's the price of your measly little life. h.e.l.l, last year a made man went down for twelve."

"It's too early for me to kill you." I yawned and poured some milk into my cereal.

"You think I would let you?" Sergio chuckled, sounding amused as h.e.l.l.

"I think you'd have no choice." I chomped down on a bite of cereal, the crunch the only sound in the kitchen except for Nixon's teeth clicking against his lip ring. For whatever reason, he knew this was my battle not his. "And ten million is still ten million. Think of all the surgeries you can pay for after I rearrange that pretty face, hmm?" I pointed my spoon at him. "Now it doesn't sound so bad."

Sergio smirked, his eyes roamed from me to Mo and then back to me. "It's cute really... how you can't really take a hint. All brawn no brains, isn't that what people say?"

"Girls." Chase walked into the room and yawned. "Stop fighting or Mil's gonna come out here with a gun.

The woman's exhausted, let her sleep."

"Maybe if you didn't keep her up all night..." I laughed.

Chase held up his hand. "So dehydrated taking a p.i.s.s was like trying to find water in the Sahara."

"Details I didn't need to know,"

Nixon piped up. "Ever."

"You guys always talk about your women like this?" Sergio asked looking around the room.

"Actually," Mo said with a sigh, "this is tame."

I grinned. "Sharing is caring."

"No wonder people keep trying to kill you guys off... no respect." Sergio tilted his head at Nixon. "So, are we in agreement?"

"About the no respect?" Nixon crossed his arms.

"About me staying at the house."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" I pushed out my chair and rose to my feet, my hands clenching at my side. "What the h.e.l.l, Nixon!"

"Yeah." Nixon broke eye contact with me and shook Sergio's hand. "But the rules apply to you just as much as they apply to Tex or any single guy. Lay a hand on my sister without her permission and I cut it off."

"You didn't cut off Tex's hand."

Sergio pointed out, a smug grin plastered across his s.h.i.+t-eating face.

"No." I rolled my eyes. "He just shot me at point blank range. But hey, maybe you'll get lucky and get to choose when the time comes!"

Sergio threw his head back and laughed.

I pulled up the sleeve of my s.h.i.+rt showing him my wound.

He stopped laughing.

Nixon crossed his arms. "We understand each other?"

Sergio whistled. "d.a.m.n Nixon, you're a scary son of a b.i.t.c.h, you know that?"

"First compliment of the day."

Nixon shrugged and gave me a pointed look. "Tex, we need to talk."

"Dun, dun, dun." Chase sang.

I smacked him on the back of the head and followed Nixon into his office, wis.h.i.+ng like h.e.l.l I knew what had crawled up his a.s.s and taken root. The man never spoke to a member of the Elect away from the other members.