Chapter 49

AVERY

Avery was cursing herself for being such a bonehead as she hit the steering wheel. She hadn’t latched the door properly and ran the battery down while she was inside the mall.

It had only been a few hours, but she knew the battery was old and on its last leg. Justin was trying to get her to get rid of the thing and get her something different, bigger since she would soon have car seats.

She kept putting it off, and now she knew when she called him, he was going to tease her relentlessly.

She got out of the car, pushed his name on her phone, and waited for him to answer.

“Hey, baby, everything okay?” he asked.

“Well, I, um, am at the mall getting some things and now my car won’t start,” she admitted.

Justin chuckled. “You know what I’m going to say, right?”

“Yes,” she said, rolling her eyes. “But we can talk about that when you get back tomorrow from your run. Can you call a tow truck for me?”

“Sure, baby. I will have Cole come meet you until Jasper can get there with a truck. Is that okay?” Justin asked.

“Sounds good. I’m gonna grab a soft pretzel then wait in my car. I’m on the fourth floor in the west parking garage, right by the food court entrance,” she explained.

JUSTIN

“That’s why the soft pretzel is coming into the equation,” he chuckled. “You sit tight, be careful, and Cole should be there soon. Call me when he gets there.”

“Got it. Peanut, Lexi, and I love you!” she gushed.

“And I love you all too,” he answered, then hung up to see Cash already on the phone with Cole and Mikey texting Jasper. “Damn, you all are fast!”

They all laughed when they hung up, then Cash said, “Cole will be there in about fifteen minutes.”

“Jasper will take a little longer, about forty-five minutes,” Mikey replied.

“Good, thanks. Now let’s watch this shipment get loaded so we can go home,” Justin said.

They watched as the forklifts moved the large wooden crates marked ‘fragile’ onto some trucks to head in different directions.

The guys had to give it to the Bianchis, they had a slick deal going. It was impressive.

If things continued this well, they had talked informally about becoming partners with them if they could move some things around and free up men.

They didn’t see the small group of masked men moving around the side of the warehouse with guns drawn.

AVERY

Avery was licking her fingers clean from the butter and salt as she leaned against her car about fifteen minutes after hanging up with Justin.

She heard a truck pull up behind her, and Cole jumped out, coming to hug her.

She really did love him like one of her brothers. “Thanks for rescuing my butt!”

Cole laughed. “No problem. So in, what, three days you will have a new car?”

Avery rolled her eyes. It was very well known that Justin hated her tiny car, and it didn’t help that Matteo and Luca sided with him.

Really, no one aside from Lexi, Ryan, and Kiki could fit inside. All the other people were too tall.

“I’ve been trying to hold off for a bit longer, but I think this will push him over the edge,” she admitted.

Before she could say anything else, a black van squealed to a stop right behind her car, and three men jumped out, with masks on, leveling guns at them.

Avery gasped. Cole pushed her behind him and whispered, “You do everything I say the second I say it.”

Avery was frozen. She heard what he said, but it somehow didn’t register in her brain.

“I need you to come with me, Mrs. Mariner, and no one will get hurt,” a raspy voice demanded.

“She’s not going with you,” Cole spat back, and grabbed Avery’s hand in his.

“Don’t be a fool, boy. A little birdie gave us the intel we needed to get to you. Now just come with us and we can get our little party started.

“We just need something from your husband, and you are the quickest way to get to our goal,” a different voice explained.

No one moved except Cole, who pulled Avery closer to his back.

One of the men sighed. “I can see you don’t want to play this the easy way. Fine, this is on your heads.”

Avery didn’t know what he meant, then someone came from behind and grabbed her, making her scream. The man put a rag over her mouth and she struggled to get free.

She felt a needle prick on the back of her neck and immediately started to feel drowsy. She was being carried to the van when she heard her name screamed and Cole lunged to grab her back.

The last thing Avery saw before the drug took over was Cole falling to the ground after being shot and the van doors closing.

JUSTIN

“What the fuck is going on?” Justin yelled as they took cover behind some parked cars when the masked men started shooting around them.

They weren’t hitting anything, they just wanted them to take cover, and Justin was pissed.

“No clue what is happening!” Mikey yelled back, protecting Justin as the sergeant at arms.

The men had taken cover as the pops of gunfire kept them pinned down, making them angrier as the seconds flipped by. They each had gotten off a few rounds in return, but that was it.

Justin was very thankful that they had the whole back of the very large, but barely used warehouse complex for their business. No one would call the police at the sound of the guns.

“I’m getting damn sick of this shit!” Pete, one of the men that drove the transport truck down, said.

“You know it!” Trey, an older guy that drove another truck down, yelled back.

And just as Mikey had developed a plan on how to respond, the shots stopped and the men ran back to their vans and drove off. Everyone slowly got up and looked around in shock.

“Everyone whole?” Mitch shouted out.

They all replied yes and watched Justin double-check his brothers. Once he saw that they were whole, they went over to the cargo crates and saw they were riddled with bullet holes.

The wine bottles inside had been hit and were leaking all over the ground.

“Fuck!” Justin spat. “Someone call Luca and tell him what the hell happened. And Stevo, start getting video feed and surveillance to find out who these fuckers were!”

Everyone jumped into action. Pete and Trey got on the forklifts and started moving the crates inside the building until their counterparts could take care of them.

Mitch’s phone rang just as they started, and Justin watched as his best friend’s face paled and he looked straight at him.

“What?” Justin asked, getting a pit in his stomach. Mitch held up a finger as he continued talking.

Justin waited and was about to lose his temper and demand answers when Mitch finally hung up. The look on his face had the others stopping and coming over to hear what he had to say.

“That was Rico. Justin, something happened,” Mitch started.

“What are you talking about?” Justin demanded, feeling the pit get bigger. “Is it Lexi?”

Mitch shook his head. “This was a diversion, Prez, to distract us.”

“What do you mean?” Cash asked cautiously. “What was their real target?”.

“The target is us,” Mitch said, “but… Shit, Justin, they took Avery. Cole was trying to defend her and they shot him. Jasper found him and Cole told him what happened.

“Cole is on his way to the hospital, took a slug in the gut. But Avery is gone.”

Justin heard what he said and felt everything in him explode. He screamed as loud as he could, “FUCK!”