Dating the Don (Savage Crime Lords #1)

Chapter 22

CHAPTER 22

CRISTIANO

“What?” The word tumbles from my mouth before I can stop it.

Maeve digs her heels in. Physically and metaphorically. “I have come this far, I’m not leaving now.”

For a moment, I have a lapse in sanity. “The guards will have been alerted that I have just broken their window. Their people will be mobilized and you’re still on this same trip?”

I wasn’t going to throw her out of the window. That would risk her getting hurt. I will not do anything that will possibly allow her to get hurt any more than just her being here already has. Al is likely already on his way up to that ledge in the first place. I might be good at hand-to-hand situations, but I’m not that good.

“You’re not going to exclude me from this, Cristiano! You shouldn’t have come here at all if you think that?—”

I grab her face firmly by the chin to stop her talking. I pull her close and kiss her on the lips. “Stop talking. If you want to argue about this later, fine, but right now we have a situation to handle.”

She looks like she’s about to argue again. I can see her familiar temper flaring up and ready to spew more nonsense that she doesn’t understand. Somehow, I don’t think that she fully grasps the reality of the situation that she’s found herself in. I don’t think she properly grasps that if this goes wrong, all of us could die. Right here and now. We could be killed.

The bedroom door is kicked open just as I'm lifting the window,and Al swings up through it. I grab my gun and drag Maeve behind me right away. Just before Al charges at the remainders, I take out the one on the far right. Quiet and efficient so that we can save as many bullets as possiblefor the fight that’s about to go down. Three men down, no telling how many more to go. I’m sure that they will be alerted to the threat quickly. Even if Maeve did come here of her own volition, it would be silly to assume that she did so rather than having her serve as a kind of Trojan horse for me.

I watch as Al checks the hallway and clears it in a militant fashion. Just as he should.

I move to follow him out of reflex. I’ve trained with Al for so many years that it’s only second nature to move as a unit with him. But before I can get even a single step forward, Maeve grabs my arm.

I shake my head. “Absolutely not, you need to stay put. We will be right back.”

“I don’t need anything! I’m not some doll that you get to put up on a shelf until I’m useful to you Cristiano! I’m coming with you! You can either take me with you as part of your team or you can deal with the consequences later! This is just as much of my revenge as it is yours!” Maeve shifts her weight to one foot and crosses her arms over her chest.

Stubborn streak a mile wide.

“It’s not safe. I don’t need you to get in my—” I stop before I finish the sentence because I know good and damned well how it will backfire on me if I don’t.

“Get in your way? Are you kidding me right now?! Do you think that I’m just some damsel who needs to be saved?”

I groan in frustration. “We do not have time to argue about this. This needs to be handled swiftly. You are not trained. You do not know how to move as a unit, Maeve, and I say this with as much kindness as the situation will allow, but you will be a liability if you move incorrectly.”

Maeve steps into my space, lifting onto her toes so that she can snarl in my face. “Then listen to me, Cristiano. I am no damsel. You are not the one to save me. If you get in my way then….” She trails off, fury in her eyes. I see the threat for what it is. It’s not a physical one. “I had a plan, you know! I had a plan! Before you came in here guns blazing like a jackass! I am here because I wanted to be!”

I blanch slightly.

I shouldn’t have underestimated her. I should have given her more credit, that’s for sure. I suppose I was expecting her to be somewhat grateful that she had backup. If she had told me her plan… well, I would have stopped her.

“I thought we had reached an agreement last night,” I answer with a sneer of my own.

“No, you thought that you were getting your way! You do not get to control me, Cristiano! Ada and your mother might be fine staying in that house behind the front lines, but my eyes are open now. You can’t keep me out of the action because you’re scared to lose me. If I need training, then train me. But you’re right, we don’t have time for this now.”

My mouth snaps shut.

She’s right. She’s her own woman. Given that her temper is something that has always appealed to me, I can’t try to blot out her light now. I have to give credit where it’s due. I needed a fierce woman at my side to help me lead this clan. I can’t expect a wallflower to stand by my side and make the hard choices. I’ve never been subscribed to the idea of a traditional housewife. Maeve has always been so much more than that, and I want her to be.

“Fine,” I acquiesce. “One chance.”

Maeve smirks. “If that’s your version of an apology, it’s a shitty one.”

“Would you rather I get on my knees?” I smirk back.

The answering look that she gives me warms my blood. We don’t have time for the things that expression implies.

“I think I will have you on your knees, Cristiano, as soon as I finish this job,” Maeve hands out her hand for one of my guns. “You better show me that you’re truly sorry. I want actions. I want you to stop that toxic bullshit and thinking that I’m going to wait for a prince charming. Which, you are charming, but you are not that.”

In spite of myself, I smirk.

She’s right after all. Whether I like it or not, she’s right.

I pull out my extra gun and hand it to her. “Do you even know how to use it? It’s loaded.”

Maeve shocks me then. She instantly checks the chamber and the clip to ensure that it’s in working order, just like I would expect any of my men to have done. She winks at me mischievously when I am struck speechless by her actions. “What?” her grin widens. “Don’t tell me you actually think Ada and I go clubbing on our girls’ nights?”

Yes, that’s exactly what I thought she was doing.

It’s a hell of a lot more attractive than I want to let on at the moment.

“Are you just going to keep gawking at me all morning or are we going to go and get this done?” Maeve answers as she holds the gun out in front of her, keeping it low as she heads toward the door.

“Remind me to talk about this at a later time,” I say as I follow her out of the room. At least I know that if I’m behind her, I can cover her back at all times. “Did you at least remember the way that you were led up here?”

Maeve casts a bitter glance over her shoulder as she follows the direction Al headed in just a second ago.

“Do you have any idea how many men are in here?”

“Keiran and my father for sure, plus a dozen or so men from what I saw, standard security like what you have at the estate I think,” Maeve shrugs.

“Well, that’s better than it could be. I had only been expecting to find Keiran here, but it looks like we’re going to kill two birds with one stone at the very least.”

“Kieran’s father has to be here somewhere too.”

It makes sense that Hugh Doyle would be here but something in my gut tells me that it would be entirely too simple to have everybody that I want dead the most in one place at one time. There has to be a catch. Something about this has to be a trap. I learned from my father very well and I know from personal experience that if it appears too good to be true, then that’s because it usually is too good to be true.

I would venture to say that is doubly true for cases of revenge like this.

I never thought that I would be placed in a situation where I might hesitate to get revenge for what was done to my father. That final kill, Hugh Doyle. The man behind every moving part that I’ve been missing over the last handful of years, so close to being done.

I just have to make sure that neither of us gets sloppy.