Off the Record (With Me in Seattle Mafia 3)

I glance at Carmine and then Shane. This isn’t the first time someone infiltrated a wedding. I’m getting damn sick and tired of it.

“Who do you work for?” Annika asks.

Again, no reaction.

“Here, step back, babe.” Annika does as I ask, and I plant the business end of my fist in the asshole’s nose.

Blood gushes everywhere. He hisses a breath through his teeth.

“I’m about to start pulling off your fingernails,” Shane says calmly as he pulls a pair of plyers out of his bag. “So, I suggest you start talking.”

“Bullshit,” MacDonald sneers.

Carmine unties him, holds one arm, and I take the other as Shane steps forward and plucks a nail right off his thumb.

“Son of a bitch!” MacDonald screams. “You’re fucking crazy!”

“No…angry,” I reply. “There’s so much more that can be done to you before we let you die. You have no idea. You’re going to want to talk.”

“Who do you work for?” Annika asks again.

“I can’t tell you that,” MacDonald says, so Shane takes another nail. “I can’t! If I do, they’ll hurt my family.”

“We’ll hurt your family if you don’t,” Carmine replies. “Kind of a rock and a hard place, isn’t it? If you rat them out, people get hurt. If you don’t, people still get hurt. Either way, you’re dead. Thing is, we’re the ones dishing out the pain right now.”

Shane takes another nail.

“The McCarthys,” he wails.

I step back and shake my head. “The crime family in Boston?”

“Irish mafia,” Carmine mutters.

“I’m just an errand-runner. I don’t ask questions, and they don’t tell me dick.”

“Not a good place to be in, MacDonald,” Nadia says. “Why Annika?”

“Like I said—” This time, Shane just breaks a finger. “Goddamn it! I don’t know! I was told to deliver stuff to her.”

“What were you doing inside her house tonight?” I ask. “Trying to deliver something in person?”

“No.” He’s weeping now. “I was supposed to take her.”

“Take. Her. Where?” My face is inches from his now. His haunted eyes meet mine.

“To Boston. I overheard something about sex trafficking. They thought they could get more for her because she’s willing to do…things.” The last word is whispered. “That’s all I know. I can take you to the boss. To Connor McCarthy. He’s behind it all. Maybe you don’t have to kill me if I help you out, right?”

“Wrong.”

Shane pulls the wire from under his palm and wraps it around MacDonald’s neck, then pulls until the life leaves the man’s body before letting go.

“I’ll call for cleanup,” Carmine says, reaching for his phone.

“I’ll make sure the jet is ready to go,” I add.

“You’re not going without me,” Annika announces. We all turn to her. Her chest is heaving, and she looks like she wants to throw up.

She’s not used to this. She’s worked hard to make sure that this isn’t part of her life.

“Every time one of these girls says that, it never turns out well,” I say, shaking my head.

“If I stay here like some coward, you’ll have to stay with me. To protect me,” she points out. “Are you going to stand there and say that that idea is okay with you? That you’re content to sit here with me while these four run off and kill the assholes responsible for this?”

I blow out a breath. “No. I can’t say I’d be okay with it. But if that’s what I have to do, then so be it.”

“No.” She’s pacing now, absolutely pissed off. It’s a sight to behold with her fiery blue eyes and mussed blond hair. “Absolutely not. If what he said is true, these fuckers thought they could use me. For sex. And why? Because they think I was a willing participant in anything that happened in those photos? Jesus, people saw me cry and beg. And no one did anything.”

“Then that wasn’t a reputable club, and was likely part of the sex trafficking epidemic, as well,” Carmine says, fire shooting from his eyes. “Because real lifestyle clubs would never permit that. Ever.”

“They’re all going to pay,” Annika says and turns back to me. Her mind is made up. I’ve never seen her this…fierce.

It’s a fucking turn-on.

“I want to look them in the eyes and know that it’s because they ever fucked with me that they’re going to die. That they hurt any woman, or anyone at all for that matter, and made them do things against their will. It’s going to stop. Right now.”

“Looks like we’re all going to Boston,” Ivie says with a grin. “And we’re going to kick some ass.”

We’ve cleared out of the office where the body is, and are sitting in the living room when the call comes in from Nadia’s father.

“Papa?” Nadia frowns over at Annika. “Is everything okay? What? Wait, hold on, I’m putting you on speaker.”

She taps her screen.

“Okay, you’re on speaker. I’m here with everyone, including Annika. There was just an…issue at her place. But it’s been handled.”