Free Braden: A Dark Mafia Romance by Adora York Page A

figuring out it was you?”  Stefano lifted his cigar to his lips.
    “I was a sniper…”  I looked over at him.  “Nobody knew who pulled the trigger when it was my finger on it.”
    “When are you going to do it?”  He asked as he sipped his whiskey.
    “Tomorrow…  I’ll paint the courthouse steps with his blood and then I’ll pick up the pieces of Angela’s grief.  It isn’t the public spectacle I wanted, but the streets will know it was us.  The message will still be delivered.”  I looked over at my phone, which was buzzing.
    Stefano picked his up as well.  “Oh shit!”
    “What the fuck?”  I yelled.  We had both gotten the same text message—Ronald had escaped.
     
    ***
     
    “How does this happen?”  I screamed at the guard who was holding his head with a glassed look in his eyes.
    “I don’t fucking know, I’m sorry!”  He shook his head with his lips curled up to the point he was almost sobbing.  “I took him his dinner and the next thing I knew, I was waking up on the ground.”
    “Fuck!”  Stefano grabbed me by the jacket.  “We have to find him!”
    “No shit!”  I pushed Stefano off and lunged at the guard.
    “You stupid son of a bitch!  He’s a rich little pussy!  How the fuck did you let him escape?”  I threw a fist into his face and he caved to the floor.
    My anger ignited and every bit of it surged into my fists.  I saw nothing but crimson and rage.  Ronald was locked up in a cell that should have never been escaped.  The man who let him escape was an imbecile.  I could smell the alcohol in his blood as I landed punch after punch in his face and forcibly drew it from him.  He was an associate, not a made man, and failure was not an option.  He was finished in the Family, so it didn’t matter if I killed him or just left him permanently crippled.  Stefano must have had some compassion for the guard, because I felt his hand wrap around my wrist and pull me off of him.  I still landed a couple of stomps on the idiot’s sternum before Stefano pushed me away.  More members of the Family came into the room and looked at the battered man on the floor.  He was completely unconscious with a rattle coming from his lungs each time he drew a breath.
    “Stop it!  Killing him isn’t going to fix this.”  Stefano held his hands out to stop me from moving forward.
    “We have to find that fucking kid.”  I paced back and forth.
    “Where would he go?”  Stefano asked hurriedly.
    “He’d go to Angela.”  I looked at Stefano.  “He’d go straight to her.”
    “Let’s go.” Stefano grabbed me by the arm and we ran towards the garage area.
    Fear wasn’t an emotion I was used to feeling.  Fear was weakness in other men, but as I realized just how everything could unravel because of Ronald, I felt is course through my veins.  If he told Angela and her father the truth, everything could come crashing down.  The ripple effect could impact all Five Families, and there would be no way we could let Angela live.  Her whole family and anyone else Ronald was stupid enough to tell would have to disappear.  Instead of vengeance, necessity would require us to execute them all.  All because of a stupid man who couldn’t keep the lid on his bottle until the end of his shift.  I had no idea how Ronald managed to take him down, but that didn’t matter anymore.  The only thing that mattered was finding him, and hopefully containing the situation before it boiled over.  I slammed my hand into the dashboard several times.
    “Fuck! Fuck! FUCK!”  I yelled angrily as the car sped towards Angela’s house.
    “You’re not going to get all crazy on me are you?  If he told her we were holding him prisoner, we have to kill her.”  Stefano looked over at me.
    “I know what has to be done, Stefano.  I’ve been doing this as long as you have.”  I opened the dash and pulled out a silencer, attaching it to the end of my gun.
    “Hopefully we can take