Elicit (Eagle Elite #4)(33)
Author: Rachel Van Dyken

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

It may seem like all the Mafia does is fight… but what else is there to do when you have endless power and money—and several families wanting to lead?

Tex

“SO DOES THAT MAKE Luca your doctor and you… Frankenstein?” I asked Phoenix once we got back into the house.

“Ha, ha,” Phoenix answered. “You know, you’re really not as funny as you used to be.”

“Well you’re not as sexy as you used to be.”

“So I’ve been told.” Phoenix grumbled and holy shit did he just blush? Nah, I was reading into things, clearly reading into things, the guy had no conscience.

The minute we walked into the house I crumbled against one of the barstools and just sat. I was bleeding all over the hardwood but didn’t really care all that much.

I was more interested in the fact that Chase had just moved behind Phoenix and was currently flexing his knuckles.

It was too late to warn him.

So I watched instead as Chase grabbed Phoenix by the shoulders flipped him around and punched him in the face.

“Ohhhh.” I winced. “That’ll hurt tomorrow.”

“What the hell was that for?” Phoenix yelled from the floor, blood spewing from his mouth.

“For Mil,” Chase spat. “That was for Mil.”

“Mil?” Phoenix shook his head. “My sister? Why would you care?”

Chase’s face paled. “Oh shit.”

“Chase!” Mil came barreling down the hall and launched herself into Chase’s arms and wrapped her legs around his waist. She kissed him so hard even I wanted to look away—then again the party was just getting started, so you better believe I watched with rapt attention.

Chase kissed her back and slowly pried his wife from his body.

“Mil,” Phoenix said from the ground, his tone irritated.

“What?” She looked around and then down. When her eyes locked with his she burst into tears and fell to her knees. “Phoenix? Is it, really you? Are you? What happened? Why are you alive? Not that I’m upset you’re alive. You ass!” She punched his shoulder. “How dare you do that to me? I hate you! I hate you!” With a sob she threw herself against his chest and started bawling.

Chase looked completely shell-shocked as he sat at the table and folded his hands over his face. He shook his head a few times before groaning into his palms.

After ten minutes of hysterics, Mil was finally able to talk like a normal human being.

“Mil,” Nixon snapped. “Grab Trace and take Mo to the back room, we need to get her cleaned up.”

“R-right.” Mil sniffled and rose to her feet. “Okay, I can do that, come on Mo.” She gripped Mo’s hand like a life line and led her out of the room.

Phoenix didn’t move from the floor, just shifted to lean his back against the cabinet.

At the table, Chase held his head like it weighed a thousand pounds.

And Frank and Luca were pulling out bottles of whiskey like we were going to light our entire house on fire via alcohol.

Nixon took a seat at the table, I jumped down from my stool and joined them, and complete silence followed.

The Elect were together again.

But not really. Two of the pieces were dark, damaged, damned, and broken, and I wasn’t so sure we would ever fit back into the mold we’d originally created for ourselves.

Luca sat the bottle in the middle of the table and passed out glasses, while Nixon cleared his throat and whispered, “I think, you should start at the beginning.”

CHAPTER THIRTY

All one big happy Mafia family—said no made man ever.

Sergio

“WAIT.” PHOENIX HELD up his hands. “First, are you two, dating?” He motioned to Chase a look of pure betrayal on his face.

“Asks the dead man,” Chase growled, his eyes dripping with hatred. “No, you ass, we aren’t dating.”

“Oh.” Phoenix breathed a sigh of relief.

“We’re married.” Chase coughed and looked away.

Phoenix pushed back his chair so hard it flipped backwards. “You’re what?”

“Married.” Chase grinned shamelessly “As in we promised to be together forever… brother? No? Too soon?”

Phoenix’s nostrils flared wide as his face turned an interesting shade of purple.

“Oh, and PS I need your help finding that stupid white horse, I looked everywhere, just tell me already so I can be her hero.”

“You—” Phoenix pointed at Chase, his breaths coming in and out like he was running a race. “—are not her hero.”

“Well, not to give too many details, but those were her exact words last night.” Chase winked.

Phoenix launched himself across the table but was intercepted by Frank. I however, wanted out of the family drama. I had enough going on, thank you very much. Besides, it was only a matter of time before I dropped the bomb on Tex, letting him know it was all a ruse.

Everything with Mo was fake.

And wasn’t that horrible?

It would push him to choose what he should have chosen a long time ago. And it would free Mo up to stick with blood—to stick with me.

“Guys.” Nixon tilted back the bottle of whiskey and took two giant swallows, his face impassive as if he was drinking water. “First things first. Why are you alive?”

Luca leaned forward. “I think I can answer that.”

The room fell silent.

“It was a simple decision, a move of sorts. We almost lost Phoenix three times on account that his heart wasn’t being very cooperative. The plan was to inject him with enough potassium chloride to stop his heart for a few brief moments before performing CPR. But the plan was botched when he ran into the line of fire.”

Phoenix tensed next to me; his fingers gripped the table for a brief moment before his shoulders sagged. Yeah the guy was a loose cannon; tell me something I don’t know.

“Once the body was removed, my men had less than two minutes to revive him and stop his organs from failing.” Luca shook his head. “I didn’t think we would be able to—”

“Wait.” Nixon held up his hand. “Is that why you had a clean-up crew ready the minute everything went down with Anthony?”

“Precisely.” Luca nodded. “Frank and I only use the best. We even had a surgeon in one of the vans.”

“Frank?” Nixon’s eyebrows shot up as we all looked in his direction.

Frank leaned forward. “It was for the family.”