Elite (Eagle Elite #1)(52)

With a sigh he pulled the key from the ignition and looked at me, sadness dancing across his face. “Welcome home, Trace.”





Chapter Twenty-four


“Home?” I repeated in a small voice.

Suddenly a man with an earpiece pulled open my door. “Miss Alfero, an honor. Just this way.”

I gawked at the man and looked back at my grandpa. He was getting out of the car and walking toward us.

The guy with the earpiece gave a curt nod to Grandpa. “Mr. Alfero, welcome home, sir.”

Grandpa gave the man a swift nod in return and put his hand on my lower back as he led me up the stairs to the giant entryway of the house.

Nothing anyone said could have prepared me for what was behind those doors. Nothing. I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to be happy or sad or pissed or shattered… I could only stare as Nixon stood in the entryway in my supposed house, with at least fifteen armed men. Chase and Anthony by his side.

“Ready?” Nixon asked, not once looking in my direction but over my shoulder to Grandpa.

Grandpa answered a gruff yes and continued pushing me through the giant hall.

Heartbroken and so totally betrayed, I didn’t know what to do. All I knew is the one person I wanted to trust had lied to me, big time.

My legs almost gave out on me before I could sit on the couch. Nixon sat directly across from me. All of his armed men behind him, and then I turned around and noticed that we had twice as many men behind us in that large entryway.

Everyone had guns.

And every single gun from Nixon’s group was trained on Grandpa. Every single gun from Grandpa’s group was trained on Nixon.

It was like a bad mafia movie.

Only every time I blinked it just became more real.

“You broke the rules,” Grandpa said, leaning back in his seat.

Nixon smirked. “What? You think I actually knew right away?”

“You grew up with her!” Grandpa yelled.

“She was six!” Nixon all but shouted.

“You may as well have pulled that trigger. Your father…”

“—Is dead.” Nixon smirked. “Cold and lifeless, lying right next to my mother.”

“What?” I shrieked. “You said that—”

“Monroe doesn’t know, Trace.” Nixon’s eyes softened for a brief second. “He’d been sick a while. It’s…”

“None of her damn business.” This from Anthony, who was staring at me as if we hadn’t shaken hands and spoken a few days ago.

“Gentleman.” Chase cleared his throat. “Back to the reason for meeting.”

Grandpa bristled next to me. Clearly he didn’t like taking orders from people younger than him but then again how was I to know they weren’t lying about their ages too?

“As I was saying…” Grandpa put an arm around me and squeezed. “The poor girl lost her parents at six. That’s still old enough to recognize people, you should have known Nixon.”

“I told you the minute I did,” Nixon defended himself. “And it wasn’t like I could have done anything!”

“You took her outside school property.”

“Before I knew.” Nixon sighed heavily. “I didn’t even guess until I saw the damn necklace with Alfero on it.”

“Then you should have stayed away.”

“Careful,” Anthony said from Nixon’s left. “You may be within your rights to call him out, but he’s still the boss. Has been for some time. So tread carefully, old man.”

Grandpa cleared his throat. “Excuse me, Mr. Abandonato.” He spat out the words like they were venom. “But the minute her cover was blown, the very second, you should have locked her in her damn room.”

What? Why would Grandpa say that? I tried to shrug underneath his arm but he held me firm.

Nixon’s icy eyes pierced through mine. “She’s just a teenager, Frank. What did you want me to do? Blow everyone’s cover? Ruin everything? And for what? Precaution? We’ve been in this for four damn years.” His eyes fell to Anthony. “Some of us longer. How was I supposed to know you’d drop her directly into the fight? Your own granddaughter? We were doing just fine until you did this to us!”

“And you still have no proof!” Grandpa shouted.

“We’re close!” Nixon fired back. “We just need more time.”

“Time doesn’t give Trace her parents back,” Grandpa said softly. “Time doesn’t heal a broken heart, and time will not fix the fact that you have successfully helped expose my innocent granddaughter to our world. I only meant to appease my dying wife, while at the same time allowing Trace to be used as bait only if necessary, and what do you do? You claim her for your own! An Abandonato!”

“All I can say is I’m sorry. I didn’t know. But would you rather have me leave her helpless? Admit it. She would have known something was up if I locked her in her room, and honestly we weren’t even sure she was exposed until last night when we almost…” Nixon swallowed. “Got killed.”

“Until it was almost too late!” Grandpa nodded his head. “So what are you going to do now? How do you hope to make amends?”

“Easy. We’ll let things die down, and we have to work faster to infiltrate the De Lange family.”