Page 49 of Rowe

“For one girl?” frowned a man.

“She’s evaded us for two weeks. Two fucking weeks! Yes, I want everyone. She is not getting away.”

“Sir, maybe this is a trap,” said one of the men.

“A trap? She’s one fucking girl! One!” he screamed. “She’s nothing. She killed my son and has my granddaughter. I want her dead.”

As the vehicles rolled out from the warehouse, Rossi sat in the front seat of the lead car, unconcerned with his own safety. Men in the back were whispering, and it was pissing him off.

“What’s so fucking secretive?” he snapped.

“Sir, you need to read the incoming e-mails from the dock owners. They’re pulling their support of you,” said Theo. Rossi’s head whipped around to glare at the men behind him.

“They what?” he growled.

“All of them, sir. Every last one says they won’t do business with you.”

“Someone got to them. Who fucking got to them?” he murmured. He thought about Mara and then dismissed that idea. How in the fuck could one woman cause him so much trouble? She had no connections to his world. None. The only thing she knew for certain was that his son had been with her sister and given her a child. She took it upon herself to kill him when he threatened to take the child.

“She’ll pay,” he whispered.

“Sir? Did you say something?” asked the driver.

“No. Just get us to that fucking bait shack.”

At the bait shack across from The General Store, Rowe and the other men were planning every second of Rossi’s arrival. Teams along River Road were waiting in the trees and on the bayou to confirm his exact location.

Behind The General Store, more than two-dozen cousins were sitting in trees ready to fire if needed. Near the docks in front of the store, there were at least a dozen boats pretending to buy bait or refill their fuel tanks. The neighbors who had faithfully returned to give Rossi familiar faces.

Inside the store, Mara sat on a stool at the counter waiting for her orders. It had taken an act of congress, and a lot of calming Rowe down, but they finally agreed sending the photos would be the way to get him back. Then they added insult to injury by sending the emails declining his access to any of the docks he wanted so desperately.

Within fifteen minutes, he would be receiving messages from the Koreans, the Chinese, and others who wanted those docks, letting him know that they would not be doing business with a man like him.

When his phone pinged, he stared at the messages, shaking with fury. A man like him. They were men like him. His driver just ignored his behavior, chalking it up to the usual. No one suspected the obvious. Trackers and recording devices had been planted on his men that wandered the bayou for days, and on their vehicles.

They knew everything. They heard everything.

“When he arrives, you’ll go out to the porch, casually, as if you expected him,” said Ham.

“I do expect him,” frowned Mara. He chuckled, nodding his head.

“Yes, but I need you to act as if it’s not a big deal. He thinks it’s just you and a bunch of country neighbors that deceived him. His men will not get the chance to even pull their weapons.” Rowe stood with his arms folded across his chest glaring at Ham.

“Brother, we know what you’re feeling,” he said. “We won’t let anything happen to her. Not today. Not ever. She’s wearing a stealth vest, and she has the trackers and alarms on her now.”

“Today is the day that Rossi’s empire falls,” said Cowboy. “You need to trust us Rowe. This is what we do. You know that.”

“I know that. I’ve just never had to endure you doing it to save something that I love.” Mara’s head snapped around and stared at him. Rowe just shook his head, running his fingers through his hair. “I should have told you sooner, but I didn’t want to scare you. I mean, I told you but you were still recovering. I’ve loved you from the moment I carried you off that damn concrete slab. You’re smart and brave and fucking fearless with a man like Rossi.”

Mara stood from her stool and walked toward him, wrapping her arms around his waist, she lay her head against his lower chest. She was so much smaller than him it was comical.

“I love you, too,” she whispered. “I think I fell in love with you when I woke and found your head lying next to my hand in the hospital. You were holding me so tenderly.”

“In case you forgot, I was there too,” smirked Jethro.

“I haven’t forgotten,” smiled Mara. “I can’t explain it, but I fell in love with you, too. Like a brother. I adore you, Jethro. But Rowe was different and I don’t know why.”

“You don’t have to know why,” smiled Jethro. “I feel the same. You’re like a sister to me, Mara. I will protect you with my last breath.”