"Where to first boss?" Gino asked.

"Drive to the twenty-four-hour veterinary clinic on Western and Broadway. We need to drop Tank off before we go to the office." I looked over my shoulder to the back seat where my faithful companion was silent. The only sign of life was the rise and fall of his breath.

"What are we going to say when they ask us how Tank got shot? We don't have time for cops right now." Gino voiced.

"Don't worry about that. It's a small family-owned clinic. They needed some startup money when they were first establishing their business." I said matter-of-factly.

"And they just happened to catch you in a generous mood?" The man in the driver's seat raised an eyebrow. I actually decided to invest in this clinic after I got Tank. I wanted to be prepared.

"For moments like this." I said simply. He was beginning to irritate me with his questions. Kristofer had been sending me status updates and he hadn't said anything in a few minutes. He could just be playing his part, or there could be trouble. His silence was doing nothing to improve my piss poor mood.

We arrived at the small clinic in record time. It was late so the streets were mostly empty. I sent a message to the owner ahead of time, so they could be ready for us, so I wasn't surprised to see him at the door waiting for us. He held the door open for me, since I had my hands full with Tank, then motioned for me to follow him into the back.

"We'll do what we can for him Mr. Conti, but I can't guarantee anything." he told me. I didn't respond as I laid Tank down on the steel examination table. I leaned down and pressed my forehead to his, and the dog whimpered in response.

"I'll be back for you." I whispered to him. "I just have to go get our girl first."

I took a deep breath and cleared my throat. "Keep me updated." I snapped at the vet and stormed out to the car Gino had kept running.

"I called for an emergency meeting. They've shut down the restaurant and our other business for the night, so everyone should be waiting at the office by the time we get there." Gino informed me when I got back in the car.

The conference room was packed when we entered. When we had the last meeting, some of the men had to stay behind to man the business end of things, but for this mission we needed everyone. Everyone in this room knew the Russians had more men, but when it came to quality, the Italians had them beat. That didn't mean we were going to take any chances and not bring everything we had.

"Thank you all for meeting on such short notice. We have no time to waste, so I'll get right to the point. As you all know, we've had a little Slavic problem. They have been gaining information on us through a rat." Murmurs of agitation traveled across the room. "Tonight, we found out that rat was Raffaelo." Those murmurs morphed into shouts of outrage. The fact that one of their brothers, someone they've entrusted their lives to had betrayed them had them furious. The angry voices only died down when I held my hand up for silence.

"He will be delt with accordingly." I assured them. "Because of this betrayal, Fiero's fiancé, Rosalinda is in the hospital. Raffaelo poisoned her. This poison was meant for me. On top of that, that rat bastard shot my dog and took my woman. He took her from me and delivered her to a man who has tortured her in the past. You can imagine my... discomfort with the situation."

'Discomfort' didn't even scratch the surface of what I was feeling, but I did my best to keep my stronger emotions hidden away. I was their fearless leader, and I couldn't very well lead if I gave in to my distress.

"Now, I ask you men to stand with me. I have her location and I'm getting her back tonight. Am I going alone?" I demanded.

Shouts of "Never!", "We're with you.", and "For the family!" rang out with nods and murmurs of agreement.

I pulled my phone out of my coat pocket and tapped the screen quickly. In a few seconds, every man's phone went off at once. "I just sent everyone Nora's location. We'll divide ourselves into teams, surround the house where she's being held and take out anyone who stands in our way."

"Are we just going in blind?" someone called out from the back of the room. I looked closer to see who had spoken. Michael, of course. I nearly rolled my eyes.

"The Russians aren't the only ones who can plant spies. I've had someone on the inside for over a year now." I said nonchalantly, as if this concept was something you'd find in an elementary school's textbook.

"For moments like this?" Gino said sarcastically from his seat beside me. "How could you possibly have anticipated this?"

"I didn't," I said ignoring Gino's sarcasm. "They're the second most powerful group in the surrounding territories. I would be a fool to not have eyes and ears on the inside. Now did we want to keep discussing how overly prepared I am, or shall we get on to more pressing matters?"

I moved to the side of the room where there was a long white board that ran along the length of the wall. I picked up a marker and drew a crude drawing of the house my baby girl was trapped in; trapped with a monster and that rat bastard. God knows what they had done to her, but I knew if I sent my men in guns blazing with no plan, a good portion of my men would die unnecessarily and Nora may get caught in the crossfire. Those were not things I was willing to risk.

I marked the room that Nora was being held in and mapped out all of the patrol routes with rough estimations on how many men Varlam had in each station. With this information, we got to work divvying up the men based on numbers and skill set.

We would have men coming in from all directions to silently take out the guards and work our way through the house. Gino, myself and a handful of others would be the ones actually retrieving Nora. Michael was in this small group because even though he had an attitude and a loud mouth, he was one of the best shots we had.

"I've also sent a picture of our man to your phones. His name is Kristofer. He's one of us and will be treated as such. Now hit the armory and get moving. I'm getting my girl back and I don't care how many Russians I have to kill to do it." The finality in my tone left no question that it was time to move out.

They all stopped by our hidden armory and selected the weapons they performed best with before making their way down to the cars. A string of highly conspicuous, shiny black SUVs shot out of the parking structure, and we sped off towards our target.

I'm coming baby.