“Whatsa matter? You didn’t expect to find me here tonight, did you?” he hisses, pulling out his gun and holding it against my nose. “You thought you’d find big Sal, all by himself. An easy kill. No witnesses. No mess. Just like the others.”
I narrow my eyes. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
“You think you got away with that shit, Diego? You think nobody knows it was you who pulled the trigger all those times before? Avenging your father’s death? Carrying out your own little manhunt?” He leans closer, his breath hot against my face. “You think we didn’t know you’d show up here tonight?”
Goddamn that bitch!
She sold me out.
I grit my teeth, reach out and clamp my hand around Johnny’s neck, twisting around so it’s his back against the wall now. “If you knew I’d be here, then you knew I wouldn’t leave unless all of you are fucking dead. My own personal ambush, just like the one you surprised my father with.” But Johnny doesn’t respond. He just smiles. I squeeze harder, slamming his head against the sheetrock so hard that a nearby wall sconce crashes to the ground.
“Your old man was a greedy bastard,” Johnny whispers. “He didn’t deserve to keep what he had. He took too much from too many people, people who helped him build his organization. People he screwed over when he didn’t need them anymore. He got what was coming to him. That’s the funny thing about loyalty. When you don’t have any of it for the people closest to you, they choose to put theirs in others who actually deliver on promises.”
“You worked for my father, you sonofabitch,” I hiss.
“How do you think I got all of my intel? You’ve got to fuck the enemy a few times to figure out the lay of the land.”
Jesus Christ, is that what Via has been doing to me?
Did I fall into the same trap as my father?
“But none of that matters anymore, Diego. Because tonight, you’ll be joining your pops.” He snickers, somehow able to breathe even though I’ve still got him by the throat. “And we’re not stopping with you. We’ve waited a long time to clear our path, and with you out of the way, you know what…or who…comes next.”
A strangled grunt escapes my mouth and I swing my fist around, cracking the barrel of my gun against his jaw. He barely flinches.
“Is that the best you’ve got, Diego? I’m a little disappointed after hearing what you did to the others. I figured you’d have brought your A-game tonight.”
“I always bring my fucking A-game,” I hiss, little hairs on the back of my neck prickling. A slight but noticeable trace of air chills my skin.
That’s why Johnny is smiling so hard. He fucking knows I’m outnumbered.
Or at least, that’s what he thinks.
Still holding Johnny by the neck, I shove an elbow straight into the sternum of the guy behind me before he can plug me in the back of the head. He stumbles backward, his gun still clenched. I fire off two shots before he can pull the trigger and he crumbles to the ground. But before I can twist back toward Johnny, he grabs a fistful of my hair and slams me into a wall. The surprise force knocks the breath out of me and a shooting pain explodes down my spine. I blink fast to clear my vision and lunge at Johnny, tackling him to the ground. I grab him by the neck and smash his head against the floor. “You fucking bastard! You’re a lying, traitorous piece of shit!”
“I never lied about anything, Diego,” he says, a trickle of blood oozing out of his mouth. He launches an arm toward me, but I see it too late and it smashes against the side of my face before I can stop it. He rolls himself on top of me and launches another strike against my nose. A sharp metal scent hits me as the blood spills from my aching nose. “I told your father a long time ago I would do whatever he needed as long as I got what was rightfully mine. He reneged on our deal, but I found someone who was willing to pay. So, you can take your accusations and shove them up your ass!” He pulls out his gun and holds it to my forehead.
Not good.
And what a waste of good Kevlar.
Yeah, no way am I dying tonight.
I drive my knee straight into his groin, as hard as I can under his weight. He’s still got the gun, but I slide out from under him and grab my own.
Pop! Crack! Bang!
Shots erupt, piercing the silence, and I know most of them are his since I have my silencer.
I just pray one of mine lands where I need it to…right between his eyes.
But before I can stop to check out my handiwork, my body flies backward into a door. I clench my teeth, struggling for breath as my fingers work to find the wound. I stagger to my feet, face to face with Johnny. He sways toward me, gun in his outstretched hand. “Bulletproof vest, huh?” he mutters, spitting blood. “I guess I shoulda gone for the head. Like this.” He raises the gun, and before I can take in another breath, I reach under my pant leg for my knife and fling it straight up into the center of his throat.
The gun clatters to the floor and he pitches forward, gurgling blood and clutching his neck as he collapses face-first onto the carpet. I try to suck in a few deep breaths, but damn, it hurts. I find two bullets wedged into the material that would have torn right through my chest and lungs if not for the vest.
“What the fuck is that?” A startled male voice rises in the distance, and I collapse against the wall, struggling to draw in a deep breath. Heavy footsteps get louder and louder as each second creeps by, and if I stick by the carnage, they’re gonna wheel me out in a body bag, too.
And I need to find Salvatore.
I twist the doorknob behind me, praying that the room is empty, and before I duck inside, I pull my knife out of Johnny and wipe it across his shirt.
You never know when you’ll need to slice another throat.
The room is dark, so I shine my phone light around only to see an empty bed in the middle of it.
No girl. No guy.
But the smell of sex tells me I only just missed the show.
I crouch low by the door as the voices get louder and more panicked. Well, at least one of them does.
Salvatore’s.
Knowing that his fucking head is gonna be on a spit tonight when I’m through with him makes my dick hard. I grip the knife handle, imagining his pleas for mercy…a mercy that is never going to come.
I’ll make sure he suffers an excruciating death. He betrayed us, and tonight, he’s gonna pay the hefty price for violating our trust.
Salvatore Chiaza is going to be the very clear message from my family to anyone and everyone who thinks that they’re going to ever fuck with us again.
“Jesus Christ!” Salvatore exclaims. “What the fuck is this? Who got inside?”
“Relax, Sal. This is the least of your problems.”
That voice. I know it, but dammit, why can’t I put a face to it? I listen against the door, straining my ears to figure out who is with Sal right now.
“Is that what you think?” Sal yells. “Two of my guys are down! Who the hell do you think is gonna be next?”
“Maybe you should have thought about that before you stole from the wrong people,” a deep voice growls. “But right now, you’d better be thinking more about what you promised you’d deliver to me because right now, you’re one short. And I’m not leaving without my full delivery.” He pauses. “Neither are you.”