He was livid. He had to be over the edge to say all that shit on a phone call. Carlo had lost control and I was the cause. He would kill me. I only hoped to save Ariana first.
“Goodbye, Carlo,” I said, disconnecting.
Tears rolled down Markie’s cheeks. She buried her face in Angel’s chest, gripping his shirt.
“Get out of here,” Angel said. “He’s going to try to stop you.”
“We could call your father,” Markie suggested, her tear-filled eyes staring up at Angel.
If Dom called off Carlo, it would make the entire family look weak, like we didn’t have our shit together. It would cause problems between the boss and the underboss, and eventually one of them would be forced to react. Someone would still kill me—they’d have to—and then Dom would order a hit on the guilty party for their unsanctioned hit. Then that person would be taken out… The family would play the revenge game until it imploded.
“No.” I shook my head. “Call Nonna. Let her know what’s going on and ask her to be ready to pick up Ari.”
Angel nodded and stood, taking Markie with him. He set her on her feet before embracing me. “Be careful, Bones.”
“I’m always careful,” I said as we pulled apart. “That’s why you’re still alive.”
“Now it’s time to keep yourself alive,” he replied.
“After you save my sister,” Markie said, wrapping her arms around me.
“Ari’s mine,” I said, heading for the door. “I always protect what’s mine.”
Hurrying to the elevator, I made it downstairs in record time. When I reached the lobby, the guards called my name, trying to get me to stop. Ignoring them, I ran outside right as my Jeep was pulling away from the curb. Jumping in front of it, I forced the valet to brake.
“What the fuck, man?” I asked, glaring at him.
He rolled down the driver’s side window, staying behind the wheel. “We got a call from Carlo. He said not to let you leave.”
I took in the scrawny kid behind the wheel, and at the two security guards running out of the building, planning how to take them out of commission. “Do you really think you can stop me?” I asked, reaching under my jacket for my holstered Glock.
The kid’s eye’s widened as he tracked the gun.
Aiming at his forehead, I said, “Get the fuck out of my car.”
He fumbled with the door for a moment before complying. The other two guards came around the Jeep, saw what was going on, and stopped, holding their hands in the air.
“We got no beef with you, Bones. We’re just following orders.”
I had no beef with them either, which is why I shot each of them in the foot. Carlo would have killed them had they let me go unscathed. This way, they could at least show that they tried to stop me. As they hopped around swearing, I climbed into my Jeep and got the hell out of there.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Ariana
IWOKE UP to darkness. The stench of old pizza and stale beer assaulted my nose, making me nauseous. My mouth was so full of cotton, I could have spit out the threads for an entire T-shirt. The floor beneath me lurched forward and I tried to catch myself only to discover that my arms were tied behind my back. Mind racing, I struggled to figure out where I was and how I’d gotten there.
The last thing I remembered was leaving work with Harlow. We were going to hang out, and I was excited and happy.
And then the needle.
“That bitch drugged me,” I muttered.
“She sure did,” someone said. A woman. I spun my head around, searching for the source of the voice. The dark, fuzzy outline of a woman sat beside me. “You really should be more selective about your friends. And your lovers.”
The way she said lovers made my spine tingle and the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Was she Bones’s jealous ex-girlfriend? Or worse, a current girlfriend. My eyes struggled to focus, desperate to see her face, but I could barely make out her long dark hair, the curve of her body, and the whites of her eyes.
“Who are you?” I asked.
