Nunzio stepped up, Brooklyn next to him. “We were passing by when your wife saw you,” he said. “She jumped out of the car before we could stop her.”
I nodded, walking toward where Nunzio had parked. A stream of traffic lined up. Either the cars went around or they waited. Most people in this area were familiar with who we were.
Brooklyn got in first, followed by Tito. I sat Alcina down next to him. She turned her face up, tears slipping from the sides of her eyes, rolling down her cheeks. She wasn’t crying because she was upset. She was crying because she was pissed.
Tito sighed. “I will check her.”
I shut the door and tapped on the roof once. The car pulled into traffic and I went back to Primo. Calcedonio was the only man standing outside.
He nodded at me. “Baggio and Adriano are inside.”
“Go home,” I said. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”
I shut the door behind me once I was inside, locking it.
Adriano sat at the bar, his back to me. Baggio stood as soon as he heard me enter.
“Boss, I—”
I held a hand up. “Get me a beer,” I said.
He nodded. “Yeah, okay. We can discuss this.”
He went to the fridge and grabbed me a beer. When he turned around, I shot him twice in the stomach. His eyes grew wide, his mouth opened, wheezing for breath like a fish out of water. He fell to his knees before he crumpled to the floor.
I stood over him, watching him gasp for breath. “No one touches my wife,” I said. “You’ll suffer for however long it takes. No help. You’ll touch hell before you get there.”
I had seen his face when he yanked my wife back. He got off on pain and suffering. As soon as he heard her breath catch, he got a fucking hard on for more pain. He was fucking limp now—his entire body.
Adriano sat at the bar, drinking a beer.
I nodded at him and he nodded back.
He’d take care of the rest.
“I guess I get Gilberts,” he said before I shut the door to Primo. “I can’t stand to see anything starve.”
35
Alcina
Bruises were starting to form on my stomach, but I did not feel them.
Theviperewere coiling deep in the pit of my heart, and my hands were ready to strike, to hurt him as much as that scene hurt me.
I couldn’t see anything else.
Her hands on him.
Her mouth close to his ear.
The things they were doing behind my back.
I had never felt rage so hot before.
I was fixated on it.
I could not stop seeing it, imagining it.
