Both Antonio and I lunge to grab him, but Gi is faster. She draws her gun and levels it at Berto’s crotch. “Was I the first person you raped, Berto? The last?”
“You weren’t special enough to be my first,” Berto grunts, like he’s proud. “And you won’t be my last.”
Her hand steadies. “Yes, I will.”
The shot rings out, sending up a spray of Berto’s blood. I grab her instantly, pulling her back into me before he can hurt her.
She’s shaking as I hold her. Berto is screaming, an ear-piercing shriek, and she just watches him. I brush my lips against her ear so she can hear me over the noise.
“You gotta stop doing that, sweet girl. Stepping in that close gives them the opportunity to take your gun from you or grab you.”
“His hands were tied.”
“This time. Just…please be safe.” I place my hand over her stomach, and she twists to look up at me, cupping my face and pressing her forehead into my cheek. Placing her other hand over mine on her belly, we both close our eyes for a moment.
When I open my eyes, Antonio is watching us, his skin almost gray. He looks from me to Giovanna and back again. “You’re pregnant? Is it—” He points weakly at Berto, looking like he’s going to vomit.
“No,” Giovanna snaps. “It’s ours.”
Antonio doesn’t look relieved. My arms tighten around her, the corner of my lip twitching up into a smirk, enjoying his obvious pain as he realizes that Gi is pregnant with my child.
Lorenzo’s voice cuts through the moment, flat and disinterested. “You should manage your prisoner, kids.”
Berto is crawling, inchworming toward the door on his side, a trail of blood beside him. I take Giovanna’s gun out of her hand and level it at his head.
But before I can pull the trigger, his head snaps back with a deafening bang.
Startled, I shove Giovanna behind me, tracking my gun across the room looking for who fired the shot.
“It’s just me, Tommy.” Una’s voice slinks from the doorway. “You really need to train your guards to withstand the wiles of women. Taking a guy’s gun off him is too easy once he has his pants off,” Una croons. “Go ahead and put the gun down.”
She’s holding a gun to Antonio’s head, smiling like it’s all a game that she’s winning with ease. I bend slowly, placing Gi’s gun on the ground at my feet, grimacing at her.
She tsks at me with a smile. “Don’t worry. I took care of it like I always do. Now, unless we want Antonio to join his brother, everybody just take a deep breath and calm down.”
56
Tommy
Lorenzo lurches to his feet and hurls his beer bottle at the wall. Glass explodes, amber shards skittering across the tile floor.
“Fucking CUNT.”
Antonio and Una both glance in his direction. Behind me, Giovanna flinches, gripping my shirt with both hands. I shift, angling myself so that I shield her from Lorenzo as well as Una.
Una sighs. “Don’t be mad, lover. I told you I would do anything to make you happy, and that’s exactly what I’m doing.”
“No, you’re not,” Lorenzo snarls. “If you were trying to make me happy, you’d be so far out of my fucking life, I’d never hear your name again.”
Una’s laugh is airy, taunting. “Now, now. That’s no way to talk to your future wife.”
Giovanna scoffs, and Una turns to him with a wicked glint in her eye. I take advantage of the distraction and lunge forUna, but Una quickly adjusts, stepping back to point the gun at Giovanna. I freeze.
“Not so fast, lover boy.” Her voice drips with mockery. “Following you around all these years with your strange autistic behavior has been the finest performance of my life, but I’d hate to have to end you over this…mess. If you’d just stayed happily oblivious, obsessing over your little breeding machine over there, until I was ready for my big cinematic reveal, it all would have worked out.”
“What would have worked out?” I bite out through clenched teeth.
“Everyone would have assumed Giovanna’s baby was Antonio’s when the DNA was such a close match. You would have left her for lying to you. Lorenzo would have been so grateful to me for fixing the problem that has plagued his life for the past decade that he would have finally left his wife and married me.”
