I was a Valentini, after all.
The Capo.
The patrons took a collective inhalation that they held as, frozen in place, they watched the showdown.
Diana yelped, rubbing her side with a hand as she raced for the ladies room.
Watching her scurry around like the vermin she was, I intoned, “Carry on.”
“Nothing to see here,” Dante agreed, stepping behind me, but the rictus of my expression was enough to have everyone staring at the floor without him as backup.
“S-Sir?”
When I gave the barkeep my attention, he blanched. “Se?”
“There’s no exit that way. No window, either.”
“Your assistance is appreciated.”
He released a relieved sigh. “No worries.”
“The back door?” Chad’s gaze was as stony as his tone. “Fire exits?”
The bartender pointed out both, leaving Chad to nod in thanks.
Knowing that the rat couldn’t leave the sinking ship, I slowed, hoping Diana’s fear would amp up when she realized she’d trapped herself in the restroom.
When I shoved open the door, a stranger shrieked at my presence then hissed, “This is the ladies room!”
“Nothing about this dive says ladies come here. Now, get the fuck out before Ihelp.”
“Can’t even piss in peace!”
“Doesn’t look like you’re pissing to me.” I shifted to the side to let her leave, gaze on the only stall door that was shut.
“Animal.”
“You got that right.”
My dark smile had her stiffening. She snatched her cheap purse to her chest and steered clear of me on her way out.
Heading farther into the restroom that stank of weed, I leaned against the sink and crossed my feet at the ankle. “What on earth made you think you could return to your old stomping ground, Diana?”
“I’m not Diana. M-My name’s Mary Gillespie.”
“That ‘V’ on your cheek says otherwise. You think I wouldn’t remember the day my brother sliced you up for being a treacherous slutandthe worst mom in the country?” I pshawed at her prevarication. “You got an ID that backs up this Gillespie crap?”
“Will you hurt me if I come out and show it to you? I don’t want any trouble.”
Bullshit. “I’ll hurt you whether you do or whether you don’t.”
She whimpered.
Now, I wasn’t a man who enjoyed inspiring fear in the average woman. I’d been raised to cherish them. My father might have taken me to aburdelluin Catania, much as he had with Luciu, for a sixteenth birthday present, but I knew he’d given me the same lecture as he had my older brother:
Women are sacrosanct.
They were life.
