“Everyone needs to calm down. Put your gun down, Tommy,” Gerardo says.
Those motherfuckers. All these rules, and even they aren’t living by them. No one is supposed to be armed in that meeting. Eros, my father, and Paxton would have been patted down.
“Why? That’s the plan, isn’t it? To kill them.” My heart sinks, and my blood boils with anger.
“Look who it is.” My head snaps in the other direction to see Luigi and that fat fuck he always has at his side, Carlo.
“Kill her,” he orders Carlo. “I want to watch.”
Carlo charges toward me, and I try to pull my gun out, but he’s too close; he slams into me, and the gun goes skittering across the floor as I land on my ass. Carlo almost loses his footing, and I roll, trying to create space between us. This isn’t my first rodeo, and I know without a doubt this is life or death. I don’t plan on being the one dying tonight.
Luigi leans up against the wall, watching. I can hear shouted conversation in my earpiece, but I can’t focus on what is being said.
I spring to my feet as Carlo charges at me again. I have nowhere to fucking go, which forces me to backpedal and corner myself even further in a wine cellar. I shift to my left and use the wall as leverage with one foot to kick out, launching myself high enough to nail him in his giant-ass head.
As I make contact, he swings out his meaty arm, nailing me in the side as he stumbles backward, and I hit the ground again. With a grunt, I expel all the air from my lungs, and the taste of blood fills my mouth.
I suck in a deep breath.
Get up!I hear my father’s words in my mind. All those times we sparred together, and he held nothing back. I push up, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand to see a smear of blood right as that fat fuck charges again. The sound of gunfire breaks out overhead.
“Ahh!” I shout as I barrel right toward him. I push my foot out as I drop, sliding between his legs as I pull my knife out and swing as I spin back around. The blade of my knife slices through his Achilles tendon, making him scream as he falls into a giant wine rack, taking it down with him. My free hand lands on the gun, and I train it on Luigi.
The shatter of glass is loud, and I’m sure it’s heard even over the still ringing-out gunfire. He too now has his gun out and pointed at me. I already know he’s a shit shot.
“You think you’re so fucking smart.”
“You don’t think at all.” We both fire, but my aim is shit because I have to move. There is a loud crack as the bullets hit the concrete and chunks fly. I aim my weapon at the spot where Luigi was standing, but he has disappeared.
Paxton was right. He didn’t think Luigi would be at the meeting. That over the past few weeks, my brothers’ games of fucking with him have made him extra paranoid.
Carlo tries to get to his feet, but I shoot him, and he falls back onto the shattered bottles of wine and spilled alcohol.
“Paxton?” I ask through the mic. “Mac?” My heart is racing, waiting for someone to respond.
“It’s chaos.” Mac replies.
“Paxton?” I repeat, a fear I never knew I could feel creeping in.
“I don’t know.” Eros speaks, and I hear more gunfire. “Naomi.” The way he says my name turns my blood to ice; my vision dims, and blackness eats at the edge.
“I’m sorry,” Mac whispers.
Rage unlike any I’ve ever felt floods me. I walk over to the barrel in the corner, seeing a stack of cigars, and grab the box of matches. I strike one and toss it toward the hole on the floor. Flames instantly break out. The walls and floor might be concrete, but the ceiling is not.
The heat of the flame is nothing compared to what I’m feeling. I kick another one of the wine racks, making it fall, the wood splintering as the bottles shatter. I grab a few pieces of wood, pull off my shirt, wrap it around the top, and light it with the flames before heading for the stairs, not paying as much attention as I should.
As I go, anything that is flammable I touch, sending it up into a blaze. I’m going to burn down everything in my path. Whoever is still alive from the two families will wish they had died after I get my hands on them.
A man appears at the top of the stairs when I’m halfway up, and I fire before he can. I step to the side as he stumbles down the stairs past me; I let the flame catch him along the way. I drop my clip and reload it, wanting a fresh extended mag as I hit the first floor.
I don’t hold back as I unload one after another, heading in the direction of where I know the office is. My mind is only on one thing.
My husband.
If he’s dead, I’ll burn this whole fucking city to the ground.
Chapter Thirty-One
