Matteo gets up and grabs a wad of cash, feeling it in his hand. I wonder if he’s counting it.
Suddenly, he sweeps the box off the table along with all the cash. “Don’t fucking insult me. My mother’s life was worth more than petty dollars. She was priceless to this world, and you destroyed her light. I will never get that back.” He grinds his teeth. “The only thing I want is your fucking head on a platter.”
BANG! BANG!
Loud gunshots emanate through Club Triton, and I gasp in shock.
BOOM!
I close my eyes as rubble, smoke, and fire fill the room and cover it with dust, and I duck for cover on the floor, screaming.
What the fuck is happening?
More guns are pulled. From the corner of my eye, I can see Matteo’s men rushing into the room to protect him.
“Lucio, if this is your doing, your entire family will pay for it with blood,” Matteo says.
But Lucio is on the floor with me, three feet away, scrambling for his gun while his own men are fighting with intruders that storm into the room.
Some guy walks up to Matteo. “It’s an ambush, sir. We have to get out of here now.”
“I will see you soon,” Matteo says.
His eyes briefly connect with mine in the flurry of the attack, but then he’s carted off by his men while they take over the fight with whoever decided to blow the fuse to this negotiation.
But I still can’t help but wonder if he meant those words for Lucio … or me.
There’s panic everywhere, and I take the opportunity to crawl toward the money and pick up some, hoping I may be able to escape with at least enough to save me. But the second I get up from the floor and try to run off in the heat of the moment, Lucio grabs my ankle. “You fucking bitch. You’re trying to steal my money while we’re under attack? Don’t you dare leave me! You thought you could run away withmymoney?”
“Let go of me,” I scream.
Suddenly, three guys jump in through the hole created in the wall.
BANG! BANG!
More gunshots are fired. One of them runs toward me, and I shriek as he raises a gun at me.
Thwack.
The metal hits my head so hard, stars fill my eyes, and I fall to the floor, blackingout.
MATTEO
While I’m usheredout of the building, through the disorderly crowd of screaming people, I hastily glance over my shoulder at the room that was just blasted open. The girl, now unconscious, is thrown over the shoulder of one of Lucio’s henchmen as they make their way out the door through the back of the building, far away from me.
Goddammit.
“Let’s go, sir,” Franco says as we make our way through the crowd outside and onto the pavement.
“Who ambushed us?” I ask. “Was this a fucking setup?”
“No, Lucio knows not to play with us. He seemed just as surprised,” Franco responds.
The car is parked right in front of the building, and the moment the door is opened, I sit down, shut the door, and we race off, past Lucio’s car. His wretched smile is visiblethrough the window, making me want to bust out my gun and pop him right then and there. But I don’t want him to die yet. I need him to suffer first. And I definitely don’t want the girl in his grasp to get hurt in the process, as they carry her off to God knows where.
The moment our eyes locked in that room, I knew it was her, the girl who threw the pearls over the balcony. Such a pretty creature shouldn’t be anywhere near a rat like Lucio.
What is she doing with him?
