Dio sopra! I craved the feel of the cold metal right now. Of course I wasn’t armed. I didn’t even have a guard to see me home, unlike my sisters.
I looked around for a weapon, found a thick, rusted rail spike, and snatched it up. I wasn’t scared to kill. They would find that out the hard way. My body was used to the rush of adrenaline. I knew better and could temper it.
“What you going to do with that, little girl?” Broken Italian crackled in the air.
Drive it into your stomach.
While the neck would be certain death, it was also a smaller target, and higher to reach. No, I would have better luck showing that I was serious, taking out one of their number, then running for my life. Hopefully, they were too inebriated to follow—plus, they would want to stay with their friend.
Darkness whispered behind me. With such an ally, who needed to be afraid? I mentally reached out to the source, letting it know I was going to be okay.
A voice ripped through the abandoned depot yard. It was violence and fury wrapped in a buttery shell. “What’s going on?”
I sagged with relief. Vincenzo—a force to be reckoned with. My gaze trained to where he jogged from the drive that looped back through the buildings until it reached the road.
“Not a word.” One of the guys pointed a finger at me.
As if I would let him get off that easy. But…I was curious how they would try to spin this.
“Nothing, V! We’re just making sure our little princess gets home safely,” one of the goons called out.
“Yeah! Can’t have anything fucking up the alliance with the Irish,” another laughed.
Vincenzo stopped between us, making a triangle of bodies. “Is that so?” His gaze fell on me. One black brow arched.
“If you believe that, you’re a bigger idiot than I thought,” I chuckled.
He pursed his lips. “I don’t appreciate the barbs, Gabby.”
I shrugged. “If the shoe fits.”
“Well, it fucking doesn’t.” Vincenzo whipped out his pistol. Five rounds popped off into the night. Each was a vicious staccato. I didn’t breathe in those terrible seven seconds. When the air cleared, my ears rang.
He’d saved me.
“What did you do?” I gasped, my chest breaking open from the pressure of the icy fear. “The don will—”
“The don will hear how you were threatened. I have plenty of witnesses from the restaurant. That’s why I’m here,” he added, taking a step forward. “Tommy B called to tell me.”
I flicked a glance to the ground. The moon hadn’t risen, but the lumps lay haphazardly amongst the iron rails. It should’ve sickened me. A normal person would have had a visceral reaction.
I…smiled.
“What are you doing out here? Without a guard?” Vincenzo snapped, taking me out of the victorious moment.
“I always walk this way,” I said with a shrug. “It’s shorter.”
“Let me take you home. The clean team will take care of this.” He kicked his toe against a lump that might have been a leg. Maybe an arm.
The invisible force that I swore was real shivered in the background.
“No, I’m fine,” I insisted. “In fact, can you not make a big deal of this? Please?”
“Gabby….” Vincenzo cleared his throat. “Are you okay?”
“Yep!”
“It’s just….”
