You’re doing the world a favor, Mean Daisy assures me.Ridding the world of dumbasses who would just leave guns and knives out for anyone to take.
You know, you’re not so bad when you’re encouraging me, I tell her.
She snorts.It’s not my fault it took you this long to acknowledge me. I can be your best fucking ally when you actually listen to me.
That she can, because as I skirt around the big-ass beast of a man standing in front of Emil—sensing all eyes on me as I approach him—I realize that it’s mostly because of her that I made it this far. It’s because of her that Michelle and I didn’t die in that alley. Giulio cares about me now, but back then, we were virtual strangers, and he had no reason to protect my ass.Though I hope that’s changed now and I can rely on him like he can on me, people’s morals are so capricious that there’s no way I would be standing here now if I’d simply depended on everyone else’s good intentions.
Damn right!Mean Daisy jumps up and down, the tiny skirt flapping over her hoochie, making her look like the most disturbingly dressed cheerleader in history.Now, let’s kill him!
“Listen, Signora,” Emil says as I stop in front of him, “I can assure you that your husband has nothing to—”
I don’t let him finish. I dive beyond him and grab up one of the guns there before the last part leaves his lips. Everyone freezes as I lift the barrel, pointing it right at his chest as his eyes widen in shock.
Yeah, I silently chide him,bet you didn’t expect this, motherfucker.
“Daisy, don’t—”
A scream from the room beyond the dining room—a kitchen, if the glance over the top of the half door separating the two rooms is anything to go by—interrupts Dante’s shout as he leaps up from the table.
I squeal as my body is lifted and catapulted backward with two heavy bands around my waist. No, not bands. Arms. Jesus, the man who had been standing alongside Emil has arms like a trucker. Big. Brawny. Covered in scars.
It’s only when the gun is plucked from my hand that I kick my ass into gear and start struggling against my captive. “Let me go!” I shout.
“Sorry,bambina,” the man’s low, throaty voice roves over me, and despite its gravelly tone, it’s soothing. “I cannot let you hurt yourself.”
“No!” I beat my fists down on his arm. “I don’t want to commit suicide! I want to kill him!” I point to Emil.
“Exactly,” he replies.
“Give her to me,” Giulio orders as the swinging half doors flap open and a wild-eyed, harried-looking Constantin barrels out. I stop fighting and for an infinite moment, nobody moves.
Then everyone does.
Distantly, I recognize that Constantin is dressed the same as he was yesterday, but his shirt is wrinkled now and there’s a cut on his forehead with blood leaking down his face. His hair is unkempt and in disarray against his scalp as he takes in the room. When his eyes land on me, they’re full of so much hatred that I turn into the stranger’s embrace and practically scale his body. All theput me down, put me down, put me downsin my head have suddenly turned intodon’t put me down, don’t let that man kill me, kill him for me instead!
Constantin’s attention on me, however, doesn’t last. Instead, he dives for the dining table, heading directly toward wherePapáStefano still sits.
“No!” The scream that echoes out of my throat this time is full of horror and dread. Tears are already gathering in my eyes. I’ve never had a dad before, and thoughPapáStefano isn’t my father, the hope that he might one day become that for me if I stay with Giulio clings to my chest. That can’t happen if he’s dead.
Shouts and curses sound, and the world spins as I’m thrust into a familiar chest, the stranger who held me diving forward just as Emilio Cesari and Dante also converge. Constantin lifts the blade in his hand, already coated in blood. “Fuck.” Giulio’s voice is right next to my ear, and he turns my face into his chest.
Oh, come on!Mean Daisy whines.I want to see!
I do, too, I realize, and I fight against him to turn my head. “Don’t look, Daisy,” he orders. “You—”
“Giulio.” My face tilts up toward his and his down to mine. Without thinking, I lean up and slam my mouth into his. The shock that ricochets through him loosens his hold, and as soon as it does, I’m twisting out of it, reaching for the second gun on the table. Emil and the giant stranger lift Constantin, bending his arms behind his back, and Dante helpsPapáStefano up. Thankfully, the older man looks all right save for a shallow cut on his cheek. The chair he’d been in lies in a heap on the floor.
Emil and the stranger grunt as Constantin fights and struggles. “You are weak!” he screams. “You have gotten weak, Stefano, and your sons are no better!”
Dante leavesPapáStefano and backhands the man into silence. Blood goes flying with the strike.
Mean Daisy’s low, sexual groan echoes through the chambers of my mind.BROTHER. IN. LAW.I spell out the words to her in big neon letters.Don’t get any ideas.
Then I turn and hand the gun to Giulio. Frowning, his hands already raised to take me back, he looks at it in my grip. “Take it,” I tell him.
“Daisy?” Ugh. Why are confused men so cute? I lean forward, taking his chin in my hand, and kiss him again.
“I can handle this,” I say, cupping his face and ensuring that his fingers close around the gun in mine. “I’m not scared of what you are or what you do.” Not anymore. Plus… “I don’t like Constantin anyway.” I offer him a grin, trying to diffuse the tension between us.
