But it’s too late now. I brought us into this world, so now it’s my job to shield Lucy from it.
“You wish you’d realized what?” Lucy asks, but I barely hear her.
The diner door opens, and I glance over out of habit, checking on who’s entering the room that contains the person I love most in the world.
Every muscle in my body tenses.
What the fuck do they think they’re doing?
Three men in their early twenties have just entered the diner. Dangerous men with hard faces and violence glinting in their eyes. The spider tattoos on their hands and necks tell me all I need to know.
Sokolis.
Come to start shit here because Emilio couldn’t keep his goddamn mouth shut. Invading the place where I’ve brought my sixteen-year-old, unarmed and vulnerable, sister.
Anger hotter than that poker fresh from the fire burns through me. How fucking dare they breathe the same air as her?
My arm tightens around Lucy. “I need to get you out of here.”
“Who are they?”
“Sokoli drug dealers.”
I have never seen them so deep in Barone territory, or so blatantly.
“Drugs?” Lucy whispers, her voice rising anxiously. Both of us get tense when drugs come up. It reminds us of where we came from.
“Antonio will take you home.”
Antonio is already out of his seat and on his way to me, but before he can reach us, one of the Sokoli men comes over to my booth. As he does, everyone in the restaurant falls silent. Both his hands are in the pockets of his black bomber jacket, and most likely he’s holding a concealed gun.
The other two Sokoli men are standing by the front door, blocking the exit. The owner has come out from behind the counter, but he’s frozen in place, uncertain what to do. He won’t call the cops, but I know he’s wishing there were more Barone men here than just me, Antonio, and Giovanni.
The Sokoli stops in front of us with a nasty smile on his face. “I’ve seen your picture. You’re the don’s son, pretty boy.”
I can’t say the same about him. He’s got looks that would be improved by a beating.
I turn so Lucy is shielded by my body, but I can feel her peeping out behind me. “This is Barone territory. You’re not welcome here.”
He jerks his chin at Lucy. “Who’s your pretty bitch, Barone?”
My eyes narrow, and an icy cold clarity settles over me. If bullets start flying, innocent people are going to get hurt, but I am going to make this man bleed.
When I don’t say anything, he continues in a conversational tone. “Your man had a message for us, and so we have a message for your darling dad. We’re going to eat the Barones alive, starting with his little whore daughters—”
Rage explodes inside me.
I slide out of the booth, seize his shoulders, and ram my knee into his nuts.
The man doubles over with a painedoof, and the gun falls out of his pocket. I kick it away. A silver fork is glinting on the table. I snatch it up and ram it into the Sokoli’s mouth, stabbing him through the tongue.
He screams in the back of his throat and struggles, but I keep him bent double with a hand gripping the back of his neck.
“We haven’t been properly introduced. I’m Damiano Barone, and you’ve scared my sister and called her a bitch and a whore, you piece of shit.”
I take a quick glance around the restaurant. Lucy is still behind me in the booth, gazing in surprise at the fork I have rammed down the Sokoli’s throat. Antonio and Giovanni have closed in on the Sokoli’s two friends, keeping them away from me while I deal with their boss. Rafiel Lucania has joined them, and he has one of the men shoved against the wall with a tattooed hand wrapped around his throat and a dangerous glint in his eye.
Unexpected help, but I’ll take it.
