There’s still some shooting going on farther back in the club.I rush towards the sound, thinking of nothing but finally getting my hands on Moretti, finally looking into his eyes as life leaves him.
The gun fire is just echoes by the time I reach the back room where it originated.And all I find inside is Jesus, his left arm hanging limply by his side, covered and dripping in blood, while he punches a guy on the floor with his left, cursing at him in Spanish.
Dante isn’t here.
He’s not anywhere else, as Caputo and the rest inform me over the earpiece.
What the fuck went wrong?
The guy Jesus is pummeling—Mario—seems to still be alive.
I pull the still-cursing Jesus off his, get the barrel of his very large gun and ornate pointed at my head for the trouble, but I ignore it as I lift Mario up.
“Where’s Dante?”I ask.
He cackles, blood from his broken face landing on mine.“Little Matteo Rovina, finally showing some balls.Too bad it’s not enough.”
I shake him hard and repeat the question.I’m well past getting rattled by the insults of Dante’s men.
“You didn’t think you’d just get him so easily, did you?”Mario says.“He knew you were coming for him.”
How?Did someone fucking blab?
Caputo rushes in with most of my guys on his heels.
“Dante’s not here,” he announces needlessly.
“Nope, he’s not,” Mario says.“He’s waiting for you back at the house.Has a little surprise ready for you too.”
The earpiece comes alive.Gunfire, yells and screams, the sound of failure.
“Teams five and six are in trouble,” Caputo announces.Again, quite needlessly.
“Hear that?You’re in trouble.And soon you’ll join your daddy and big brother,” Mario says.“Should’ve stayed with us like a good little Dante’s bitch.Then you’d be safe.”
I push Mario away and shoot him in the middle of his laughing face.The silence is welcome.
“We go help teams five and six,” I announce to the rest of the men.“Then we head for Moretti’s mansion.”
And the machine guns in the turrets there.
But I started this.And I’m gonna finish it.Tonight.
Then I will go back to Goldie and stay with her in my arms until the fingers of cold death pry me away.
Chapter34
GIANNA
The house is empty.The war has started.
I can feel it.All the life this house and grounds have been teeming with since I got here is just gone.
Gone.
Thinking that word sends me spiraling so deep into anxious worry that even the hot sun on my face as I stand on the balcony of our bedroom feels cold.
What if Matteo doesn’t come back?
