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“Enough of the family reunion.” Enzo turns to Gia who has worked her hands free and is sitting up as regally as she was trained. “And you, my darling mother.”

“Try that again. We all know you’re a whore’s bastard. If you weren’t, then your blood would have worked on the fucking safe.”

“Poor misunderstood motherless Enzo,” Gia scoffs with a loud laugh.

“Right?” I smirk and answer her.

Gia pulls no punches. “Nobody ever loved you enough. You sat in your room crying about all kinds of shit. Whining that no one would give you things you wanted. You’d get pissed off that I wouldn’t just give you money. Never worked hard a day in your fucking life, expecting the world to fall at your feet. I tried to help you see that nothing is free in this life. You work hard you get rewarded. But you’d just cry about how no one loved you and you were fucking right, little asshole. You were the burden. The scourge but I kept you safe and fed you anyway and look how you turned out.”

I stand with my gun crossed over my hand, my stance wide. Shoulders back, tits out as Poppy would say.

“You never gave me a fucking chance.” He spits out, and the thug from behind him stifles a laugh at his vulnerability. I grin, knowing Enzo’s about to do more dirty work for me. He nods to a guy at the back door who slits the man’s throat. Poppy doesn’t even wince but turns her attention back to me. Our eyes catching all the words we can’t say.

“Look, boy. You lost the only key and chance I ever gave you. You should have held onto gifts given to you out of familial obligation and what I thought was love.”

I flick my hands to my confirmation medal, and he quickly feels for his. The one Lou grabbed from around his neck.

“Yeah. Sorry. You lost it. Now that little secret goes to the grave. Shame too, because everything you fucking need to rule our world, is conveniently in there.” I flick my chin towards the locked safe that’s being carried out of the room. Deal with that later.

Enzo charges like a bull. I don’t get my gun up fast enough before he tackles me like a linebacker. The sheer force of him knocks my gun out of my hand and skittering across the tile. Bullets whiz around. The man in the balcony falls onto the table from above and splays out like a sickening Christmas dinner. The women up from the table and that’s all I need. I refocus on the slick feral grizzly bear on top of me.

He’s squeezing his juiced up thighs into my ribcage. And my fucking side goes up in flames. Ang ratted out my gunshot wound. Bitch. He’s pinned my arms to the ground in his straddle and his knees are holding my hands flat. I regulate my breathing and push past the pain searing into my side. I’ll wait. He’ll make a mistake. I can hear the girls screaming.

“Gia. Get the fuck down,” Poppy yells.

I hear Brick and Grocer taking out who they can. The shooting pauses and resumes. Pauses and resumes and still Enzo just stares at me. He reels his head back, cocks his fist, and gets ready to punch and spit on me. I see it coming like he’s sent a formal invitation for each punk ass move. When he tackled me, we slid out of the main room back through the archway into the sitting area. Ironically, out of the line of fire.

Time to teach him there’s more than one way to kill a guy.

“You’ll never be good enough to best me. Even if you kill me and take the money, you’ll always be a two bit bastard son of a whore and a useless hood. You’ll never be the king. You’ll always be the dumb ass pawn who does what Cady says.”

His fist stops and he stares at me stunned that I know Phil Cady’s name. Stops him fucking cold and I go in for the kill.

“You’ll only ever be his bitch boy like you were mine. Here’s the fucking difference, I thought you were family and protected your dumb ass too many goddamned times. But when and if someone catches him doing something, it’s you who will do the time, cake boy. You’ll take it right up the ass. They’ll fuck your throat and when they violate every hole you have, each time you’ll think of Cady.”

The hesitation is enough for me to buck him off of me. I scramble in a reversal like I’m back wrestling in high school. I almost have him pinned when he kicks me in the chest, throwing me back. My side rips open as I fall and blood seeps out. I clock his head with my fist and avoid his retaliation. And then I see the blade. I’ve got nothing.

“You don’t know shit, Uncle. LA, that’s the fucking beginning. I’ll fucking own it all and Ca…” He steps on his own words worried there’s more of those Dutch assholes around. But I watched those fucking cowards grab the safes and leave.

We circle each other, and now I’ve positioned myself so that I can see the fucking carnage in the main room if I look. A younger guy would peek at the room. I can only pray that it’s all ok. But I’m not a young guy so, I won’t take my eyes off of his.

“What’s the matter with you, Enzo? Not allowed to say his name?”

“You don’t know what the hell you’re saying.”

“I hear he skins people for fun. Is that where your arm scar came from?” There’s a small patch of discolored skin on his wrist. “Heard he does it for you to show loyalty and when he fucking does it, his heart rate doesn’t even tick up a beat.”

“Shut the fuck up.”

“Phil Cady. Phil Cady. Phil Cady.” I taunt him like we’re in the fucking school yard. His face glares red and I keep moving slightly to keep him directly in front of me.

“Stop fucking saying his name,” he whines like the little bitch he is.

“What, you think I don’t know it all? I know more than you, boy. If I don’t get you that devil most certainly will.”

“I’m going to make you fucking pay, Uncle.”

“It’s Sal. I’m not your fucking uncle. Or you can call me Don. You think you’re going to fucking kill me? I can only die once. Or in my case twice. Will that be enough for you to get out? To save face with him?”