Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 65054 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 325(@200wpm)___ 260(@250wpm)___ 217(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 65054 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 325(@200wpm)___ 260(@250wpm)___ 217(@300wpm)
Gunfire erupts at the front of the building. The sound tears through the club, sharp and controlled. Men shout. Chairs scrape. Someone runs across the floor above us. The building comes to life all at once.
Two men round the hall ahead of us with guns drawn. I shoot the first one before he finishes raising his weapon. Bradley takes the second. Tomasso flinches so hard he almost trips.
“Keep moving,” I tell him.
He does. We reach a locked door near the back hall. Tomasso hesitates. I press the gun to his side. “Open it.”
“I don’t have the code.”
I lean close enough that he can feel my breath. “Don’t fucking lie to me, cousin.”
He types four numbers. The light turns red.
Bradley grabs the back of his neck and slams his face toward the keypad, stopping an inch before impact.
“Again,” he says.
Tomasso types with shaking fingers. This time, it turns green. The lock releases.
Behind the door is a private room with a long table, a crystal decanter, and Sofia.
She sits in a chair near the wall, pale and shaking, one hand curled over her stomach. A man stands several feet from her, gun drawn toward the front of the building, distracted by the noise.
For one second, she looks at me like she doesn’t trust what she is seeing. Then her face crumples.
I shoot the guard before he can turn.
Sofia flinches, but she doesn’t scream.
I cross the room fast, leaving Tomasso with Bradley. “Are you hurt?”
She shakes her head. Tears spill over anyway.
“Did they touch you?”
“No.” Her voice cracks. “Not like that. Dominic, my dad. They took him out. They were hurting him.”
“I’ll find him,” I promise her.
I reach for her, and she grabs my shirt with both hands, like she’s been holding herself together by force and can’t do it anymore. I pull her against me and let myself have one moment of comfort. Her body shakes against mine, and I press my mouth to her hair because I need to feel her breathing.
The relief is so violent it almost bends me in half. Then a voice cuts through the room.
“How touching.”
I turn with Sofia still partly behind me. Enzo Calderone stands in the doorway across the room, two men flanking him. His suit is still neat. His face is calm. He looks more irritated than afraid.
Calderone looks at Tomasso and smiles faintly. “You brought him.”
Tomasso lifts his chin. “He followed me.”
“Same result.”
Sofia’s fingers tighten in my shirt. She looks from Calderone to Tomasso, and I feel the moment she understands.
“Tomasso,” I say.
He finally turns to me. “You were going to destroy us.”
“That’s your defense?”
“You made yourself weak,” he snaps. “For her. For a baby you didn’t even plan.”
Sofia goes still.
Calderone watches us with open enjoyment.
“Enough,” I say.
“No,” Tomasso says, and something desperate enters his voice. “You can still make a deal. Enzo is willing to negotiate.”
I almost laugh. “A deal.”
“With him.” Tomasso gestures toward Calderone. “You give him territory. Ports. The lending channels. Whatever he wants. You keep the girl and the baby.”
Sofia makes a small, wounded sound. I step forward.
“And you just get, what? The satisfaction of pulling one over on me?”
“No, Dominic. I want the business. And if you don’t step aside, I’ll have Enzo kill your precious little girlfriend and your bastard.”
I raise the gun and shoot him in the chest, without hesitation or warning.
Tomasso staggers back, eyes wide with shock. He looks down at the blood spreading across his shirt, then back at me. He clearly didn’t think I had it in me. Guess he’s not the only one capable of betrayal.
His mouth opens. Nothing comes out. He drops to the floor. Sofia gasps behind me. I don’t take my eyes off of Calderone.
“Family,” Calderone says softly. “Messy, isn’t it?”
“You have no idea.”
His smile fades. The two men beside him raise their guns. The room explodes.
Bradley fires first. I pull Sofia down behind the heavy table as bullets tear into wood and glass. The decanter shatters. Liquor splashes across the floor. Sofia covers her head with both arms, but she stays low.
I shoot one man through the throat when he moves too far into the doorway. Bradley takes the other in the shoulder, then again in the chest.
Calderone disappears into the hall. I am up before the last body hits the floor.
Sofia grabs my wrist. “My dad.”
“I’ll get him.”
“I’m coming.”
“No.”
Her face goes red with anger. I don’t back down.
“No,” I repeat. “I need you alive.”
“Then don’t leave me with him,” she says, looking at Tomasso’s body.
I look at Bradley. “Stay with her.”
He nods.
I move into the hall.
The front of the club is chaos. Rafe’s men have pushed through fast. Too fast for Calderone to regroup. Bodies sprawl near the bar, broken glass across the floor, smoke hanging low in the air. I hear Rafe shouting orders from somewhere ahead, alive and angry.