Total pages in book: 32
Estimated words: 30264 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 151(@200wpm)___ 121(@250wpm)___ 101(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 30264 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 151(@200wpm)___ 121(@250wpm)___ 101(@300wpm)
An arm wraps around me from behind. I start to swing my elbow, but Antonio whispers my name in my ear as my feet leave the floor.
“Get my sister!” Antonio tells Gilly, but he’s already grabbing her. Carina fires two more shots.
“Don’t touch me, you big jerk! I can take care of myself. I’m invisible to you, remember.”
“Not now,” Gilly growls at her, ignoring her words and tossing her over his shoulder.
“I’ve got a gun. I could shoot you right in the ass.”
“There’s glass everywhere, and your feet are bare,” I hear him tell her as sounds of more gun fire go off from outside.
“Antonio? What’s happening?”
He pulls me out of Carina’s bedroom and toward another bedroom. One I know because he’s shown it to me before. Taught me what it’s used for and how to use it.
“Butcher just accelerated our timeline to deal with your father.” Antonio puts me on my feet as he slides the bookcase in what looks like a spare bedroom to the side before entering in the code on the keypad. The door to the safe room pops open.
“What do you mean?” Antonio pulls me into the small room.
“He went and got your sister.”
“Really?” I gasp. “Like just walked in and got her?” Is that even possible? Why would he do that? Alone? How is he not dead? “Where is she now?”
“You stay in this room until I come and get you.” Antonio says, not answering any of my questions.
Gilly and Carina bicker back and forth about her not going into the safe room. “I don’t need your ‘worry’!” She does air quotes with a gun still in her hand. “Because it’s your job.”
“Get in the fucking room, Carina, or so help me God, brother or not, I’ll tan your little ass.” Gilly picks her up by the hips and places her in the room.
“Angel. Stay here, no matter what you see or hear. Got it?” Antonio draws my attention back to him.
“Where is my sister? Tell me, and I’ll stay put.” What if she’s out there in all this gun fire and whatever is happening?
“With Butcher,” he answers, but for some reason I have a feeling he’s not telling me everything.
“He won’t hurt her, will he?”
“No,” he responds before placing a hard kiss on my lips and stepping back.
“Antonio, I love you,” I say before he can close the door.
Gilly lifts his gun and starts firing. My heart sinks when a bullet flies by Antonio and Gilly as he slams the door shut. Carina rushes to it and starts engaging the extra bolts. When she turns back around, tears are streaming down her face.
“What’s happening?” I ask her.
“War.”
21
ANTONIO
Once I know Carina is safe, I rush to the second-floor armory in the back of my closet. Gilly’s already there with the doors open.
“How many of our men arrived before the Larones?” I ask.
“Only a dozen or so. More inbound. But it’s not just the Larones.”
“I know.” I saw more SUVs pull up than the Larones could ever fill. It’s the Frangiones. They’ve come for Bianca, though I know she’s not here. Butcher took her somewhere else, hopefully somewhere safe.
My phone vibrates. I pull it from my pocket and see a message from Angelica’s father.
Constantine: Come outside and talk before this gets really ugly.
I turn the phone around and show it to Gilly.
“Does he think we’re stupid?” Gilly raises a brow and stows a couple of grenades on his belt.
I hit the call button. Constantine picks up in two rings.
“Come out.”
“No.” I select my load out and make sure my favorite pistols are ready to fire.
“I know you have her.” His voice is laced with rage. “You took her!”
“I married Angelica fair and square. You–”
“You know who I’m talking about!” he bellows.
“Constantine, calm the fuck down.” I post up near the front door with several of my men. Glass litters the floor, but there are no more shots for the moment.
“I will not calm down. Where is my daughter?” He lowers his voice. “If you don’t deliver Bianca into my hands in the next five minutes, Geno Frangione is going to level this place, and I’m going to help him.”
“You’d sell your daughter to that piece of shit?” I smirk. “You’re a shit father. Though I think you already know that. Why do you need the money? You took my dowry and ran, and now you’re going to sell Bianca to the Frangiones. For what? What have you done? Because I know you’re the cause of it. You’re sacrificing your daughters to save your own ass. You nearly killed Angelica,” I seethe. “Sent killers after her on her wedding day. What the fuck is so important that you’d do that to her?”
He’s silent for a long while.
I peek out the window. About a dozen of my men are lined up at the front of the house, taking cover behind cars and the fountain. Beyond them, down the driveway is a blockade of SUVs. I don’t have a head count, but there are at least 20 men, maybe more. We’re outnumbered, but I’ve never run from a fight, and I won’t start now. Not when I have my family counting on me.