“Let’s begin,” Marco agreed. He didn’t mind one bit if tonight ended in fury and blood.
Violence soothed his soul. Marco wouldn’t end the evening feeling empty after soaking his hands with blood. He wasn’t worried because the woman waiting for him back home would fix him back together again once the gunfire and the chaos died down.
Chapter Nine
“Shit!” Ryker also muttered a good number of curses when he entered the conference room. Ryker checked his watch. “What the hell happened? I was only gone ten minutes at most.”
Marco unloaded the rest of his clip into the skull of the writhing lowlife at his shoes. The Bratva scum stopped moving. It would be hard to clean the blood off expensive Italian leather. He tucked his gun away with a sigh. What a waste of perfectly good shoes, and these were his favorite.
He felt nothing for the dead assassins. Minutes ago, it was either killed or be killed.
Matthias answered Ryker for him. “Trap. Popov and the others aren’t here, only gunmen waiting to finish us off. They initially wanted us to surrender our weapons, but Marco refused so they had no other choice but to face us.”
“Casualties?” Ryker looked around the room.
“Johnny got shot in the shoulder,” Marco answered.
Marco walked over to Johnny, the youngest member of the group. He didn’t even want to bring him along but Johnny begged him to give him a chance. Johnny’s old man worked for his father and Johnny wanted to be just like him.
Marco still saw Johnny as a kid even though Johnny was in his early twenties. Lorenzo wrapped Johnny’s bloodied shoulder with torn pieces of fabric. Marco knew types like Johnny. If he didn’t give Johnny a test run now, then Johnny would run off and do something stupid to prove himself.
“You did good, kid,” he said. The pure relief on Johnny’s face made him look away. “Ryker, you’re in charge of cleanup. Make sure this room is returned the way it was. No evidence.”
Ryker looked resigned but he nodded.
“I’ll make sure Marco gets home safely,” Matthias added.
He gave his brother a sharp look. Ryker might disapprove of what he’d done tonight, but Ryker was wise enough to respect his position. Matthias didn’t. They were going to have this conversation anyway, so he gestured to Matthias that they leave the conference room.
“No one’s been out here but us, boss,” reported Luigi, who was standing guard outside the room.
“Good work,” Marco said.
They returned to the first floor. Linda came over, looking concerned. He noticed her gaze lingered on the dark stains on his suit, his tousled hair and suit, and the bruises that were beginning to show. Matthias didn’t look any better. He knew, with enough incentive, Linda would keep quiet about what she saw. He made a mental reminder to tell Ryker to make sure she didn’t talk.
“Is anything wrong, Mr. Severin?” she asked him.
“Everything’s fine,” Matthias said.
She looked spooked by Matthias and quickly darted back behind her desk. Matthias had that impression on most people. They returned to his car. Matthias grabbed his keys.
“I’ll drive,” Matthias said.
“Just get me home,” he said, taking the seat next to Matthias.
His brother didn’t start the car right away, simply gripped the wheel and finally looked at him.
“You fucker. You took us in there, knowing it was a damn trap,” Matthias said in a quiet, deadly voice.
“You knew as well. You could’ve left,” he reminded Matthias. “In case you’ve forgotten, we won in the end. What does it matter?”
Matthias gripped his shirt but Marco let him have his say.
“I’d never leave. You know that. Asshole. You think I’d let you go alone in there with just those guys?” Matthias clenched his jaw and released his shirt. “What do you expect me to tell Lila if I had to bring you back to her in pieces?”
That certainly shut him up. He stared out the car windows, at the rest of the parking lot. He knew he’d fucked up. That he got lucky no one died and Johnny only earned his first battle scar.
“If we leave, our reputation would’ve taken a hit. We answer violence with violence. We never back down, remember?” he said.