We sit and eat, but my mind is other places and not on the beautiful woman across from me.
“I think I’ll go back to the hotel now.” I watch her pull out her bag and dig out some notes she prepares to put on the table.
I look up at her and see the hurt in her eyes. Her body is tight, and I want her soft and needy, like she was earlier. But I also want her to tell me more about her past. I want all of her, but I don’t want to give her what she wants from me. I don’t know how to answer her about who I really am.
I’m a killer.
I’m the son of a mafia boss. A Capo.
Before I realize it, she’s gone. I was so lost in my thoughts, I missed her leaving. I grab the notes and run from the room. She’s already out the exit. She pauses and looks back at me, then turns and walks away. I watch Vincenzo start to go after her, but then he falls to the ground. My body goes into fight mode as bullets riddle the front of the restaurant.
ChapterThree
McKenna
Ican’t believe how wrong I was about him. I felt fear for only a moment with him. But the fact he doesn’t want to tell me about his past scares me more. I know what atconsigliereis. I know they are a part of the mafia.
Is Dante mafia?
I think about that for a moment when I stop to look back at him. He’s moving through the restaurant toward me. I decide he deserves a chance to explain himself.
“Come here. I need help,” a woman says, and I turn and follow her voice into the darkness. I don’t know why I do it, but her plea gets me moving.
I hear what sounds like fireworks exploding and turn to see men shooting the front of the restaurant I just exited. I move to rush back to Dante when I’m grabbed from behind and dragged down the alley toward where the woman was calling for help. If she hadn’t called to me, I’d be dead now. I look at the woman dressed in a black coat. Her black hair is up and her face is covered by a mask, which I find odd. I struggle against the man holding me as I stare the woman down. Her golden-brown eyes stare back at me with anger and hate. She turns away and moves deeper into the alley.
“You should have never come back,” the man holding me growls in my ear. His voice sounds like he gargled glass.
He swings me around and I look toward the woman, but she’s gone. I focus back on the man so I can describe him to the police. His hair blends into the darkness around us. His eyes look black. He has a scar along his right cheek that goes from his eye to his chin. I cringe back as something, a memory of fear and screaming, goes through my mind. His fist slams into my face unexpectedly and I’m thrown back from the force of it. I look up as two more men join us. My body trembles and my heart rate increases. I’m terrified now.
“Kill her,” the man who snatched me says.
The two new men laugh and advance on me.
“Can we fuck her?” one of them asks.
“I don’t care, as long as she doesn’t walk out of this alley,” the scarred man says.
My eyes bounce between the two other men. I can’t decide who will attack me first or what to do. Maybe I should have asked that my ward take self-defense classes, then I’d know how to protect myself. I need to get up off the ground, but I’m still reeling from the punch.
The first of the two men kicks me, and I try to block the blow by shrinking in on myself. It still hits my chest and I feel pain as I gasp and scream as loud as I can. I no longer hear the guns shooting, so I hope someone hears me. I pray Dante comes after me, but then I remember the bullets spraying the front of the restaurant, right where he was standing. He’s probably dead now, just like I will be soon.
Is this about him or me?
I thought it was him at first, but then the man said I should have never come back.
“You’re making a mistake. I’m not from around here,” I beg as the second man moves up and squats over me.
I hold up my purse to get out my passport and show him, but he takes it and throws it back to the scarred man, who is standing just off in the shadows. Then his fist comes down and hits me again. This time I feel pain shoot through my jaw. I fall to the ground as they continue to hit and kick me. I cover my face with my arms. I can’t talk or scream; I think my jaw is broken or severely bruised. A quiet settles around me and I don’t feel any more blows. Am I dying? Is this what everyone talks about? They say before you die, your life flashes before your eyes. Nothing is flashing before mine except for today with Dante. It’s the most I’ve lived in eighteen years.
I decide I’m not going to die here. I want more of today. Maybe Dante survived too. So I play dead and stay still, hoping they think they killed me.
“You were supposed to kill her. No one can be alive.” I hear the woman’s voice. Her accent thick. I try to open an eye, but all I see is darkness and blood. “Kill her this time, or you will die next. Did you leave him alive? He mustn’t die yet. I must prepare for the future first. But her, she dies tonight. No more pity. No more excuses.”
“I don’t know about him. My men were told not to kill him, just stall him. But I couldn’t back then,” the scarred man says.
“I don’t have an heir, or I’d have you kill him. The deal was I killed the mother after you raped her and you were supposed to kill the child. But you couldn’t, you pansy,” the woman says before I hear her heels clicking as she walks away. Fear slams into me. They killed others tonight. What did I stumble upon? I’m confused and not thinking clearly because it doesn’t make sense.
“Do it now. My future and your lives hang on this.” The blows start again, and I hope the end comes soon.