Kian
In hindsight, it might have been a better plan to wait for Cillian and Artem to rally the men. Our forces are spread over the entire compound, fighting back the Greeks and both Italian families in various locations. But most of Rokiades’s men are right here in this room, making sure to shield him from me.
“Rokiades!” I roar as I duck behind the massive dining room table that my men have managed to push onto its side. It provides the perfect cover for us, but it’s starting to give way beneath the onslaught of Greek gunfire.
In the room beyond us, all I can see is the line of Greek and Italian soldiers standing on the opposite end of the room, concealing their cowardly don.
We’re outnumbered four to one. Those odds are made worse by the fact that this ugly ass room has two little alcoves concealed off on each side of the space. We’ve been shooting at them for ten minutes now and I haven’t seen Rokiades once. He’s clearly hiding behind one of the two alcoves, watching everything unfold while his men die for him.
“Rokiades!” I yell again. “You fucking coward! Come out here and fight me like a man!”
I pop up from behind the table and fire off another round of bullets. I manage to hit two of his men. One is a clean kill shot; the second only incapacitates the poor bastard.
I duck down behind the table and attempt to reload before realizing that I’m clean out of ammo in this gun. “Fuck,” I growl, looking to the two men on either side of me. “Ammo?”
“Sorry, boss,” Rhys replies. “I’m on my last clip, too.”
“Get out there and get our men in here,” I order. “Another ten minutes and we’re going to sitting ducks.”
Rhys crouches low and snakes out of the room. I’ve got three bullets left in my second firearm. Two of those are ready for anyone wants to die today. The third is saved for the fucker who abducted my woman.
“Is this the don you are?” I demand, shouting out to make sure every single one of his men hear me. “The kind who hides in the darkness while his men take the hits?”
No answer. Just the pop-pop-pop of gunfire and splintering wood.
“No wonder you had to ally with the Lombardis and the Marianis,” I continue, noticing that my words are starting to puncture through the men, one by one. “You’re lacking in the charisma department.”
“You fucking boy!” Rokiades screams as he pushes past his men. He doesn’t quite make his way all the way through the front line, though, which I’m sure is no accident. He keeps himself angled conveniently behind the bodies of his men.
But I can see his face clearly. It’s red with rage and embarrassment.
I smile. The fastest way to goad a man like him is to hit his ego in front of his people.
“I’m going to enjoy killing you,” he adds with what he no doubt thinks is a menacing aura.
“You?” I mock, standing from behind the upturned table. “You haven’t fired one fucking bullet this whole time.”
His gun hand twitches as though he’s about to raise it. But he decides otherwise. “You know what?” Rokiades hisses. “I was going to be merciful. I was going to kill you. But now, I think I’ll take you alive. I’ll keep you in chains in my darkest cell. I want you to be alive for my wedding day. I’m going to take Renata Lombardi so hard, so completely that I fuck a baby into her on the first fucking night.”
He’s laying the groundwork. But he’s out of his fucking depth.
I know I shouldn’t respond in kind, and yet, I can’t help it. The words rip from me in a blaze of rage, “Sorry to disappoint you, but I beat you to it. There’s already a baby in that belly. And I was the man that put it there.”
Yannis’s eyes go wide with fury. “Oh, don’t you worry,” he rasps. “All it will take is a visit to my doctor to wipe the scum from her womb and fill her with my own son.”
I’m about to open fire on the motherfucker when I see a silhouette pass by me. My jaw drops as I realize what it is.
Or rather, who.
Renata Lombardi walks into the room as though she fucking owns the place. Her back is straight and her chin is tilted upwards. I can sense her fear, but she’s doing a good job of hiding it.
“Stop!” she calls out in a kind of voice I’ve never heard from her before. Proud. Royal. Defiant.
She turns, catches sight of me, and immediately rushes to my side. “Are you okay?” she gasps, cupping the side of my face with her palm.
“Jesus, Renata,” I growl, “what the fuck do you think you’re doing?”
“Your brother tried to stop me,” she blurts out. “Don’t be mad at him.”