“Isn’t there? I could snap you like a twig.” Maybe I wanted to see her quiver under my threats, make her understand that this wasn’t a place for a girl like her. She needed to be afraid. She needed to know that I held the cards here, that this was my family and one of our untouchables had just been touched.
“You could, but you won’t.” She glanced at Mario, who studied us as he talked with his boys. “Mario makes the rules.”
“Most of the time,” I corrected. “When my father was murdered, I became Mario’s right-hand man. I’m the enforcer, the lone wolf of this family who gets to do as I please.”
She shook her head like that wasn’t fair. Yet the family operated the way it did now because Mario had to trust someone with his life and that someone was me. I’d proven my worth. The catch was, when I failed, they would kill me. The mob didn’t favor anyone because of sentiment. They did it because it benefited them.
Katie stared at her dying boyfriend and bit her lip, shaking her head at what I’d told her.
“Do you want to take him to the hospital?” I asked, knowing I was rubbing salt in her wounds. I didn’t care. The pain of losing my ex-fiancée fed the anger I felt toward her.
“I just don’t like suffering, Rome.” She sighed, and some of the confidence left her. “Where’s the bathroom?”
Funny thing about someone who wasn’t a part of the family: they’d ask something like that. They’d think this was a place where there were common amenities for them. Still, I entertained her. I ticked my head toward a white door in a darkened corner with a red exit sign above it. It led to the back hallway. Like a mall, this facility was big and the hallway led to other rooms where we held things no one should be going through. She took one last glance at Jimmy. He was unresponsive now, enough blood having left his body to prevent him from feeling death overtake him.
She shuddered and then stalked forward quickly on her own as if I wasn’t going to lead the way for her.
“Hey!” I yelled after her as she shoved down the handle of the door and barreled through it. One motion sensor long-tube light flickered on. And just as the door closed, Katalina vomited straight into a beat-up trash can that happened to be around the corner.
4
Katie
Did I look at Jimmy with love or pity?
Sympathy or hate? Could I feel both in that moment?
My body heaved at the thought of him on the floor, writhing in pain. Or maybe it was heaving up the idea that I would never have to share a bed with him again.
Would I have taken him to the hospital had I been given the chance? Or better yet, had it been me, would my boyfriend have driven me there?
The answer to that last one was a resounding no.
I needed to remember that, remember my place.
One flimsy door separated me from a roomful of men who would put a bullet through my head in an instant. And I stood in a hallway of cement walls and dim lighting with the man who had just stabbed my boyfriend numerous times. I was ready for fear to whip through me, make me shake in terror. Rome stood a whole head taller than me, and his shoulders were wider than I remembered. He was bigger, more muscular, more everything than I remembered. Tattoos wove over his neck and arms like they wanted to wrap him up in all their corrupt markings.
The reaction I had to him staring at me with a look of disgust wasn’t fear but irritation and maybe a little heat. That annoyed me even more.
I grabbed the metal rim of the trash can to steady myself and wiped the back of my other hand across my mouth.
“Couldn’t have waited until the bathroom to do all the dramatic vomiting?” he blurted out.
“Oh, I’m sorry. Is it a bother to you?” I threw back, surprised I was quick enough to toss snark at him in my state. But I was more than ready. If I stomped his foot with a heel, would he be so unemotional then? “The person I was living with for the past year is dying on the floor out there.”
“Then, I guess we were a year late in killing him.” He grunted and pointed to a door with black chipped paint to our right.
“You can go now. I don’t need an escort to the bathroom.” I flipped my hair over my shoulder, ready to leave this whole incident behind, when he grabbed my arm and shoved me into the bathroom. He followed me in and turned to lock the door behind us.
When he spun back around to find me sputtering, about to scream, his hand flew to my mouth. I clawed at his forearm where tattoos wound up to his wrist. I couldn’t get him to budge an inch. When he took a step closer, I winced and covered my chest.
I’d been here before. I knew the drill. I hadn’t planned for it tonight, though. Rome never looked the type to take advantage of a woman, and by now I had a pretty good understanding of the men who did. I thought tonight would be different, that Mario was protecting me now, that maybe me moving toward being a part of the family meant my body wasn’t up for grabs.
I guess I’d have to fight off this man too.
His dark eyes flared with anger, and he suddenly looked ill himself. “I’m not here to hurt you, Katie. Jesus.” His grip on me loosened. “I could have done that in the hallway if I wanted to. I need you to answer questions without screaming, okay?”
I nodded, probably a bit vigorously, willing to do whatever it took to get him away as soon as possible.