For maybe three seconds, a tense standoff ensued. Then Greco started running—not toward us, but through the VIP lounge. While I was trying to decide what to do, Vincent stepped around me, unhooked the velvet rope, and handed it to the bouncer. Next, he picked up the metal post the rope had been hooked to, swung it onto his shoulder like a baseball player with a bat, and went after Greco—not at a run, but at a leisurely pace. Man, that guy was cool.
The bouncer and I both stared after him, and I asked, “Is there an exit back there?”
“Yeah, but it’s marked ‘employees only’ and you’re not supposed to go that way.” Like a sign was going to stop them.
“Where does it lead?”
“To the kitchen, which has a side door to an alley.”
I grabbed my phone and shouted, as I turned and ran through the bar, “Greco’s about to exit through a side door off the kitchen. He recognized Vincent and me. Guys at the back of the building, be ready just in case, but he’s probably going to head for his car at the front of the club. I disabled it so he won’t be able to drive off, but who knows what he’ll do once he discovers that.”
I became tangled up in a big, drunk group of revelers on my way through the club, so I got outside just in time to see Greco mug a pizza delivery driver for his keys and drive off in a red Smart car with a big, lit up sign on top, shaped like a slice of pizza. Well, at least he’d be easy to spot. I reported his escape to the group and unmuted my speaker in time to hear Adriano say, “Stay right there, Jack. We’re coming to pick you up.”
Vincent caught up to me a moment later, dabbing at some sauce on his black suit jacket with a handkerchief. “The kitchen staff was feisty,” he said. “I don’t think they liked having unexpected company.”
The four guys who’d been watching the back of the building joined us, looking like the cast of a low-budget ren faire production. They were armed with various makeshift weapons including empty wine bottles, some of them wore cardboard armor, and Zan was holding a plastic garbage pail lid like a shield. When I shot them a look, they quickly discarded their alley armory.
Then the hot pink limo pulled up beside us, with Adriano behind the wheel and Dante talking to him through the connecting window. I quickly dove into the passenger seat, and while we waited for everyone else to pile into the back, my boyfriend frowned at me and said, “I thought I told you not to be a hero.”
“I wasn’t! I just went inside to check out the situation. I really didn’t expect Greco to recognize me.” I craned my neck to keep the glowing pizza slice in sight. Then I told him, “He just made a left at the light. We need to hurry.”
Adriano called, “Hold onto something, everyone,” and slammed on the gas. I glanced in the rearview mirror and saw that Pete was sitting with Nana and Ollie on the long bench seat at the back of the limo. One of them had given him their giant cock drink, and he was sipping it happily. While the three of them looked perfectly relaxed, everyone else was bracing themselves to keep from flying out of their seats.
We reached the light just as it turned from yellow to red, and Adriano slammed on the gas and took a wide left. Our tires squealed, and the back end swung so far out that we were practically driving sideways for a few moments. But then he straightened it out, and I grinned and said, “Look at you, driving it like you stole it. That’s hot.”
He chuckled at that before telling me, “This thing has the reaction time of a drugged giant sloth, so don’t expect much.”
“You’re doing great, and he’s in an old Smart car with a huge sign on the top, so I’m sure we’ll catch him.”
As Adriano wove the huge limo around a few cars, Dante appeared in the pass-through again and held up his phone. “My team’s tracking me and converging on our location,” he said. “They should be right behind us in a couple of minutes.” Adriano did a quick weave, and Dante was flung out of sight. We heard him curse and then mutter, “Next time, anyone but Aide gets to drive.”
Whether it was intentional or not, Greco led us to an industrial part of town, which was mostly shut down on a Friday night. Adriano finally got ahead of him in a large parking lot and whipped the limo around to cut him off.
Greco screeched to a halt, stopping just inches from our rear fender, and then he tumbled out of the car and took off running. For some reason, Adriano grabbed one of Pete’s hot pink stilettos from the floor before flinging the door open and sprinting after his quarry.
Exiting through the driver’s side door was my most direct route, but I had to scramble over the center console before joining the chase. That put me a few seconds behind.
As I ran to catch up, several SUVs started pulling into the lot. I sincerely hoped they were Dante’s team, and that Greco hadn’t called his people for backup.
When he was within maybe twenty feet of Greco, Adriano hurled the shoe in a side-armed pitch. It was a perfect throw, landing at Greco’s feet and causing him to trip and fall. That gave Adriano the time he needed to close the gap.
Greco was back up in an instant. He whirled around, anger flashing in his eyes as he drew back a fist. Before he could strike, Adriano punched him in the jaw and knocked him back. “That’s for smashing up my mom’s bar,” he growled. When Greco lunged at him, Adriano punched him again. Greco landed on his ass, and Adriano yelled, “And that’s because one of your dirtbags shot my boyfriend!”
Greco was like a wild animal. He got up and growled as he tried to come at Adriano yet again. But before he could get punched a third time, someone tasered him right in the chest, and he fell to the ground.
We all turned to look at Nana and her taser, and I said, “Nice shot.”
She scowled and muttered, “No it wasn’t. I was aiming for his nuts.”
It took a few moments, but Greco staggered to his feet, pulled the wires from his chest, and threw them to the ground. I thought he might try to come at Adriano once more, because he seemed absolutely feral. But then he looked around, and I did, too.
Dante and Vincent were flanking Adriano and me, and the rest of the family had gathered around us, like the first layer of a shell.
The second layer consisted of about thirty badass men and women dressed in black. Every one of them had a firearm pointed at Greco, and he yelled, “Who the fuck are all these people?”
“This is my family, that’s our army, and here’s your one warning.” Adriano’s voice rang with authority, and he took my hand and straightened his posture. I stared at his profile in awe. He was ice and steel, and the sexiest thing I’d ever seen in my life. “If you come for me or any of my loved ones, we’ll hunt you down, and we’ll show no mercy. You don’t cross the Dombrusos. If you were too ignorant to know our name before today, then you just got educated, you fucking prick.”
With that, he and I turned and walked away. Our family fell into step with us, including Pete, who’d picked up his pink stiletto and was grinning from ear-to-ear. “Best customers ever,” he whispered.