“Who?” Luca roared, his voice echoing off the walls. The sound of fists hitting flesh and groans made me flinch.
Tommy ran up behind me, not even a little out of breath. “Sasha, I think we should go.”
“Hey!” a deep voice shouted from the shadows.
Tommy spun around and pushed me behind him. “It’s Tommy and Sasha,” he said loud and clear.
“What the fuck are you doing here?” Mickey snarled. There was something in his stare that set me on alert.
“I need to talk to Luca.”
Marco strolled up, his face grim. “Follow me.”
“I think we’re just going to—”
“Sasha!” Luca bellowed, making me jump.
Marco jerked his chin toward where a floodlight was on.
“I guess we’re going over there,” I said with more confidence than I felt.
Chin up, shoulders back, I walked toward Luca’s silhouette. His face was shadowed, but anger rolled off him in waves. The closer I got, the more my legs shook. In Luca’s hand was a handgun, complete with a silencer. The Marino twins knelt on a black tarp, feet away, beaten and bloody. Paulie stood behind them, holding a gun.
“Tough day at the office?” I joked.
He pulled me to his chest, gently tilting my chin up and running his thumb over the scrapes on my cheek. “Are you okay?”
I nodded, my eyes wandering to the two men glaring at me from the ground. Luca kissed my forehead, shocking me from staring at the soon-to-be-dead Marino twins. Marco joined us, maneuvering me behind him while Luca stalked toward Tommy.
Wordlessly, he raised the gun in the air and brought it down across his face in a punishing blow. To Tommy’s credit, he remained standing and recovered long enough to look at Luca before another hit came down on the other side. Luca grabbed Tommy’s face and said, “You shouldn’t have brought Sasha here.” He glanced back at me and shook his head. “Next time you’re guarding her, she better come back intact. If even one nail is broken, I’ll kill you. Understand?”
“Yes, sir.”
Luca patted his shoulder, cuffing his ear. Tommy kept his hands behind his back, letting the blood from his nose and mouth pour down his chin. There was pride, a kind of nobility in the way Tommy watched Luca rejoin Marco and me. He’d been pistol-whipped and still looked at Luca like he was his hero.
Luca gestured for him to stand next to me. “Now. Where were we?” Luca rolled his neck, his eyes falling on his prey.
“Fuck you.” The twin with a scar through his eyebrow spat.
Marco kicked him so hard that he fell into his brother, and when he wound up for another, Luca shook his head.
“Enough. Frankie?”
Frankie came out of the shadows, set a bag at Luca’s feet, and came to stand next to me. Mickey joined him, leaving me surrounded by huge suited and booted men, but could still make out the unfortunate assholes waiting for their execution.
Luca slid off his expensive jacket and handed it to Marco, who passed it to me. I crushed it against my chest, inhaling his cologne and trying to soothe my rattled nerves. He set the gun down, rolling up his sleeves before unzipping the leather bag and rooting around. I gasped when he pulled out a knife as sharp as the ones he used in our kitchen, but no one spared me a look. All eyes stayed trained on Luca.
“Now. We’re going to try this again. You tell me what I want, and I’ll end this. You drag it out, and I’ll break you down like a side of beef.”
The twin with a scar spat at Luca while his brother shook.
Right there with ya, buddy.
“The night Yanni was killed, the shooting at the club.” The trembling twin flinched, and Luca pivoted his body toward him. “You told them I was there, didn’t you?”
When neither spoke, Luca palmed the crying twin’s face, cleanly slicing off his right ear. Picking it up off the ground, he tossed it at his brother, hitting him in the center of his forehead. “Start talking, or the other ear goes.”
The twin with a scar through his eyebrow glanced our way and grimaced.