“Natalie?” Mom asks. “Come on, we’ve got to get out of here. I got the box, but Winnie is demanding we give it back. We need to leave before she makes a scene.”
“Just a second,” I reply, getting dressed quickly. I can feel him leaking out of me. I’ll have to get to a bathroom as quickly as I can. He’s already soaking into my panties. I slip my mask on and then cross to the door, groping for the bolt and finding it a moment later. I slide it free, pulling the door open. “You okay?” she asks. “You’re sitting in the dark.”
“I’m fine,” I reply, looking behind me, but all I can see are shadows.
“Come on, quickly. Let’s go home. I’ll explain everything on the way.”
Chapter Four
Angelo
* * *
I emerge from the study in time to see Winnie Mason and Luigi Sandwell stalking after Natalie and her mother.
“That greedy bitch thinks she can take what’s mine?” Winnie snaps as they march through the dancing crowd. “Find her and get it back.”
“But the Don said—”
“I don’t give a shit what he said. You get it back and if they give you any shit you take them out, you got it?”
She holds a door open for him and he vanishes outside. I’m about to follow when it swings shut, and she looks straight at me, frowning as she peers at my mask. “Who are you?” she asks.
“Leaving,” I reply, turning and walking away from her. She comes after me, but I melt into the crowd, working my way through the mass of people until I get back to the door.
I glance back. Winnie’s still looking for me. She won’t find me until it’s too late. The box is mine.
I spot Luigi in the distance, heading down the drive in the dark. He’s got something in his hand. About ten yards in front of him are two women, masks off. I recognize one of them. The girl I met at the bar.
Natalie, her mom called her. That’s got to be Natalie Mason. I didn’t just fuck a random woman at the party. I fucked the woman I’m about to steal from.
In the time it takes me to set off running, Luigi reaches them and is swinging a club. Natalie’s mom crumples to the ground.
She’s dead in an instant.
He swings again, smacking my girl around the back of the skull. She falls and just as I reach him; he stands over my girl; the club raised for the fatal blow. “That box doesn’t belong to you,” he’s saying, bringing the club down through the air toward her head.
I grab his wrist just before he makes contact, yanking upward and smacking him in the face with his own club, breaking a couple of his teeth.
He tries to scream, but I smack him again, and then a third time. The last blow slams into his nose, sending blood spraying outward as he crumples to the ground. I get the boot in enough times to make sure he’s not going to give me any trouble.
Natalie’s mother is dead. She’s holding a hand out toward Natalie, something clenched in her fist. It’s the box of Milk Duds.
I hear a shout. Capos are running down the hill toward me. “He’s killed them,” Luigi shouts from his position at my feet, reaching out for me. “Angelo Genovese killed the Don’s ex.”
I punch his lights out, but it’s too late. More people are swarming out of the house, all of them coming for me, baying for blood.
I scoop Natalie into my arms and run down the slope to where I hid my car. “Hold on,” I tell her. She’s moaning quietly, her eyes glazing over, blood trickling down the back of her neck. I load her into the back.
I jump into the driver’s seat, calculating the time it will take to get to the nearest hospital.
My calculations don’t matter. I’m barely a quarter of a mile along the road before I hit a police roadblock. Lights and noise everywhere.
“Angelo Genovese,” a voice is calling through a bullhorn. “Pull over and give yourself up.”
“Fuck,” I spit, skidding to a halt. I dive out of the car as bullets fly after me. I hurl myself into the bushes at the side of the road. They come after me, but I’m more at home in the dark than they are. I run to the left, leaping up into a tree and hauling myself higher up while they dash past below me, flashlights waving from side to side.
I look out at my car on the road. More cops are looking in the back, getting hold of Natalie, pulling her out, examining her head wound.