“Agreed.” I didn’t like dragging women down in the shit with us, but I wouldn’t hold back tonight. Freeing Carmela was my one and only priority. Failing wasn’t an option. I didn’t care who I had to destroy to make it happen.
“The clock’s ticking. We need to get moving,” Anatolyi said.
“You guys go in the front, and we’ll go around back,” I said, finishing loading my guns.
Gian pulled out his gun. “Tony, take your car and go to Nico’s house.”
“What for?”
“I want to make sure he’s on the up and up. You don’t have to say anything. Just shoot the shit with him, make sure he doesn’t leave, and listen to his phone calls.”
“Got it.” Tony opened the car door. “What about Emilia?”
“Drop her off at her dad’s. I’ll let him deal with her.”
CHAPTER
THIRTY-TWO
Carmela
“Your friends?” I pried my knees apart, wedging the barrel between my legs. Although it wouldn’t be a clean shot, it didn’t matter. I wanted to get out of here, not kill her.
“Don’t worry.” Her chapped lips spread across her hollow face and she looked more than a little insane. “You’re already acquainted with them.”
“Oh yeah?”
“Renzo DiTonno and Gemma DeAngelo. You know them, right?”
“Sure, but I don’t know what they have to do with me being here.”
“I’ll let them explain.”
“What about you? Why are you here?”
“Ya know, I can see what he sees in you,” she said, cocking her head to the side and her heavy eyelids drooping. “I remember the first time he saw you. We were at a restaurant celebrating moving in together. He couldn’t take his eyes off you. He tried to hide his attraction to you, but I knew him too well for that. I made him pay for looking at you.” Her voice dropped, almost like a confession, and she inched closer to me. “If you weren’t so pretty, I’d bet Kon wouldn’t like you so much. He’d want me back.”
“Kon?” I choked out, fear spiking in my veins. “What does Kon have to do with this?”
“Didn’t he tell you about me?” I shook my head. “Are you sure? I’m Lanelle. He calls me Laney, though. We were supposed to be married by now. He still loves me, and once you’re out of the way, everything will go back to the way it should be.”
She raised her eyebrows. “And not only for me, but for Gemma and Renzo too.”
“I still don’t understand what’s going on.”
“I like to think of it as divine intervention.” She tapped the knife against her leg. “But here it goes. I met Gemma in rehab. Gemma dated Renzo’s brother. We all hate you.”
“Why?”
“Enough talking. Let’s go. They’re waiting for us.”
I could shoot her and hope I found a way out of here or I could follow her and plead for my life. I had seconds to make up my mind, and I chose to fight. I aimed the gun as best I could between my knees and squeezed the trigger.
The recoil knocked me back and I collided with the concrete wall. My teeth clacked together and I nipped the tip of my tongue. Coppery blood filled my mouth. The gunshot merged with her scream, making my ears ring. Laney dropped to her knees, holding her shin. Blood spilled down her leg.
Pain radiating down my spine, I scrambled to my feet and ran, leaping over Laney’s prone form and swerving around the corner. A narrow staircase with wooden steps was at the end of the hall. Before I mounted the first step, arms circled my waist, dragging me to the floor from behind. My shoulder bounced against the concrete, and the gun spun out of my hand.
I rolled onto my stomach to get to my feet. The second I raised my hips, a knee jammed into my back and someone stretched my arms out over my head, pinning them to the floor.
“I’m not going to kill you,” a man said. If Laney were telling the truth, it was Renzo. “Not yet anyway. I have a little payback in mind first.”
My vision danced and tilted until I brought Renzo DiTonno’s twisted features into focus. He was leaning over me, his face inches from mine. He smelled like old cigarettes and stale beer.
“Do you know how Gian killed my brother?” he snarled, his lips curled up and spittle spraying my face.
“No,” I whispered, my voice strained from holding back the gag.
He grabbed a chunk of my hair with his free hand and yanked my head up like he wanted to rip it from my torso. “He had his goons beat him until he couldn’t move. Then they tossed him in his car and lit it on fire with my brother locked inside. It was a slow, painful death, and yours will be too.”