Chapter Thirty-Seven
“To die, is to finally live.” —King Campisi
Bella
I followed Ivan out of the car, Junior stayed behind like promised.
I wasn’t afraid of getting hurt, I was afraid of Ivan doing something stupid. “Don’t you dare try to stand in front of me if someone shoots at me,” I snapped.
He barked out a laugh. “Same goes for you.”
“And don’t fall on your own sword then give me this pathetic ‘I should have had more time’ sort of look, I want you to like, flip me off or something, go out angry if you go out.”
He laughed harder. “Wow, so bossy today.”
“Well, she just got shot, so excuse me for having no patience.”
“She’s strong.”
“She’s angry at you.”
“For good reason. You’re beautiful, by the way, just in case I never said it and acted like a jackass most the time, I always thought you were pretty, I was just afraid to show you a chink in my armor. Once an enemy, always an enemy.”
I huffed. “You’re okay to look at, I guess.”
“I’m gorgeous and I know it. But thank you for attempting to humble me.”
“This is what’s wrong with you.”
“Sweetheart, there is so much wrong with me, but can you be the one right thing? Aww see, that was nice of me. I’m getting good at this husband stuff.”
A sharp pain hit me in the chest. He wasn’t leaving, right? He wouldn’t do anything stupid?
It was Ivan, though.
I took a soothing breath. “How far are we walking?”
“Just to the back, by the pool. I’m assuming they have people surrounding the place. I told your dad to meet us near the pool house, and oh shit—”
It wasn’t just my dad. It was Phoenix, Tex, Andrei, Sergio, Dante, and Chase, along with what looked like about forty Abandonato men from my dad’s side, and forty from my uncle’s. All of them casually standing there like they were about to start a war.
“Hand her over.” Dad pointed his gun at Ivan.
He cursed. “I said Abandonato, not the other Families, this has nothing to do with them.” He cursed again. “Bella, you should have told me your dad was going to lose his mind and not listen.”
“I didn’t protect her from you once, I won’t make that same mistake again.” Nixon held up his hand, keeping his army at bay. His men had all of their guns trained on me, so many wonderful red little dots. “Bella, walk over to me, slowly.”
“The deal,” Ivan spoke in a calm, even tone, “was for you to bring all the Abandonatos, it’s like you’re just begging to cleanse all of the Families, is one daughter that important to you? One small person?”
“Yes,” he and Chase said at the same time.
I didn’t see the first shot; it was near Dad’s head but took out one of his men.. The second and third hit Chase’s security.
Ivan shoved me to the ground. “Stay here.”
I tried to grab for him, but a bullet whizzed by me. Around a hundred people in black camo were walking toward the group of us, with another person in similar clothing, wearing sunglasses and a hood covering their neck and head like it was freezing out.
They held up their hand. The bullets stopped. “Lovely family reunion, what a treat, I make a deal with the devil, and he more than follows through.” They looked over at Ivan, who had gotten closer to the group. “You were useful, after all. I mean, you’re going to die, but I think you already figured that when you lured everyone here for me using your little pawn of a wife.” They looked over at me. “Should I kill her first?”
“Can’t.” Ivan held up his hands and stood dangerously close to my dad. “She was made last night—two of your own went to meet Satan, she’s the one who sent them and as acting boss, I made her—into the De Lange line, so technically, she can’t be cleansed.”
“And what makes you think I follow rules?” The person glared, their voice was just as raspy as before, terrifying sounding, painful.
Ivan shrugged, hands still up. “If you really want control over the Family, you’ll at least show that you’ll honor De Langes. If not, you’re just as bad as the guys standing in front of you. They did cleanse an entire Family line, well almost, since I’m still standing here. Point is, you’ll need loyalty once you do this. You can’t have your own men turning on you at such a pivotal point, can you? Oh also, when you pry the ring from my finger, you might need to size it down a few notches, you look—small.”
The person pointed the gun at Ivan, then switched it to my dad and shot.
Ivan shoved dad out of the way and stumbled forward, it hit right below his neck on the right-hand side, barely missing his head.
And then the gun trained on me.
The sound of sirens filled the air.
What the hell was going on?
Ivan moved to his feet, leaning forward. “Shoot me again if you want, or I guess you can try and run, but the place is currently surrounded by the FBI.” Ivan gave a mock salute. “Trojan Horse, bitch.”
Hundreds of FBI agents swarmed the grass with Junior and Tank leading the way like it was a normal occurrence in our Family.
I mean, I knew we had ties with the FBI, and we helped one another from time to time and that different people had worked undercover for them, but what?
“Drop your guns.” Tank held out his badge. “Now.”
No way?
He was back in?
I thought he had to give up the FBI in order to marry into the Family.
“Good work.” Junior patted him on the back.
Phoenix stumbled toward Junior.
But Junior shook his head and nodded to Ivan.
What did they know that I didn’t?
Everyone dropped their guns but the person who had shot dad, they pointed it between Junior, Ivan, and finally landed on Chase.
With a sigh, Uncle Chase stepped forward and called off Junior, then turned over and nodded to Phoenix.
I got up and walked over to Ivan; he was bleeding, but not bad. “What’s going on?”
“Well, it was kind of like the ending to Avengers, I just expected there to be more killing less talking, but I think, I can fully promise you to always tell you the truth now that it’s about to be out. I’m sorry I lied.”
“Huh?”
“Phoenix’s rise from the ashes.” Ivan wrapped an arm around me and winced. “And demons, never die.”
The person wasn’t putting their gun down, but it was shaking, genuinely shaking in their hands.
Uncle Chase stared the person down, unafraid of the gun pointed at his face and whispered. “Do it. I fucking dare you.”
The gun pointed from Chase to Phoenix now.
Phoenix just shook his head, then finally looked over at Junior. “What do you prefer?”
Junior smiled. “I’m no longer the acting boss of the De Lange Family. Ask him.”
All eyes fell on me, including that of Tank, who was still pointing a gun at this person’s head.
“Be right back.” Ivan kissed me on the head and walked away, I only hoped it wasn’t to his death—again.