His to Possess (Mafia Kingpins #4)

20. Angelo

20

ANGELO

I told Blake I love her and it’s the best feeling in the whole world. I don’t expect her to say it back yet, though. I know I took her by surprise and she’s incredibly emotional right now. Fragile even. Grabbing the edge of my t-shirt, I lift it up and wipe her damp cheeks.

“If you cry every time I say I love you, we’re going to have a problem,” I warn her with a smile, and she chuckles. Her laughter is like music to my ears. If only I could sweep her up into my arms and take her home. But, unfortunately, our happily ever after is going to have to wait a little longer. First, we have to slay the dragon.

We walk back over to the others and, for the first time ever, I can see support on every face at the table. Despite our differences, all it takes is a dangerous, common enemy to bring us together.

“We’re going to try this the easy way first,” Miceli says. “The four of us will go to Gallo’s and talk to him.”

“Blake stays with us,” I say. “She’s still on the Kill List and needs our protection.”

“Of course,” he concedes.

“And if that doesn’t work?”

“Then we’re going to be a little more persuasive. Everyone, bring a weapon.”

“Gallo will give in,” Aldo DeLuca says. Although Alessia’s father didn’t always have my family’s back, he does now, especially after seeing how much Miceli loves his daughter. He treats her like a princess. And then, of course, Aldo is over the moon about his baby grandson.

“I want to come,” Carlotta pipes in, and we all shake our heads no.

“Absolutely not,” Miceli states, voice firm and unwavering.

“You are not the boss of me, Miceli Rossi,” she snaps, crossing her arms. “I am just as much a part of this family as you four. I just don’t have a dick, but that shouldn’t matter.”

“Lottie,” I say softly, “it’s too dangerous and if you come, we’re all going to be worrying about you and not be able to focus on what we need to do.”

“Blake is going,” she points out.

“Blake can take care of herself,” I say proudly.

“So can I,” she insists.

Blake moves over by Carlotta and lowers her voice, but I can still hear. “If you stay back this time, how about I teach you how to shoot when we return? That way these guys can rest a little easier, knowing you can defend yourself.”

“Yeah, okay.” Carlotta’s eyes light up. “I’d love some private lessons, especially since these guys want me to live under lock and key.”

Blake smiles at her. “Don’t worry. I’ll show you how to take care of yourself.”

I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or if these two are going to get into trouble together. Probably the latter, but I’ll worry about that later. Right now, we need to confront Gallo and hopefully set everything right.

It seems like a longshot, so I’m not really surprised when things don’t go quite as planned. Hell, do they ever?

Me, Blake, my brothers, and Leo Amato, Miceli’s close friend and personal guard, drive over to Carmine Gallo’s enormous home located on the Upper East Side. The place is huge and foreboding. Clearly, Gallo wants everyone to know how important he is and how much money he has. Needless to say, I’m not impressed.

“So, we’re all going in there?” I ask. We’re standing on the sidewalk and I look at my brothers and Leo who may as well be a brother, too.

“We got your back, Ang,” Enzo says.

“Yeah,” Miceli adds, “and this asshole needs to be put in his place.”

Vin nods. “No one puts our brother on some kind of Kill List and gets away with it.”

“Thanks, guys.” I pull in a deep breath, exchange a look with Blake, and we all walk up the stairs to the front door. I step forward, knock, and feel a surge of confidence with my brothers and Leo at my back. Trying to be hopeful, I picture this meeting going smoothly and without any issues.

Little do I know…

The door is opened by a huge bear of a man and he looks like he eats steel screws for breakfast instead of cereal. “We’re here to see Carmine,” I say, keeping my voice steady and no-nonsense.

“He’s expecting you,” the bear replies in a deep voice.

Really? I’m not sure how I feel about that, but we all enter and stand there in the foyer.

“No weapons,” the enforcer states, opening a cabinet and gesturing for us to place them inside.

We pretty much expected this, but I don’t like it. We all stack our guns on the shelves, but I know Blake has a knife in her boot and Leo probably is hiding a dozen different weapons on his body in various places. Even though he’s dating Alessia’s sister Gia, he hasn’t gone soft at all. At least, not when it comes to this type of dangerous stuff. With her, though? Well, that’s another story.

The bear-man shuts the cabinet door and locks it, slipping the key into his pocket. “Follow me,” he grunts and starts walking down a hallway. The six of us trail after him and I pay close attention to the way the house is set up. I look into rooms, search for exits and try to get a feel for the layout. I know Blake is doing the same thing, so if anything bad happens, we have a basic idea of where to possibly go.

What can I say? I learned a lot since meeting her. But, even more important than knowing how to make a quick exit, I learned how it feels to fall in love. I really doubted it would ever happen for me and here we are. It’s truly the greatest feeling in the world…knowing that I’ve found my person. My soulmate.

I glance over at her, right by my side, looking so tough and smart. I want to take her hand, but I refuse to make her look or feel vulnerable in any way when we’re about to face off with Gallo. I know how important it is to her to put on a show of strength and confidence. To let every man in the room know that she can hold her own. And, I respect her so damn much for it.

The big enforcer walks us down to the very end of a long hallway. I’m expecting an office, but he takes us into a large conservatory filled with plants and other greenery. This place is even bigger than it looks from the outside and I can’t imagine what the square footage is.

“Where’s Gallo?” Miceli asks.

“He’ll be with you shortly.”

I roll my eyes. He’s probably making us wait on purpose and thinks his time is more important than ours. Whatever. I just hope this goes well. Turning to Blake, I lock eyes with her, trying to get a read on how she’s doing.

“Okay?” I ask.

“Yeah. You?”

I nod. “Got a knife in that boot of yours?”

She smirks and tilts her chin slightly.

“Good girl,” I say under my breath, wanting to pull her into my arms so badly. Instead, I force myself to stand there and wait.

Carmine Gallo eventually walks into the conservatory with a slew of enforcers. It’s seriously like a parade of armed men escorting him and, for the first time, I feel a little on edge.

“Well, if it isn’t the infamous Rossi family—minus one little sister, I believe?”

No one answers him and I think Miceli may have growled.

“But you’ve gained a new ally, I see.” His attention zeroes in on Blake and the look he gives her is pure ice. My protective instincts flare to life and I step closer to her, ready to throw myself in front of her if it comes to that. “Foolish girl.”

“Why? Because I didn’t kill Miceli like you wanted?” she asks boldly.

And there goes my little butterfly, already flying way too close to the fire. I stifle a sigh.

“We had a deal,” he reminds her in a cool voice.

“I didn’t like your deal,” she says. “But, I do like this family and I refuse to do anything to hurt them. If that doesn’t work with your agenda then that’s just too damn bad.”

“You do realize everyone is still after you, right?” Gallo asks. “And because of your new allegiance, you’re forcing me to up the price for your head.”

He practically snarls the words and I don’t appreciate him threatening my girl. “Over my dead body,” I growl.

“That can be arranged,” he hisses.

“Enough!” Miceli snaps, stepping closer to Gallo. “We’re here to discuss what your problem is with my family and what the fuck possessed you to put a hit out on my brother. Consider it a courtesy that we’re even here, Gallo, because normally I’d just put a fucking bullet in your head.”

When Miceli turns on his dark side, it’s intimidating as shit. And right now he’s projecting mafia kingpin in full force. Gallo might have fifteen armed enforcers backing him up, but Miceli is the scariest man in the room at this moment. All I can say is I’m glad he’s on my side.

“Your foolishness will be your undoing,” Gallo warns.

“And your arrogance will be yours,” Miceli retorts.

Vin lifts his hands, attempting to be the peacekeeper. “I thought we came here to have a civilized and rational conversation, not to toss threats back and forth.”

“When you’re dealing with an idiot,” Enzo says smoothly, “that isn’t always possible.”

I cross my arms, realizing that this whole thing is going nowhere fast. “First thing you need to do is take Blake’s name off the Kill List.” She’d already told me on the ride over that she’d had Gallo take my name off but the fact that hers is still on there makes me extremely uneasy.

And with good reason because the next second, a section of the windowed wall is completely blown out by bullets and absolute chaos erupts. I throw myself into Blake, covering her with my body as we drop to the floor. Glass shatters in several more panes and shards fly everywhere, peppering my back and getting caught in my hair.

All around us, guns start firing and since my people don’t have any weapons—they’re all still locked up in that damn cabinet —I figure it must be Gallo’s enforcers shooting at whoever is attacking us.

“Find cover!” Miceli yells above the racket, and my brothers all scatter, diving behind furniture.

Blake rolls away from me then reaches out to grab my hand. “This way!”

I push up off the floor, but lean forward and try to stay as low as possible as she tugs me over to a small spiral staircase. It’s narrow and we hustle up it in a single file, her in the lead. I hate leaving my brothers, but I know they can take care of themselves. Plus, they have Leo who is a first class badass.

At the top of the stairs, we look down and I recognize the man climbing in through the broken window, a determined look on his face and gripping a pair of sharp-looking knives. It’s one of the bounty hunters that had been chasing us earlier.

“Fury,” Blake whispers.

Right behind him, a huge man follows on his heels, his face scarred and brutal-looking. He looks like something that just crawled out of a nightmare.

“Oh, God,” she murmurs.

“Let me guess. That’s the guy named Beast you’d mentioned earlier.”

“Yep. Which means Vixen is probably not very far behind.”

“You got that right,” a female voice purrs, and we look over to see her standing less than ten feet away and pointing a gun at us.

My heart sinks, but I step in front of Blake, ready to defend her to the death.

“You’re not taking her,” I growl.