Chapter Twenty-Two #2
Was the name or address on his form even real? The cell phone was, since I’d called him on it. But even I knew how easily you could pick up and activate a burner phone. I’d needed to do it once when my cell broke and I’d been just six weeks away from my upgrade date.
He could easily be some sort of plant, or spy, or enemy of the Grassi Family.
And I’d hired him.
I’d invited him in.
“Don’t move,” Ant said, voice stretched taut, a sound I’d never heard before.
I felt myself stiffen.
Don’t move?
Like hell.
I was going to run for my goddamn life. Again.
Or so I thought.
Until I felt a figure move in behind me.
Until I felt something cold and sharp press into the delicate skin of my neck.
Unwanted, my mind flashed back to just the night before, to Dante’s lips just there, to the way the touch brought butterflies.
It was a sick sinking in my stomach then as I recognized the knife, how close it was to being able to end me. It wouldn’t even need much pressure.
“Don’t move,” Ant said, his gaze holding mine.
There was something fierce in his eyes then, something mature beyond his years.
My own eyes felt like saucers as my heartbeat flickered, as sweat pricked my neck and slid down my spine.
“Let her go,” Ant said, his gaze on me but speaking to the man standing behind my shoulder.
“Don’t think I will,” the man said, his arm slipping around my middle, tightening, yanking me back against him.
The movement made the knife nip into my skin.
The burn told me he’d broken the skin. But it was impossible for me to tell if the warm trickle I felt was blood or sweat.
“You got bad timing,” he added. “Now you gotta die.”
“That’s fine,” Ant said, his gaze flicking away from mine to look at my attacker. “Take me. Leave her.”
I wanted to object.
He was just a kid, for God’s sake.
But my tongue was fat and useless in my mouth.
“Can’t do that. I need her. I don’t need you.”
“Whatever you need her for, you can use me for.”
“Afraid I can’t. You’re not fucking the boss man.”
My brows pinched at that.
The boss man?
I mean, yes, Dante was technically the boss around here. But no one else would consider him that. The other employees referred to him as ‘the owner’ if they spoke of him at all. Domenico was the closest to being called the ‘boss man.’
There was just something about the inflection, though. In the phrasing.
He didn’t mean the boss of the garden center.
He meant the boss.
As in his boss.
His capo.
This was one of Dante’s men. One of the men he trusted with his own life. And, perhaps even more importantly to him, the lives of his mom, sister, cousins, and nieces and nephews.
Anger, hot and unexpected, burned through me, boiled in my blood.
I might not have known a lot about the Family business, but I did know that the thing that mattered most was loyalty. And this man betrayed that, betrayed Dante.
I wasn’t aware a growling sound escaped me until Ant’s gaze cut back to mine. I swear I saw a silent warning there.
I had to do something, say something.
Like he was reading my mind, Ant gave me a tiny head shake.
“I’m not… we’re not…”
“You think the whole fucking neighborhood didn’t hear you this morning?” he asked.
My blood went cold.
Not from being overheard, but from having my private business spread around. But from how deep the betrayal went.
Dante told me that he’d switched up the guards, making sure his most trusted soldiers were taking care of his family and his home.
Whoever this was, Dante trusted him implicitly. This news was going to cut deep. Provided I lived to tell him.
“I don’t even know who you are,” I told him. “Why are you doing this?”
“Information,” he said.
Information? What the heck could I possibly know that he wanted?
“I don’t know anything about the organization.”
To that, I got a snort.
“I know that. Tight-lipped fucks. But you do know the account number.”
The account number.
I did.
I did know that.
Once Domenico decided he trusted me, he started letting me do the drop at the bank.
He’d empty out the register and safe, count it out, then put it in a bag for me to bring to the bank, where I’d grab a deposit slip, write out the account number and amount of money, then leave it with the people with the big safe and lots of security cameras and alarms.
I never really realized how valuable that information was. To anyone. But especially to someone who might be close enough to know how the business ran.
“Stupid hacker fuck made it all harder, going rogue.”
The guy who’d found me.
Who had, like me, been decked out like he was about to commit a crime.
He was.
Breaking into the business.
Getting into the shop, into the computer, figuring out the bank account information.
“What… what about Ed?” I asked, noticing Ant’s hand slipping into his front pocket.
“Ed. Ed and his fucking second thoughts.”
Right.
So they’d both made a move against the Family. Only to have Big Ed get cold feet and want to back out. But there was no backing out of a situation like this.
He had to die to protect the secret scheme.
Big Ed had to die because if he didn’t, the one with the knife to my throat would.
Suddenly, though, it seemed like that was the right end for someone whose betrayal cut so deep.
Over money, of all things.
I opened my mouth to say something when Ant’s gaze cut hard to my feet.
The instinct to look was instantaneous.
The second my chin was tucked to my chest to prevent the knife from sinking in, Ant charged.
He moved so quickly that I barely noticed the motion.
There was the flash off the edge of his knife just a second before the man behind me let out a roar.
This time, I knew it was blood that poured down my neck.
But not mine.
My attacker’s.
Ant had just plunged his knife into the guy’s wrist.
In almost the same motion, Ant’s other hand roughly grabbed the side of my head, shoving me to the side with enough force to make me stumble away.
I crashed into the coffin, the wood cracking against my side, stealing my breath.
The pain was a quick flash, though, and easily overcome as I looked over to see Ant and the other guy struggling.
I had to go.
I had to get help.
I rushed past the battling men, saying a silent prayer for Ant.
The fear disoriented me, making me slam into props and jump when the stupid ghost animatronic lunged toward me and let out a shriek.
I cried out, falling backward into the creepy serial killer prop, tripping over the cement brick holding him in place, and going down hard on my knees.
Pain shot up my knees as I scrambled forward toward the door.
I shot up to my feet, threw open the door, and flew out toward the shop.
I didn’t waste time going around it toward the door.
I lifted my arms and slammed my fists into the glass over and over.
Dante and Dom’s heads whipped over.
They didn’t pause.
They turned and ran.
By the time they were around the building, they each had a gun in their hands.
I didn’t wait; I ran back toward the haunted house and ripped open the door.
“Stay here,” Dante demanded as he and Domenico rushed inside.
I saw the guards closing in.
The sight of them, knowing what I knew about the disloyalty in the ranks, they filled me with dread.
Not caring about the command, I rushed inside, flicked on the lights, and ran forward.
Only to freeze at the sight in front of me.
Blood.
Blood everywhere.
Not the too-red stage blood kind, either. It was darker, thicker, coating the props, the walls, the floor. And completely covering Ant’s arms and hands. Judging by the way his black shirt was wet and clinging, I imagined the blood was saturating that as well.
My attacker?
He was dead on the floor in a pool of his blood.
“Fuck,” Dante said when Domenico nodded toward me.
The man was dead.
Ant had killed him.
For me.
I was every bit as entrenched in mafia business as the others.
I should have felt shock, horror, or fear.
What I felt instead was a deep sort of rightness.
As sick as that was.
Because I wasn’t an outsider anymore.
I belonged.
I was part of this world.
My gaze found Dante’s.
His world.
I was part of his world.
Where, I was suddenly sure, I belonged.