Chapter Twenty-Eight Larissa
Chapter Twenty-Eight
LARISSA
“STAI PROPRIO BENE, cugina.” You look well, cousin.
“I am,” I reply quickly, shifting my focus to the Marine with his gun trained on the nearly three-hundred-pound threat. Who, in turn, has Tyler perfectly in his crosshairs.
On edge due to both their expressions as they square off, I quickly find my voice. “Tyler, listen to me,” I relay evenly. “Do not fucking pull that trigger for any reason.”
Tyler doesn’t move a muscle as he assesses the giant opposite him, aim unwavering, his voice a razor’s edge. “Nice piece, man. You steal it from your last victim?”
Daniello remains unflinching, his coal eyes darkening. “It was a gift, from my wife.”
Tyler’s mouth curls wickedly. “Sentimental then? Cute.”
Daniello tilts his head, keeping his aim true. “If you take care of things that have great value,” he spits venomously, insinuation clear, “maybe you live to one day get a sentimental gun from your own fucking wife.”
Flinching at the unintentional barb my cousin just delivered, I speak to de-escalate, addressing Tyler. “Remember when I told you I couldn’t just disappear? This is why.”
Tyler lifts his gun a little higher, ensuring his own shot. “As if I didn’t know about the fucking beacon around your neck. Though I admit I was curious about who would come calling.”
I should have known I couldn’t get anything past him.
The necklace’s actual purpose is probably the first reason I haven’t gained an ounce of his trust. Knowing that, I can’t let my cousin know of Tyler’s true treatment of me, or my efforts will be wasted.
As the sun sinks behind the tree line, my shivering escalates, and I pull the blanket more tightly around me.
“You don’t want your curiosity satisfied this way.
If you believe nothing else, believe that. ”
“Yeah, why is that?” he asks flippantly.
“Because you’re pointing your gun at the most dangerous man in the fucking mafia.”
“That’s real concern,” Tyler spouts sarcastically. “You really are afraid for me. Also cute but unnecessary, seeing as—”
“Tyler Jennings,” I cut in, “this is Daniello DiGiovanni, and if you pull that fucking trigger, you will not live to see another day.”
“That’s some impressive résumé,” Tyler spouts.
Daniello denies him all response, keeping his aim while addressing me. “Why have you not checked in?”
“I couldn’t, but please, lower your gun.
He’s protecting me,” I lie in seamless delivery as the tension begins to mount.
The situation itself a powder keg. The pull of either trigger having the potential to start a war unlike any the mafia and Ravens have ever known.
With the Ravens being backed by the US government and the military at their disposal, that potential threat is unparalleled.
It’s that thought alone that has me whipping my head toward Tyler to try again to reason with him.
“He’s just here to check on me. He is, was, my only real lifeline,” I offer. “I was supposed to call by last night.”
“And you didn’t think to share this with me?” Tyler grits out.
“If memory serves, we were in a little bit of a snafu.” I widen my eyes.
It’s the sound of an approaching drone that has the hairs on my arms rising on end as Tyler puts a voice to the threat now hovering above us.
“If I go down, we all go together,” he warns. “As will the squirrels, the trees, anything else within a quarter-mile fucking radius.”
Unable to help it, I whip my head in his direction. “I thought we were alone.”
“I’m never alone,” he delivers unapologetically.
“Would have been good to know last night,” I bite out, humiliation threatening at what they might have seen.
“Yeah, well, didn’t have time between the show and after-party,” he spouts sarcastically, tempting me to tell my cousin to fire at fucking will.
At our back-and-forth, Daniello briefly shifts focus my way. A monster of dark hair and eyes who is utterly terrifying to anyone who doesn’t know him. It’s when he starts to scrutinize me that I tighten the blanket around me, cowering away from his view and shifting my focus.
“We get it, okay, stop!” I shout as the drone lowers menacingly, hovering above us as snow begins to pour from the sky, muting each of their profiles and tells to the point my anxiety spikes. “Drop your fucking guns. Both of you, now. Or none of us live past today.”
“I believe I just said that, but after you.” Tyler gestures to Daniello with his poised gun.
“One of you has to give,” I say, flitting my focus between them.
“I’ll give you a hint,” Tyler drawls, “it won’t fucking be me.”
I gaze at my cousin, his life in my hands. “Tyler, on my life, if you pull that trigger, Tula and his wife will not rest until they have your head—”
“Spoken like a true—”
“Don’t you fucking dare finish that,” I snap. “He’s not one of us. Not anymore. This is concern for me, his family.”
“I know exactly who I’m engaging with—vapor,” Tyler spits, tilting his head. “Though, I gotta say, you look like a damned good time.”
“For fuck’s sake,” I utter, stepping directly into their line of fire.
Both roar at me before collectively lowering their guns.
In the next second, they’re rushing me, but Daniello reaches me first, gripping my arm before safely ushering me behind him.
Tyler, falling a second short, moves toward Daniello with lightning speed, and I intercept, breaking from my cousin’s barrier in time to deliver a hard slap to Tyler’s jaw.
“Basta!” Enough. “Both you idiots need to stop peacocking, or I’ll shoot you my damned self. ”
Fists at his side, Tyler bristles, his expression reeking of possession as he eyes me.
A truth I don’t dare read into as I blow out an exasperated breath.
Even as I refute the notion, Tyler’s hypnotic gaze remains solely on me.
In those tense seconds, I’m transported back to the place we met last night.
Our bodies speaking for us as we locked ourselves in euphoria.
Shaking the spell, I turn to Daniello and lift to my toes, kissing both his cheeks in apology.
“I’m so sorry you had to come. There’s no way he would have let me make a call, and honestly, I hoped you wouldn’t.”
“You are okay?” he asks in his stilted English, eyes roaming over me.
“I mean, that’s a stretch, you’ve met him,” I snark. “But I guess it’s an upgrade from dead.”
Daniello studies me, not missing the bite marks on my lips and pausing at the sight of them. Heat creeps up my neck at his recognition of their nature before he again looks between Tyler and me. A barely perceptible, knowing smirk passing his lips as I clear my throat.
“If you know of him, Marine, then you know he doesn’t belong to Ciro.”
Tyler reads that truth, though still seems ready to spring.
After too many seconds of visceral once-overs by both men, he finally looks up at the drone and nods.
As if it weren’t a bomb ready to drop, it flitters away before disappearing into the whirring snow, which has now heavily dusted our campground.
In the stillness of the seconds that pass after, both men start to slowly lower their guards as the crackling fire summons me.
Hands out, I warm myself next to it, my hackles rising that we’ve been watched long before tonight. Something both my organization and his are notorious for, but unsettling for more reasons than one.
“Tyler,” I speak up, and Daniello’s eyes roll over me, confirming we’re on the same train of thought. “You can’t use that footage of him. For the Ravens, fine, but it can never reach any database. This man has spent his life making sure no image of him is captured.”
“Then he shouldn’t have stepped over your fucking line and into ours. And that’s not your call.”
Daniello begins to bristle slightly where he stands, and I know why—his wife, Taylor, and their four-year-old son.
“Look at me, Nello.” I place a hand on his chest, using my childhood nickname to try and soothe him. “I will do everything in my power to erase it. But I’m fine. I’ll be home soon, so pop a bottle and keep it breathing.”
When Tyler scoffs, I glare at him in response. “I never truly thought you were stupid until this moment. As you know, this is the last fucking man you want to make an enemy of.”
Tyler’s eyes narrow on me, indicating the shitstorm I’m in as I plead for Daniello.
“My cousin has done his time in the dirt and went through hell to create his bubble. When you find out what you will, you’ll see how much you have in common.
He served in the Egyptian army, and he too became a weapon to serve and protect those he loved. ”
“Touching,” Tyler quips, “but like I said, I know who he is.”
“Do you, south boy?” Daniello fires back, patience thinning. Though comical in delivery, the insult lands well enough, English being my cousin’s fourth language. It’s something I helped him with over time as he trained me. Years later, he still misfires at certain times.
“I would say I’m acquainted with your skill set well, especially since you just bypassed half a dozen ways of getting slaughtered before wandering into our camp.
But don’t think I didn’t allow it. Even so, I’ll admit, I’m impressed,” Tyler grants.
“But you should know walking out will be twice as hard.”
“I’m already free of you,” Daniello returns confidently as I take a step toward him, wincing as I do. Sadly, my cousin misses nothing.
“You are hurt?”
“Sore, I took some of the blast to my ribs,” I admit.
“What blast?” Daniello whips his head at Tyler, whose shift is barely perceptible.
“We should talk,” Tyler replies. “I will explain it all.”
“Oh? I’d love to hear this explanation.” I cross my arms.
“Not for you,” he dismisses.
“Jesus, good to see misogyny is alive and well.” I roll my eyes, satisfied the threat is over, as another chill runs through me.