17. Zeno
CHAPTER 17
ZENO
I stick my head out into the hallway, hoping like hell nobody is waiting to blow it off.
“Listen,” I say, leading the girls toward the door. “Stay behind me, okay? I’ll go first, make sure we’re clear.”
Lily clutches Chloe’s hand and I pull open the door, clutching my gun. I rush them toward the elevator and stab the ground-floor button once we’re safely inside. It creaks to our destination and the doors mercifully slide open to reveal an empty lobby. I stick my gun back into my pants since I don’t want to get arrested by the rent-a-cops they have behind the desk. I step out of the elevator and look around.
My eyes find Aldo standing outside inhaling a slice of pizza.
Jesus.
It’s barely nine-thirty in the morning.
I rush the girls outside and Aldo opens the passenger-side doors. They jump into the backseat and I motion for him to come closer once they’re inside of the car. He stuffs the remaining bites into his mouth and leans toward me.
“We’ve got a big problem,” I mutter.
“Only one?” he asks, deadpan.
“I never told you this, but you need to hear it and only because you’re a close friend of the Marcones. When I came to the States a few weeks ago, I did a job for a boss out east, a guy named Joe Salesi.”
“Yeah…?” Aldo says, an expectant look on his face.
“It was supposed to be a hit on Domenico Messina. Retaliation for going after Salesi’s territories and killing some of his guys in the process. Eye-for-an-eye shit.”
“Uh-huh. Easy for a trained killer like you.”
“Yeah, well, there’s more. It wasn’t business, Aldo. It was personal. Salesi lied to my father. Turns out he wanted us to take out a couple of guys in Messina’s crew, one of them being Messina’s son, because they tried to kidnap his daughter. Lily .”
“Lily?” His brow furrows.
“Lily as in the girl in your backseat.”
“Fuck me. That’s Salesi’s daughter?”
“Yup.”
Aldo recoils. “Oh, shit. And you fucked her.”
”What makes you think I fucked her?”
“You didn’t?”
“Of course I did!” I hiss. “And that’s not the worst of it.”
Aldo eyes the girls in the backseat. “Then get to the point, Zeno. We still need to find Bruno.”
“They found out it was me who carried out the hit. That shootout last night wasn’t some random thing. And those hackers work for Messina, too. They know I’m here, that Lily is here. And I’ll bet my left nut they know about all of the families coming out here in a few days for a meeting. Last night wasn’t the end of this, Aldo.”
“Okay, relax, man. We don’t know anything for sure yet.”
“Oh, trust me. I know.” The goddamn dots are all connected and the truth is definitely not gonna set me free. It’s likely gonna string me up by the balls first, and God only knows what afterward.
My gaze tangles with Lily’s concerned one in the backseat.
We’re both fucked unless I can figure out how to get to Messina’s people before they get to us.
And right now, there are a few people I’d very much like to dangle over the side of a parking deck for that answer.
Like Joe Salesi and his son. They wanted to test us, to see if they could trust us, but how the hell can we trust them ?
I nod toward the car. “Come on, we need to get out of here. Drop me and Lily off at the Bang and I’ll get my car. Once we find Bruno and Sergio, we’ll split up. Those hackers know where to find Messina. We’ve gotta find them first so they lead us to him.”
Whether or not I stay alive remains to be seen, but I can’t sic this job on anyone else.
This enemy? I’m his target.
Anyone else would be collateral damage, and I can’t have all of that blood on my hands.
This is my war to fight, and I’m gonna fucking win it.
I missed my chance in Palermo when I was supposed to take out Messina the first time.
I put so much on the line that night, only to fail.
Who the hell knew I’d end up facing off with him again through his son?
I took something he loved away forever.
And he won’t hesitate to do the same to my father and to Joe Salesi.
I will fight for my family.
I will fight for Lily.
And dammit, I will win.
I glance over at Aldo who pulls up to the curb next to my car. He lifts an eyebrow. “Go ahead. I’ll wait to make sure the car doesn’t explode once you turn it on.”
“Thanks, I appreciate the courtesy,” I say with a roll of my eyes.
“You didn’t think I was gonna offer to turn it on for you, did you?”
I shrug. “Mighta been a nice gesture of goodwill.”
“Fuck goodwill. I’d like to stay in one piece instead of having my body parts fly all over the Vegas Strip.”
“Make sure someone cleans my shit up in case that happens, yeah?” I take a deep breath and push open the car door. I open the door, hold my breath, and turn on the car, my eyes squeezed shut.
No explosion follows.
Must be my lucky day.
Lily hops out of the car and jumps into my front seat. I look at her, my eyebrows knitted.
“You didn’t think I was going to let you go alone, did you?” she asks, her dark eyes wide.
“Nah, you’ve made it pretty clear you’re a glutton for punishment,” I say in a teasing voice. Funny how just being around her makes me feel calm when I really should be shitting bricks about the fact that there are some very brutal killers hunting me right now.
Because there’s no way that’s fiction.
And the more I think about Lily’s theory, the more I’m convinced that those bullets last night were supposed to hit and kill me .
I’m the one who took a life.
Messina believes I need to give it back…in the form of my own.
I grit my teeth as I pull away from the curb. I did what I had to do. I killed the guy who was gonna kill Salesi’s daughter, the same guy whose father came after my family. I snuffed out the threat to our organizations and to our families.
It was a win-win, for us.
But for Messina?
It was a devastating loss, one that he’s gonna try to reverse.
How is the big question.
I know two things. It’ll be big and it’ll be very soon.
He’s waited too long as it is. This is the perfect time and place. Everyone who tried to destroy him will be in one place in a few days at that syndicate meeting.
One place.
I press my foot on the gas, speeding down the strip toward the Excelsior. I need to find Bruno and Sergio and figure out what the hell we need to do next.
“I’m scared,” Lily says in a soft voice, lacing her fingers with mine as I clutch the floor shift.
“You? Scared?” I force a chuckle. “I don’t believe it.”
“I haven’t felt this way in a long time,” she says. “Since I’ve been out here, I guess I’ve had a false sense of security, like all of the criminal stuff is back east and I’m safe here. Away from it all. But it turns out I’m not. I never was, I just tried to convince myself otherwise.” She sighs. “This is why I left, Zeno. Because I was tired of looking over my shoulder. Because I needed a life, my own life on my terms where I could breathe. For so many years, I felt like I was suffocating.”
I stomp my foot on the brake at a red light. “Hey,” I murmur, turning to look at her pale face. “You are strong. So goddamn strong, it’s making me hard right now just thinking about you kneeing that guy in the balls last night.” I snicker. “Okay, I know that sounds weird. But that fierce bitch attitude is hot as hell, Lily. You’ve got it. And I know you feel like it’s slipping away right now, but it’s inside of you. It always will be. But you need to hang onto it, especially today because I won’t lie. We’re up against a dangerous enemy and if we’re gonna defeat it, you need to bring that badass along for the ride.”
She nods, her eyes wide. “Okay,” she mutters. “Light’s green.”
I peek upward and slam my foot on the gas, taking off like a shot. When I get to the porte-cochère leading up to the hotel, I swing my car around to the valet and screech to a halt next to the curb. I jump out of the car and run past the head valet, Caesar. “C, keep it close, yeah? I’ll need it soon.”
Caesar salutes me. “No problem, Zeno.”
I pull open Lily’s door, grab her hand, and practically drag her toward the glass revolving doors, Aldo and Chloe close behind. I scout the lobby once we’re inside of the hotel but Rayleigh is nowhere to be found.
I dial Sergio’s number and let out a breath when he answers. “Jesus, Serge, I’ve been trying to get to you for hours. Where the hell have you been?”
“Running a hotel, Zeno. I’ve been in and out of meetings today and I had an event at the restaurant last night. What the hell is so urgent?”
“Look, just get up to Bruno’s apartment, okay? We need to talk.”
He lets out a frustrated sigh. “Is this conversation gonna piss me off?”
“Probably but we still need to have it. Fast.” I click to end the call before he can browbeat me.
We dart over to the elevator and take it up to Bruno’s apartment.
I fumble with my master set of keys and stick one in the lock, twisting the knob and shoving the door open. “Bruno!” I yell, running inside.
“Mnhbh!”
I stop in my tracks.
What the hell?
I hold up a hand to Aldo and the girls. “It’s coming from the bedroom. Lemme check it out.” I point to Aldo. “Check out the rest of the place.”
I jog over to the bedroom and jiggle the door handle. Locked.
What in the hell happened here last night?
I take a step back and kick it in, unable to silence the yelp that escapes my mouth.
Holy Christ.
I’ve seen a lot in my life, plenty that I’d like to have permanently eradicated from my memory.
But there’s nothing I’d want to erase more than the sight burning my eyes right now.
I take a few tentative steps into the room then stop at the foot of the unmade bed. I want to look away, but I can’t.
It’s like the aftermath of a train wreck and I just can’t force my eyes away from Bruno’s stricken face.
“Nmonaammhh!” Another muffled yell.
“Bruno,” I say, folding my arms over my chest. “I knew you were into some kinky shit but who the fuck would’ve thought this was your thing?” I back away, giving him a once-over. “Nice shock jock. I like the studs.” I snicker. “Badass on the streets, sub in the sheets, huh?”
His face is a deep red, practically bordering on purple, and his eyes are bugged out of his skull. He flounders on the mattress with nowhere to go since he’s handcuffed to all four bedposts.
I pull the ball gag out of his mouth and toss it onto the mattress next to him. “What the fuck happened?”