Chapter 9
NINE
STAN
“Take me home, Stan.”
Pressing a kiss to the crown of her head in agreement, I silently thanked San Giuseppe as I tucked her tighter into me and vowed, “I will burn those who hurt you, Kitty.” I cupped her chin so she looked straight at me. “Capisci?”
“I-I do.”
I shrugged out of my jacket. Bundling her into the fabric, I refused to think about the way she held up the front of her dress and the blood coating her legs that soaked into her sagging thigh-highs and what it might represent.
My mind whirled past the details, only using them as bullets to load my metaphorical gun.
Each visible bruise would be catalogued.
Each would be avenged.
Later.
For now, her safety was my priority.
Seeing that Luc waited in the hallway, even if Dead To Me had disappeared somewhere, I rumbled, “Liunissa, you took out the trash for me, but one of them’s moving. It’s your kill, duci. But I’d be honored if you’d let me handle it for you.”
Those tired but beautiful eyes met mine and she nodded.
Once.
A part of me hated that the night had changed her. I didn’t think the Kitty of this morning would have gone for blood, but this was the Kitty of tonight.
My liunissa.
Grazing another kiss to her temple, I ordered, “My brother will protect you with his life.”
Luc held out his arm for her to take. “You will be safe with me, Kitty. It’s an honor to meet you. I just wish it were under kinder circumstances…”
Those mournful eyes that broke me razed over him, scanning for sincerity and treachery. When she leaned on him, I sent a prayer of thanks to Patri—she trusted him. Luc tried to guide her out of the room, but she wouldn’t let him. Simply hovered in the doorway to watch.
Her silence deafened me.
That would also need to be remedied later.
The guy who’d twitched earlier was facedown. Not wasting any time, not waiting for him to pull out a weapon if he feigned unconsciousness, I stomped my foot into the center of his back.
Then, I did it again.
And again.
Until his bones cracked.
And I did it until he awoke screaming from the pain.
Then, I kicked him over until I saw his face and I felt white-hot rage fill me.
“TRAITOR,” I hurled at Dante Graziola.
His betrayal required more than a bullet.
I had to feel him die.
When I wrapped my hands around his throat, I lifted him using that hold and shoved him against the nearest wall so I could choke the life out of him.
“See you in hell, traitor.”
“Didn’t think you’d come after a puttana,” he barbed.
My hands tightened around his neck.
Spittle landed on me as he sought air, but I focused on the exploding capillaries in his sclera as he expired in front of me.
Then, cold reason set in.
And I hated myself for it.
I let him drop to the floor.
I kicked him in the gut, satisfied that I’d taken him to the brink when he didn’t stir.
“He’s dead?” Luc questioned, tone as sharp as the knives he’d used on our enemies tonight.
“Soon.” When he shot me a confused look, I cracked my knuckles and apologized, “We need to question him, Kitty. I have to know how he got you out of the house so that it can never happen again, bedda mia. Can you forgive me for not killing him yet?”
“He used chloroform,” she answered dully.
“But he, and whoever he’s working for, wiped out my security. That’s why it took us so long to mobilize. We didn’t even know you’d left the house involuntarily until I received a text from your number. I can’t think about returning there without knowing—”
“Are you serious?”
“You don’t ever have to go back—”
“Not that.” She shifted, and I knew she’d given more of her weight to Luc to bear. “Why did you think I’d disappear like that?”
“I saw that you’d… My knife. I thought you might have run away from me.”
“I was going to bite your head off,” she sniped, and the relief I felt at the resurgence of her temper almost made me lightheaded. “I—”
“Is that a ‘V’?”
I blinked at the interruption. “Now’s not the time, Luc!”
He pointed at Dante. “Did you do that, Kitty?”
“What?” Frowning at the almost-corpse, I saw what he meant. Cristu, I’d barely noticed until he mentioned it. Then, I risked a look at Kitty, whose energy levels had flatlined again. “You cut a ‘V’ into his cheek, duci?”
If I’d been proud before, that was nothing to now.
“Stan, I want to go,” she warbled, eyes darting around the room, looking at anything but the wound she’d inflicted on her attacker. “I-I don’t feel so good.”
Luc automatically dragged her into his side and propped her up, but I didn’t want his hands on her. I practically leaped across the room to snag her from his grasp then lifted her against my chest so that she was safe in my embrace.
She knew it too because she grew limper in my hold. “So tired.”
“Stay awake for me, duci.” From the state of her, I thought she might have a concussion.
“You handling me?” she slurred.
Reassured by her sass, I choked out, “Maybe.”
“Take her to the house in Brooklyn.”
“Well, I wasn’t taking her to mine,” I bit off, then I sought patience because Luc had helped me tonight and none of this was his fault. “What about the mess here?”
“Rory said she’s sent another forty men over to help us and had two dozen secure your lab.”
Cristu, I’d barely thought about the research I needed to protect.
“The police—”
“Rory dealt with that too. Commissioner Kingston understands that we’ve had to postpone our meeting with him.” Luc glanced at Kitty, then over to Dante. “I doubt I could have shown the same restraint in your position, frate.”
“I’ll make him pay, but I want answers.”
“Did you hear what Dead To Me said about the Favaros? That this dump is part-funded by them?”
I shook my head.
With Kitty in my arms, my brain could function properly and the raid was already a blur.
The Favaros had once reigned among the five families of the Famiglia—the Italian faction. When Luc had taken over as Don after annihilating the Fieri family, he’d invited the Favaros to join our council as the only Italian house in the mix.
When the Favaros had snubbed his invitation by turning up late, he’d cast them out.
“I thought the bulk of them moved to Chicago.” I pressed my lips to Kitty’s temple. “In the aftermath of that mess with the Puglisis and Messinas.”
“I thought so too. We’re either out of the loop or Aurora’s managing this. Badly. But, now isn’t the time for this conversation. You have to get her home. She needs treatment.
“She’s a fighter, Stan. Look at what she did. Killed a man and took another down.” He gently patted my shoulder. “You’ve always needed someone who’d stand toe to toe with you. Seems like you’ve found her.”
“Am here, y’know. Can hear.”
My brother and I shared a weak grin, but I prodded, “Will you be all right?”
“Without my right-hand man?” He shot me a wink. “I can cope. Especially since Dead To Me’s intent on eradicating anything that moves as well as stealing their Rolexes. Now, get going.”
Grateful for the dismissal, I ducked my head out of the door to ensure the coast was clear. At the same time, the woman herself popped her own head out of another door and shot me a disapproving glance.
“I hope you’re taking her to her family.”
Kitty bucked in my hold. “No!”
I soothed her by rebuking, “She asked to come with me.”
Dead To Me’s eyes narrowed. “Isn’t that funny since she’s half-dead and unable to make a decision on her own behalf.”
“Who’s half-dead?” Kitty grunted. “I’m not half-dead. You’re half-dead!”
“Is she whispering?”
“She’s exhausted.”
“Your precaution on her behalf is admirable and your defense won’t be forgotten,” Luc answered before I could growl at our unfriendly neighborhood assassin, “but my brother’s intentions are honorable.”
Stiffly, I dipped my chin when she studied me, scanning me with the precision of a laser.
“Star will know about this soon enough,” the assassin warned.
“Then I’m sure her brothers will too. You can give them our home address.”
“No!” Kitty stiffened again. “I don’t want them to see me like this.”
Dead To Me poked the air with her knife. “Lemme get this straight. You’re taking her back to the place she was kidnapped from?!”
“No, to our family home in Brooklyn.”
Her brows lifted. “That’s where your mom lives.”
Annoyed that she knew that, I hissed, “Luc told you my intentions were honorable.”
“Fucking mobsters. Only you freaks marry someone within days of knowing each other.” She rolled her eyes but peeped into the room we’d left. “You did this?”
“No. Kitty did.”
She snorted. “‘Course she did. Honestly, you can take the girl out of the Irish Mob, but you can’t take the Irish Mob out of the girl.”
“Damn straight.”
She bumped her knuckles to Kitty’s with a tenderness I didn’t think her capable of. “Nice work, bish.”
“Right,” I acknowledged when Kitty looked at the other woman like she’d grown antlers. “Luc, I’ll see you later. Dead T—”
“The name’s not Dead To Me anymore.”
My patience levels waning, I groused, “What the fuck are you talking about?”
“It’s Taube.”
“Taube?” I repeated.
She stared at her nails, the tips encrusted with blood. “You gave me the idea for it, actually.”
“I did?”
“Sole, Luna e Talia*.” Her smirk made a polar night seem sunny. “I didn’t forget.”
My nostrils flared at the taunt. She was referring to a conversation my brother was in the dark about. A mission I’d paid her to undertake that nobody but she and I knew of.
“Apparently not.”
“What does Taube mean? Is that German?”
Dammit. I literally saw the moment when she recognized that Luc had no idea about my request.
“It means dove.”
“You’re using the international emblem for peace as an alias?” I sputtered.
“In the original version of Cinderella—” Kitty yawned. “—doves pecked out the stepsisters’ eyes.”
Dead To Me, fuck, Taube, beamed. “Anyone who knows that is under my protection, Custanzu.
“It’s an honor to meet a woman who knows her batshit fairy tales and can castrate a man with a lamp. I appreciate the creativity. Inspired. Truly.”
Kitty’s head rolled against my shoulder, but the way she hid her expression from Taube had me glowering at her.
“Not all of us are killers,” I sniped.
“That’s where you’re wrong,” was the other woman’s uncharacteristically solemn response. “When our backs are to the wall, we are all killers. Each and every last one of us.”
* The original Italian version of ‘Sleeping Beauty’ by Giambattista Basile