Chapter 21
Mario
I scribbled my name on the dotted line and handed the pen to Ellie.
She glanced at Dianora before taking it. “Why are you doing this? I thought you loved…me.”
“I thought my wife loved me, too. But apparently someone made plans without me.”
“You can’t hold that against me. I was coerced.” She bent over the paper to sign her name.
“Lying bitch.” Dianora butted in.
Ellie snapped up straight. “What did you call me?”
“Sign the paper,” I prodded Ellie, hoping to remove her from this insanity. Maybe if she wasn’t a threat, then she’d be allowed to leave. And when that happened, I’d be able to do something horrifically dangerous. Hopefully, Ringo would protect Ellie over me.
I couldn’t count on that.
Nor did I factor the unstable element that was Ellie Jacobs.
“I know some Italian words. Mostly the naughty ones. So…bitch, is it? Please. You were the one screwing my ex. You know, the guy who I planned to marry, Johnny Porciello?”
Ringo groaned. “Can we please do without the telenovela?”
Don Conti’s eyes narrowed on Ellie.
“I got proof.” Ellie reached into her jacket.
The guards snapped to attention, their guns trained on her as she froze in place.
“It’s paper. Chill twelve-step and lunchbox.”
As those who could speak English puzzled through the insults, Ellie slowly withdrew a stack of folded pages.
“See? Paper. Photos, mm-kay?” She plopped them down on the desk. The pages fanned open and everyone’s eyes remained glued on the grainy image on the top. “There. One Johnny Pornstach with the fucking eco-boost Mustang I paid for wrecked to shit so he could shoot your homeboy.”
Don Conti reached across the desk to unfold the pages. He stared at the photo for too long.
“This proves you were involved with my son’s murder?”
“The fuck it does.”
If I had any doubts at all of who wore my wife’s clothing, I had none now. Allie rarely swore.
Don Conti glared at Ellie.
“Right. Look at the next one down. You might recognize someone in a hoodie.” Her eyes shifted to Dianora.
“I should have killed you in Milan,” Dianora whispered.
Ellie was genuinely confused. “In Milan?”
Dianora’s eyes bugged out.
The solicitor, who until now had frozen like mouse trapped in a corner, spoke, “At the dinner. Right before Don Valentini changed his—”
I smiled. “Yes, I remember that. The money my father set aside for our marriage now goes to a trust.”
“What?” Dianora stepped back, glancing between the solicitor and me.
“The four-hundred million he promised. It’s in a trust you cannot touch.”
Her mouth fell open
“You really shouldn’t have sent your cousin after my bride.”
Meanwhile, Don Conti compared the new photos against the other photos.
Their addition filled out the sordid murder of his son.
He pulled the image of Dianora from the pile.
Familiarity, or simply the eye of a parent damned her.
He placed the page flat on the desk and stared at his daughter. “Explain this.”
“They are deceiving you.”
Don Conti blinked once. “I know my own daughter.” The room went quiet at his tone.
Despite knowing he wasn’t as powerful as Don Manca, my blood chilled. There was death in the air.
Ringo felt it, too. He reached out. His fingers caught Ellie’s sleeve and curled into the fabric, readying for action.
“Explain this!” He screamed so violently, spittle shot from his lips.
Dianora teetered on her heels, taking a step back.
Her protests poised to spew out as lies.
But then, something in her expression changed.
“You have two children, had.” She corrected herself before plowing forward.
“One who was incapable. Despite the best schools and the best closed-door sessions with you. He was a goat—no a lamb—readied for slaughter. He ruined us with his mistakes.”
She shifted her argument. “And the other child? You ignored her, forced her onto your enemies with a command to marry and breed like a cow. I’m worth more than that. I can lead this family. I will lead this family.”
“You will lead nothing. No one will respect you.”
“They didn’t respect Adelmo. But they’ll respect me. They’ll fear me. I’m your daughter. I’m just as ruthless, maybe more ruthless than you could ever be. At least I recognize weakness when I see it. Instead, you coddled it with my brother.”
Ellie stepped closer to Ringo and whispered. “I can kind of see her point.”
“Shh,” he warned her not to draw attention.
Don Conti stared at Dianora as if he didn’t recognize her. “I was wrong about you.”
Dianora smiled.
Don Conti turned his back on his daughter to pick up the photo of her as she watched her brother bleed out. “You were a snake I should have killed when you were too small to bite.”
“You bastard.” Dianora reached inside her dress and pulled a pistol out of a hidden holster and aimed it at her father.
The guards shifted their attention to her a little too late.
Ringo and I struck as the shot rang out.
Don Conti stiffened. His body shuddered as if the echoes rippled through his flesh.
My guard hit the floor with his neck broken. I grabbed his gun and aimed it at Dianora.
Ringo’s guard had his throat slit. Somehow, they’d missed his weapon. Ellie took one look at the blood pooling on the floor, and uttered two sounds, “Oh, fuh—” her knees buckled.
Don Conti staggered forward, one hand catching the desk to hold himself upright. He turned to face Dianora. “You are no child of mine.”
Two things happened at once. Both Don Conti and Ellie fell to the floor. I grabbed the solicitor and pulled him out of the room as Ringo picked up Ellie and ran ahead.
Dianora saw us escaping and fired. I shoved the door partially closed and the shot bit into the ancient wood. The reinforced core trapped the bullet there, saving us all.
“Move!” I gave up on helping my father’s man and ran after Ringo, who was hampered by Ellie’s limp body.
He’d tossed her over one shoulder and had managed to steal the second guard’s gun, but it was useless as we ran because his hands were full.
“Cover me.” I slid ahead, hugging the wall of the curved staircase and leading the charge against Don Conti’s security.
The first guard I encountered had crested the first turn.
I shot him in the chest, then jumped on top of his body, riding it down the final half-dozen steps as I fired at his back-up.
With one more shot to the first unfortunate’s head, I leapt free and fired two more shots into the mass of men who’d ran into the great hall.
Above me, Ringo laid down three well-aimed shots from the balcony, then hid his body from their return fire.
It gave me time to strip the guard of his gun and dive under the heavy oak dining table. I knocked one of the ornate seats over since the table itself was immovable.
It crashed to the floor loudly, and the men who hadn’t been wounded split their attention to drilling holes through my shield and avoiding Ringo’s aim from above. I crouched behind one of the two solid pedestals that held the table aloft and let them waste ammo for a few precious seconds.
Then I rolled from beneath the table, firing as I came up to one knee. The men dove for cover, and I slid behind the nearest body to secure his gun and felt along the line of his coat where I was certain I’d seen the hilt of a knife sticking out from under the flap.
Score. I pulled the blade and continued firing until the gun clicked once. Then I dropped that weapon and took the automatic lying at my feet. I laid down a line of fire that kept the men pinned until Ringo could carry Ellie down the stairs.
“Is she hurt?” My wife would kill me if something happened to her sister.
“Fainted dead away. She can’t handle the sight of blood.”
That was a problem. I quickly assessed the leaking bodies surrounding us. “We need to move.”
“I got a plan.” Ringo dipped his head toward one of the picturesque windows. The tempered glass was so thick, it distorted the light streaming through it.
“Seriously?”
Our discussion was cut short by a brave guard who peeked his head around the column blocking my shots. I fired a short burst at him and sent him back into hiding.
“Then what?”
“Run?”
“Carrying fifty kilograms?” Ellie likely weighed slightly less than Allie, but they were matched in build and height. So much so, they could easily trade outfits and fool most of my guards.
“I’ve carried your dumb ass before.”
I fired another round at the column. “No, you haven’t.”
“Slovenia ring a bell?”
A shot nicked the wall next to Ringo’s head. He quickly fired at the figure in the sniper blind above us. Dianora ducked back into the shadows.
“Did you get her?” I asked to be certain of the urgency.
“Unfortunately, I missed.”
I voiced my sentiment with a curse and muttered, “Plan B.”
Ringo threw a leg over Ellie’s body and fired at the corners of the large picture window closest to us. The glass spiderwebbed with his second shot, then he changed aim to the center, blowing a gaping hole in the window which caused the rest of the piece to crumble into tiny pellets.
The solicitor who’d followed us jumped through first, even before either Ringo or I could lay down cover fire. Dianora fired from the stairwell, and I pinned her in place with several short bursts before shifting back to the guards emboldened by her presence.
“Time to go.”
Ringo threw down his gun and picked up Ellie, who was at the cusp of consciousness. Her eyelids fluttered, and her hands moved to grip his shirt as he tossed her around like a sack.
I laid down a wide swath of bullets to keep our hunters at bay. Once Ringo and Ellie were clear, I ran for the open window and dove through.
The landing was unexpected as the space beyond sloped sharply downward with grass so tall it hid the rocks and thorn bushes guarding the soft flank of Don Conti’s estate.
But our firefight had one good outcome.
Loppa and the men I’d enlisted to protect Don Manca pressed from the gates and had secured the towers.
Once we climbed free of the brambles and met their party, Ringo handed off Ellie to the nearest soldier possible.
And as soon as his hands were free, I punched him.
“What the fuck was that for?”
“You dumb-ass. I gave you orders.”
“I was saving you.”
“Where is my wife?”
Ringo wiped the blood from his mouth. Behind us, Ellie muttered something under her breath that was aimed at Ringo. I didn’t blame her at all. If the situation wasn’t so dire, I’d kill him immediately.
“She’s safe.”
“Like this one was safe?”
Firenze approached. “Thank God. You found her. She ran from us.”
If he said one more word, I’d hit him. “Firenze? I thought you were a smarter man.”
He glanced at Ellie before attempting an answer.
“That is not my wife.”
His surprise spoke volumes.
There wasn’t enough time to set him straight. “Ringo? If Allie is not found in the next hour, you know what will happen to you?”
“Yeah, yeah… you’ll try to kill me.”
No. I would succeed.