Francesca #2
Don Russo was in Icarus’s line of sight, so he leaned drastically to the left to make eye contact with me. And the second he did, he grinned. “Lady Wolfe, what a lovely surprise. I feel so rude leaving you out.”
“If I’m a surprise, then maybe you aren’t as good at chess as you thought.” I came to Don Russo’s side and crossed my arms over my chest.
He grinned before he started to rub his palms together greedily. “Just when I thought things were getting boring around here. You really are the perfect woman for him.” My hand went to Don Russo’s shoulder, and I gave it a pat, silently telling him to leave.
He hesitated for a moment before he stood up and returned to the main group.
Icarus’s eyes shifted to a spot beside me, his sight a little off from my gaze. “Little boy hates to be away from his mama.”
I turned to see Leo right beside me. He must have followed me up the stairs and stayed behind me. I had been so focused on Icarus and the adrenaline in my ears that I didn’t notice his steps. “Leo, shoo.”
He ignored me and looked straight at Icarus.
I couldn’t deal with him right now, so I turned back to my opponent. “This family has nothing to do with this, so you’re going to let them go and deal with me instead.”
“Ooh, I forgot how bossy you are.” He relaxed back in the chair and cupped his chin with his hand. Telling me what to do…it’s cute.”
“Let them go, Icarus.”
“Nothing to do with this?” he asked incredulously. “Literally the wife and kids of the Mafia head over here.”
“Being related doesn’t mean they’re involved,” I said.
He cocked his head. “Are you involved?”
“I am now, aren’t I?” I snapped.
The grin returned, and it looked like he tried to restrain it and failed. “What’s your plan, Lady Wolfe?”
“Let them go.”
“In exchange for…?” He cocked his head to the side.
“You can deal with me instead.” Despite the effort I was putting into trying to spare their lives, Rosaria and her girls continued to panic silently, like they were just a second away from their doom. The youngest girl had a visible stain on the front of her pants.
“You want to be hanged instead?” he asked in disbelief. “Oh sweetheart, you’re too pretty for that.”
“Don’t call me sweetheart.”
Within the snap of a finger, he changed. A flash of anger moved across his eyes, and he barked at me, “Don’t tell me what I can and can’t do.” He pushed to his feet with such force that the chair slid back.
I forgot how big he was until I watched him move like a goddamn bear.
“Let me guess.” He took a couple steps toward me, and even though he was still at least ten feet back, I felt like he was right up against me. “I let them go, and if you offer to take their place, you think your husband will scoop in at the last minute and save the day?”
I held my silence and stared.
“Because this little puppy sure ain’t gonna do shit,” he said as he looked at my brother. “Hate to break it to you, but Wolfe is dead.”
“No, he’s not,” I said automatically, because there simply wasn’t a reality in which I existed and he didn’t.
“You sure about that?” He cupped his hand to his ear and pretended to listen.
“Hear all that out there? Doesn’t sound good.
” The gunfire continued like the other side of the building was a literal war zone.
“So your little plan isn’t going to work.
You’ll die for nothing, and then I’m just going to kill everyone anyway.
” He gave a shrug. “My boss’s orders. Pillage, execute, destroy…
and claim. Making my way through the list. It’s hard to remember it all.
” He crossed his arms over his chest and came to a stop in front of me.
Then he stared me down. “So, you want to proceed with this?”
“Yes.”
He took a step toward me, stopped, and then took another step toward me, his chin tilting down the closer he came in order to look at my face. “Wow, you aren’t flinching. Impressive.”
“Let them go,” I repeated.
Now he was really close to me, and I definitely felt his evil aura wash over me like salt from the sea that stung cuts and burned. I didn’t have a clue how Wolfe had managed to handle this guy at the cemetery and agree to being buried alive. I would never understand the constitution of that man.
Leo moved slightly in front of me, his shoulder blocking mine.
Icarus found him so unthreatening that he ignored him.
“I really didn’t want it to be this way.
Wolfe may be my enemy, but who says you can’t respect your enemy?
And I respect mine. I never intended to hurt you.
Never intended to put you in that grave.
And it’s a shame that you’re here now, because I have to hurt you. ”
“Let them go—”
“I’m not going to let them go!” He yelled unexpectedly once more, the echo coming back just as loudly as the words left his throat.
“What I’m going to do is—” He reached into the back of his jeans and grabbed a pistol before he pointed it at me.
“I’m going blow your fucking brains out, and then I’m going to hang them for all to see—”
A gunshot went off.
And then another.
It happened so fast, I didn’t know what actually went down.
All I saw was Leo in front of me, and then he was on the ground.
And then there was blood. And then Icarus was on the ground, and there was more blood.
My ears started to ring from the sound, and my eyes suddenly went weak when I saw my dad lying on the floor, a pool of blood underneath him, his eyes losing their light as he slipped away.
Wolfe rushed over, and then there was a fight. Icarus was up from the ground, and the two men went at it.
My hands went to Leo, who was covered in blood.
I touched my own body, felt my chest and my stomach, but felt nothing.
I finally understood what had happened. Wolfe had shot Icarus from behind, and when Icarus squeezed the trigger, Leo had taken the bullet from me…and he was probably dead. “Leo?”
He lay there, eyes heavy lidded, blood everywhere.
“Leo—Leo?” It took me a second to snap out of the reverie of the past. “No…”
Elio rushed over and lifted Leo’s shirt. “We need something for the pressure. We’ve got to get him to a hospital, or he’s gonna die.”
“How do we get out of here?” Andre said when he kneeled down. “We can go through the sewers.”
“We’re going to have to take him out the front,” Elio said. “We don’t have another choice. Frankie, is there anything you can do?”
“I—I don’t know.” Gunshots went off nearby and made my ears ring again.
Elio grabbed my shoulder and shook me. “Frankie, you’re a nurse.”
“Oh shit…I am a nurse.”
“Come on, we’ve got to stabilize him before we get him to the hospital.” The two men lifted Leo and started to carry him into the house.
When I looked up, Wolfe and Icarus were facing off against each other. The back of Icarus’s shirt was soaked from the gunshot that had struck him in the back. Even though Wolfe held a pistol in his hand, he didn’t aim it at Icarus.
Icarus reached into his pocket and grabbed a switchblade. He pushed the handle down and flicked his wrist, and then the knife appeared.
Wolfe tossed his gun aside, reached into his pocket, and did the same, releasing the sharp edge of a switchblade.
Wolfe didn’t take his eyes off his opponent as he spoke to me. “Get Leo out of here. I’ll finish this.”
I wanted to stay and help Wolfe, but I could tell this was the final showdown between two men. That they wanted to fight to the death honorably, with just their knives and their flesh as armor.
I had faith that Wolfe would win, so I ran inside as they put Leo on a table. Someone ripped his shirt open, and I saw the bullet in his chest, really close to his heart and probably embedded in his lung.
“Focus, Frankie,” I said to myself. “Gauze. You guys must have some around here.”
Someone from Cosa Nostra retrieved a red box that looked like a first aid kit.
When I saw the medical supplies, I launched into action.
I poured the alcohol on the wound, and I was relieved by the way Leo cringed and grimaced.
I wiped it clean, grabbed the suture kit, and made a quick effort to stitch the wound together.
But this wasn’t about helping him heal—it was about minimizing blood loss until we could get him to the hospital.
It was the worst job I’d ever done, but I got it mostly sealed.
Then I wrapped the gauze tight around his body and secured it in place.
Roman ran from the front of the house to the double doors and then looked back. “We have cover. We’ve got to move quickly.” Gunshots continued to explode in the courtyard while the battle raged on.
The men lifted Leo and carried him to the closest SUV, which was so mutilated I wasn’t sure how anyone would be able to see while driving. They laid Leo in the back seat, and Elio and Andre hopped into the car and took off to rush him to the hospital.
I stood there for a second on the sidewalk and watched until their taillights disappeared around the corner.
Dead bodies and destroyed cars were everywhere.
Blood was in puddles as if it had just rained from a crimson sky.
I breathed harder and harder, not on the verge of tears, but something worse than that.
Panic. Because I’d watched my father die… and now my brother was next.