26. Wolfe
WOLFE
Icarus held a relaxed stance, his switchblade gripped by the hilt. He continued to bleed from the open wound but didn’t seem to care about it. When I’d shot him, he didn’t cry out, like he’d been shot a lot.
That made two of us.
Don Russo and some of the others rushed to his family to unbind their wrists and remove the nooses from their necks. Then they were ushered into the garden and back to the secret passage, where they could get to safety.
Any of Cosa Nostra could shoot Icarus as he faced me, but we were all bound by honor.
“This isn’t how I planned this,” Icarus said as he started to move, a shark that circled another shark. “But whichever way this goes, it’ll be a beautiful ending.” Then he grinned as he started to move directly toward me.
He didn’t waste any time and made his first slash, and I dodged and turned with each strike, avoiding the cut from his knife. He was bigger and had more strength in his strikes, but he couldn’t move as smoothly as I could. It made it easy for me to dodge and hard for him to recover.
I moved away from him, while he came for me again, continuing on the offensive because that was his approach to any fight. To hack and slash until he landed a hit, to keep the pressure on so I would tire before he did.
“Are you mad that I almost killed your wife?” he asked, going still for a split second before he launched his attack again, trying to catch me off guard with the distraction. He made a flurry of hits, moving hard and fast, trying to slash my arms and then my neck.
I ducked and quickly sidestepped, and then I rushed backward as he came again.
“Because she asked for it.” He swiped again, left and right, and then down toward my clavicle.
I pivoted sideways, avoiding his blade, and stabbed mine down deep into his forearm. The second I felt the bone, I twisted then yanked it back out.
He didn’t scream, but his face immediately tinted blood red, and he turned into an angry bull about to charge.
I knew what was coming, so I quickly dashed away, never moving in a straight line but always jagged and unpredictable leaps. If he moved in one direction, he’d pick up momentum and then knock me flat on my ass.
A circle formed around us, and as Icarus and I engaged in hand-to-hand combat, the only face that really stood out to me was Don Russo. A heavy silence was cast over the group, no one saying a word as they watched the two of us fight to take it all.
Icarus finally roared like a bear. “Fight me!”
“I am—and you’re losing.” I was already tired from all the dodging, but knife fights between two good fighters were always a long battle.
A single blow could be death, so every strike and every dodge mattered, because if you made your move and missed, you made yourself vulnerable to a counterattack—and then you were dead.
I could tell Icarus didn’t have the patience for this. He wanted instant gratification.
“You nick my arm, and you think I’m losing?” Icarus rushed me again, his rage and adrenaline giving him a boost.
This time, I wasn’t able to dodge. Instead, I had to block the hit with my forearm, his knife almost getting me in the cheek. He carried more weight, so it took all my strength to hold him back.
Then he bashed his head hard into mine.
I faltered and stumbled back.
“Wolfe!” Don Russo shouted.
My back hit the floor, but I immediately rolled before his boot stomped on me.
I hurried to my feet to run off, but I felt his knife cut me right down the back and rip through my shirt.
I clenched my jaw and grimaced when I felt the burn from his knife.
“You still think I’m losing?”
I faced him again, my knife gripped tightly.
Don Russo was right behind me. “You have to disarm him or kill him. Otherwise, you’ll tire.”
“Come on.” Icarus slammed his fist into his chest. “Are you going to continue to run into the corners like a rat?” He moved toward me again, his wild ferocity fueling him as he came down on me.
I dodged and ducked, following the flow of his movements to avoid the blade impaling me in the gut. He didn’t pause like he had before, going and going until he finally launched forward with his blade.
I waited for the perfect opportunity, his knife coming toward my chest. I turned and threw up my knee, which could have easily ended in disaster, and he slammed hard enough against me that his fingers loosened on the knife. I bashed my knife into his wrist and forced his fingers to release.
“Ahh!” Icarus screamed.
I kicked his knife away, so it slid into the crowd.
He didn’t look at his wrist before he charged me, blood covering his hand and flicking all over the place with his harsh movements.
Now he tried to pummel me to death, and his size and strength made that as threatening as the edge of a knife because of the power he could pack into a punch.
One bad hit in the wrong spot could knock me out cold. Even kill me.
But speed continued to be my advantage, and when he threw his punch and I evaded, I sliced the knife up his arm and opened a river of blood.
He was either too angry to register it, or he really felt nothing because he kept going without a pause. He even unexpectedly grabbed me by the shirt and slammed his head into mine again just to throw me off.
It hurt like a fucking bitch, but I didn’t waste the opportunity of his proximity. I stabbed the blade deep into his chest over his heart and twisted before I yanked it back out again. He took that opportunity to punch me hard in the face.
I flew back at his hit and hit the floor, blood immediately bursting from my nose.
“Do you still think you’re winning?” he screamed.
I’d stabbed that asshole in the heart, but he still didn’t stop. The fatigue hit me in that moment, but I growled as I got to my feet, my knife still in my grasp and my head spinning.
Blood soaked into his chest from the gash in his chest, but he looked completely unaffected by it.
Perhaps that knife hadn’t been deep enough to hit him in the heart.
“You’ve got the upper hand, Wolfe,” Don Russo said from behind me. “Use it.”
I changed the grip on my knife and started to circle him again.
“You look like a kid with a toy,” Icarus said in an attempt to provoke me.
“Make sure you don’t run with it like a pair of scissors.
” He clicked his tongue a couple of times as he shook his head.
“Isn’t this fun, Wolfe?” He spread his arms wide, blood soaked into his chest. “I’ve never felt more alive. What about you—”
I took the shot and threw the knife across the ten-foot gap between us.
He stilled when the blade landed, impaling him in the chest just inches above where I’d stabbed him a moment ago. He remained standing, and his eyes narrowed on my face while his nostrils flared.
Why won’t this asshole die?
He grabbed the hilt and clenched his jaw as he yanked it out, another flood of blood pouring down. Then he tossed it in the air and caught it by the hilt. “Nice shot, Wolfe.”
I’d gambled and lost.
He grinned widely as he came for me again, mania in his eyes, taking in the pleasure of my death before he actually killed me.
I steadied myself, prepared to kill him with my bare fists before letting that knife take me.
The gleeful rage suddenly left his eyes, and in a split second, his tinted skin appeared pale…and then he collapsed. He hit the floor face first, breaking his nose with an audible crunch, and dropping his knife in the process.
He went still and didn’t move again.
The blood continued to pool around him. His chest didn’t rise with another breath.
I guessed his injuries finally caught up to him.
Francesca stood behind me and dabbed an alcohol pad on my cut to clean it.
With every touch, it burned, but I didn’t make a sound or show weakness.
“The cut is shallow enough that you don’t need stitches.
” She started to bandage me up, applying a line of gauze in sections of the cut and taping it into place.
I couldn’t see her, but I knew her face was pale and her eyes were empty. “Like old times, huh?”
She didn’t release a quiet chuckle, just continued to work until the last part of the cut was dressed.
I turned around to face her and took a seat in the chair. That way, it would be easier for her to take care of my nose.
Her fingers gently pressed into my face to feel the bone. “You’ve got a break, but it feels pretty minor. Should heal on its own. We’ll get some ice on it.”
“I’m fine.”
“I’m sorry, did you think it was optional?” she spat.
Despite the pain and fatigue, a grin filled my lips. “Yes, boss.”
“Do not call me that today. Not in the mood.” She cleaned the blood from my face then tossed the blood-soaked rag on the table.
She cleaned her hands with an alcohol wipe before she dug her fingers into my hair then tipped my head back to kiss me.
And she didn’t just kiss me, but she kissed me good.
It was as if we were alone together, her gripping my hair, her tongue in my mouth.
My hands automatically went to her ass as I pulled her into my lap so our faces were level to each other.
She pulled away, and if she hadn’t, I would have continued that kiss for hours on end. Her fingers were still buried in my hair, and she looked into my eyes. “I love you.”
My hand slid into her hair as I cradled her face. “I love you too, baby.” My thumb gently grazed her soft cheek. “I’m glad this is finally over.”
“Yeah, me too.” Her eyes dropped as she released a sigh. “I only saw the end of that fight…and I was horrified.”
I smirked to make her feel better. “I had it handled.”
She gave a slight shake of her head but didn’t say anything.
Don Russo and the others had defeated the rest of Icarus’s men and taken back headquarters. Elio and Andre had transported Leo to the hospital, and the last text Francesca got from Elio was that Leo had been rushed to surgery.
I knew her thoughts were with her brother right now.
“You think he’ll be okay?” she asked quietly, speaking so low it was like she didn’t actually want to ask the question.