Chapter 29 #2
With my gaze perched to my friend, I hope like hell she understands the unspoken words filling my eyes.
With parted lips, her head nodding once, she bites his forearm and ducks down. The next thing I hear is the pop from my weapon, the bullet aimed for his forehead.
ENZO
She thought she could give herself up and I wouldn’t be there to stop it? I had the warehouse bugged. I didn’t tell her because I had a feeling she was going to pull some stupid shit like this.
She’s damn loyal and selfless. Her bravery is one of the things I love most about her, but fuck if she thinks I’d let her give herself up to that animal. If anyone is dying today, it’s me. I’d take her place without hesitation.
Something slams hard into the back of my head as I fight a motherfucker off. The sharp sting of pain only makes the anger radiate deeper. I kick a guy in front, right in the face, pivoting to find the one who hit me.
“Fight me, pussy,” he sneers, landing a punch into my jaw that I let him have with a grin that says, you just fucked with the wrong person.
“If you insist,” I mutter before—pop.
He didn’t even see my other revolver, hidden in my jacket pocket. His hands clamp around the hole in his stomach, blood rushing out. The shell-shocked look on his face only irritates me, so I fire another into his forehead, killing him in a flash.
I fight off every living, breathing Palermo man, my brothers and our men all doing the same. But my goal is to get to Jade and take her the hell out of here before she becomes a casualty.
Where the fuck is she?
Dom has Joey Russo in his grasp, punching the shit out of him as the scumbag groans in pain, cowering on the ground, before getting a hard kick in the stomach. But Dom doesn’t stop, his shoe pressing down over his throat as he fights for air, his fingers clawing with desperation.
The other men are all at our mercy, more of them arriving from below the trapdoor that has now popped open, the place where the Bianchis have been hiding the club.
As my nine rips into the forehead of another man, I see Jade from the corner of my eye, that bastard pointing his weapon at her, but my girl, she has one on him too.
“Don’t, Jade!” I shout, but in the chaos, she doesn’t hear me. I run across the wide space, shoving at the men around me to get to her, to stop her, afraid that his bullet will enter her before hers kills him.
Pop.
Fuck!
I’m too late. She shoots, as I continue to run, to scream her name, afraid he’ll kill her, but instead of firing back, Agnelo only laughs.
Jade’s shouting slams into my gut as I’m finally beside her. Her bullet, it didn’t hurt Agnelo at all. It hit Kayla instead.
She falls to the ground as he lets her go.
“No!” Jade screams, dropping the gun and running toward her friend, whose arm oozes with blood as Jade quickly removes her hoodie and wraps it around the wound. “I’ve got you,” she says with a sob. “We’ll go to a hospital as soon as we get out of here.”
Agnelo takes this opportunity to try and run, gun raised to me as he steps backward toward the door only a foot away. He may act tough, but he’s a pussy. He flees when real trouble comes, and we’re as real as it gets. He won’t escape us now. Not this time.
I’m on him before he can move another inch, swiftly kicking the weapon from within his grasp, slamming another kick across his ankles, dropping him to the floor.
“Finally.” My foot lands over his round stomach, retrieving the pistol from my pocket, pointing it at his chest. “I get to kill you.”
My thumb rests over the trigger, and with a final look, I start to pull.
“Put your gun down,” a man behind me says. “He’s mine.” The cold metal of what I know is a weapon is pressed to the back of my head.
“Nah, man. You must be confused,” I tell him, turning toward whoever the hell it is, about to kill him too if he doesn’t take that pistol away from my face.
He stares me down, fury locked in his eyes, and I do the same. But as I look at him, this kid no older than me, I’m momentarily gripped by the realization that I’ve seen him before.
“Who the hell are you?” He ignores my question, his glare darting past me and now centered at Agnelo, cocking the weapon at him.
“Ahh, there he is,” Agnelo jeers. “I’ve been looking for you.”
My pulse knocks within my head, this uneasy energy rustling in the air, blowing over me.
“Well, you found me,” the guy calmly says, though his expression is anything but calm. “Now tell me where she is. Where the hell did you send her?”
I look between them, unsure who they’re talking about, trying to place this stranger at the same time, but I can’t.
How the hell do I know him? Maybe from one of our clubs?
“Tsk, tsk.” Agnelo laughs, his brows dipping with amusement. “You’ll never find her. Stupid kid. I told you, she’ll never be yours. When will you finally listen?”
The room has gone silent, my brothers and Elliot moving closer from my left, their footsteps crunching over the glass.
The guy growls, kneeling to the floor, the butt of his nine slamming hard into Agnelo’s temple. “She’s your fucking daughter and you sold her? To who?”
Daughter?
“Are you looking for Aida?” I ask the guy, and that gets his attention.
“How the hell do you know her? Have you seen her?”
“No, man, I’m sorry, but if you need help, my brothers and I, we can help you find her.”
His jaw grinds. “I work alone.” Then his gaze is back on the scumbag.
“This is so beautiful. Reunited at last and they have no idea,” Agnelo taunts. “I only wish my brothers were still alive to witness this miracle.”
My throat goes dry. “What the fuck is going on?”
“Why don’t you tell them who you are?” Agnelo looks to each one of my brothers.
Dom circles the kid, staring at him for a long, quiet moment, as though for the first time.
“No…” Dom’s inhale is harsh as he shakes his head. “It can’t be.” His hand runs past his face. “I watched you di—”
A heavy, sinking feeling blasts into my stomach.
“Who is that, Dom?” Dante asks, his tone sliced with the same trepidation.
“Don’t you recognize your own brother?” Agnelo chuckles.
“Br-brother?” I whisper. But when I look at him again, really look, those large brown eyes… “Fuck.” I grip my hair.
Dante faces him now, Elliot pointing the gun at Agnelo in case he decides to run.
“Matteo?” Dom’s shell-shocked voice causes us all to freeze.
“Surprise!” Agnelo snickers.
My world spins, my chest erupting with needle-like stabbing as my mind tries to wrap around something I never thought was possible.
“How could you be here? Where have you been?” Dom asks, the words falling unevenly, unable to pull his eyes away from our baby brother.
“He’s been with me this whole time,” Agnelo interrupts. “Isn’t that right, kid?”
“Tell me where she is!” he roars in return.
“You’re like a sad, little puppy.” Agnelo’s expression is filled with annoyance as he tries to sit up, but Elliot pushes him back down. “She’s long gone by now. Probably in a different country.”
Matteo growls, pressing the muzzle of his weapon to his own forehead.
“Good luck finding her by yourself,” Agnelo throws out. “But if you want a shot at saving her, well, you’re going to have to take me out of here before your brothers end your chance of ever getting to her in time.”
“Matteo, please,” Dom practically begs. “Let us help you. Don’t fucking listen to him. All he ever does is lie.”
“Goddamn, Matteo. We’re your brothers.” Dante clasps him on the shoulder, but Matteo shoves his hand away. “We’ll help you find her.”
“I have no brothers.” He looks at us, one by one. His eyes used to hold the warmth of our mother in them, but now, they’re empty, as though stolen, like he was. “The best thing you can do is forget you ever saw me. I’m still dead where it matters.”
His weapon is aimed at Elliot now. “Tell your friend to move,” he says to Dom. “Agnelo is coming with me.”
Dom jerks his head sideways and Elliot moves back, allowing Agnelo to climb to his feet. Matteo wraps his arm around the bastard’s neck, his weapon drawn at us as he starts tugging the old man toward the door.
“Wait!” I shout. “Don’t go. We love you, man. We never would’ve given up finding you if we knew you were alive.”
He stops, his shoulders swaying with heavy breaths, his gaze puncturing me with a wound so painful, I almost drop to my knees. If he was with them all these years, who knows what they did to him.
“I’m—I’m sorry.” Dom breaks down.
The look of a tormented man is what I find in Matteo’s eyes as he stares at us with a cloud of emotion. For a moment, I think he’ll actually stay. That he’ll choose us.
Instead, he runs out the door, and we lose him for a second time.