38. Gio #2
I spare him one last look before I leave the cell. He hasn’t moved. I shut the cell door behind me. It clicks into place, the lock engaging automatically.
I’m about to leave when there’s a noise behind me. A rustling, followed by a groan. Tino is moving, dragging himself across the earthen floor. He’s on his hands and knees, head bowed as he crawls forward.
“Che cazzo, Valori. Stay fucking still. I’m getting medical care. I’m not going to let you die there.” Not yet.
He ignores me, keeps moving. He’s talking, his voice low, garbled.
Gun trained on his shoulder—the closest, non-fatal target—I sink to my haunches, the bars dividing us. “Speak up, man. You’re not making any sense.”
His head tips up. Mangled, overlong hair falls in front of his face. The cold showers that Santoro subjects him to are mitigating the overall stench, but he smells more like fear and desperation than soap. It takes effort not to gag.
The skin around his eyes is dry, cracked. He glares at me; it looks like it hurts. “Y-you?—”
“Me? Yeah, what about me?”
He claws one hand up a bar, dragging his upper body until he can press his face to the cell door. We’re close enough I can see the discoloration in the whites of his eyes. “You shouldn’t have taken her from me.”
Vivi. He’s talking about Vivi.
Spittle flies out his mouth. Coats his chin. Hatred radiates from him like a nuclear detonation.
I slip my gun through the bars. Press the muzzle to his shoulder. Hard, until he winces. “You shouldn’t have involved her in your dirty work.”
He blinks, surprised.
“Oh, did you think I wouldn’t find out? You used Vivi as a cover to kill Matteo Pazzi, you cowardly fuck.
You dragged that beautiful woman along on a hit and let her sit in the cafe, clueless, as you waited for Matteo to arrive.
Then what? You planted your bag on the curb, found cover, and were going to detonate it when the car pulled up?
But you were stupid, reckless, and Vivi was head over heels for you.
She saw your bag, she wanted to help you, she followed you—and ended up setting the bomb off when she tripped, and the bag went flying.
It’s a fucking fluke the hit was successful at all. ”
It’s a fucking miracle Vivi didn’t die. I repress a shudder when I think about how close she must’ve come.
“You were lucky that morning, Valori. Everything went according to plan, despite your efforts to fuck it up. But your luck has officially run out. I’m turning you over to the bastards who want you dead.
The man who is going to murder you for killing his son. ”
He starts rambling, anger and desperation making his words run together. I press my gun harder against his joint, grinding against the bone. He groans, voice cutting out.
Into the silence, I say, “As far as Vivi is concerned, you’re dead.
Gone. Rotting in the ground. You are nothing to her, so erase her from your mind.
I don’t want you thinking about her, talking about her.
Threatening her. If I hear that you’ve even whispered her name, I’ll come down here and cut your tongue out myself. ”
Rage is making his teeth clang together. His knuckles have gone bone white where he’s gripping the bars. “You fucking cunt.”
“Takes one to know one.” I bare my teeth, a gruesome grin. Wait till I’m sure he sees how serious I am.
It’s a mistake. Hubris. And I realize it too late.
Tino growls a half-second before he springs forward. He uses his grip on the bar to haul himself in my direction just as his other arm darts between the bars. He must’ve been practicing, because his aim is perfect. Even as I shift backward on my heels, I’m not moving fast enough.
From the corner of my eye, I see him aim something at my neck.
Reacting instinctively, I squeeze the trigger. He screams, his whole upper body recoiling as a bullet lodges in his shoulder. Really fucking excruciating, but not fatal.
And not enough to unbalance him. He closes the final gap, whatever he’s holding in his hand making contact with my neck.
There’s a sharp pinch followed by a wash of heat. Some sort of drug being forced into my system with a hypodermic needle.
I jump up, stumble back. The needle falls, bouncing off my feet. Whatever the fuck he just dosed me with, it’s working fast. I’m swaying, losing balance as the world starts spinning.
On the other side of the bars, Tino stands. Presses a hand to his shoulder, his frame shaking with pain. “So much for your empty threats now, Marchetti. Like I said. You should never have fucking taken her.”
Vivi. He’s going after Vivi.
I don’t know how he got the drugs or from where. Or who on the island has betrayed me to help him. Questions mix with the nausea already exploding in my stomach.
My knees hit the ground as bile climbs the back of my throat.
From the other side of the cell door, Tino watches, satisfaction numbing him to the pain of the gunshot wound.
“Don’t you fucking touch her,” I grind out, vision dimming. “If you so much as try to touch her, I’ll kill you.”
Tino’s smirk turns vile. “Not sure that’s much of a threat from a man who is about to be dead.”