Chapter 34
Dean
In several red and green cushioned booths, tucked away in the rear of a pizzeria, we all went silent as Antonio addressed us.
With his bodyguards surrounding us, and Terry, his old bouncer from The Den, keeping watch at the door, anyone who wandered in for a pizza would think otherwise about staying.
Roxy stood on Antonio’s left side wearing a black pantsuit and heels, looking more professional than anyone else here as she kept her chin high.
“After the revelations of last night,” Antonio said. “I have decided to pull you all from Castello di Vetro. Especially since my children were so quick to retaliate and took one of our own early this morning.”
There was a shift in the room between the other fighters.
Seb was beside me and pivoted his head to see who was missing from the group.
I couldn’t remember the faces of the other fighters very well. It was down to pure laziness that I hadn’t bothered to get close to any of them besides Seb.
“What happened to him?” another fighter said from the booth behind us. His voice was hoarse.
“Jacob’s—or rather, The Viper’s head was delivered to my front gates this morning. Along with his girlfriend’s.” Antonio planted his cane in front of himself and folded his hands over the golden eagle head on the top.
My stomach dropped. Okay, maybe I remembered one other fighter.
The Viper was a Russian guy who barely spoke and fought with relentless precision, matching the reputation of the snake tattooed on his scalp.
He fought on and off for Antonio, and sometimes versed us after Antonio instructed that we needed to work on our technique.
He seemed untouchable until he and his partner had their heads lobbed off this morning.
If someone like him failed to protect his loved one, how the fuck were the rest of us meant to do it?
I crossed my arms while that familiar bounce started in my leg.
“If I am to rebuild another successful fight club, I need you all alive. Some of you will continue doing a few small jobs for me, but other than that, lay low, stay vigilant, and do not go anywhere near Castello di Vetro again.”
“Seems easy enough for me,” Seb muttered.
“After this meeting tonight, I will only contact you when I really need to. When this is all over, I will see you all here again.” He spoke the words as if it was a promise we all had to keep.
Don’t die before the next meeting, basically.
Without any further questions, we were free to go and walked out of the pizzeria one by one. I was the last to leave the booths when Vince approached me. Followed closely by Antonio while Roxy lingered nearby.
“The gun you asked for,” Antonio said as Vince pulled the weapon from his jacket and offered it to me. A black 9mm with the serial number shaved off.
I took it, weighing it in my hand. Everything about the moment reminded me of the time Antonio handed me the gun I was meant to use the night my father died.
Vince stepped back, giving Antonio room to take his place in front of me. The mob boss put a hand on my shoulder and squeezed.
“I know I say this about all my fighters, that we are family, but you are important to me… You’re like the son I never had.” His words were meant to inspire something in me, but instead, they only made me hate the situation more.
Antonio implying he never had a son would only make Gabriele’s anger worse — their retaliation worse.
I couldn’t help but think about how the words contradicted Antonio’s actions in the past too.
Anytime I spoke or stepped out of line in the past, there was a punishment.
Those were almost no different from what my father did.
Checking the safety was on, I tucked the gun into the back of my jeans and pulled my T-shirt over it, moving my thoughts on to how I was to present it to Lily. There was nothing romantic about bringing a gun home to your girlfriend.
“Hey, babe. I’ve got that gun your dad wanted me to get. I know you were shot by one a few months ago, but hey, protection, right?”
Yep. Boyfriend of the fucking year.
None of this was good.
I headed for the exit with Seb and Roxy.
For a moment, I was with my thoughts as we walked through the restaurant — I kind of wished I could empty said thoughts into the gutter and drive away.
The bad thoughts anyway; the ones that reminded me of my shitty past; the ones that reminded me of my dim future.
It was getting harder to stay in the present when my head was being torn in every direction.
“Why’d he give you a gun?” Roxy said, pulling me from my head.
“Protection.” I held the door for Seb and her.
“Well, obviously. But why else?” she persisted.
“Can’t say.”
Seb, knowing exactly what the gun was for, pivoted as we stepped outside and pushed his fists into the pockets of his jacket.
A cloud of breath escaped his mouth as he spoke into the cool night air.
“Read the situation, Roxy. Maybe we should all get guns, considering how fast everything went south.”
Roxy’s eyes narrowed, and she curled her top lip. “You better not be blaming me for this.”
Seb lifted his hands in defense. “Oh, I wouldn’t dare.”
She scowled at him and hugged her arms around herself to keep warm.
“I’m parked this way so I will see you guys when I see you.” Seb tapped my shoulder by way of goodbye, and then sarcastically waved at Roxy as he strode down the sidewalk on our left and rounded the street corner at the end. All the while, casually scanning his surroundings.
It was safe to say we were all on edge.
“It’s for Little Miss Goodie-Goodie, isn’t it?” Roxy said from where she leaned against the pizzeria windows.
“Don’t.” I started walking.
She scoffed.
I agreed to walk her to her car after the meeting. That didn’t mean we had to speak.
“You’re hot when you get all protective over the Goodie—”
I abruptly stopped and deadpanned at her.
She rolled her eyes. “Fine.”
I continued forward, keeping an eye on our surroundings. Unlike the night Roxy and I exited Castello di Vetro together, our cars were parked further away from the pizzeria. There were more dark alleys and empty shop fronts, creating plenty of hiding places for an ambush.
Or I was being paranoid.
The purr of a bike engine followed by several beeps pulled our eyes to the road as Seb rode by. He gave us a casual salute, leaned into his bike, and then sped off down the street in a blur of matte black.
Roxy sighed. “Long gone are the days of you fucking me over my kitchen counter, I guess…”
“I’m not even gonna respond to that.”
She pulled out a flask from her suit jacket pocket and took a sip. Only to pause when she noticed me watching. “What? Our lives are in danger. May as well fucking live it up while we still can… Want some?”
“I’m good.” I pushed my hands deep into my pockets. “Would kill for a cigarette though.”
“Ha! I knew old Dean was in there somewhere.” She pocketed the flask again and folded her arms, rubbing her hand up and down her biceps. “We were good together, you know… Well, the sex was.” She paused to think before she continued. “I still don’t understand how it was her over me.”
“Better morals?” I drawled.
“Ha, fair.” Somehow, she thought this conversation was light-hearted.
There wasn’t a hint of amusement on my face. “You tried to have Lily killed off by making out she was reporting Antonio to the cops.”
“Not my best moment, but you still came back.”
“I was drunk and not in the right frame of mind. I thought things with Lily were over…” I looked down at the pavement and scoffed in disbelief. “You said yourself that Lily was good for me.”
“You believed what came out of my mouth?” she chuckled. “That offer still stands, by the way. Not killing her, but fucking me. If you want something on the side.”
“You’re unbelievable.” I fixed my eyes ahead. All I could think about half the time was getting home to Lily. There was no way in hell my mind could be swayed by another woman.
“You’ve really got it bad, huh?”
“Yep.”
Her silence made me look at her. She was half smiling, considering me as if she was seeing something new before she huffed in amusement. “God, people in love are disgusting. Cute, but disgusting.”
I half smiled. At least I got one thing in my life right.
Our pace slowed as we reached my car and stepped off the curb.
I paused near the taillight of the Cadillac, fishing out my keys as Roxy crossed the street to her Aston Martin.
The street was eerily quiet.
I could hear the city around us, but something was off.
“Hey, Roxy. Be careful.” I don’t really know why I said it.
She tossed her long, dark hair over her shoulder as she looked back, strutting across the street in her too-high heels. “Is that a hint of worry I hear? For me?”
“You heard what the boss said. Stay vigilant.”
“Dean, I’ve got this. I’ll lay low. Or maybe travel to my family’s beach house in Miami.” She unlocked the car with a shimmy and climbed into the front seat.
My lips twitched as I shook my head.
And then, for the first time since I met her, Roxy shared a smile that wasn’t snarky or smug. It was genuine as she waved at me through the window and turned on the car, triggering a blast so powerful it flung glass and debris in all directions.
One minute I was standing on the road, the next I was thrown backwards. I hit the pointed rim of the taillight first, right on my hip bone, before my head connected with the sidewalk.
Pain rippled through my skull, and my vision blurred.
I couldn’t hear or see anything; I couldn’t hear anything but the ringing in my ears until everything came back in stages.
The street was vertical when my eyes finally adjusted, and my vision was bordered by blurry, flickering flames. The ringing in my ears grew into a sharp pitch at first, and then gradually faded into the rest of the noises on that street.
The crackle of fire, the pop of glass, the distant shouts, hurried footsteps, and screaming.
Blood curdling, raw screaming.
Roxy.
Gasoline and burning rubber clung to the air, creating a heady daze as I fought to stay conscious.
I sucked in a breath and held it as I rolled over with a broken groan, letting gravity do the rest before I slumped heavily onto my back, wincing as glass crunched beneath me and the gun in my pants pressed against my spine.
Eventually, I let that breath out, slow and steady as I watched the pillar of black smoke rise into the night sky.