by Cora Reilly
“The one?” she asked with a frown.
“Aria will understand.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
I washed a few glasses that nobody had taken care of last night. This morning I’d finally given Mom the money I’d won. I hoped she’d use it to pay her debt. I’d warned her to not pay everything at once so it wouldn’t raise eyebrows. She’d probably spend most of it on a supply of drugs anyway.
Cheryl was rolling cigarettes beside me for her shift because when things got busy later she would hardly find the time. Her fingertips had a slight yellow tinge. She’d been smoking a lot in the last few days. Considering my frayed nerves, I wished I had something to calm them with.
She hadn’t asked me about Fabiano in a while and I knew better than to offer any kind of information to her. It was too complicated to involve more people in this.
The door swung open. “We’re closed,” she shouted without even looking up.
My eyes slid over to the entrance and my hands stilled. Nino Falcone and one of his younger brothers entered. Cheryl followed my gaze and set down her cigarettes. Her eyes darted to me.
They came over to us. They didn’t hurry, seemed almost relaxed as if this was a friendly visit. But Nino’s cold gray eyes settled on me and I just knew that they were here for me. Iciness clawed at my chest. I quickly dried my hands, my right hand reaching for the mobile I’d put down on the counter beside me. I needed to tell Fabiano about this. Perhaps he could at least escape but I knew he wouldn’t.
Nino shook his head, empty expression, eyes hard. “I wouldn’t touch that if I were you.”
I snatched my hand back from my mobile. Cheryl took a step back from me, from them. Her eyes held worry and fear, for herself or for me, I couldn’t say.
Nino propped his elbows up on the bar. He was wearing a black turtleneck and he looked like an Ivy League student, not a mobster, but one look at his eyes and nobody would have taken him for anything but dangerous. And I had seen him fight, had seen the many disturbing tattoos on his body, always covered by clothing when he wasn’t in the cage. He pointed at the Johnie Walker Blue Label. “Give me a glass.”
My hands were shaking when I filled the glass with Scotch. He took a sip. “My brother and I are going to take you with us now. We have some matters to discuss.” He scanned my face. “You won’t fight us, I assume.”
I swallowed. The younger brother came around. He was still a teenager, definitely a couple of years younger than me, but there was no sign of boyish innocence on his face. He didn’t touch me as he stopped beside me. Cheryl’s eyes filled with pity.
I gave her a small smile, then nodded toward Nino in agreement. There was no other option. Fighting them would have been ridiculous. I’d heard Fabiano talk about their fighting skills. I’d seen Nino in the cage myself. They would have me on the ground in a heartbeat, and other than Fabiano they wouldn’t take care not to hurt me, quite the contrary. I grabbed my backpack and mobile.
“Savio,” Nino said simply.
Savio held out his hands and I gave him both without resistance. Then he jerked his head. I walked ahead of him, even if having him at my back raised the little hairs on my neck. Nino appeared at my side. Neither of us spoke as they led me outside toward their car, a black Mercedes SUV. Savio opened the backdoor and I climbed in. They sat in the front, not bothering to tie me up. There was no running. Nino sat behind the steering wheel and we drove off.
My hands were shaking badly as I curled my fingers around my knees in an attempt to calm myself. This didn’t have to mean we were in trouble. Perhaps something else was up. But I didn’t come up with an explanation that set my mind at ease. I caught Savio watching me through the rearview mirror on occasion while his older brother was completely focused on the windshield.
The drive passed in utter silence. Eventually a high wall came into view and we drove through the gates and up the driveway toward a mansion. It was a beautiful sprawling estate. White and regal.
The Falcone brothers got out, then a moment later Nino held open my door. I hopped out of the car, glad for my legs that managed to hold me up despite their shaking.
“Where’s Fabiano?” I asked, trying to mask my fear and failing on a grand scale.
Nino nodded toward the entrance, ignoring my question, or perhaps answering it? I wasn’t sure. Together we walked inside the beautiful house. They led me into another wing and then into a large room with a pool table and boxing ring. In it, Remo was kicking and punching a boxing bag.
He wasn’t wearing a shirt, and for some reason that sight more than anything else sent a wave terror through my body. His upper body was covered in scars, most of them not as faded as the one on his face, and like Fabiano he was all muscle. A tattoo of a kneeling angel surrounded by his broken wings covered his back. I’d never seen it up close. He jumped over the rope and landed gracefully on the other side, eyes never leaving me as he came toward me. My entire body seized up at his approach.
“Where’s Fabiano?” I asked again, hating how shaky my voice came out.
He tilted his head to the side. “He will be here soon, don’t worry.” His words weren’t meant to be consoling. The menace in them prevented that.
I stared down at Remo’s text: Come over.
Nothing more.
I paused. I knew immediately that something was up. I tried calling Leona but I got her mailbox, and that’s when a stab of worry went through me. I raced toward Roger’s Arena.
Cheryl was having a smoke in front of the entrance, fingers trembling. Fuck.
She shook her head at me. “She’s not here. They took her.” She took a drag. “I hope you’re happy now that you’ve ruined her life.”
That was the first time she’d given me anything but fake friendliness. I had no time to waste on a reply. Instead I slipped back inside my car and raced off.
Would Remo do the honors himself? Or would he ask Nino to put a bullet in my head?
If he allowed me the privilege of dying a quick death at all, which I doubted. And what about Leona? I could handle his torture but Leona, what if he hurt her in front of me and made me watch her die? My hands clawed at the steering wheel.
I pulled up in Remo’s driveway and jumped out of the car, not bothering to close the door.
A few of Remo’s soldiers watched me like the dead man that I was. We all knew I wouldn’t get out of here alive.
I didn’t have to ask where Leona was. I knew where Remo held that kind of conversations. I didn’t bother knocking, and instead stepped right into the sparring hall.
Remo, Nino and Savio were there.
And Leona stood in the center. Her eyes darted to me and relief flashed in them. Her hope was misguided. This time I couldn’t save her. We’d both die. I’d die trying to defend her, but it would be of no use. Not against Remo, Nino and Savio, and all the men gathered in other areas of the house.
Remo perched on the edge of the pool table. He looked controlled - which worried me. He wasn’t a man that usually bothered controlling himself or his anger.
“Remo,” I said quietly with a nod at him. I walked up to Leona. I needed to be close to her when things escalated.
Remo’s eyes flashed. I had to fight the urge to reach for my gun. Remo, Nino and Savio appeared relaxed enough but I wasn’t stupid enough to think that they hadn’t taken all necessary precautions to guarantee we didn’t get out of here alive.
“What’s the meaning of all this, Remo?” I asked carefully.
He gritted his teeth, and pushed himself away from the table. “Still not admitting to it?”
My muscles tensed up. “Admitting to what?”
I didn’t know what exactly Remo had found out. Admitting to killing Soto for Leona would be suicide.
“When you started pursuing her, I thought it was a brief adventure, but you got yourself in over your head.”
“I’ve been doing my job as always, Remo.”
He stopped across from me. Too close. “I do
n’t recall asking you to kill Soto.”
There it was. The thing that sealed our fate.
I considered pretending I didn’t know what he was talking about but that would have made things worse. I pushed Leona a step back, so my body was shielding her completely.
Remo saw. “All this because of that girl,” he snarled. “You betrayed me for the daughter of a cheap crack whore and a gambling addict. After everything I’ve done for you, you stab me in the back.”
I held Leona’s hand in a crushing grip, shielding her with my body even if it drove Remo even madder. My eyes did a quick scan of the room. Remo alone was a dangerous opponent, but I would have tried my luck. But with his two brothers in the room with us, I stood no chance. Nino, too, was impossible to beat.
I would still fight them, but it was only postponing the inevitable. I allowed myself a glance down at Leona who was watching me with trust in her eyes. She thought I could get us out. Slowly fear replaced her trust. I squeezed her hand once. She rewarded me with a shaky smile, and I released her hand. I needed both of my hands if I wanted to stand the slightest chance at all.
I considered denying I had killed Soto but while I could withstand torture, Leona wouldn’t be able to keep our secret if Remo or Nino turned their special talent on her. “I never meant to betray you. And I never did. Soto was a rat. He wasn’t a good soldier.”
“It’s not your place to decide who is a good soldier. I am Capo and I decide who lives and dies,” he said in his quietest voice.
Remo was never quiet like that. He wasn’t just furious. He was fucking crushed because I’d betrayed him and that was so much worse.
“I shouldn’t have. I have always been a good soldier and I will always be your loyal soldier if you let me.”
“Are you asking for forgiveness? For mercy?” He laughed.
I smiled coldly. “No. I won’t.”
Leona looked at me like I’d lost my mind, but she didn’t know Remo. I’d seen him laugh into the faces of the begging and dying for years and knew he didn’t have a heart to melt.
“Do with me whatever you want. But as a favor for years of loyal service, I ask you to let Leona go.”
Remo laughed again. The way his eyes wandered over Leona, he was probably already thinking about all the things he could do to her. Raw protectiveness crashed down over me.
“Let me fight for her life. I’ll fight as many men as you want.”
Remo walked toward me. I fought the urge to pull a weapon. He stopped right in front of me. Our eyes locked. Years of loyalty, of brotherhood passed in that one moment, and deep regret settled in my bones.
“You will fight me to the death,” Remo said.
I stared at him uncomprehendingly. Since my sisters had left, since my mother had died and my father had wanted me dead, he was the only family I’d had. He and his brothers. Fuck, we’d spent every day together for the last five years. Had bled together, laughed together, killed together. I had sworn loyalty to him. I would have put my life down for him.
I turned my gaze to Leona who was watching me and Remo with her innocent doe-eyes. But for her, I would kill him. I would kill them all.
“If you win, she will be free,” Remo said to Nino, who would become Capo if Remo died. “And you Fabiano will put your life down without another fight.”
“I will.”
He nodded. “Perhaps Nino will feel lenient enough to grant you life afterwards.” Nino’s expression left me little hope for that. Not that it mattered. If I killed Remo, the Camorra would be in uproar. Nino would have his hands full with that. He would prevail of course, but perhaps it would give me the chance to…to what? Run away with Leona? From Vegas, from the Camorra? Join the fucking Famiglia? Fuck. I wasn’t sure I could do it. But it wasn’t something I had to decide now, probably never.
“To the death,” I told Remo, holding out my hand for him. He gripped it and we shook hands, then he stepped back, fixing his cold stare on Leona. “I hope you can live with yourself now that Fabiano’s signed his death letter for you.”
Leona opened her mouth in what looked like protest, but I gripped her hand hard. She pressed her lips together.
“Tomorrow,” Remo said, then turned to Nino. “Set everything up. Call Griffin.”
He’d fought two men only yesterday but I knew the advantage that gave me was balanced by the fury Remo felt.
His eyes found me again. “You will spend the night here where I can keep an eye on you.”
“You know I won’t run,” I told him.
“Once I knew you were loyal,” he said.
He nodded at Nino and Savio, and they led Leona and me toward a panic room without windows and locked the door.
Leona gripped my shirt. “This is suicide. He wants to kill you.”
“That he gives me the chance to fight for your life is more than he would have given anyone else. That he fights me himself is the greatest proof of respect I can think of.”
She didn’t look like she understood. I hadn’t expected her to. “You will win, right? You are the best.”
“I’ve never won against Remo.”
Leona’s eyes grew wide. “Never?”
I pulled her against me, my hands slipping under her shirt. I brushed my nose along her throat. “Never.”
Her hands on my shirt tightened, then she slid them under the fabric, fingers raking over my skin. Her need met my own as we tore and tugged at each other’s clothes until we were finally naked. I tried to memorize every inch of her body, her smell, her softness, her moans.
Later, when we lay in each other’s arms, I murmured, “I don’t mind dying for you.”
“Don’t,” she whispered. “Don’t say that. You won’t die.”
I kissed the top of her head. “Love only gets you killed. That’s what my father said. I suppose he got that one thing right.”
Leona stopped breathing. She raised her head. One look at her cornflower eyes and I knew she was worth it. “Did you just…?”
“Sleep,” I said softly.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“You are lucky my brother does this for you,” Nino said. “I’d have cut your throat.”
He said it in a clinical voice. For him this was about logic and pragmatism. For Remo, this was personal. For Remo, I was like a brother and I had gone against him. Nino moved across the room to his brothers.
Every last seat was occupied and even more spectators stood against the walls, eyes eager for the fight of a lifetime. Leona wrung her hands beside me, eyes sliding from me to Remo who was surrounded by his three brothers, even Adamo would be watching the fight for once. They knew it might be their last chance to say goodbye to him.
The excitement of the crowd slowly crept into my bones. The thrill of the fight took hold of me.
Remo looked at me. Tonight we’d both die. We knew it. Every other outcome would be a miracle. Leona was reluctant to let me go when Griffin called my name. Before I loosened her grip, I kissed her in front of everyone, because it didn’t matter anymore. I pulled back and climbed into the cage where Remo was already waiting for me.
Griffin was saying something to the crowd or to us, I wasn’t sure.
Remo approached and only stopped when his chest almost touched mine. “I loved you like a brother. Tonight is where it all ends.” He held out his hand.
I wasn’t sure if Remo could love. Before Leona I had been sure I wasn’t capable of it either. I gripped his forearm, my palm covering the tattoo on his wrist and he mirrored the gesture. Then we let go and took a few steps back.
Griffin climbed out of the cage and locked the door before he shouted. “To the death!”
The bar erupted with applause but it all faded to the background. This was about Remo and I. I charged forward and so did he. After that our world narrowed to this fight, to this moment. Remo was fast and angry. He landed a few good hits before my fist collided with his abdomen for the first time. There was blood in my mouth and my right side ached fi
ercely but I ignored both, focused on Remo, on his heaving chest, his narrowed eyes. He lunged and I tried to duck but then he was upon me. We fell to the floor, his forearm pressed against my throat.
Remo tightened his hold, until stars danced in front of my eyes. “And do you still think she’s worth it?” he muttered into my ear.
I sought Leona’s fear-stricken face in the crowd.
“Yes,” I gritted out. Never had anything been more worth dying for.
Fabiano’s face was turning increasingly red in Remo’s chokehold. I couldn’t breathe. The crowd around me cheered like madmen as if this wasn’t about life or death. For them it was pure entertainment, something to distract them from their miserable lives.
Fabiano’s blue eyes fixed on me, fierce and determined.
I tried to give him strength with my expression even though I’d never felt more helpless and desperate in my life. The man I loved was fighting for both of our lives. Love – when had it happened? I wasn’t sure. It had been creeping up on me. I hadn’t even told him outright. Perhaps I’d never get the chance to tell him.
And even if he won, Nino might still end his life.
Suddenly Fabiano arched his back and thrust his elbow into Remo’s side but he didn’t budge. Fabiano bowed forward as much as Remo’s hold allowed and then thrust his head back with full force, crashing against Remo’s face. The crowd exploded with cheers and yowls.
And suddenly Fabiano wound himself out of the grip and staggered to his feet before aiming a kick at Remo, hitting him square in the ribs. Remo jerked, but quickly rolled away and pushed to his own feet, and then they were facing each other again. They were circling each other, both covered in blood from head to toe, littered with bruises and cuts. Two predators waiting for a flicker of weakness.
