AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Noctus glares at me, but even in his rage and his grief, he can’t say that I have.
“I could sit behind a desk, signing checks and posting bail, same as Lovera. I don’t. I would die for you, and I would die for Lance. So, you better get your head on straight, Noctus, because you and I are both gonna go out there and take that risk for him. Focus the fuck up and be angry at the ones who actually did this. I don’t want to take your revenge from you. I want you right there with me. Do you understand?”
His jaw grinds.
“Yeah,” he finally says.
I hold my silence, waiting. Yeah isn’t good enough.
He sighs out slowly, giving me a bitter, “Yes, sir.”
“The kid was my family, too, Noctus. Whether you believe me or not. And I will bring hell to the ones who took him from us. Sober up and take care of yourself. I need you need to be ready.”
I leave before the man can talk himself into worse trouble. He’s always had a mouth on him and reacts to authority figures like a cat to bathwater—but the shit he was saying about Tessa, he was all but daring me to kill him right there on the spot. My hand throbs.
Outside, Leo slides his gun back under his coat. I can’t even heave a sigh. I slide that chilly, unaffected mask into place and keep walking.
The tiniest silver lining on this bullshit is that no matter what, Gio is still having a worse day than I am.
20
Salvatore
By end of day, someone has to die, and the sun is getting awfully low.
A procession forms in the front yard. Tessa and I lead, her hand curled into the crook of my arm. I found her waiting for me in my bedroom when I got back. There’s a strange relief to having someone waiting for you, especially on a day like today. This has been one of those days you just have to push through, dragging the weight of it all. No matter how heavy it gets, you can’t let it show.
Of all the day’s awful obligations, this is the one I can’t predict.
Tessa has never been to the cellar before. By the end of this, she will have seen two people die in just as many days. But she looks so calm next to me, almost cold, her head held high and eyes guarded like I’ve never seen them.
The phantom sensation of her lips ghosting across my knuckles returns to me.
Behind us, another uncertain variable. Ava walks like an automaton, responding to nothing and no one. She follows my orders when I tell her to come with us, but she doesn’t speak.
We enter the cold cellar. The light doesn’t reach the back of the room, where the wine rack hides the dungeon behind a makeshift wall. I push it open to reveal the series of divided iron-wrought cells.
Three of the six are filled.
Donny lies unconscious—maybe dead. That’s a coin-flip and I’m not in the mood to check which side it’s landed on.
Of the two who survived their suicide mission, Dario is the better off. We peeled a vest off him that took the brunt of the shots I put in him, but his face is a Picasso painting. He’s had at least one seizure—maybe a skull fracture—but he’s a persistent bastard.
Vinny’s killer is a mystery. The one who fired the first shot. But he’s not outsourced. I can tell just by looking at him, the boy is related to Contessa somehow. The dogs got to him before any of us, left him mangled and missing fingers, and infection is already setting in. His head lolls toward us as we enter.
I sprawl my hand on her back, but Tessa takes in the sight of her dying family without so much as flinching.
I move from her to Ava. I’ve seen dead eyes like that before—eyes that don’t have anything behind them. She doesn’t look anything like herself.
Leo opens the gate and drags the blood-stained man out against the wall. He tries to stand and fight, but his mangled leg collapses under him. Leo and Marcel get him hog-tied against the wall.
I put my hand on the tiny girl’s shoulder.
“This is the man who killed Vinny,” I say.
She lifts her head marginally.
I glance into Tessa’s face, but she gives me nothing. Her thoughts are buried behind her eyes, her expression cut from cold marble as her kin is manhandled in front of her.
