“Wait.” It was out of my mouth without thought. “Why did you attack the hangar this morning?”
Vitale arched an eyebrow. Perhaps he wondered if he should explain to me how interrogation worked and who was responsible for asking the questions.
“Because the Hayward woman could tie Constantine to Juric,” Gio answered, swaying on his unsteady feet. “They all had to go.”
Vitale threw a displeased look at his son. The drug was starting to get to him.Good. He was weak, and the time to distract Vitale was now, while Gio was still conscious.
“Just like Renzo,” I said, “when he wanted half of the deal you’re working with Amin, right?”
Vitale hesitated, and his eyes narrowed toward his son. “What is he talking about?”
“Is... lies.” The empty wine glass slipped from Gio’s hand and thudded to the rug beneath his feet.
“Are you all right?” Carlo asked.
“Fine.” But the couch jostled when Gio collapsed on it to sit beside me, and the shifting made me bite back a groan. It was hitting him fast now. Did the men notice his eyes were hazy and unfocused? Because they didn’t notice the way Olivia subtly drifted closer, or how she snuck a glance at me.
Oh, she had some sort of plan, and I was grateful. At this point, we needed to try anything. I was desperate to avoid what was rapidly becoming unavoidable.
When Gio spoke, his words were too slurred to understand. He reached out for her, but she stepped back and he tumbled face-first off the couch.
“What’s happening to him?” she asked. She bent and made a production of trying to help him, but what she was really doing was helping herself to his knife.
“Get back,” Carlo ordered.
She had a hard time getting the blade to flip open, and worry twisted my stomach that she wasn’t going to make it intime. Carlo was almost on top of her when the blade sprang up from the handle. He wrapped a hand around her arm and yanked her away from the nearly unconscious Gio?—
Only for her to turn and sink the knife into his right bicep, all the way to the hilt. The black wand bounced to the rug, and she kicked it away while he screamed in pain.
We had to hurry. That scream was going to bring more men in here.
She’d stabbed him quickly, and when she’d pulled the knife back, blood shot out all over her hand. The screaming man was then put on the floor by her unwounded knee that went straight to his groin.
Vitale stumbled back, stunned at the turn of events. As I suspected, he didn’t draw a gun... probably because he didn’t have one.
“Stay back,” she yelled, swinging the bloody knife at him that she’d just proven she was more than willing to use.
“Cut me free,” I commanded, urgent. The taut cord vibrated as she sawed through it, fraying more with each pass. It broke loose, and she tried to slice through the plastic ties that held my hands together next?—
Shit!
Carlo was up on his feet.
I grabbed her arm and twisted, throwing her away from the attack, and the pain in my back was so intense it felt like it was ripping apart and my vision went black.
“Look out!” she shouted.
I put Carlo down, kneeling on the man’s windpipe until there was a horrible gurgling sound. I glared at the man pinned beneath me, then her and the knife still clutched in her hand as she pointed it at Vitale.
“Help us get out of here,” I said in English to Carlo, “and I can get you immunity.”
“What?”It came from her teeming with betrayal. It wasn’t like this offer sat well with me either. I was sure the imageof her bruised legs would never fade from my memory, but this was big-picture. Revenge wouldn’t matter if we were both dead.
The doors to the office burst open and slammed into the walls on either side as two of Vitale’s men came in brandishing guns. One of them snatched Olivia up and threw her hard against the desk, a 9mm pressing her head down until her cheek was flush against the desktop.
She closed her eyes, like this was the end.
If that man pulled the trigger, I was sure we would both die from that bullet.
