I stepped forward and grabbed Leo by the arm before I tugged him back behind me.
Luigi turned his attention to me, looking at me head on for the first time.
“I don’t appreciate the way you’ve spoken to my boss.”
Luigi shifted his gaze to Don Mancini. “I’ll shoot your dog?—”
I slammed my fist hard on the table and made it shake. “I’m talking to you now.”
The guy pointed his gun at Leo again.
“Wolfe,” Elio said. “Stand down.”
“Asshole, I’m the one talking.” I slammed my fist into my chest. “So point that thing at me.”
He shifted the gun to the center of my chest.
I turned back to Luigi, leaning over him. “This is how we’re going to play this. I’m giving you one chance to get on your knees in front of the don and beg for forgiveness like your life depends on it—because it fucking does. Refuse, and I’ll kill every single one of you and take everything that’s yours.”
Luigi stared up at me, and a defiant smile slowly moved over his lips.
“Wolfe.” Don Mancini raised his voice behind me.
Luigi rose to his feet so we could be eye level, even though he was almost a foot shorter than me because his spine had started to compress in the aging process. “I would love to see you pull that off.”
“Would you like me to show you?” I cocked my head to the side, that deranged smile coming on to my lips because the glee was killing me. The adrenaline pounded in my heart. The sweet taste of revenge had already soaked into my tongue.
There was a slight hesitation in his stare, like he feared that he’d missed something.
Oh, he’d missed a lot of things.
“How’s your son doing?”
The hesitation vanished when he felt the threat of my question.
“Just had a baby boy, didn’t he?” I asked. “Settled down outside of Palermo? Think I saw him and his wife pushing a stroller by the beach the other day…”
I pressed Luigi’s buttons just like I wanted because he said, “Shoot him.”
Within a split second, the henchman pulled the trigger. But the barrel clicked because it was empty.
Completely empty of bullets.
He squeezed the trigger a couple more times, like the gun had somehow jammed.
I continued to grin at Luigi, the mirth and satisfaction from this victory so fucking sweet.
Another soldier pulled out his gun and fired.
My eyes didn’t stray from Luigi’s, and I listened to the barrel click.
I wished I could see Don Mancini’s reaction behind me.
I stepped back from Luigi and opened my arms before I beckoned all of his men to rain down their fire. “Come on, bring it.” They all started to shoot their rifles and their handguns, but not a single bullet was fired. I laughed, loudly and maniacally, because it was fucking hilarious.
Luigi finally pulled out his pistol from the back of his trousers and aimed it between my eyes before he squeezed the trigger. “What the fuck?” He slammed the gun down, where it bounced and then slid to the floor.
My laughs subsided to chuckles as I reached for my knife and pulled out the blade. “It’s been a while since I had a good laugh, so thank you for that.” I flicked the knife into the air, and it spun before I caught it by the hilt again. “Luigi, take a seat.”
