I froze as I looked down the hall to the double doors. The windows were open for the fresh air to pass through the stuffy house, so his words sounded like they’d come from a megaphone.
“Call Wolfe,” Leo said.
I fished in my pocket, grabbed my phone, and made the call. But it didn’t ring.
It went straight to voice mail.
Leo heard it too because his eyes widened. “He must not have reception where he is.”
“I—I hope that’s all it is.” Or Icarus had seen him coming and bombed his car.
“He wouldn’t need you if he already had Wolfe,” he said. “Don’t worry about him. Let’s worry about you right now.”
Icarus released a loud whistle, calling me like a dog. “Don’t come out, and I’ll execute each of your men one by one. We’ll start with the old man, Elio.”
I was paralyzed with fear, unsure what to do.
“Elio wouldn’t want you to surrender.”
“But I don’t want everyone I care about to die.”
Leo shook his head. “Don’t do it.”
“If Wolfe is alive like you think he is, he’ll come for me.”
Icarus shouted again. “Five.”
“Shit, he’s starting a countdown.” I headed toward the door.
Leo moved with me. “Frankie, no.”
“I don’t have a choice. The two of us can’t take out him and all his men. Wolfe hasn’t said much about him?—”
“Four.”
“—other than he’s fucking crazy. He’s taken out the other gangs, and he’s a real threat to Cosa Nostra. I don’t think you and I stand a chance right now.”
“Then I’m coming with you,” Leo said. “If he takes you, he takes me too.”
I knew this wasn’t a performative bluff because we were in the thick of it.
“Three.”
Now was the time when lesser men ran off. It was the moment when bravery was snuffed out in the wind.
I opened the door and stepped out, emerging at the top of the stairs and seeing Icarus standing over Elio with his gun pointed at his head. Elio was on his knees in the dirt, looking at me with a hard face, like he was too stubborn to show fear.
I walked to the top of the stairs and looked at my opponent.
Leo came to my side with the rifle gripped in his hands.
Icarus stared at me.
I stared back.
Then a slow smile crept across his lips. He was a humungous man, bigger than Wolfe, but he was just mass, whereas Wolfe was ripped. Every part of Wolfe’s body was muscle with little to no fat.
He wasn’t bad-looking either, which was a surprise. I expected evil to look evil, but he looked like he could live a normal life, picking up women everywhere he went. He could get a decent job with no effort because he was pleasing to the eye.
