Page 48 of The Mafia’s Fiancee

These men were goading me for the same reason. To look strong and make me feel intimidated. They wanted to challenge me. Somehow, they chose this moment to treat me as a dare to overcome. We weren’t in the fighting arena, but the same logic applied.

With five of them facing us, the odds weren’t in my favor. I was outnumbered, even with Jimmy at my side.

The only way out of this was to fight them. It would be giving them the satisfaction of getting a rise out of me, but that wouldn’t matter once I had them down on the ground.

“You hear me, fucker?” Another one stalked up quickly. “Show us what you got, man.”

He attacked, lunging out first. I deflected his punch just in time to sidestep another one’s kick.

Jimmy wasn’t spared. I heard him grunting from the effort to fight back. We maneuvered into a defensive posture, our backs to each other so we could keep them from getting behind us. Between the hard smacks of flesh upon flesh with hits, jabs, and kicks, I heard my uncle doing his best to fight back these cocky Giordino fighters.

Out here in the thick of a rundown and cartel-controlled area, we wouldn’t have to worry about innocent bystanders walking by and being too close to danger. We wouldn’t have to consider the cops witnessing this beat-down and interfering.

This was no man’s land, and Jimmy and I had to fight for the sake of getting away.

After weeks of inactivity, it almost felt cathartic to use my body in a way I’d trained it. To attack and defeat any adversary. I embraced the burn in my muscles as I dodged and hit faster. I welcomed the strenuous exercise of fighting. Sparing never pushed me to the thrilling level of cardio combined with violence like this, and I vented my anger and frustration with every hit and strike I unleashed on these men.

I was still standing, fighting the best I could, but soon enough, I was on my own.

Jimmy fell, hit hard and pushed too far. He lay on the sidewalk, groaning as he rolled to his side. Protecting his stomach, he winced and turned redder in the face from the Giordino guard’s well-placed kick at his gut.

I’d taken two men down. They remained on the cement, unconscious from hard hits to the head and neck. It was only a matter of time before they rested enough to get back up, but until then, I would do the best I could with this setup.

Two against one. But I had to protect my uncle now, too.

“I don’t have time for this,” I shouted, wiping spit and blood from my cut lip.

They laughed, glad when one of the two men I’d knocked out got to his feet again.

Fuck. Three against one. The man I’d dropped to the ground seethed, baring his teeth and heaving great, deep, and angry breaths as he glowered at me.

He fisted his hands, getting right back into the swing of things.

One by one, they tried to grab me. The tallest one almost succeeded in holding me tight so another could pummel me with hard, direct punches.

Jimmy lay gasping on the ground, too wounded to help.

Enough of this bullshit.

I waited until the man gripped me tight, locking my arms back and exposing my face and torso for hits. Once he had me back, and his fellow guard reared his arm back to slam his fist into my gut, I dropped and flipped the man at my back forward, over me. He flew straight into the other man’s fist at the last second, and they collided with such a force that it was just one man standing for a moment.

He gaped at me, surprised by my quick thinking.

I grinned, licking the blood away from my lip as I caught my breath. “Next,” I growled.

He hardened his expression and faced me, brave in thinking he’d succeed where the others hadn’t. Behind him, the other man who I’d knocked out first started to climb to his hands and knees.

It was a game of whack a mole, and I sighed heavily, hating that this was a distraction, a delay, that I didn’t need. The longer these idiots took to learn a lesson about what happened when they challenged someone like me, that was more time lost to finding my mother and ensuring she was safe.

The more time that was lost from me knowing Emma was safe and sound at that mansion, too.