Page 79 of Wrong Pawn. Right Capo.

But he could be leverage. Fuck knows what the mayor would do to Elena if he figures out his son is dead.

“Your father is a fucking coward. And you’re nothing but an unthinking bastard.” My voice is deliberately taunting. He hisses, his body tensing as anger flashes through his eyes. I smirk, knowing no one likes to be called a bastard… especially bastards.

“It’s over. For you, and for the mayor,” I growl, finally lowering my weapon.

He grins like a madman. “You can’t win this fight, Bellandini. The world already knows you as a murderer. How do you intend to change that narrative?”

“I’m going to take you to the feds, and you’re going to talk.”

He finally releases his hand on his shoulder. “I’d rather die his son than live as your witness,” he spits.

“No, you’d rather die his dirty little bastard than—”

Almost immediately, he digs out a gun from his pocket and fires at me. The bullet whooshes past my ear as I duck behind the heavy wooden counter, using it for cover. Fucker! He’d taken advantage of the fact that I wouldn’t kill him.

With a guttural curse, Caughn shoots up, firing like a maniac. I duck low, my jaw clenching as bullets rain against the wood. I quickly maneuver to a corner where I have a clear view of him. My bullet doesn’t hit the target, but it’s enough to make him take cover.

I stop and wait for a reaction until I hear the click of his empty barrel. Good.

Instantly, I roll out, advancing toward his position just as he crawls out, lifting his hands in surrender.

“It doesn’t have to be this way,” he grunts, tilting his head as if trying to reason with me.

“Get on your fucking knees.”

He doesn’t answer, and I don’t hesitate to fire but the shot comes out empty. Shit.

Within the split second that I look down, Caughn has already drawn a hunting knife from his boot and lunged toward me. Fuck.

The blade catches light from the fire as he aims for my heart, but I quickly swerve and land a punch directly to his wounded shoulder. A scream tears from his throat and he starts toward me even more viciously.

“Die, you bastard!” he snarls, smoothly sidestepping the empty gun I hurl at him. The knife cuts through the air with force just as I evade the attack to my ribs. Before he can make another move, I catch his wrist and twist until the blade clatters to the ground and his bone snaps.

He screams obnoxiously, and I move to pin his entire arm when my boot slips on the slick puddle of his blood on the floor. What the fuck!

Caughn immediately snatches the knife with his good hand and resumes his frenzied strikes. I roll once, evading his strike. Twice. But by the third time, I’m backed against the wall and the next thing I feel is a sharp, stabbing pain in my stomach.

“Fuck!” My hand instantly flies to the spot, clenching around the knife as he releases an unhinged laugh.

“I want to kill you, I swear,” he growls. “But you’re still useful to my father.”

I try to move, but he pins me, twisting the blade inside me before yanking it out. Blood seeps through my fingers and spills from my lips, intense pain seizing my stomach.

“S-Shit!” I choke out, and it only makes him smile.

“Let’s hope you make it before my father’s men arrive.”

With that, he backs away from me, scampering around as if in search of something. My vision turns hazy, and by the time he reappears before me, he’s dragging me into a small, steel room, which he locks on his way out.

Blood keeps pumping from the stab wound in my stomach, and I feel my core growing cold… failing. My limbs grow heavy, just like my eyes… until everything goes black.

Chapter twenty-eight

Elena

Day Two of the Deadline—Evening

For the thousandth time today, I say the Lord’s Prayer. It’s the second day of the deadline, and there’s been no call from Adriano. I know that since my escape attempt, the mayor has moved me from the blue room to the formal dining room where we met the night I arrived here.