Page 105 of Worth of Waste

Dino put the black suburban that he’d picked up off a guy who had wanted it to disappear, due to its involvement with a theft a few weeks earlier into drive. He’d learned his lesson the first time when after shooting up a Conti business, there had been a few people involved who were quite adamant that the car used in the drive-by shooting had been white in color.

He wasn’t about to make that mistake again.

Cherry-red, bumblebee-yellow, Dino repeated silently.

Those were the vehicles belonging to his brother and sister. Those were the vehicles that would be parked, along with several others, somewhere in the Trentini driveway when Dino blew past and shot the place up.

This time, unlike the last time, Dino had targets.

Several targets.

And this time, unlike the last time, Dino had seriously considered the people who might lose their life because of his choices. But he was already knee-deep into this plan, and he couldn’t back down when he was so close to the finish line that he could practically see it right in front of his face.

He’d done all of this, started a war within his own family and within an organization he had called home for years, because it had never been home to him, but rather, a prison that wouldn’t let him go. A gilded cage that had promised to take away his freedom, and did little to pay him back for the loyalty and devotion he had given to it over the many years of his life.

He supposed he should care more about what he had done.

He didn’t.

That was what the Outfit did to the people inside it.

It killed them slowly from the inside, and no one cared to notice.

No one cared to help.

Three homemade Molotov cocktails rested in his lap, something else to make a good show of what he was about to do. Dino’s window rolled down quickly as he approached the gated entrance to the Trentini mansion, and he could see the iron gate already opening to allow the guests to yet another Outfit dinner leave the home.

People were swarming the driveway.

Dino only focused on the things he needed to make sure didn’t get any bullets that might kill—cherry red, and bumblebee yellow.

It was a risk, one he probably shouldn’t be willing to take, but he was going to do it anyway. He didn’t bother to throw the vehicle in park as his gun was pointed out the window, but rather, stuck his foot down hard on the brake pedal to keep the Suburban from rolling ahead as he finished the final details to a plan he had never thought would work out like it had.

The trigger of the assault rifle pulled easily under the weight of his finger.

He watched bullets plow into pavement, into the stone pillars of the Trentini gate, and into the cars in the driveway. He took the shots he needed to, the ones he had planned for. Bullets flew into the back of his brother’s cherry-red Stingray, and then more burrowed into the back window of Lily’s bumblebee-yellow Maserati.

Damian would keep Lily safe, and Theo knew to keep down to the ground when bullets shredded the air.

Or at least, that’s what Dino was hoping for.

His aim narrowed on the large white doors of the mansion and the people fleeing on the steps. Screams sliced through the air, but he wasn’t focusing on those sounds. He couldn’t, not if he wanted to finish this once and for all.

He let more bullets fly, recognizing the shapes of people falling on the steps, and knowing who was probably standing there.

It was always the same people who stood on those steps at the end of an Outfit gathering to say goodbye.

The boss. His family. Ben. His wife.

They liked to be above everyone else, looking down.

Dino hadn’t thought this day would be any different.

“Ben made it through surgery,” Theo said on the other end of the call.

Dino tried to feign interest, and failed. “Huh.”

“They’re putting him in a coma to give him a chance to heal without stress, but he’s going to be paralyzed, and bedridden for a long time.”