Page 80 of Jackpot Joker

Gio stands with him. “What is it?”

“Tank,” Luca says, and I don’t miss the hint of worry in his voice. “His coms are down.”

Panic flares inside me as I realize the man I sent to protect Jasmine is the same man Luca is referencing. It’s my turn to pop out of my seat. “Do you know where he was?”

Luca nods, pulling something up on his phone and rushing for the door, Gio and I following.

“We have to get to him,” Luca says.

We have to get to her, I think to myself.

We pull into the parking lot of a strip mall about fifteen minutes from the casino and see one of our vehicles in a spot. Parking beside it, we haul ourselves out in record speed. There’s nobody around it, and there doesn’t appear to have been foul play. I wrench open the backseat and find it empty except for a few shopping bags from Bella Noir.

Heat should be flooding my system, knowing what lies inside those bags and who was planning on wearing them, but instead, my stomach twists as I wonder where Jasmine could be.

My eyes scan the store names when Gio curses.

“Fucking Matarazzos,” he mutters, stomping off in the direction of a mattress store I hadn’t noticed.

The hairs on the back of my neck raise as we stealthily creep through the door, Luca leading the charge. We do our best to remain quiet, listening for any sounds over the humming of the fluorescent lights and the air conditioning.

My nose scrunches as the hospital smell hits my nostrils, and dust motes fly up into it. Several of the mattresses are covered in plastic wrap with a layer of dust on them, making the place appear abandoned. I know that isn’t the case, though. The Matarazzo men are here—and they have Jasmine.

Gio and I follow Luca as he slowly walks toward the back of the building. When we round the counter, there’s a cutout in the wall leading to a back room. That’s when I freeze.

Three brothers in tracksuits are standing in the middle of the room with guns drawn.

Lying on the ground is Tank, blood darkening the already dark fabric stretched across his abdomen.

A chair is tipped over beside him, where a woman is tied to it, but has gotten close enough to press her hand on the wound in Tank’s stomach. I look at the woman I love and take a deep breath before firing my gun and hope like hell I make the shot.

Chapter 40

Dario

There’s a slight recoil as the bullet fires out of my gun, my eyes following as it sinks into Mark Matarazzo, ripping through his fucking green tracksuit. He drops his gun before gripping his shoulder, then falls to his knees, and a smile of satisfaction spreads across my face.

“You motherfucker,” he spits out, and a slow laugh rolls out of me.

“I’m the motherfucker? You have my woman tied to a chair and shot one of my men, and you dare to call me names?” I aim the gun at his other shoulder and cringe when the shot misses and grazes his ear instead.

“Fuck! Stop shooting me!” Mark cries out. I look over and see Luca and Gio have already put bullets through the foreheads of Matt and Mike.

“How are you two so fucking good at that?” I whine, and Gio pinches the bridge of his nose.

“Do you need any help?” he asks.

I shake my head. “I’ve got him. Get her untied and check on Tank.”

My brothers dash to the people behind me, leaving me to square off with the oldest, and now the only, of the Matarazzo brothers. “Why did you do it?” I ask. “Why did you take my girl?”

He laughs, though it’s strained. “Your girl? You’ll toss her aside in a week once you’ve had your fill. It’s what you do to all your women. Isn’t that right, baby?”

A redhead steps out from behind a mattress, looking vaguely familiar. A second one steps out behind her, and this is one I’ve definitely seen before.

“Pamela,” I whisper.

“It’s Angela!” she screams at me.