AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Punch in the code, Fal. Don’t make me say it a third time.” His hand goes to the side of his waist, his leather jacket pushed back to reveal he’s carrying a piece.
I swallow hard, dizziness rolling over me. With a small nod, I face the elevator and dial the code as Gio showed me. The doors jump apart and he jostles me inside, handling me like the police do him whenever he’s stopped and frisked on the street.
“No need to be so rough!”
The doors close and he smashes a finger on the top button. He won’t look at me.
“You asshole, I’m talking to you!” I scream.
I’m pissed off all over again. I can’t hold back as I charge toward him. My fists beat against his chest as I channel my inner animal and snap and growl. It’s pure hurt and resentment beneath the anger. This criminal fuckboy of an ex left me to fend for myself, never returning my calls, and forcing my hand—I never would’ve agreed to work the VIP room if he hadn’t left me to drown.
For him to come back out of nowhere, then talk down on me as he manhandles me is the straw that breaks the camel’s fucking back.
As I hit him again in the shoulder, I don’t care that I’m not hurting him, or causing him any real damage. I don’t even care what happens to me. A hot flash of anger blinds me, and my heart pounds in my ears. Everything else around me blurs into a nonfactor. I hit him again and then again, pushing him too.
He lets it go on for a second longer than I think he would. I’m sputtering out another erratic breath when he backhands me. The hit is so hard and so sudden, I fly to the other side of the elevator. I bounce off the wall and then slide to the ground in a heap. Shock paralyzes me, keeping me there as he stands over me.
This isn’t the first time Enzo’s hit me. But it doesn’t make the flight, fight, or freeze reaction any less instant. As I did the first time, I freeze. It was a situation like this where I found out he was thousands in debt to loan sharks. We had a blowout argument loud enough to wake our apartment complex. I refused to shut up, so he’d backhanded me and made me. I’d crumpled into the corner in a damn near catatonic state. Like mother, like daughter…
“Will you fucking calm down, you dumbass?” he barks. “I’mtryingto save you!”
I taste blood on the corner of my lip. I lick it off and glare up at him. Half of me wants to cry, the anguish and tears bubbling under the surface. The other half of me wants to stay strong, give him straight bitch face so he knows he hasn’t gotten to me.
“You’re always so stupid, Fal!” he rages when I say nothing. “You never listen to what I’ve gotta say! You ever think to ask what’s going on? You ever think maybe shit goes down for a reason? Use your brain—THINK!”
I flinch out of instinct when he raises his voice again. He notices and heaves out a loud sigh.
“I’m sorry for smacking you. You know I don’t like doing it. But you wouldn’t listen. I’m saving you.”
“By kidnapping me.”
“You don’t wanna be on the ground floor in the next five minutes. Trust me.”
“How are you even here? How’d you get out of jail?”
“It’s a complicated story. You know I was in deep on my debts. Turns out, the money I’d borrowed was Antonio Lovato’s. He needed some street guys, so he cut me a deal. I work off my debts to him, he pays my court fees and bribes a judge to get me and some other guys off. He’s building an army of us.”
“An army of what?”
“Guys on the street. To protect his territories. You didn’t get the message I left with Jerry? I’m not supposed to contact you directly.”
My mind jumps back to my last shift at the Dollhouse. Jerry had mentioned an important message for me. I shake my head, trying to make sense of everything that’s going on around me.
“If you’re working for Lovato, then why are you in Gio’s casino?”
Enzo sneers and then clenches a hand around my arm, forcing me onto my feet. We’ve reached the top floor of the casino. The elevator doors roll open and he drags me with him. We’re walking down the long hall—the same one I walked down only an hour ago when Gio and I were heading off for our quickie.
“There’s a war brewing, Fal. You shouldn’t have gotten caught up in this. You’ll end up a casualty,” he warns out of nowhere.
“Are you talking about between the Sorrentinos and Lovatos?”
My voice is cut off by a thousand other voices. Screams from the floors below tear into the night air, drowned out only by the louder, more abrasive crack of gunfire.Somebody’sshooting up the place.
