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A second metal chair gets slammed down next to mine, and a young guy gets shoved into it. I can tell he’s in a bad way. His white dress shirt is covered in blood, and he’s bent double at the waist, hissing in pain like a deflating balloon, with two bloody stumps where his fingers used to be.
There’s something familiar about his dark hair, and when he rolls his head back to look at me—or what’s left of me—the one eye that isn’t swollen shut is a wicked green.
Danny Razor.
“You Lastra’s son?” He pauses to gasp for breath, his skin a mess of blood and bruises. “How the fuck did you end up here?”
“History repeated itself.”
We share a look that sticks.
In a different life, this guy might have been an ally.
A beat later, Semenov is punching me so hard, I’m slithering down to the concrete floor again.
“Did you touch her?” He crouches over me, crushing my jaw between his fingers.
“I’m a gentleman, fuckface, we don’t kiss and tell.”With this, I spit at him, leaving a trail of bloody saliva on the front of his black shirt. The punch he gives me in return robs me of consciousness for a couple of seconds. When I come to, I’m back on the chair, and Guido’s halfway up the basement stairs, the wooden steps creaking under his weight.
“Guido, wait! Aiden’s innocent in all of this. Don’t let—”
“Knight’s safe.” He stops and turns, considering me dispassionately for a moment. “You were never the starring role in your own life, Frankie. It was always about him.”
“Aiden?” I splutter. “But he’s just a kid.”
“Who means something big to Zaccaria. Knight needed a brother figure to protect him while he was growing up, and Zaccaria chose you for the job. He’s still choosing you because it’s your fucking vocation now. That’s your punishment for going off script with O’Sullivan’s daughter. After tonight, you’re heading home, via a long stay at the hospital, and then you’re taking that plane to Italy with him, not Ada.”
“I’m not going anywhere without her.”
“She was never yours to begin with. She’s history. She’s gone.”
Never.
“You’ll be on that plane with Knight, Lastra,” he says confidently.
“What if Aiden refuses, too?”
Retracing his steps, he stops in front of my chair, his huge shadow looming over me. “Oh, he’ll go, Frankie. You’re going to make sure of it. From now on, when he shits, you shit. Someone aims a bullet at him, you take it with a smile. Anything bad happens to him, and Ada O’Sullivan’s quality of life drops a couple of points in the misery scale. You hear me? Her whole existence hinges on your new secret devotion to your adopted brother.”
My revenge is slipping further and further from my reach. All I can think about is my father’s final words to me.
“Be as liberal with your vengeance as you are with your love, figlio mio. Don’t waste it.”
It’s not just the dead I need to consider now. It’s the living, too.
“This is why you kept me alive this whole time? This is why you saved my life that night? For me to be ababysitter?”
Guido smirks.
“Tell me why Aiden means so much to Zaccaria.”
“All in good time.”
“TELL ME!” I yell, the effort from it rattling every broken bone in my body.
“He’s blood. Zaccaria blood. That’s all you need to do. As long as yourcapo dei capiis still breathing, there’s no way out of the deal, kid… And considering he never leaves his villa in Tuscany, that won’t be anytime soon. Keep your enemies close, butThe Familycloser.” He starts disappearing up the stairs again. “Give me a call when you’re done with him, O’Sullivan.” His voice floats down to us from the hallway. “And he better still be breathing.”
“He killed one of my best men. I’ll be leaving him on the brink of death!”
