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She shot up and began dressing quickly, and I quickly called Caterina, who said she’d meet us there from an important assignment. I gathered Alessio and Luca from the kitchen, then headed to the van. To my surprise, despite stopping for no more than thirty seconds, Mia beat all of us to it, waiting there for me to unlock it.
“The fuck is she doing here?” Alessio asked.
“She wanted to come,” I told him with a shrug. “We can let her see what it’s really like being with us.”
“And if she dies?” Luca asked, sitting in the passenger’s seat and kicking Alessio to the back with a smug grin.
I shrugged as Mia got in the car. “Then she dies.” I knew she’d hear what I said, but I didn’t particularly care. I had much more pressing things to be concerned with at the moment.
We took off and I skidded through the streets, mentally cataloging the weapons I had on my body. A pocketknife, two guns, and a small throwing star that I kept on me at all times. I thought back to Harper giving me the sleek piece of metal for Christmas one year, and I tightened my jaw. I doubted I’d ever use such an obscure weapon, but it was a reminder of what I needed to do. What I needed to decide.
“If you get in our way or turn against one of us in this fight, I swear to God I’ll blow your brains out right here,” I told Mia, meeting her eyes through the rear-view mirror. “Go for kill shots only. You don’t spare a single fucking person.”
“I don’t have a gun.”
I shrugged. “You should’ve thought of that before offering to come with us,topo.”
She clamped her mouth shut, and a part of me yearned to see her get herself into a kind of trouble she couldn’t handle out here. A small part of me wondered if letting herself get hurt or killed would be a wise move, but I didn’t think I cared. What was she other than a princess to a throne built on blood and betrayal? Plus, I’d seen that fury as it ran through her, and I had a feeling it would be useful in more ways than I’d anticipated. Her father hadn’t bothered coming for her before, and now he didn’t even seem to care about her safety, just her usefulness. If this continued, I didn’t think it would be difficult to sway Mia to our side. If she hated her father as much as we did…that would be useful.
We skidded to a stop at the next street over, and I opened my door, only sparing Mia a sidelong glance. I could hear an escalated argument, and the moment we all closed our doors and began jogging toward the fight, I heard the sound I’d been dreading. A gunshot. “Don’t get yourselves killed,” I demanded to the team as we rounded the corner and took in the scene.
There were fewer people than I’d expected, and that allowed me to take a deep, calming breath. Only about ten people shouted at my three guys, and the shot that had rung out looked to be from one of the front men, holding a pistol in the air. Nobody seemed injured yet, but it was only moments until that happened. I slinked around the side of the building, keeping as tight to the shadows as possible. The men confronting my men were distracted enough that I made it to the group before a single one noticed us approaching, and by that time it was too late.
The man holding the gun in the air aimed it at me, but I quickly pressed his hands away and pushed the barrel into his own chest. His eyes flashed with fear as I squeezed his wrist just enough that he pulled the trigger twice, shooting himself in the heart. I didn’t spare him a second glance as he released the gun and I immediately brought it up and shot a man approaching Luca as he fought off two others. I released the clip and cleared all the bullets before tossing the pieces away from one another and turning toward whoever remained.
I’d taken down two, Luca had one, and two more were in the fray with Alessio and the people I’d come to help. I expected more men to be on me, but I glanced at Mia, swerving between three separate guys fast enough that none of them could track her. This went beyond self-defense. I was mesmerized by each of her motions as she kicked up and caught one man in the side of the face. He fell to the ground, groaning in disorientation. She had no problem deflecting the other men’s attacks.
One of them reached for his waist, and before I could say a word, he had a gun leveled at her head; but I couldn’t even open my mouth to shout to her in the time it took her to notice and react. Mia grabbed the gun and dipped out of the way as it went off. She kicked the man between the legs and grabbed the gun from his hand, whipping the butt of it toward his face and catching him in the jaw. He fell alongside the other man, completely unconscious. I watched as she squared off with the third man, and I wondered why she’d kept this from me, this skill she’d clearly honed over years. He swung once and clipped her shoulder as she dodged, but without restraint she jumped closer to him and clocked him in the jaw.
“Get on your fucking knees.” The voice came alongside the sharp feeling of metal to the base of my skull, and I realized my error immediately. I’d failed to recount the people remaining. I had been too distracted by Mia and her skill to consider that two people were unaccounted for.
I didn’t do as I was told, though. I remained standing. “I don’t get on my knees for other men,” I replied shortly.
He chuckled deeply. “You do today.”
Another walked around my side and looked me up and down. “You don’t look like much of a boss if you ask me,” he said. “But I know who you are. I’ve seen you around these parts. My boss wanted me to relay a message to you and only you. He doesn’t give a shit that you have her. He would’ve given Mia to you. Marry her and do what was initially planned, or give her back. Those are your two options.”
“She’s mine now, and he won’t get her back.”
He chuffed. “Sure she is. Now get on your knees and—”
His voice cut off as a gunshot rang and the metal on the back of my head fell away quickly. I looked over my shoulder briefly, finding Caterina with a smirk on her lips and a gun in her hand, still pointing at the place where the man who had been behind me had been standing. It was a testament to her skill that she managed to sneak up to right behind me, despite an adversary on both sides.
I shot my gaze back to the last man standing before me and I lunged forward, gathering the weapon he hadn’t bothered to reach for in his shock. Before he could say a single word, I aimed it at one of his knees and pulled the trigger. Then at the other. His agonized scream bounced from the buildings around us, but it didn’t do anything but send a thrill of pleasure through me. I glanced at Caterina. “This one likes to talk. Take him back to the surface room and let him do some more of that. Find out who’s to blame for this.” She didn’t say a word as she began dragging him from the scene, seemingly unfazed by the situation at hand.
I glanced around and found that the fighting had subsided. All the men on the ground were either unconscious or dead. My eyes immediately found Mia, standing among a few of the least bloody bodies. I moved toward her on instinct. “You didn’t tell me you could do that,” I commented.
She shrugged and narrowed her eyes. “You never asked.”Checkmate,I read in her expression. I had a feeling there were a great many things I hadn’t asked about that I needed to know, and her smug look told me that she knew it. I had a lot to learn about Mia Genovese, and it surprised me that I felt eager to do so.
7
MIA GENOVESE
It hadn’t been much of a decision after learning how little my father cared about my kidnapping. I’d assumed there had been negotiations on my behalf. I’d thought he cared enough about my safety to seek out Vincent, but it sounded like he hadn’t cared at all to know I was safe—just to know I wasuseful.I knew I was here to be useful and kill Vincent, but I thought my safety meant more to him than this. It disgusted me, and I didn’t regret for an instant fighting his men for relaying such an unconcerned message.
“You had to have seen their fucking faces when they realized we’d snuck up on them,” Alessio laughed, tipping his head back. “I swear to God, it never gets old.” I’d grown used to having men laugh about killing each other, and it had become almost a common occurrence in my father’s territory. But Vincent and Alessio didn’t seem to give a shit about whom they killed. They didn’t make that part humorous, no matter how much they laughed about the men’s reactions to them showing up. Even Luca didn’t even say a word about the fight, though he didn’t say much of anything. I was beginning to see him as the usual strong and silent type.
They weren’t innately cruel, which seemed unusual after the people I’d been around my entire life. Had I been blind to the ways of my father and his men during my entire life? Part of me couldn’t believe that I’d spent 24 years in his home without seeing his actions as anything more than necessary to keep his power, but... these people seemed just as powerful without ever laughing about the deaths of their enemies.
