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A few empty parked cars. An old man on the ground with his back against an old, rundown building a dozen yards away.
“The truck will be here any minute,” I heard Domínguez say.
I turned back in time to see Deo nod, but Vito’s posture had changed. He still stood just as straight and alert as he did any time he was on a job for the Luciano family. But now, he was waiting for the other shoe to drop, poised to respond.
Brute and Deo exchanged a glance; I couldn’t see what passed between them.
“There’s one more person who I’m sure would like to say goodbye,signorina,” Deo said, motioning Leeri toward the car.
They left Domínguez standing there next to his limo as Brute threw an arm around his sister and led her toward the car. Toward me.
It struck me as odd when Deo and Vito followed on Brute’s heels.
And then it didn’t.
Brute and Leeri were three steps from the car when I figured out what was going on.
I grabbed the gun from my ankle holster and shot back to the other side of the SUV.
The car door opened.
Brute shoved hard.
And Leeri’s body flew into the space on the back seat I’d just vacated, quickly followed by Deo and Brute.
Vito got behind the wheel, revved the engine, and peeled out of the lot so fast, I think he might have broken the sound barrier.
Leeri was screaming, limbs flailing.
Bullets pinged off the SUV’s exterior.
Well, wasn’t this an exciting turn of events.
“Let me go,” Leeri screeched as she swung a fist, trying to make contact with my ribs.
In her defense, I was the nearest target from her position, half on the floor, half on the middle of the back seat.
Still, I flung myself backward, pressing my back against the car door.
She screeched and wound up for a second time. “What the hell do you—"
“Be quiet, Leeri,” Brute barked. His deep voice thundered through the closed interior space.
She didn’t just shut up; she stopped moving. She stared up at her brother with wide eyes, her chest heaving.
“Kidnapping for the goddamned mafia, Brute?” she hissed. “Dad would be proud.”
Brute growled—I swear, it sounded just like an angry wolf. Or maybe a bear?
“Sit up, Leeri, and keep your hands to yourself,” he told her in that cool, easygoing voice that did nothing to bely the power beneath it.
She stared at him for one more moment, then climbed up off the floor and sat down next to him, keeping her body as far away from me as possible. Which, in my opinion, wasn’t fair. It’s not like I’d been the orchestrator here.
“He’s going to kill all of you for this,” she hissed.
“That might prove rather difficult for him to do from prison,” Deo mused.
Hm, so that’s why it felt like there’d been eyes on me. They must have been law enforcement. Not local, though. Domínguez had the localpolicíain his pocket. Federal, maybe. Or international.
