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And I don’t know how, but she did so, tensing.
“Zakary,” Sal growled, fidgeting and glaring over at him.
“—I mean, this is bullshit. I got you out, I helped you—and now you’re reneging? You said I could have her.” Zakary sounded like a petulant child. “I’m going. You should kill him and let me beconsigliero.”
“Consigliere,” my father corrected.
“Oh, what the fuck ever,” Zakary snapped. “I’m going.”
“I didn’t give you—”
“What?” Zakary stepped around Sara and got in my father’s face. “Permission? You’d be rotting in jail still, old man, if not for—”
A gunshot went off.
“Don’t interrupt me,” Sal said as Zakary gasped and staggered backward, falling onto the grass, and sliding a bit down the incline.
“What, no?” Zakary panted and held up a bloodied hand. “Help,help—”
Another gunshot and Sara let out a muffled scream as Zakary went still. I flicked my eyes between Johnny and Zakary. Two bodies down, and I saw the muscle reaching but I already had my gun.
The muscle didn’t even make a sound as he went down, too, a bullet between the eyes.
Sara was trembling and staring as my father and I held our guns out, mine aiming for the heart, his for the head.
“You can have the family,” I said. “But you cannot have her.”
“I told you not to get pussy-whipped,” my father snarled.
“Yeah, and I tried to take your advice, believe it or not, Pop,” I said. “But Sara is special. And she is smart. She can get a quarter million in a bank account for you by the end of the day. Offshore, safe, all yours.”
Sal’s eyes narrowed. “Why?”
“You took her as collateral...” I looked at Sara and let myself smile at her, gaze at her and drink her in as I’d never let myself. Her eyes went wide and shocked and hopeful and terrified, tears flowing faster. “…But you were wrong. I’ll stay as collateral, and Sara will make you a very rich man.”
Sara
No.I stared at Danny, looking me over, memorizing me, his eyes soft and present, his words easy and unafraid. Meanwhile, my entire body seemed to be engulfed in flame and heat, my heart roaring, and terror driving through me.
He’d walked into this negation to get me out.
“She’s good, father. Better than me.”
“You mean that computer shit?” Sal spat, and I cringed.
I’d hated Zakary with all my heart, but Sal was abhorrent to my entire being and soul. I couldn’t believe that Daniel, my Danny, had come from him.
“Yes,” Danny said. “She’ll get you everything you’ll need to basically buy me out as boss.” He blew out a sigh and lowered his gun, taking out the bullet cartridge, and then dropping both on the ground. “I’ll be yourconsigliere, collateral, whatever. Just let her go.”
“Che cazzo,” Sal muttered and slowly lowered his gun. “Smart play.” He glanced over at me, and I glared at him, shaking my head, and he grinned. I realized that I’d been fighting and straining to get free. Danny had known that.
Danny had known exactly how this would play out. I’d bet a million dollars he’d had that guy Joey, who I knew as a big teddy bear who adored Daniel and Ty, call up Sal earlier. And he’d poisoned that Slinky guy, who I recognized as the dude who’d been lurking around my street once. He had known how to goad Zakary to piss off his father, and had taken out the muscle.
He’d calculated all the odds and clearly knew that only one of us was walking out of here.
“I get everything, and you get nothing,” Sal said and clicked the safety on his gun, but still held it as he walked over to me and pulled out a knife. “That works.”
When I looked over at Danny as his father cut me free, hacking down the cords around the back, I could see that Danny was thinking,it’s actually the opposite.
