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“Where’s his daddy?” I asked, the idea of spending more time goofing off with Howard’s boy not exactly thrilling me.
“We called him on the way,” Rocco replied. “He should be here any minute. “He should be here any minute. And he knows calling the cops will get his boy whacked.”
At that point, the noise of tires squealing to a halt made me grab the doorknob. I yanked the door open, and spotted a black Mercedes right behind the car Rocco had arrived in. A taller man exited that Benz and headed for the entrance. He shoved the key in the lock, Leonardo and Slater whooshing past me.
“Where are you? Where is my son?!” He cried out, those two gripping his wrists and yanking him back. I walked out of that room, aiming at his head.
“Hey, Howard,” I smirked, approaching him at a quick pace. “Your boy’s with us. You know, the two crews you tried to blow up in a bar in Brooklyn.”
“What?!” Howard yelled, Leonardo and Slater leading him to the room we had been in.
“Don’t play dumb, old man,” Rocco grumbled, pinning Graham against the wall with an elbow to his chest. “We know it was you who put out the fucking hit.”
“All right! All right!” Howard exclaimed, holding his arms over his head. “Yeah, I did. Your crew had fucked up, DeLuca. You’d let these nobodies steal from me. You let them off with a warning the first time they tried ripping me off. I couldn’t have that.”
I stayed out of the room and threw a glance over my shoulder, Cesare’s snarls rising above Graham’s heavy breathing.
“You’regoddamnright we stole from you, youfucking prick.”
Kanin should have been terrified.
All alone, surrounded by six, armed men, and with his son being held at gunpoint should have scared the crap out of him.
Nope.
My eyes staying on the road outside, I heard him chuckle. I shifted my attention back to him in surprise. He had his hands in his pockets, his gaze on Cesare as my cousin stood inches from his spot, trying to intimidate him with his sheer size.
“You’ll fucking regret that, Borelli,” Kanin said, smiling up at him. “Thatandtonight.”
Right at the end of his sentence, a sense of worry tied my stomach into knots. I felt the back of my neck tightening, my ears picking up noises of screeching tires. A glance outside revealed why Kanin seemed so relaxed. Two cars pulled up behind his Benz. Eight men burst out, rifles in their grasp as they sprinted towards the open entrance.
“Nobody fucking move!” Cesare’s voice roared like thunder as he led Howard Kanin out of the room. Kanin’s neck locked in the crook of my cousin’s elbow, he clutched Cesare’s forearm, the two of them coming to a stop a few inches behind me. “Drop the shit, bitches! Now!” He ordered, shoving the barrel of his rifle into Kanin’s temple.
“Don’t listen to him!” He spoke through gritted teeth, his lower jaw hardly moving in Cesare’s powerful grip. “Shoot him! Kill them all!”
His men looked at each other, their weapons pointing at us.
“Put your guns down!” Graham cried out, Rocco holding his hands together as they left the room.
I shook my head in disappointment, witnessing those men’s next reaction.
There was nothing different in it.
They still stared at each other in silence, wondering whose orders to follow.
“Cesare,” I whispered, taking a short sideways step towards him. “We can’t let them leave this place alive.”
“I know,” he said with a quick nod. “Stand back.”
I obeyed his order, my gaze dropping to Kanin’s shaking head. Cesare turned his head right to face Rocco, the barrel of his gun stretching Graham’s light-blue t-shirt. Rocco turning his own head left, my cousin thrust his arm up to the back of Graham’s head.
A simple nod later, Cesare pulled back the hammer of his gun, as Julian, Slater and Leonardo rushed out of the room, their rifles aiming at Kanin’s men.
Two, consecutive gunshots crackled through the lobby. Father and son fell to the deck on their knees, our enemies opening fire. I dropped to my knees to give them a smaller target, eight muzzle flashes erupting from our rivals’ rifles. Cesare tossed his head back, his left leg jerking to the side. A bullet ripped through his pants, leaving a bloody mark on his skin as I aimed at the man closest to me. Three of my shots hit his chest, causing him to reel back.
Leonardo stormed past me, holding up two guns and letting out a tremendous cry. In the meantime, Rocco was lying down on his chest, using his left hand to prop Kanin’s body up. Holding him by the shoulder, he used him as a shield as he went on to empty his gun.
Lunging towards his nearest foe, Leonardo forced me to get closer. His rival’s rifle falling from his grasp, it tumbled to the floor with my friend landing on top of him. His left arm just over the guy’s head, he let go of his gun. He bent his arm at the elbow and shoved his forearm into the guy’s neck, raising his other gun over his foe’s mouth. The light coming through the glass illuminating the side of his face, Leonardo pulled the trigger. A rifle clicking empty, I lifted my gaze, only to spot someone hurtling towards me. I didn’t have time to react. A huge sense of pressure on my chest knocked me off balance. I landed flat and hard on my back, deep growls rushing through my ears. We rolled over across the floor, more bullet crackles bouncing off the walls of that lobby. I threw my hand down to my waist, my fingertips brushing into the wooden handle of my knife. I yanked it out, my fingers locking around that handle. In a snap, with him lying on his side for a brief moment, I shoved the blade into his gut. I heard him gag, the two of us close to the glass façade.
