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I punch my pillow, thinking. I need to gain some kind of status inhisworld. Independent of him.
As I go downstairs, I do my best to seem contrite. “Dad? Can I borrow your phone for a second? Mine’s not working and I just want to check something.”
Chapter Sixteen
Alessandro
I stare grimly at the road ahead as I drive the winding path to Gagliardi’s safe house. Dominic is sitting next to me, Sal and one of his men in the backseat. I could have brought more, but I didn’t want to risk word getting back to Gagliardi.
After the assassination attempt, I don’t know who I can trust.
“Remember, no shooting unless I give the word,” I order, pulling the car to a stop on the side of the road just around the corner from our destination, “or unless they shoot first.”
“Got it,” says Sal, tapping the gun in his belt. “Don’t shoot unless you say.”
We approach the house. There’s a locked gate, and I’m pretty sure whoever is guarding the front door will shoot us if we try to climb it.
I tap the gate with my foot, then turn to Dominic. “You want to do me a favor and open this thing with the car?”
He grins. “I would be happy to.”
***
Ava
My mother’s scream fills the living room as an SUV smashes straight through the gate protecting our driveway. Through the window, I watch the man standing guard at our door jump up, then immediately get shot down, blood spattering the side of the house.
Upstairs, my father roars. “What the fuck is going on?”
“He’s here,” my mom whimpers, cowering behind the couch. “Tony, he’s here!”
Armed men appear in our driveway, stepping past the smashed gate. In the lead is Alessandro. When my eyes land on the object in his hand, I’m hit by so much fear and regret I want to puke.
***
Alessandro
I flick the lighter, igniting the gasoline-soaked cloth I just shoved into the neck of my Molotov cocktail. Dominic nodsat me. “Get ‘em.”
Hatred coursing through my veins, I heave the burning bottle at the house. It shatters, the fuel catching flame and spreading brilliantly across the side of the building.
“Here you go,” says Sal, handing me another.
I throw the second Molotov. This one shatters against the window, not breaking through like I’d hoped. No matter. I’ll keep throwing until I get what I want.
By the third bottle, the house is in flames.
As Sal hands me bottle number four, the front door opens. Out comes Maria Gagliardi, followed by her husband, Ava, and two Gagliardi soldiers. I signal to Sal and Dominic, and they shoot the soldiers dead.
“Down,” I order. “On the ground. Dominic, search them.”
Dominic pats them all down, disarming the dead henchmen, then taking a pistol from Tony Gagliardi and a small revolver from Maria.
I pace in front of them as they lie on their stomachs. “It’s a good thing this game is over,” I hiss to Tony, stopping in front of him. “I was about to become a bad sport.”
“Fuck you,” the mob boss spits.
“No,” I chuckle, “that’s what your daughter is going to do. Ava, why don’t you stand up and come to me.”
