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Nestor shakes his head, "I didn't…" his eyes are wide in fear as he looks from Gigi to me. "I dropped their phones; there is no way he could have tracked?—"

He, too, can't finish what he was about to say. The henchman grabs him by the throat, and he gurgles while he's lifted off his feet. "You lying worm." The man throws Nestor like a sack of grain against the wall, where he slides down and starts screaming in pain, after a sickening crunch announces that he broke several bones.

Gunfire follows the sound of an explosion. "Do riti!" the man yells and moves toward the stairs. I have no idea what it means, other than that it's probably a curse of some kind.

He doesn't get far, the door above squeaks open. He stops at the bottom and glares up. A polished loafer steps into my line of sight. My heart picks up speed. Is it him? Déjà vu engulfs me, creating a small tornado in my stomach. Calves clad in expensive designer slacks follow. The Henchman storms up, ready to tackle whoever comes down the stairs. My heart has risen in my chest and is beating in my throat right now as hope and despair war inside me. The gunshot is loud and echoes through the windowless space. The Henchman yowls in pain. Blood spurts from his shattered kneecap, making him lose control and stagger back, falling down the few steps he managed to climb.

And thenhecomes into view. "Antonio!"

How different this is from last time. My heart returns to my chest, hammering even faster as he rushes forward, checkingleft and right, noticing Nestor whimpering on the ground. When he's sure there's nobody else in here, he puts his gun into his waistband and stalks toward me. "Scarlet. Are you hurt?"

I shake my head. Sounds I've never heard myself make before escape me. I want to grab hold of him and wrap my arms around him, but they're still bound up high in the air.

Vito follows on his heels, closing in on Gigi, but I'm too focused on Antonio to see or hear what's happening next to me. Another man follows them down. I've never met him before, but he, too, carries himself with the aura of a man who is in charge.

"Scarlet," Antonio stops in front of me, taking me in from head to toe as if to reassure himself I'm alive. “Are you hurt?"

The moment I shake my head, he crushes me against his chest, while I can't do anything but wrap my legs around him. His lips descend on mine. No kiss has ever felt more powerful than this one. With it, he tells me his story. The anguish he's been through, the worry, and the fury.

"I'm sorry," I manage when he lets me come up for air.

"You have nothing to be sorry for," he says, unsheathing a knife by his calf that's been hidden underneath his pants.

"Boss?" A man yells from upstairs. "They're all dead, but the cops are on the way."

"Grab these two assholes here. I want them alive. Then torch the place," Antonio orders. He picks me up and turns to Vito, who is already carrying Gigi. "Are you okay, sis?"

Gigi looks up. "I'm good," she says, before she buries her head into Vito’s chest again.

Several of Antonio's men come down, grabbing the Henchman. "Hold on," Vito steps over, "Pull that fucking mask off."

I lean forward to see the man's face. It's just like I imagined it to look: hard and scarred.

"The Hollow Man," Vito says, exhaling sharply. "Well fuck. We've got a real celebrity among us."

I look at Antonio, questioning, and he shakes his head. "You don't want to know."

"Actually, I do," I respond, amazed at the evenness of my voice.

"He's called the Hollow Man because the people he leaves alive are left hollow in the head," the stranger explains. "And the ones he kills, they only ever find their husks if anything at all."

A shudder moves through me. Antonio was right. I didn't want to know.

But then I realize something. "Let me down."

"Passerotta, you're hurt." Antonio protests.

"Not enough that I can’t walk out of here. I'm your wife. Your men risked their lives for me, and they deserve to see me walk." What I don't say is that friends of these men have died for me. The least I can do is show them that their efforts weren't in vain. That I haven't been broken.

"I love you, Mrs. DeLuna," he says as he sets me down.

God, I love hearing that name!

I'm alive. I'msothankful that Gigi and I are alive, and I want to scream it to the world.

The man who came with Antonio and Vito clears his throat, and Antonio introduces us quickly, "Scarlet, this is Enrico Sartori."

I nod at him, remembering having heard his name mentioned in connection with the Cosa Nostra before. It's ironic how suddenly the men my father told me to fear have become my saviors. I'm about to say something stupid, like, nice to meet you, but then a whimper draws my attention to Nestor. Three of Antonio's men are about to pick him up.Alright, little girl, time to say goodbye to good girl forever, I cheer myself on. I'm not ready to be a completebadgirl yet, but there is something I need to do. I pull the gun out of Antonio's waistband.