Page 267 of Anti-Heroes in Love Duet

“I’m sorry,” she said meekly. “Dante got out of jail yesterday, so I spent the day cleaning his apartment. It’s my job.”

“I don’t give a fuck if it’s your job. Your job is to keep me fed with intel about the Salvatore’s, or I’ll take our daughter away somewhere you’ll never find her.” There was a pause and then, “Where is she?”

“At a friend’s house.”

The response was too quick. I could feel the suspicion in the air between them.

There was a clack of shoes against the wood floors, and then his voice was closer.

“Aurora?” he yelled.

In my arms, his daughter jerked awake.

I clamped my hand gently over her mouth so she wouldn’t scream, but she only looked up at me, her eyes wide in the thin stream of light cutting in from the living room. She trembled slightly, so I held her even tighter.

“She isn’t here, Agostino,” Bambi insisted. “And you shouldn’t be either. If you want me to be your precious rat, you can’t keep showing up where they could find you.”

“Dante come to your house much?” he asked in a low, dangerous hiss.

“N-no, but he has before to pick up Rora or drop her off.”

“The filth near my daughter is disgusting. He’s not even Italian, you know that? The Britishfiglio di puttana. The sooner I end him, the better. That’s why I came. I want you to tell me what he’s planning now that he’s on the outside.”

“I don’t know.” Her words were immediately followed by a shriek as he hurt her somehow. “Please, Agostino, I really don’t know anything. I’m his housekeeper and his cook. He doesn’t speak freely around me very much.”

There was a pause filled with the sounds of her struggling. “You’re right. The only useful thing you’ve done is given us Jacopo, who has value to Salvatore. You’re nothing. Not to him and not to me.”

“Please,” Bambi whispered. “Please just leave us alone.”

“You’re pathetic, Georgina, you really are. A pathetic liability. If I don’t need you, what are you good for, huh?”

“I’m the mother of your child,” she tried.

In my arms, Aurora whimpered, ducking her head under my armpit to block out the noise. It was impossible to stem my own panic, both remembered and real. Hiding in the kitchen felt too much like a nightmarish déjà vu waiting for the Camorra to beat up my father.

“You’ve been a waste of my time since the moment I met you.” He hummed as if in consideration, and then there was abangas he slammed something against the wall.

From the feminine gasp, it was obviously Bambi.

“I don’t need you anymore,” he decided in a cold, detached way as if assessing a stock risk. “And I don’t need you running your mouth to your precious Camorra men. You saw what happened when you got too close to Marco, didn’t you?” he teased cruelly. “Stubbornbastardo, I thought for sure he would die.”

Bambi started to cry, soft sobs that rolled through the room like a fog of despair.

Adrenaline pumped through my veins. I couldn’t just let him hurt her or kill her or whatever he was gearing up to do. But I was also stuck in hiding with Aurora, and I didn’t want to put her in danger.

The choice was taken from me when I heard the cock of a gun.

Gently, I shifted Rora off my lap, encouraging her to curl up in the depths of the cabinet under the mop handle. She shook her head frantically, clutching at my hand as I tried to peel her away from me.

“No, stop,” Bambi screamed, the cries followed by thumping as if she was kicking at him. “Please, Auggie, think about your—”

Three things happened at once.

One.

I burst from the door of the cabinet, slamming it behind me to shield Aurora and startle Agostino.

Two.