Page 123 of Bellini Born

“See you in Hell.” Without another second of hesitation, I sliced across Popov’s throat. Blood gushed from the open wound as the man beneath me sputtered and gurgled, and I watched as the life drained from his ice-blue eyes.

I stood, wiping the crimson-stained blade against my black pants before sheathing it.

“Come on, let’s move,” Enzo urged from behind me.

Turning around, I found him peeking into the hallway, his gun at the ready. He fired off two shots before sparing a glance in my direction.

“Fall back,” I barked the order to the team. “Then torch the fucking place.”

There was a chorus of “yes, sir” in my ear.

“We’ve got more coming up the stairs,” Enzo relayed, firing off another round before releasing the mag and reloading. “Fire escape is looking like our best option.”

I nodded my agreement, coming in close behind him as we stepped onto the open second-floor balcony area. He might be my second, but I would always have his back.

We picked off a few Russian bastards on our trek to the door designated as the emergency exit. From this vantage point, I could see the shootout occurring on the lower level, and it wasn’t pretty. I grimaced, counting at least three of our men lying lifeless amongst the carnage on the dancefloor.

Cold air hit me in the face when we finally made it outside. Our snipers were hard at work, picking off as many Russians attempting to enter the club as possible to give our men the chance to retreat. And in the distance, sirens sounded over the constant din of Chicago traffic.

Racing down the metal steps, we ran through a maze of alleyways, constantly checking over our shoulders to make sure we hadn’t been followed.

“Everyone out?” I asked, praying the answer would be yes because those sirens were almost on top of us now. Even if we had Commissioner Logan’s balls in a vise, I wanted to go home to my wife tonight instead of going through the whole song anddance, where he put on a show of questioning me for hours, only to get released in the end.

“We lost Tony, Benny, Frank, Mario, and Alberto.”

Fuck. Five men dead, and I was personally responsible. Each one’s life had been sacrificed in my quest for vengeance for my family, and now they would never return home to theirs.

Enzo saw the guilt written on my face and clapped a hand on my shoulder. “I’ll inform their families.”

I shook him off. “No, I need to do it myself. It’s the least I can do.”

He hung his head in understanding. “Of course.”

The smell of smoke permeated the air, and I turned to find a haze of orange lighting up the night sky. The flames encasing Ballistic were symbolic in a way, as its owner would be trapped in fiery torment for all of eternity.

Now that the head Russian—and his successor—had been terminated, I considered the score even. And I might have managed to kill two birds with one stone in taking out Popov, since we suspected he was behind Allegra’s death, even though we never found concrete proof.

With any luck, we would be able to put this whole nightmare behind us.

Chapter 28

Summer

“Whyaren’ttherepricetags on any of these things?” I grumbled, shifting through the rack of clothing inside a store that was so fancy it required an appointment to even clear the front door.

“Because,” Gabi drew the word out. “If you need to ask the price, you can’t afford it. And you, my friend”—she slung an arm around my shoulders—“can definitely afford to buy out this entire store.”

“You mean Matteo can,” I countered.

My best friend rolled her eyes before gripping my left hand and bringing it into view. “See these sparkly diamonds? They mean you’re entitled to every penny in that man’s overflowing bank account.”

“Mildly ironic considering this whole thing started because I refused to accept his money.”

She arched an eyebrow. “If you could go back and do it all over again, knowing what you do now, would you accept that two hundred grand for the gift it was?”

I sighed, thinking about all I would have missed out on if I had never barged into Matteo’s office that day. I would never have become his wife, the mother to his two girls. I might never have experienced the power of unconditional love.

“No. I wouldn’t change a thing.”