Page 35 of Bellini Bound

And that’s when everything went to shit.

There was a sharp bang a split second before fire seared through my bicep. A roar of agony tore up my throat as I clutched at the appendage, and it took a full minute for my pain-soaked brain to process what had just happened.

Son of a bitch. One of those assholes had shot me!

My reaction time might’ve been delayed, but my men didn’t appear to be struggling with the same issue. They scattered after the first gunshot rang out, which only caused a symphony of more to follow. Thankfully, none ofthem were dumb enough to return fire. We’d trained them not to, but you never knew who might succumb to their baser instinct of self-preservation when bullets began to fly.

Leon grabbed my uninjured arm, hauling me away when he saw that I was still too stunned to flee. And it was a good thing he did, because no sooner had I vacated that spot than a bullet lodged in the building behind where I’d stood. At the same height as my head.

There weren’t closer calls than that.

Gritting my teeth as each step sent bolts of pain shooting through my nervous system, I was dragging, slowing down our retreat.

The odds of outrunning the boys in blue on foot were slim to none. It was far more likely that the night would result in all of us pumped full of lead.

I’d always known this day would come. Mafia men didn’t often survive long enough to see old age. Well, unless they were slippery snakes like my father. It was always the ones who deserved to meet an early grave that seemed to cheat death, continuing to find new ways to make life Hell for the rest of us.

Thirty-six years was a good run. I’d done a lot of shit, seen a lot of things. I wouldn’t die with any regrets.

Okay, scratch that. Maybe I had one.

If I could go back and do it all over again, I would have been kinder to Allison. It wasn’t fair that I took out my frustration over a situation I couldn’t control on her. She was as much of a victim as I was. The right thing to do would have been to offer that we lean on each other as we learned to navigate our new reality, instead of pushing her away.

I could almost hear Matteo in my head, saying,I told you so.

That was the problem with hindsight: it was always perfectly clearafteryou’d already fucked everything up.

A part of me hoped that when I was gone, she would remember me as the flirty guy from the hospital waiting room the night we first met. That’s who I really was. But I knew it was foolish to even wish for that. The truth was that Allison would celebrate my death because that’s the only way she would be granted freedom. She could return to the life she had before I’d been forced into it, but I would be at peace, knowing she’d gone back to helping others, making a positive impact in the world.

All right, now I was ready to die.

Except that while I was lost in thought, my men had cut through the chain link fence of the industrial park, and two Bellini blacked-out SUVs were waiting on the other side.

“Hurry the fuck up!” Lou shouted through an open window.

Of course it was my injured ass that was pulling up the rear, hindering our escape.

Before I knew it, Mikey appeared to help Leon drag me along.

“Motherfucker!” I screamed at the top of my lungs when his fingers dug into where the bullet had pierced my flesh.

Mikey didn’t show an ounce of remorse. “Curse me out all you want, but you’ll thank me tomorrow when you’re not dead.”

I wasn’t so sure about that. Not when I could barely manage more than shallow, panting breaths, my entire body now feeling like one giant exposed nerve ending. At least in death, I wouldn’t feel any more pain.

The two men flanking me tossed me into the back of one of the SUVs and slammed the door shut. The muffled sound of tires squealing barely breached my muted hearing as I struggled to remain conscious.

Eventually, my eyelids grew too heavy to lift, but not before I noticed our surroundings.

We were driving through the suburbs, headed straight toward my mansion.

Toward Allison.

Chapter 11

Allie

Therewassomethingaboutthis big, empty mansion that made it impossible to fall asleep. The random creaks almost made it feel like the house was alive, or worse, that ghosts haunted the halls. If Enzo hadn’t promised my guards wouldn’t enter the building, I might’ve believed they were patrolling the residence.