Page 4 of Dangerous King (Savage Kings of New York #2)

I'm out the door before I put the Hummer into park. My boots hit the ground, rounds still thudding against the Hummer as I storm forward. I'm the boss, I pay others to keep me alive and my back safe. Silvano curses behind me, but he's two steps behind, weapon up, covering all angles.

Guards start firing from the second-floor balconies; bullets scream past me, except the one that slams into my chest plate, knocking the wind from my lungs.

I grunt, absorb it, and keep climbing the ridiculous number of stairs.

The pain is just a footnote, while adrenaline and the urge to fulfill a mission drive me forward.

A Giordano soldier steps out from behind one of the columns, spraying with an M5.

Idiot. I put a bullet between his eyes, catch the weapon as he drops, and sweep the area with a glance.

I already know the M5 carries a 130-round drum, but I check how many bullets the idiot wasted.

It shows the magazine is still three-quarters full.

Set to full auto. What a sloppy move. I switch it to semi.

I want precision, not noise. I holster my sidearm and move.

We make it to the front of the mansion with bodies already on the floor behind us.

The double doors loom, hand-carved walnut with bronze inlay and wrought-iron imported from Florence's historic blacksmith guilds.

Silvano presses his back to the stone wall beside me, glances at the heavy lock system, then at me.

"You know," he says, voice casual, "we could knock."

I grunt. "You're the one with the key."

He smirks and pulls a breaching grenade from his vest. "This is why I don't get invited to house parties."

I nod once. "Warn me this time."

"Fine," he says, pulling the pin with a sharp snap. "Big boom in three—two?—"

He doesn't wait for one. The grenade arcs forward, hits the base of the doors, and detonates with a low, concussive whump that rattles the front columns—the lock shatters. Splinters fly.

"What happened to three ?" I bark, already moving.

"I lied," Silvano says, stepping over the threshold with a smoke canister in his left hand. He twists the cap and chucks it through the opening. Thick white plumes billow through the entryway, swallowing chandeliers and staircases in fog. Shouts erupt inside, confused and panicked.

Silvano breathes in deeply. "Ah. Smells like opportunity."

I shake my head. "You've been spending too much time with Dante."

"Someone has to keep the party interesting."

He slides in behind me, both of us with weapons drawn, shadows in smoke.

"Let's find Giovanni," I mutter.

Silvano racks a round with quiet satisfaction. "I'll race you."

"Thermals show movement, left hall," Silvano mutters into his comm.

"Clear it," I reply.

Giovanni's voice echoes faintly from somewhere deeper in the house.

"Giovanni!" I yell as I enter the large foyer, taking care of two guards as they round the corner. Silvano shoots two more on top of the mezzanine before he breaks off to the left, while I head right. "You can't hide, come out and act like a man!"

I know where the entrance to his basement is.

I despise the man just for bringing his business home like this.

I get that we can't always keep it at the office, but that torture chamber down there?

Even before he took Izzy, I wanted to kill the man.

No, he isn't a man. He's an insult to our species.

More of my soldiers have entered the house, clearing it room to room, floor to floor.

Giovanni is a careful man, but he didn't expect me to come after him with an army.

He didn't expect me to come after him at all.

It was a lucky break that Gigi, one of Izzy's friends, had been hiding in the bushes, waiting for my sister to leave our house, when the dark SUV pulled up.

A man got out, and before Izzy even had a chance to scream, he grabbed all one hundred and thirty pounds of her and dragged her into the vehicle.

Gigi was smart enough not to try to intervene.

She stayed hidden but took a picture of the license plate.

She then came straight into the house, confessed their asinine concert plan, and gave me the information I needed to find out who was behind her abduction.

Gigi clearly needs a safety lesson, too, but that's not my problem. Her brother, Antonio, my best friend, will deal with her.

"What the fuck is going on here?" Giovanni, followed by his Enforcer, Ringo, comes up the basement stairs.

Without a moment's hesitation, I grab him by the collar, drag him the last few steps up, and ram him into the wall. "Where is she?"

"Let go of him." Ringo pulls out his gun, but he is smacked to the ground immediately by Silvano. Several guns from my guards aim his way. Several of Giovanni's men aim theirs at me and my guards. It's a standoff. I nod at Silvano, and he speeds by me, down the stairs, calling Izzy's name.

"She better be alive," I tell Giovanni, not worried about the barrels aimed at me. If Giovanni's guys are stupid enough to pull the trigger, he will be dead. Me? Yeah, I guess it would be lights out for me, too, but who cares about the death of a monster like me?

"She's not here," Silvano calls as he climbs the stairs back up.

I knot Giovanni's shirt tighter underneath his chin, cutting off most of his blood.

"Hey fucker, didn't you hear me? Let him go," Ringo gets up from the ground, grabbing the gun that had flown from his hand.

Years of training allow me to let go of Giovanni, twist, and grab the pistol from Ringo's grip, before I whip him across the face with it.

Startled, he stares at me as if he can't believe I just did that.

I fire a round into Giovanni's knee. "I'm not asking again."

Giovanni howls, and Ringo tries to climb to his feet, but Silvano has a tight grip on him. Their soldiers stand back, unsure how to handle the situation without killing their boss.

"You have no right, no right at all to come storming in here. I don't even know who the hell you're looking for." Giovanni pants. I have to give the bastard credit; he's a tough old bird.

"I will make sure Don Eduardo knows about this. He will strip you?—"

I kick him in the head to shut him up. Then I turn to Ringo, whose face is bloodless. "Well?"

"I don't know who you're looking for, I swear—" a shot to his elbow makes him scream. Silvano kneels next to him. "Where?"

Next, I shoot him in the foot, and the howling increases. Silvano's face turns concerned as he looks up at me. He doesn't have to say it; if Giovanni truly doesn't have Izzy, there will be hell to pay with Edoardo, no matter how incompetent the man is. He's still he big boss.

Right now, I'm more worried about Izzy than him, though. I know she is here, or was, the signal from her tracker didn't lie. Unless she's dead and they took her somewhere else . I don't like that thought.

"Boss, she's close," Piero, one of my better soldiers, holds up his phone, showing me moving blips on a map. The red one is me, yellow is Silvano, and green… Izzy.

I take the device from his hand, "Watch them," I point at Giovani and Ringo. Marching out through the open patio doors, I hear the aggravated barking of dogs.

"Get them, but don't kill them." I never hesitate to kill a person, but a dog? I shake my head. A man has to draw a line somewhere.

"Enrico," Silvano runs after me, gun out, exasperated that once again I'm out in the open unprotected. "The dogs."

Just then, a Doberman rounds the corner. Silvano lifts his gun, but I nudge it down. "Hey, who's a good girl?"

The Doberman doesn't slow down; she comes barreling straight for me, fangs out, drooling.

"Enrico!" Silvano's voice is filled with concern.

I hold out my hand in a stopping motion. "Stop! Halt! No!" I command, hoping one of the commands will do the job. Each dog owner trains their dogs differently.

"Sit!" I demand in my sternest voice.

The Doberman falters; she's still growling, but she slows down, eyeing me carefully. "Go home!"

She tilts her head, staring at me with those soulful dog eyes. "Go home!"

She whimpers. I repeat the command a third time, before she turns, slinking away.

"Enrico, what the fuck?" Silvano stares at me. "When did you become a dog whisperer?"

"I'm not, but it seems Giovanni and I use the same trainers. Remind me to change the commands for ours and to make sure they won't ever listen to a stranger."

More dogs are barking further down. Someone must have found collars and leashes somewhere, and I watch as three of my soldiers warily approach the four dogs. Each one appears prepared to be bitten, fully aware of my order not to hurt animals.

If I weren't so worried about Izzy, I would have enjoyed watching the men trying to calm the barking dogs. Manollo and Oscar have cornered one; Manollo is close enough to put a muzzle on it.

I let out a loud whistle and yell, "Go home!"

Instantly, the barking stops. One dog slinks off, and the other three stare at me. "Go home!"

That's all it takes, and all of them rush off to the other side of the property. Now, I have to see about that tree they had surrounded.