Page 132 of Disarming Caine

“But I did, Sammy. Nothing’s going to change that.” His body sagged as he looked up at me. “I thought I was in too deep an hour ago but look at me now. I’ve got nothing left.”

“Jimmy, you’re a hero,” whispered Samantha. “You saved my life. You caught the Scotts after the FBI couldn’t for months.”

His brows knit together in confusion, and he took a half-step toward us. “You don’t get it. I tried leaving these people before this fire, but they threatened my family!” He flung his arms wide, and I tensed each time the gun swerved in our direction. “I got deeper and deeper, hoping to save my family, and Kim left me anyway!”

I’d seen this desperation too many times when I worked for my uncle Giovanni. Every decision drove people further and further away from who they genuinely were. One terrible choice after another, leading them down the path to hell. The path I’d almost taken.

Time to use that experience. “You didn’t answer Samantha’s questions. Do you know the men behind Parker?”

Jimmy shook his head. “Just the middlemen.”

“Samantha didn’t know this, but you’ve forced my hand. My uncle Giovanni owns the pawnshop.”

An almost imperceptible hiss of air from behind me, and Samantha’s fingers faltered.

“Of course!” Jimmy’s mouth fell open. “I overhead Special Agent Skinner talking to Nathan Miller about his involvement in some—aw, geez—so your family’s behind the smuggling ring they’re investigating?”

This explained so much to me. Why Special Agent Skinner told Samantha about my Zio Giovanni being a complication in her background check. Why Miller claimed to know my family.

All the better for this lie.

I nodded to Jimmy, deepening my voice to add weight to my words. “Now that you’re in my world, you know you need to put that gun down, sì?”

For the first time since he’d switched positions, he looked over my shoulder at Samantha.

“Because I guarantee, if you hurt me or mypregnantwife—” I gave her the clue she needed to understand what I was doing, growling out my words through clenched teeth. “—you and you family, no matter where they are, will pay. You will be last, and you will watch your children beg for their lives.”

He tensed, eyes flicking back and forth. “But that only happens if they know I did it, right?”

“Trust me, the only way your family continues to breathe for another week is if you let us go.”

Samantha let out a long exhale. “You don’t want to cross the Ferraro family, Jimmy.”

His head tilted and face scrunched up. “You can’t be involved with this. I thought you were Miss Straight and Narrow?”

“He’s the father of my child.” She took a slow step to the left and the fingers pressed harder into my back. “I’d do anything for him.”

Every cell in my body demanded I move with her, block her off. But her words were an explicit recognition of my ruse and a signal she had a plan.

If only I knew what the plan was and could trust whatever they drugged her with was out of her system.

Sirens sounded in the distance, approaching quickly.

The five fingers switched to four.

Was I supposed to move out of the way? Duck? Run? Hit him?

Jimmy’s gaze flew to the boarded-up front window.

Three fingers.

“What’s this?” The sound grew louder, and Jimmy leaned toward the window, as though it were open to the outside. “Because I know I sure as hell didn’t call in any backup.”

Two fingers.

“Absolutely anything,” she said.

One.