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Dino

Dino

I ’m looking up at the building, working it out. Two men on the door, low key. Inside, I’m looking at four floors, each with a corridor and stairwell. Cameras probably watching.

I’m glad I paid extra for the height ranging.

Most trackers can give you a location. It takes something special to give you the height off the ground. I buy special for occasions like this.

She’s in the penthouse at the back. I’ve already looked around there. Fire escape that’s locked.

I think to myself. What’s the simplest way of doing this and getting out without getting killed?

The solution comes to me in an instant. Same as Budapest. That was a building like this.

I’m twenty years older, though. Are my knees still good enough? Only one way to find out. I walk to the apartment block next to it and start hitting buzzers. Soon as someone answers, I start the spiel. “Electric. Had word there’s a short in the corridors. Think we’ve fixed it but how’re your lights.”

“Fine, fine. All good in here.”

“Great. Try the front door, would you, see if that’s working?”

And then I’m inside. I walk over to the stairs. I’m not taking the elevator just in case. I don’t know what might wait for me up there. It wouldn’t be beyond possibility that the Beluccis own the surrounding buildings despite what Corrado could find out.

It’s been an hour since she was taken. In that time I’ve changed out of my suit into overalls and had Monty bring me the van we use for things like this. Dark blue, Shockwave Electrics written down the side of it. I’ve a high-vis jacket over my overalls and a white helmet on my head.

No one notices me. No one even looks at me. I blend. It’s what I’m good at. I can blend anywhere. Helped me on many jobs back when I was a capo. Now I’m putting all my skills to the test to get Rose back alive.

I can’t go in all guns blazing. She’ll get killed before I reach the fourth floor. I tried calling Don Belucci, but he’s not answering his phone. Not surprising. Means he can deny knowing anything about what his son’s up to.

It was Monty that saw her taken. He saw her loaded into the van and glimpsed Ricardo’s face as they tore off down the street.

Why couldn’t she have stayed put? Why did she have to run?

I’m going to have to keep much closer tabs on her from now on. She doesn’t seem to realize just how dangerous things are now. She’s in big trouble and if I don’t get her back soon, I might not at all.

I know he’s deciding right now whether to marry her for himself or kill her off just to spite me. His father might want him to become Capo dei Capi, but that is not happening. I have claimed her. She is mine. I will kill anyone who takes her from me, including Ricardo.

I get to the top floor and scout for the access to the roof. It’s in the far corner. Elevator with a keypad. I ring Timmy. “Coleco 7 series,” I say.

“Serial?”

“2-X-4-B-K-R-Y.”

“Two seconds.” He types something at the other end. “Seven, three, two, one.”

I hit the buttons on the pad and the elevator doors open. “I owe you,” I say, hanging up.

Once the elevator opens out on the roof, I take a good look around for snipers. No sign of anyone. They probably think I’m still trying to work out where she’s gone.

I doubt they’ve found the tracker in her wedding dress. Even if they know what they’re looking for, it’s going to be impossible, woven into the fabric itself.

I planned for this. Not for Ricardo taking her, but for the possibility of her running. I wanted to track her and I have. To there.

I look over the gap to the next building. About eight feet. I look down at the alley far below. Don’t want to fall down there.

I take a run up and leap off the edge, flying through the air and then rolling as I land on the Belucci building. I’m on my feet a moment later and darting across to the skylight.

I peer over it and I don’t see her, but I see some of Ricardo’s goons sitting, playing cards around a table. They’ve several beers on the go.

Good. That will make their reactions slower.

I think about Corrado’s advice. Take some men with me. Even out the odds. I rejected that out of hand. The more men, the more chance of getting spotted. This way I can deal with them and get out of there fast before they strike back.

I dig out my cellphone and check the tracker. To my right. I move that way, hoping there might be a trapdoor or another skylight. Nothing. She’s directly below me right now and I can’t get to her.

Two options. Shoot through the skylight and hope I get them all before anyone gets to her. Or the door over in the corner.

I go for option one. I hunch over and run back to the skylight, getting low and crawling to the edge, peering down again and counting them. Three at the table. One over by the bar. Still no sign of Ricardo. He better not be in there with her because if he is, I will fling him off this fucking roof piece by piece.

I pull out my gun and take a slow breath. I know the motion I need to make. I predict which way they’ll move. Then I do it.

I hold my breath, and I don’t exhale until it’s over. First shot fires and shatters the glass. The guy throwing in his chips goes down and before the other two react, I’ve got off another shot. It takes out the one on the left.

By now the one at the bar is moving, but so am I. Rolling right, I land and shoot again, taking out the last one at the table.

Bar man is lifting his gun my way, shouting at the same time. We shoot in the same instant, but he’s panicking and drunk. His bullet shatters another pane of the skylight.

Mine hits him in the face. That’s all four down.

I don’t pause. I leap down through the skylight, aiming at the couch. It softens my fall and I’m up a second later, running toward the door in the corner of the room.

I swing it open and I’m in a corridor. At the end Ricardo is in the elevator and the doors are swinging shut. I get off three shots, but they hit the metal. He’s gone.

I have a choice. Go after him or get her. I don’t know how many more men are in the building, but I know time’s running out. There’s a room to my right, and that’s where the tracker was beeping.

I look in and there she is, trussed up like a Christmas turkey. Still got the wedding dress on, but it’s ripped and down to her waist. Bag over her head. Room stinks of piss and sweat.

I run over and grab her, wrenching the bag away. She looks at me and starts screaming. For a second I think she’s afraid of me, but her eyes are looking over my shoulder.

I spin and fire at the same time. One of the card players didn’t take death the way he was meant to, but he does this time. The bullet hits his face and obliterates it.

He falls back and my ears are ringing as I pick up Rose and carry her out of the room. I look up out the skylight. How the fuck am I meant to get back up there?

I’ve no choice but to go find the stairs. That means back out in the corridor just as the elevator is opening again. I drop Rose on the couch, insert a fresh clip, and then get to the doorway.

I go low, leaning out and firing from the ground as they fire back at head height. I get all four coming out of the elevator and they fall back inside; the door shutting once more.

“Come on,” I say, grabbing her again. “We’re getting the fuck out of here.”

I carry her over my shoulder into the corridor. Around the corner is the stairs to the roof. I run up them and kick the door open at the top. I can hear the elevator ping again. Is that the corpses or more coming my way?

Either way, I need to move fast. I get her over to the roof and look down at the gap for a second. I pull out my knife and slice through her bonds, setting her on her feet. “Can you jump?” I ask her as she tugs the gag from her mouth.

“In this dress?” she asks. “Are you insane?”

I dig the knife into the gap between her legs and slice downward, cutting the gown in two below her hips. “Take a run up,” I tell her.

“I can’t,” she says, shaking her head. “I’m afraid of heights.”

I can hear voices yelling back down the stairs. Time’s running out. “You can do it,” I tell her. “Go for it.”

“Oh fuck,” she says, walking back from me and huffing in and out. “I can’t do this.”

“Do it!” I yell. “Now!”

The voices are getting louder. I fire back at the stairwell and that startles her into moving. She sprints forward and jumps. I can tell at once she will not make it. She stumbles at the last second.

She screams, getting her hands onto the next building but only by the tips of her fingers. I fire once more and then run for it, leaping over and rolling as I land.

I turn at once and get her by the elbows, yanking her upward. “Come on,” I say, grunting as I lift her onto the roof. “We’re leaving.”

She gets to her feet, but she’s staggering. I take her hand and lead her fast over to the elevator. Shots fire after us as the doors shut, but then it’s over. We’re safe.

I sigh and lean back against the wall. “Did he hurt you?” I ask.

She bursts into tears, throwing herself into my arms. “ He was going to eat me,” she says through her sobs. “He said he was going to chop me up and eat me.”

“I’ll kill him,” I growl, putting my arms around her. She lapses into silence, her tears the only noise apart from my breathing. I look down at her, and my heart aches. I will never let her out of my sight again. She is mine now.

“Marry me and I will protect you from him,” I say as she continues to cry. I’m stroking her hair and I’m not even sure when I started doing that.

She’s there in a filthy wedding dress ripped to shreds, her tits out, her skin black from the dirt on the roof, and in that moment I realize something I never would have thought.

I’m falling for her.

“All right,” she breathes. “I’ll do it.” She looks up at me with glistening eyes, and I want to kiss her more than anything. “Just promise me one thing,” she says, managing a weak smile.

“Anything.”

“I get a new dress first.”

I can’t help but smile back at her. After all that’s happened to her today, she can still talk like that. It shows she’s got a spark to her that hasn’t been put out by Ricardo. That’s a good sign.

“Agreed,” I say, kissing her forehead. She puts herself into my arms again and starts crying for a second time. I hold on to her until the elevator doors open.

I wrap my jacket around her to protect her modesty and lead her out the back door to where I left the van. The Beluccis will swarm the front, but we’re already gone, driving back to my territory.

One thing is on my mind as I make my way through the traffic. No, two things .

One, I like the way she’s got her hand on my leg for comfort, like she doesn’t want to let go of me.

Two, I’m going to kill Ricardo Belucci.