Page 127 of Red Retaliation

I cock my pistol. “I’ll find her.”

“No, you won’t,” Del smirks. “You think you’ll get anywhere with Old Man Galvatore? He’s clueless about this, so you’ll get nothing from him. You’re barking up the wrong tree! Whereas, Matteo’s clever and the old boy thinks the sun shines out of his boy’s ass. Yet old Galvatore will join Bristoni Senior before long, leaving the younger Bristoni and your wife to populate mine and Matteo’s new joint organization.”

Lurching forward, I grab Del back around the throat, my eyes blazing with enough fire to burn the whole fucking world down.

Matteo Galvatore?

“So, if you kill me, you’ll never find her. Matteo is clever - a lot cleverer than you. And he’s long gone - far away from here. Withher.”

“Tell me where she is!” I squeeze harder on Del’s throat.

This is why Del didn’t want me following up on the Bristonis earlier or going straight to Galvatore? He’s been stalling me so that Matteo-fucking-Galvatore had time to get far enough away.Fuck!“And I suppose this is why Keith Spiro was put in Steve’s place, rather than Cal Bennett? Spiro is your gopher?”

The sneer on Del’s face tells me I’m right. Arianna’s words about the conversation in the corridor come back to haunt me. And all the time I’ve come to suspect my own brothers?

“Fuck this!” Liam lurches across the room. Sensing my brother’s movement, I glance in his direction long enough to give Del the opening he needs to reverse the stalemate, and we’re suddenly grappling on the floor. Putting his full weight onto my arm, he twists my gun from my hand. My brothers try to get a clear shot at Del with their weapons, but with us scuffling it’s impossible.

But that’s okay. I don’t want Del to die. Not yet. He’s right. I need to know where Arianna and Matteo Galvatore are. Onlythencan he die.

Both panting and gasping as we exert full force on each other, I concentrate on pushing the muzzle of my own gun away from my head where Del aims it.

I can’t die. Not until I know Arianna is safe.

Liam and Oscar shout and threaten, but their words jumble into one long noise which I can’t hear. All my racing mind sees is the woman I love - the woman I’m destined against all the odds to be with, getting violated at the whim of her own brother!

The thought that Matteo Galvatore has lined up Luca Bristoni to take over where Roberto left off gives my exhausted arms the power to keep going.

Ignoring the muzzle of the gun in my face, I press down with all my might against Del’s windpipe. “Talk, you cunt!”

He’s a tough one to break, I know that much, but surely somewhere inside his head, past his unexpected greed and betrayal, there must besometruth in the friendship we’ve shared? It’s the only hope I’ve got.

Or has all of it been lies?

“Please.” The word comes from my mouth and causes a flicker of something in Del’s eyes. He’ll tell me where Arianna is now, I can see it. We go back too far for anything else to happen.

Sighing, Del slowly angles the gun away from my face, and the relief that I’ve got through his madness overwhelms me.It will be okay.

One of my brothers shouting, “DON’T”, goes unnoticed as I relax my grip on Del’s throat, but when the tinge of connection in his eyes changes back to hatred, I realize I’ve misjudged.

As quickly as he could shoot me, Del instead shoves the barrel in his own mouth and pulls the trigger.

The resounding bang and flesh splattering over my face throws me sideways.

Ears ringing, I remain still, grief consuming me.

Not for being cheated out of ending this cunt’s life myself, but what’s knocked all life force from me is that Del’s split-second decision has removed the chance of being told where the woman I love has been taken to.

By the time I find Arianna, it will be too late.

CHAPTER

93

Red

TWENTY-FOUR HOURS have passed and I still don’t know what the fuck to do or where to start. I pace my casino, my sweat-stained clothes clinging to me. There’s no point in showering or giving a toss what I look like. I can’t think of anything aside from getting Arianna back.

The knowledge that my worst fears have already been realized and Matteo Galvatore has given his sister to another Bristoni orworserefuses to leave my head. That it probably has already happened is more likely.