Page 38 of Twisted Trust (Mafia Lords of Sin #10)

MAEVE

“ L evi!”

He covers my body with his, circling his arms around my body and turning me away from the worst of the gunfire.

Scott screams somewhere to my left and I jerk my head as every instinct in me surges to protect my son.

Levi stops me by tightening his grip around me and keeping me doubled over as the explosion of gunfire dies down.

Splintered wood cracks and groans. Injured people slump to the floor with soft thumps and weak gasps as their life leaves them. Then a voice.

A voice I haven’t heard in months but it’s painfully familiar, cutting through me like a hot knife.

Cameron.

“Years,” Cameron—Antony—says. “Years I have sat on the perfect plan and then within a few weeks, you toppled it all down without a fucking word, Levi. How is it that everywhere I turn, there’s still a Gallo to fuck things up for me?”

“Stay down,” Levi hisses in my ear, then he slowly straightens up and positions himself between Antony and me. “Antony.”

“I was tempted to wait until you and the bitch said your vows. Thought there’d be something poetic in killing you after you finally made a commitment to someone, but I just couldn’t wait any longer.

” Levi lifts his handgun to his head and lightly taps it against his temple.

“Knowing you, you’d have some form somewhere that would sign the entire family over to that fucking brat, and I know those elites would drink it up.

The child heir needing protection would be like an injection of determination into every general that’s sat back all these years. ”

As he mentions Scott, I finally stop cowering and glance past Levi but the spot where Scott was standing a few hours ago is empty.

He’s nowhere to be seen. My racing heart beats faster and faster as I scan between the seats for where he could be cowering, but I can’t see him anywhere.

Multiple men have followed Antony into the room and they stick to the outskirts, all wielding assault rifles.

Those from above seem to have vacated their posts, so the danger from above has ceased.

Then I look at Antony.

Seeing him like this, in a dark suit with a red shirt and the XXX pin attached to the lapel of his jacket, is surreal. I’m used to the quiet, comfy neighbor, a friend I trusted my son with. And this entire time he was just keeping an eye on me so he could maintain an insurance policy over Levi.

“Cameron.”

Antony finally stops walking and scoffs. “Maeve. Don’t bullshit me. You know the truth now. I know you do.”

Levi’s hand seeks out my own and he grips tightly. “Don’t speak to her.”

“Why not?” Antony scoffs. “Out of the two of us, which one of us has spent the most time with her? Dried her tears? Helped her raise her kid? Paid her rent? Cooked her dinner?” He brandishes his gun up high. “Me. That’s who.”

“But you weren’t my friend,” I snap, unable to stop myself. “You’re just a liar. Nothing about you is real!”

Antony’s face twists and he pouts, then he laughs.

“You know, you’re right about that. I could lie and say some days were real but if I’m honest, it was getting boring in the end.

I wasn’t ready to give things up yet until Levi waltzed into town.

” Antony laughs. “I actually wanted you to find solace in my arms after my guy mugged you. What are the chances you ran into him?” He points at Levi, who grits his teeth so hard there’s an audible crack.

“That was you?” Levi growls.

“Of course it fucking was. My guy had to race across town because she decided to take her brat to get food. She should have been mugged closer to home so I could find her, but I guess fate had other plans. Like it always does when a Gallo is involved.”

That mugging all those weeks ago was orchestrated by Antony? My gut writhes and twists as all my nerves collide with my fear. I force myself to swallow repeatedly to fight the urge to throw up.

“Is that why you called me?” I ask, my voice trembling.

“Obviously.” Antony snorts. “And every day since has been a fucking battle. And then the two of you getting married?” He points between us with his gun as he walks forward.

“Well, that just fucked up everything up. They say when hunting a Gallo, it’s only a matter of time before the noose is around your neck, and let me tell you, I felt it.

Because you couldn’t roll over and accept defeat like a good dog, could you, Levi? ”

“All of this, all of these games just for a seat at the top of the table, and for what? You really think any family or general with their head screwed on will follow you after this?” Levi spits out his words, subtly angling his body with each step Antony takes.

“They will,” Antony replies. “My men will be the only witnesses because you, in your wisdom, gathered every Gallo under one roof. Even distant cousins are here. I couldn’t have done it better even if I tried.”

“You think it’s going to be that easy?” Levi barely gets the words out before Antony lashes out like the crack of a whip and punches Levi so hard that he falls back hard onto the floor. As he does so, he pushes me away a few feet and I stumble, trying not to get tangled in my dress.

“Of course it will be that easy!” Antony yells.

“Because I win, Levi. You see this?” He points to his men who have fully filled the perimeter of the room.

“You see this?” He waves his gun. “I win! There’s no coming back for a cockroach like you, Levi.

Not this time. So I’m going to kill you and then everyone in this room, and then I’m finally going to taste the bitch that’s caused so much trouble and then?—”

Antony eats his words as Levi surges up and punches Antony right underneath his chin.

Antony’s head snaps back alarmingly hard, then Levi charges into him and they collapse back into the first aisle of seats.

Marcella, fighting tears behind a tissue while cowering into an injured guard, screams in alarm.

Levi and Antony lock into a deadly brawl with each fighting for their lives.

Antony fights with a speed and finesse I’d never imagined from everything I know about him—all those lies, really.

Levi fights harder. His punches are more solid, his steps are faster, and once he gets Antony down, he doesn’t get back up.

Tearing my gaze away, I scan the scattered seats and the altar for Scott but there’s no sign of him. How could he have vanished so quickly? What if something’s happened? My baby boy lost in this hotel because he got scared?

It’s not until my third sweep of the church that I realize Chip isn’t anywhere to be seen either. Hope ignites in my heart. Did he take Scott and run? I pray that’s what happened.

“Fuck you!” Levi snarls. “I’m going to kill you!”

Desperately looking for a weapon, every move I make causes the nearest guard to twitch his rifle, but that doesn’t stop me from moving closer and closer to the chairs.

If I can get a leg off one of the broken chairs or something, then I can try to help Levi.

Just as I get close enough, Levi gains the upper hand in the brawl and he isn’t letting up.

“Get this—ahh! Get this fucker off me!” Antony chokes out around a mouthful of blood.

Using his cry as a distraction, I surge forward and both my hands close around a splintered chunk of wood. As I lift it, someone’s hand closes around my wrist and I glance up to lock eyes with Donald, the driver. Relief surges through me and when he tries to take the wood from me, I let him.

He’s stronger than me and if either of us has a better chance at helping Levi, it’s Donald.

But he doesn’t turn and get involved in the fight like I hope.

Instead, he raises his hand and before I can work out what he’s doing, he backhands me across the mouth and sends me stumbling backward with a cry.

My pain alerts Levi and as I hit the floor, I see him looking over his shoulder at me with his eyes wide.

“Maeve!”

Chaos descends. Donald tosses the wood to Antony who uses it to crack Levi over the head. Several guards surge forward from the walls toward the brawl in the middle while Donald hooks a hand around my arm and drags me up.

“Wait… Donald, wait, what are you doing? You can’t be—no, there’s no way. There’s no way!”

“Shit the fuck up,” Donald hisses. Such sharpness from a usually mild-mannered man shocks me, and I put up no resistance as he drags me to the back of the room.

It’s not until he tries to drag me through the back door that it all falls painfully into place.

“You!” I sneer. “All this time it was you! You told Antony about me and Levi! You told him where I was, where we would meet! How could you? How could you do that to him? You’re one of the few he trusted, you bastard! ”

Twisting and turning, I try to wrestle my arm out of his grip, but Donald is relentless. His fingers dig painfully into the soft inner flesh of my upper arm and he slaps me hard, twice in quick succession, to try and calm me.

“You know nothing,” Donald growls as he drags me outside. “You don’t know the shit I have to put up with!”

“What shit?” I gasp through bloodied teeth. “He looked out for you! He got you the best treatment money could buy after the airport explosion—wait, you didn’t need it, did you? You weren’t unconscious when they were trying to kill him, were you? You were fucking in on it!”

Outside, the air turns to ice as heavy gray clouds settle overhead. I continue to fight until my feet slip free of my heels and I can bite, kick, and scratch with all my strength. Donald gets an arm around my waist so I pour all my energy into thrashing.

Until an explosion of gunfire erupts within the hotel and I fall silent, frozen in Donald’s arms.

No…

It can’t be…

Not like this. Not Levi. Not now. Not after everything.

“Levi!” I scream at the top of my lungs.

“Scott! What have you done, you bastard!” Turning in Donald’s grip, I claw at his eyes like an animal until he releases me with a cry of pain, but I stumble right into the arms of another man who doesn’t think twice about scooping me right up onto his shoulder.

“Put me down! I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you! ”

My screams last until the burly man reaches the vehicle and, tired of my thrashing and screaming, hauls me by the hair around to the hood of the car.

Half a second later, he slams my head down so hard on the metal that I see stars and lose all control of my limbs as the stun flips something in my mind.

My last hazy thought as I’m dragged into the vehicle like a sack of potatoes is of Scott.