Page 39 of Twisted Trust (Mafia Lords of Sin #10)

LEVI

“ F uck!” The last body falls at my feet, splashing blood up my legs and soaking into my socks. Gun in hand, I step over the corpse and meet Naz who stands beside me, panting.

“We get them all?” he asks breathlessly.

“Think so. How many did you lose?” Antony choosing to rain gunfire down from above hadn’t been considered last night when Naz and I came up with this makeshift plan and I feared those who died would have tipped the scales in Antony’s favor.

Luckily, Naz’s men are a force to be reckoned with.

“Twenty odd,” Naz replies with a grimace. “Less than expected but more than I hoped.”

“It was good thinking, though, filling the church with your people. Thank you.”

Nazario claps my shoulder and nods. “Did it work?”

Pounding footsteps behind me make everyone tense, and we whip around to see Chip sprinting back into the church, breathless.

But Maeve isn’t with him.

“Where is she?” I ask, my voice rising. “Chip, where the fuck is she?”

“I’m sorry,” Chip gasps. “I wasn’t fast enough.”

Everything around me becomes suspended in time.

We filled this hotel to the brim with mine and Nazario’s men to keep Maeve safe.

Suspecting Antony would choose today to strike had us all on edge, but Chip was supposed to save Maeve and Scott.

The look of utter defeat on his face does nothing to calm the explosion of white-hot fury inside my chest. It burns hot and painful as we lock eyes.

“And Scott?” I grind out through clenched teeth.

“Safe,” Chip gasps. “With your mother.”

In the chaos of Naz’s men surging up to attack once Donald revealed himself as the traitor, my mother was swept quickly away from the danger. With her and my son safe, that leaves Maeve.

I turn very slowly toward Antony who kneels in a pool of blood, gasping through a torn lower lip and ruined nose. Several men stand around him with rifles trained on his head just daring him to move.

“Where did he take her?” I growl, stalking closer and closer to Antony. “Where?”

Antony smirks up at me with bloodied teeth.

I see red.

Grabbing him by the collar, I drag him up and throw him down onto one of the remaining chairs. It splinters under his weight and he hits the floor with a grunt, but I immediately drag him back up, punch him in the gut, and throw him back down on the ground.

“ WHERE ?”

A low, raspy laugh rises from Antony as he struggles to pick himself up.

“I lost her once because of you, you cunt,” I snarl, kicking him hard in the ribs. “I’ll burn this fucking world down before I lose her again!”

Each wheezing laugh from Antony enrages me further until I end up with my hands around his sweaty, narrow neck.

“Tell me!”

“No,” Antony gasps. “And if you don’t let me go, she’ll die .”

Naz suddenly grabs me by the shoulder and drags me off Antony, denying me the sweet temptation of snapping his scrawny neck. “Explain,” Naz demands.

Wheezing and coughing through mouthfuls of blood, Antony props himself up on one elbow.

“If I don’t make it to my meeting place with Donald within an allotted time, alone , he’s under orders to kill her and flee.

” Slowly, he climbs to his feet and glances at the crooked watch on his wrist. “And I’m already late. ”

No.

No .

I can’t just let him go.

After all this work to get him, there’s no way I’m letting him out of my sight. But what choice do I have? Keep him and Maeve dies. Let him go and maybe she’ll survive long enough for me to find her.

“So what’s it going to be?” Antony sneers after spitting a glob of blood on the ground. “Make your choice, Levi.”

“Does this make you feel powerful?” The words tear from me like a whistle of wind. “Does this make you feel big ?”

“Yes, actually.” Antony smirks. “It does.”

I have no choice. “Get. Out.” Several of the guards slowly lower their rifles. “Get the fuck out of my sight!”

Antony makes a show of mocking me with a bow and then casually sauntering down the blood-soaked aisle.

None of his men survived so he leaves alone, and as soon as the doors close in his wake, a roar of rage rises within me and I grab the nearest remaining chair.

Launching it toward the altar, it crashes and splinters, sending a flurry of colorful petals into the air.

They drift down and land gently on pools of blood.

“If he hurts her,” I snarl, “I’m going to skin him alive!”

“I know.” Naz walks forward with his phone in hand. “My men are on him. He won’t be able to take a piss without their recording it. We’ll find her, Levi. I promise.”

Facing down Naz while being surrounded in blood and bodies is eerily similar to how we faced each other five years ago before the last explosion ripped us apart. Only this time, we stand side by side as friends rather than rivals.

“I can’t lose her.” My voice cracks. “Not again.”

Naz nods and clasps my elbow. “We won’t let that happen.”

“I’m sorry,” Chip says earnestly. “I ran as fast as I could, but they already had her in the car. No license plates.”

I want to tell him it’s not his fault, that it’s likely mine for putting so much responsibility on him concerning Maeve, Scott, and my mother, but the words don’t come. Instead, one name slips from my lips like a curse.

“Donald.”

“Who is he?” Naz asks. “I never noticed him before.”

“Just a driver,” Chip explains. “He drives for everyone. Sometimes Levi, a lot for Elio. He was at the airport explosion but got knocked out. He was always kind, always quiet. I never…” Chip shakes his head. “He was never on my radar.”

“I’m going to kill him too,” I say tightly. “I’m going to kill them all.”

The wait is agonizing. Calling in teams to clean up the mess, calming my mother and Scott, and repeatedly asking Naz for updates makes time drag on and on until finally, the call comes through.

His men track Antony to a closed-down motel on the outskirts of the desert, and they visually confirm he has Maeve.

I’m out the door before Naz even finishes his conversation.

The drive there takes far too long. I can’t sit still and check my gun over multiple times until I’m intimately familiar with the chip near the hammer.

Chip tries to make small talk but every alarm in my mind is locked on Maeve and what Antony could be doing to her.

Every second away from her is a second that could be her last.

If he hurts her, I’ll never forgive myself.

Tires squeal and brakes complain as we screech into the parking lot and pour from the cars like flowing rocks.

“Number nine!” Naz yells at me as I sprint toward the row of buildings.

My eyes lock onto the door of number nine and as soon as I’m close to it, I leap up and slam my foot into the door near the lock.

Wood splinters as the door crashes open, revealing a gutted out motel room that’s little more than a shell with Maeve in her blood-stained, torn dress near one corner with Donald next to her and Antony a few feet away.

“Levi!”

Hearing her voice fills me with hope, but just as I raise my gun, Antony is a split second faster. His arm snaps up, he takes aim at Maeve, and a single gunshot rings out in the room. Donald flinches as Maeve jolts backward and crumples to the ground without a sound.

My heart stops dead in my chest.

Pain spreads through my body like a flash of lightning and a loud rushing sound fills my ears, like I can hear my blood racing through my body. Distant footsteps rush behind me in slow motion and Antony, grinning, turns his gun toward me.

I snap into action like the crack of a belt and tackle Antony so hard into the wall that the plaster dents and crumbles around his shoulders.

I punch him hard with a roar, then again and again.

I keep going, throwing all my strength and anger into each punch.

He tries to fight back but other than a weak blow to my ribs, I barely feel anything else.

I punch him until my shoulders ache, then my hands wrap around his scrawny neck and I squeeze hard until something cracks and shifts under my palms. His grip on my arm falters and then his hand flops to the side as his eyes roll back in his head and he takes his final breath.

Barely sparing him another glance, I scramble to my feet and trip over myself to get to Maeve. She’s lying on the floor, gasping, with one hand over her abdomen. Donald lies dead at Naz’s feet. I didn’t even hear them fighting.

“Maeve?”

“L–Levi!”

“Maeve! You’re okay, you’re okay, baby!”

I take her hand and slide my arm under her shoulders to prop her up while running my eyes over her. There’s a dark bruise under one eye and dried blood on her lip. Her dress is splattered with blood and dirt and the hollow of her neck deepens with each gasping breath.

“Y–You came!”

“Of course I came! You’re okay, baby. You’re okay.”

“He shot me!” She gasps again.

“I know, I know. Let me see. Let me…” Gently moving her hand away, relief floods through me as instead of the blood I fear to see, there’s nothing but split fabric and the black Kevlar underneath. “Oh, thank God.”

“I’m okay?” she gasps, still struggling to catch her breath.

“Yes,” I say, hastily cupping her cheek. “You’re okay. You’re so okay.”

“B–But he shot me. It hurts so bad!”

“Just bruising, look.” Taking her hand, I guide her fingers over the hole and she very slowly sits up with a wince.

“What?”

“I made sure your dress was reinforced with Kevlar, just in case.”

“Kevlar?” She stares down, gradually catching her breath, and then she looks up at me with tears in her big eyes. “Scott?—”

“Is safe,” I interrupt, cradling her close. “Oh, fuck. I was so scared I was going to lose you.”

“You reinforced my dress and didn’t tell me?”

“I just wanted you safe.”

“Did you know this was going to happen?” She seems torn between sinking into my arms and pushing me away, going back and forth as the truth sinks into her.

“No, but I was covering all possibilities. Safety first. That and I knew we had a traitor, but that doesn’t matter now because you’re safe!”

“Levi!” Maeve smacks me across the face, but it’s weak and as her tears fall, she grabs my collar and drags me in for a messy kiss. “You asshole! Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t trust anyone but you, but even someone you could confide in could have betrayed us.”

“I hate you,” Maeve sobs as I help her to her feet and she pushes me away, but only for half a second because she remains clinging to me and drags me back against her.

“I love you,” I say as emotion stings behind my eyes. “But it’s over. It’s finally over. You’re okay and I’m here. I’m here .”

Maeve sobs softly as she sags into my arms, clutching at me so tightly that her nails almost pierce through my shirt. “It’s really over?”

“Yes,” I promise as I tuck her head against me and lead her out of the room, angling so she doesn’t have to see Antony’s dead body. “It’s really over.”