Page 92 of Runaway Queen

Renato headed toward the man holding my flashing phone in his hand.

Time seemed to slow. I was holding my breath without realizing it. Antonio watched his son head toward the ringing phone. Renato reached the man and took the phone from him. He stared a down at it for a moment before raising his head and looking at his father.

“It’s not a call.” His voice was flat, impersonal.

I admired his poker face.

He dropped the flashing phone into a pocket. “It’s an alarm.”

A countdown started in my head.

Antonio frowned. “An alarm?”

I smacked my forehead and stepped back from Antonio. “Of course, silly me. I forgot. If I didn’t set an alarm, I’d forget my head. Did you know that trackers aren’t the only things you can put in stuffed toys?”

I was still backing away, and Renato was doing the same.

Antonio glared at me, and then my words dawned. His scowl transformed to horror as he looked down at the dinosaur toy still clutched in his hand. The very one I’d bought as a duplicate, had Artur work his magic on, and given to Renato on my way back from New York.

“Three, two, one… boom.” I grinned at him.

Before he could drop the rigged device, it went off. The bang wasn’t as loud as it could have been, but still, it scared the unsuspecting men in the room shitless. Smoke filled the air, obscuring the view. Antonio was howling in pain. With the amount of power that Artur was able to pack into his little devices, Antonio De Sanctis should have at least lost an arm, if not more.

Chaos rose around me as the first gunshots rang out. Bullets were being fired in the gallery. Kirill and his men had reached us.

The men below returned fire, ricocheting shots pinging wildly around in the smoky air. I rolled over, narrowly missing a bullet, which embedded in the floor beside me.

“Here,” Renato said, appearing at my shoulder as I stood. He pressed a gun into my hand.

“Leo?”

“Gone. I’ve held up my end of the deal,” Renato said.

I slapped him on the shoulder. “Yes, you have. Now it’s my turn.”

I’d gotten the explosive put inside the decoy toy after myvorinitiation. Artur had enjoyed the challenge. Meeting Renato on my way out of town had been a stroke of luck. He’d had the toy ready to go for a week. Antonio had moved faster than I’d expected, but luckily, we’d been ready.

I moved through the large room, squinting up at the gallery. Kirill, Max, and Ivan had put down the men on the balcony first. Now they were shooting down at the ones remaining on the lower level. Those who were below had found places to take cover by now and were more difficult to pick off. I avoided gunshots as I walked toward the place where Antonio had fallen. The floor was black and burned. I could make out his body lying in the center of the blast zone. His white shirt was so bloody, it looked completely red.

I was hit with the macabre sight of the remains of his arm, lying several feet away. I stepped over the limb and crouched beside him. He was barely breathing. I met his eyes.

“Well, Tony. What do you have to say about loyalty now?”

He tried to speak, but I couldn’t hear him over the shoot-out that seemed like it was never going to end.

“Speak up, old man. Or if you’re thinking about confessing your sins and asking for mercy, here, at the end, don’t waste your breath. They’ll be no mercy for you, here or in the afterlife.”

“You… you devil…” he managed to get out, past the red foaming from his lips.

I simply nodded. “You’re right, Tony, I’ve seen Hell, and there’s a nice, toasty place in it, for men like you. Before you die, know this. Your son hates you and conspired to kill you. Your daughter will forget you and never mention your name again. All the legacy you’ve built around honor and respect is a lie that only you ever believed. No one will remember you, no one will burn a candle in your memory. You leave no legacy. You leave nothing. I’ll bury you in an unmarked grave and salt the earth once I’m done.”

Antonio’s mouth moved silently now. His time for words was gone. He’d never speak again. My gaze fixed to his, and I savored the moment when the life faded from the man who’d caused nothing but loss and pain in my life. Despite the whirling madness around us, I felt calm. Despite the bullets flying, I was at peace.

Renato appeared from the thick of it and looked down at his father’s body. I stood and left him to it. Whirling, I brought my gun up and took out two of Antonio’s men who were hunkered down behind a pillar, shooting upward at my brother. Dodging a bullet with my name on it, I rolled across the scarred floor and took out another who had just leveled his gun at the higher level, fixed on Max, Kirill’s right-hand man. The shot was the last that sounded.

“I think we’re good!” My voice echoed around the suddenly quiet room. The smell of gunpowder and blood filled my nose.

My brother appeared above, looking over the edge of the gallery. “And Leo?”

---