Page 34 of Tainted Love

“Ms. Vaughn…” Zappia chuckles softly. “I find your offer intriguing.”

“I thought you would,” she says.

“Stop by my casino sometime and we’ll continue this little chat…”

Quick movement rushes through my peripheral vision, alerting me to the three men piling out of a dark sedan on the street outside.

“I’ll do that,” she says. “Thank you, sir.”

Black metal glimmers beneath streetlamps as they each raise an AK-47 and point it at the window.

“Get down!” I shout.

I force Lucy to the floor and kick Zappia’s table onto its side to shield her from the windows.

Marty dives behind it and Zappia does the same as bullets come firing in, shattering the glass into a thousand pieces. I throw myself over Lucy, covering her completely as screams ring out behind us. Many men do as I did and topple their tables over to block the hits. Our table lurches with each blast but the bullets don’t penetrate through.

“Dante!”

I hold Lucy closer to me, wrapping my arms around her head until the firing ceases and tires squeal down the street.

Enzo leaps to his feet and withdraws his sidearm from his coat, shouting obscenities as he races out the front door with a few other men.

“Lucy…” I hold her pale face in my hands. “You okay?”

She nods and I feel her heart racing even faster than it did when she called Antony fucking Zappia a coward to his face.

I kiss her forehead and look out over the table to make sure it’s safe before pulling her to her feet. She clings to my jacket with both hands as I check her from head to toe for any spots of blood.

“Nice reflexes,” Marty mutters at me. He reaches down and helps his father to his feet.

Enzo rushes back in, rage turning his face a bright shade of red. “Motherfuckers…”

Marty stares out the broken window. “The Lutrova brothers…” he says. “Who else would it be?”

Enzo kicks the fallen table and fires an annoyed glance at his little brother. “And you didn’t want me to splurging on the bulletproof tabletops…”

Marty turns away while smoothing his jacket down. “Wouldn’t have needed them if you got the bulletproof windows instead like I told you to.”

Zappia throws up his hands. “Quit bickering,” he barks at them. “Go smooth this shit over.”

Enzo and Marty step off the platform together, firing soft arguments back and forth while they help frightened patrons to their feet.

“No one’s wounded…”

Lucy’s whisper reaches my ears and I look around as she does. She’s right. Not one stray bullet hit anyone. In fact, most of the bullets struck Zappia’s table only.

There was one obvious target here and he’s staring back at me with wrinkled, gray eyes.

Zappia nods, his way of saying thank you for knocking over the table just in time to save his brains from splattering the wall, but I didn’t do it for him.

I take Lucy’s quivering hand. “Come on.”

We gather her clutch from our table, and I get her out of here as fast as we can move.

Chapter 11

Dante

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