Page 65 of Caged Bliss

Then I roll off, gasping, and Claudia’s at my side.

“Oh my god,” she whispers, pulling my head into her lap. “You’re hurt. Oh my god, Angelo.”

“My phone,” I croak. My voice is a fucking wreck. “Seamus.”

She takes a second to process then finds my fallen cell. Lucky for us both, Seamus didn’t hang up. She holds it up to my ear.

“Send men,” I manage to gasp. “Cage. Right now.”

“What the fuck was that?” he asks, sounding panicked. “Were you just in a goddamn fight?”

“Hurry.” I take the phone from Claudia and hang up.

“What do we do?” she asks. “You killed Skinny. He tried to kill you. Angelo, what’s happening?”

“Tommy,” I say, leaning back against her, exhaustion threatening to drag me under. “He took his shot and he fucking missed.”

Chapter 34

Angelo

Isound like a fucking chronic smoker and my head’s pounding so hard it’s like an unbalanced washing machine is trying to rip itself to pieces inside my skull. I check the chamber of my revolver and flip it closed as Seamus pulls up and parks outside of Tommy’s condo.

“Maybe you should stay here,” he says, frowning at me as he checks his own gun. Four more black SUVs spread out around the property, a mixture of Quinn and Bianco soldiers behind the wheels led by my brother Davide.

“Fuck that.” I give him a hard look. He’s probably right, but I’d rather die than stay behind.

“Seriously, you look ghastly. That goddamn line across your throat. It’s like your head’s about to fall off.”

“And fuck you.”

He laughs and shrugs. “Whatever, bro. Your call.” He seems amused as he waits for the sign from Davide to get moving. “I hear the girlfriend saved your life.”

I lean back into my seat, impatient and taking the chance to rest. Skinny tried to cut my fucking head off with some piano wire just two hours ago and I’m still recovering. Claudia’s back in the oasis where she’s safe, and Elena tried to convince me not to head back out, but there was no way in hell I’d let anyone else raid Tommy’s place without me.

“Brained a guy with the edge of a drink tray.” Apparently, she hit him a few times. There were bits of hair and blood all on the edge. That made me proud as hell of her.

“Damn, you found a good one. Does she have a sister?”

I sigh and close my eyes. “You have no idea how complicated that is.” Then I look at him. “But seriously, if there’s a woman in that condo, she has to be kept safe. Spread the word, alright?”

“You got it.” Seamus fires off a few texts to the other teams. “You fucking Biancos. I don’t know why you didn’t just kill this Tommy fella from the start.”

“I had it under control.”

His eyebrows raise. “Yeah, looks that way.”

I grunt and ignore him. Hindsight and all that. It’s easy to say we should’ve taken Tommy down the second we realized he was working behind our backs, but there was good reason to wait.

He and the Serbians are up to something, and if we kill him, we may never find out what it was.

Doesn’t matter now. Tommy crossed the line when he sent Skinny after me, and now it’s time to finish this.

I get a few minutes to gather myself. I’m far from my best, but when the text comes and it’s time to move in, I keep up with Seamus. We hustle into the condo building and the doorman is gently encouraged to lie on the ground with his hands on his head. Davide finds the concierge key to Tommy’s place and we take the elevators up to his floor.

My brother’s in the lead with his right-hand Emilio, both of them big and wearing body armor. I’m next with Seamus right behind me. We reach the door and though Davide’s a big bastard and could probably knock it down with a spirited cough, he quietly unlocks it instead.

He opens it and I step past Emilio, my gun raised as I clear the first room.

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