Page 56 of Mafia Baby

“Probably,” I agreed, turning off the car.

“Dom, you need to wait for us,” Vince said to me sternly, but I could hear a note of desperation in his voice.

“No can do,” I told him. “Gianna is in danger, and I need to try and save her.”

“The Cobra is a brutal killer,” Vince said to me. “I already told you that I didn’t want us to get involved with him. You can’t just walk into his trap willingly. No one ever comes back out.”

I sighed. “I know that, Vince,” I told him. “But I love Gianna. I have to try and save her life if I can.”

“We’re still hours away,” Vince told me.

“I know,” I agreed. I felt a strange peace settle over me. “Look, I don’t know if I’ve ever told you this, but you were a good dad to me. I appreciate you taking me in more than you probably know. I’m sorry if I haven’t been there for you when you needed me in the past.”

“Dom,” Vince said. His voice sounded choked with emotion. “Dom, please just wait for us to get there. We can still help her if you wait.”

“I just wanted to let you know that I love you like a father,” I told him, and I meant it. “You were there for me when no one else was. I’ve gotten to have an amazing life due to you. I want you to know that.”

“Dom, listen…” Vince started to say, but I hung up the phone.

I wasn’t any good at goodbyes. I had said what I wanted to say, and it was time to move on to taking care of business.

Vince was right. They probably wouldn’t get into Atlantic City until it was too late to save me. But they might still be able to help Gianna. At minimum, they would know more about The Cobra and his operation and maybe they could choose to take revenge for me.

I dropped my phone into the center console. The Cobra would take it from me anyway, I was sure, and Vince could use my phone to track the entrance to the warehouse.

I also put my gun into the console. They would take it from me along with my phone, and I didn’t want to have it searched. I was hoping to keep the knife I had hidden in the secret pocket of my jacket just in case I got an opening to use it.

I got out of the car and pocketed the keys, even though I knew I probably wouldn’t need them again. I probably wouldn’t need much of anything after I walked through that door.

It was strange to contemplate the end of my life happening here so abruptly. I might still be able to pull a rabbit out of a hat, but I doubted it. I had always known that living this way would expose me to danger.

I had never lied to myself that I would probably die young and at the hands of other bad people.

The thing that I hadn’t expected was that I would regret dying so much. I hadn’t had a lot to live for before I met Gianna. I had had a business and a few casual friends. That was it.

I had considered it my life’s purpose to remove bad people for my adoptive father and to try and make money.

Now that I knew that I loved Gianna, and had found out that I was a father, it felt bittersweet to be facing my death. I was going to miss out on so much.

I hated that it was necessary to give up so easily, but I didn’t think there was anything I could do to both rescue Gianna and save myself.

Quite frankly, I was lucky that The Cobra had decided to let me surrender myself to him in exchange for Gianna. I would have to be clever about how I made a deal with him.

I needed to try and stall for time if he wasn’t going to let Gianna go right away. Vince would likely also need to help Gianna go into hiding. I had some hours that I needed to try and kill, and there was only one way to waste the time of a hitman.

I knew all too well how to make things hard on the people whose job it was to remove “problems” from business deals.

I approached the seedy building and knocked firmly on the metal door. I heard the echoes of my pounding on the surface resonate inside the building. I tapped my foot as I waited, impatiently glancing around.

I would give The Cobra this much, it was remote out here. No one would know that anyone was here. You could scream for days and no one would hear you.

I heard the sound of footsteps on the other side of the door and swung my gaze back toward it just in time to see it opening up.

“Come in, come in,” a voice said on the other side of the door. It was familiar to me, but I couldn’t figure out where I had heard it before. Surely I didn’t know The Cobra from some other business deal that I had been involved with?

I stepped out of the sun and into the dim interior of the building. I blinked a little as my eyes adjusted to the change. When I could see again, I actually gasped out loud.

Of all the things that I had expected to see when I entered this rickety old factory, William Bianchi wasn’t one of them.

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