Page 41 of Consumed By the Mafia

The SUV rocked and movement blurred beyond the one open door. A male cry sounded from inside that she was mostly sure was Gerardo. Seconds later, Ryoma kicked Gerardo out the door before jumping down himself.

Abigail shuffled back, finding her feet and adjusting the gun to keep it aimed at the man who’d essentially kidnapped them.

“Watch yourself, Abby,” Ryoma said, his gaze flicking up to her and then past. “He parked on a fucking cliff.”

Her eyes widened and she spared a glance behind her. She had about a foot to spare before she’d be stepping on open air and discovering first-hand that gravity doesn’t work in the real world quite the way it does in the old cartoons.That explains why he picked this spot.Gerardo had probably wanted to use the Passaic for an easy body dump.

“You … fucking … traitor,” Gerardo said on a groan. He pushed up to his knees and elbows and Abigail realized he’d dropped his gun.

“You’re the traitor, jackass,” Ryoma said. He pulled a knife from beneath his pantleg, took a single step to the side, and stabbed the blade into the nearest tire. “Maybe I leave you stranded here for a cleanup crew to pick up, let the boss remind you what happens to idiots who openly defy orders.”

Gerardo snarled, lunged for his gun, and Abigail squeezed her trigger. She made sure to aim for his hand, nothing fatal and hopefully effectively disarming him. Also effectively capturing his attention.

She ignored the predictable, pain-laden insult he hurled at her and held his glare. “The next one drops you,” she said, tone firm. “Don’t make me shoot again.”

Gerardo’s lips curled as he cradled his bleeding hand and pushed to his feet. “I hope you’re still awake when you drown, you fuckin’ cun—” His words died on his tongue as blood spilled past his lips. Sickly wet, incoherent sputtering became the only sounds that escaped him. More blood squirted from his throat, running quickly down his chest, as Ryoma extracted his dagger.

Abigail’s eyes widened and she lowered her arms, unable to look away.

Ryoma had plunged his blade into the back of Gerardo’s throat until the tip of it poked through the front. She hadn’t even seen him move. But she saw clearly as he withdrew his blade and let Gerardo’s fresh corpse drop. He glared down at the man who had been his colleague, letting the still bright red, glistening blood drip onto Gerardo’s form and the ground beside him from the lowered weapon.

Abigail sucked in a breath. She told herself she’d already realized this was probably coming down to a kill-or-be-killed thing. The argument did little to lessen the shock of what she’d witnessed. And it wasn’t merely that Ryoma had killed Gerardo. It was the silent efficiency, the apparent ease, the lack of warning or hesitation.

They really did come from opposite worlds.

Ryoma set the dagger down on top of Gerardo’s body, straightened, and turned toward the SUV. “Could you do me a favor and call Mikey?” He asked as he walked toward the trunk. “Tell him Gerardo decided to ice us and I did what I had to, and now we need a crew. You should tell him about those recordings you grabbed, too. He’ll want something to convince him I’m not the double-cross.”

Shit.Abigail swallowed and tucked away her gun. “Yeah.” She dug out her phone, checked the battery, and pulled up her contacts. “He’s got access to the stuff on my device, right? So I don’t have to try texting these files?” They probably wouldn’t text, and using something like an online file share was too vulnerable.

“That’s what he said.” She could hear him rifling through something, but she couldn’t see him properly enough to have any idea what.

Abigail cut a nervous glance to the road, grateful it at least wasn’t a main interstate, and dialed.

“Tell him we won’t be waiting for a ride, either,” Ryoma added as the phone rang in her ear. “Too risky.” He walked back into sight, disposable gloves on his hands and holding a towel.

She watched, listening to the ringing, as he lifted the weapon he’d used on Gerardo and proceeded to wipe the tell-tale blood away. She almost didn’t hear the line connect.

“You went an odd direction,” Mikey said, almost sounding bored.

Abigail frowned. “Your driver kidnapped us and tried to throw us over a cliff.”

Ryoma sighed.

There was a beat of hesitation, and when Mikey spoke again, his tone was sharper. He almost sounded like his brother, in fact. At least to Abigail’s ears. “The fuck? You’re accusing one of my men of—”

“There are three audio recordings on my phone,” she said, cutting him off for the sake of time and her sanity. “Feel free to dive in and listen to them. Gerardo had no interest in following orders. Sounded to me like he didn’t trust his employer’s judgment. We tried getting away when the vehicle parked, but he had his gun ready and long story short Ryoma said to tell you we need a crew.”

Ryoma dropped the bloodied towel onto Gerardo’s corpse after sheathing his carefully wiped blade, stripped off the gloves, and stepped over to her. He held out his hand, so Abigail handed over the phone as Mikey started speaking again. “I know it sounds sketchy,” he said, probably also talking over his employer. “I’d have left Gerardo breathing if he hadn’t been so insistent on seeing us dead. Given the choices, I figured surviving and pushing forward with the boss’s plan was priority.”

Abigail shifted her weight as she listened, feeling suddenly hyper aware of everything about their surroundings. The softened dirt behind her feet, the sound of rushing water she’d somehow been tuning out up to then, and the presence of a not-so-small roadway close enough that she could sporadically identify passing vehicles through the foliage of trees a ways ahead. It was fortunate for them that Gerardo hadn’t wantedwitnesses, so he’d found a sideroad for his task that curved away from the main interstate. But that didn’t guarantee no one would come by.

“I understand that,” Ryoma said. His tone was a bit tight, drawing Abigail’s attention, but he didn’t appear any more alarmed than before. “No, we’re gonna get some distance. The area’s too exposed.”

Her eyes widened. She wholly agreed, but she was surprised she wasn’t going to have to argue for that.

Ryoma nodded. “We aren’t planning on disappearing.” His stare settled back on her. “Back toward the city?”

It took her a second to realize the question was for her, because she got to have a say in where they searched. Abigail drew a breath and nodded. She hadn’t intended to take her search beyond the city, not considering that her new focus was themselves actively targeting a local group.

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