Page 61 of Consumed By the Mafia

Silva’s hands curled back into two trembling fists. “Stay the hell away from my family, you lunatic!”

Romeo tapped his knuckles once on the table, the sound sharp. “Whether or not your older two, your wife, or your brother survive the week is entirely up to you.”

Abigail released a quiet breath. She didn’t like going after family as a concept, but the knowledge that the most innocent would be spared was a start. If it came to it, she would just haveto hope she could find a way to spare the others. As many as she could.

Silva leaned as far back in his chair as he was able, pulling his fists to the edge of the table as if to try and retreat from them. His stare suddenly snapped back to her. “Nothing to add, Ms. FBI?”

Abigail narrowed her eyes. “It’s Special Agent Fitzgerald,” she said firmly. “And I don’t know what you mean.”

Silva’s eyes widened again and his nostrils flared. “This monster’s threatening my family! You’re just gonna let that happen?”

A surreal sense of déjà vu washed over her and Abigail slowly, deliberately, reached forward and lifted her phone off the table. She woke up the screen as she said, “Damn. I must’ve tuned that part out.” She turned the device outward, reminding him of the photograph on display and the assault he himself had openly ignored, and held his rage-filled stare. “It’s a horrible feeling, isn’t it?” Then she pulled her phone away, gathered her gun, and stood. “I’ll let you two have a chat. If I were you, chief, I’d consider option one.”

“No chat,” Romeo said, standing as soon as she’d stepped away. His chair scraped loudly on the floor. “Agent Fitzgerald will return for your answer in the morning. You get one opportunity to declare your choice, Rodrigo. Decide wisely.”

“Y-you can’t just leave me here!”

Ryoma slipped in front of them all and pulled open the door. “Of course not,” he said, tossing a taunting grin in the chief’s direction. “Someone will be in shortly to transport you to the other room.”

Abigail took the initiative to lead the way out, her heart pounding far too fast for everything that hadn’t happened. She’d hoped for a more productive interrogation, though she supposed she’d known such an outcome was unlikely. Truthfully, it was Romeo De Salvo’s arrival that had rattled her.

They filed down the hall in silence, making room for two other men to squeeze by in order to move Silva as promised, before Romeo’s sharp voice pierced the air. “A word,Agent Fitzgerald.”

Abigail drew a steadying breath. There was no avoiding this. She turned obligingly, sidestepping as she did into the sitting room that opened off to the left. Both men followed her, Ryoma remaining in the entryway as if to bar any others from joining them. Or her from fleeing.

Romeo stepped right into her face, glaring down at her. “I’ll pass along the idea you had tonight,ifhe bites, but don’t think this makes you more valuable. If hauling Silva out of his home blows up, we’ll cut you loose without a second’s hesitation. Thanks to you, we’ll be forced to do the same to every other man who took part in this fiasco.” His lips curled with visible displeasure. “And I don’t mean leaving you to fend for your fucking selves.”

Abigail flexed her hands at her sides but successfully resisted the instinct to shrink away or duck her head. It was there, in spades, but his words managed to spark a strong enough anger that her own inner fire pushed against the fear Romeo was no doubt used to inspiring. She even managed to furrow her brow. “I understand this tactic feels reckless,” she said, making an effort to keep her tone low and steady. “I can evenunderstand why you’d use its failure as an excuse to put a bullet in my head. I’m not under the delusion that your men are fond of me.” Except for the one she thought she saw shift his weight at her choice of words. “But you woulddiscardall of them if this falls apart? That’s a lot extreme, seeing as it wasyourbrother who rounded up the bodies that helped here.”

Romeo’s brow pinched tighter. “Like I said, if this blows up—”

“And what about you?” Abigail pushed. She hated even putting it out there. She knew he had a young daughter, as well as a pregnant wife. But he was the one being the asshole about it. “You’ve been here. You inserted yourself. So why would you be spared, but not the guys who keep glaring at me?”

For a single moment, she thought he might strike her. He didn’t move a muscle, didn’t flinch or raise a hand. It was just something in his eyes that made her think the impulse was there. The moment passed.

More calmly than she expected, Romeo said, “Silva’s death is only a matter of time now. I don’t intend to come back, which means he’s the only one who can place me here.”

Of course.Abigail inclined her head in a partial nod. “All right, then. You’d only need to kill three of us using that logic. Me, of course, and the two who came with me to do the arrest. They’re the only ones his wife saw. Yes, she can say there were other SUVs, but you know as well as I do those vehicles are unidentifiable. So the rest of this team should be spared, unless they fuck up.”

In the beat of silence that followed, she was sure she heard Ryoma push out a breath. She couldn’t tell what thesound was supposed to mean, exactly, and she didn’t get a lot of time to dwell on it.

One of Romeo’s brows kicked up as his expression changed, just briefly. He tucked his hands into his pockets. “Interesting. I expected you to push back against the killing, the targeting of his family, not against our in-house fallout.”

“I do have issue with the targeting of his family,” Abigail said. “I also recognize that we aren’t looking at this from the same perspective. I’m still hoping your threat won’t need to come to fruition at all. The threat toward your own men seemed like something I could address.”

Romeo finally took a step back from her, giving her room to breathe, and cast his gaze around the room. “If you’re still looking at this like you’re the law and we’re criminals, this whole idea of an alliance is fucked.” He met her stare again. “Consider that.”

His words rang like reverberating bells in her head. Yet still she blurted, “Isn’t that the point?”

Romeo snorted. “We need your legitimacy, Fitzgerald. Not your morals.”

She barely noticed him turn away. Her gaze had already shifted to Ryoma, who stared intently back at her. There was an undefinable anguish in his eyes that made her chest ache.

nineteen

Dragon & Tiger

Abigail watched Romeo dropa hand to Ryoma’s shoulder and heard the low tone of his voice as he said something to her lover, something that didn’t quite carry. Or maybe it was just that her ears were incapable of hearing more while her brain buzzed with the simple, shattering thing he’d said seconds before.

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