Page 105 of Sweet Prison

“Step on it!” I bark at the driver while dialing Peppe again.

No answer.

Peppe always picks up.I hear my alter ego mumbling in the back of my mind.Something isn’t right.

“Don’t you think I know that?!” I snarl, making the cabbie jump in his seat.

Next, I try Salvo. Three times. But his phone is off, too.

I pull my gun out of my holster and press the barrel to the back of the taxi driver’s head.

“If you don’t get me to that damn airport in five minutes, you’re dead.”

Thirty minutes earlier

“And this can’t wait till tomorrow?”

“My mother is leaving on an unexpected trip in the morning,” Salvo says as he slides behind the wheel. “She won’t be back for two weeks, and the fundraiser is next month.”

As Salvo heads down the driveway, I spot Peppe in the side mirror, getting into his car to follow us. Typically, I’d insist that security isn’t necessary, especially since I’ll be with Massimo’s underboss, but ever since that bizarre conversation in the library, where Salvo confessed his supposed feelings for me, I’ve been feeling uneasy around him.

“So, you and Massimo caused quite an uproar last night.”

I steal a look at him from the corner of my eye. He’s got a light grip on the wheel, and the elbow of his other arm is braced in the open window. Whatever bitterness I thought I saw in him at Brio’s seems to be gone. “I guess we did.”

“Saying that the Family members were shocked would be putting it mildly. It’s all everyone’s talked about after you two disappeared. The spur-of-the-moment proposal was a particular highlight. But you know what I found especially interesting? Not a single person commented on how fucking outrageous thiswhole thing actually is. In fact, most seemed thrilled by the idea of their beloved Nuncio’s daughter marrying the new don.”

My eyes nearly bulge out of my head. I expected everything but that.

“Hilarious, isn’t it?” He shoots me a smile. “Don’t you just love how Massimo manages to make people take his side without even trying? Even poor Brio… He showed up to this morning’s meeting—uninvited—and begged to be reinstated as capo. I just don’t understand what it is that has everybody so fucking enthralled with such a psychotic barbarian.”

I reel back, aghast at the amount of venom in his words.

“Even you,” Salvo continues, “a well-bred Italian girl, so innocent and docile.”

He looks at me then. A sly smile still dances on his lips, but his eyes are filled with malice. I can’t help but lean back, as far away from him as I can manage.

His smile drops, and with it, all his pretense is gone. “But, really, you’re nothing but his slut. Fucking your stepbrother in the middle of our meeting. Your father must be turning in his grave.”

The fine hairs on the back of my neck stand up. “Stop the car.”

“Did you just want to rub it in my face? Drive home that you don’t give a fuck about my feelings? Were you trying to show me that he’s still better than I could ever be?”

“Stop. Right now!”

“Sure.” He shrugs and steers the vehicle to the curb.

As soon as we stop, I practically leap out of the car and dash toward Peppe’s Jeep. He’s pulling up just behind Salvo’s black Porsche. With Peppe this close, relief hits me like a welcome rain, but in that same split second, awareness slams into me withthe force of a hurricane. The stench of garbage overwhelms my senses. The sight of derelict buildings dissolves any notion that this is a peaceful street.

“Miss Veronese,” Peppe calls, sticking his head through the open window. “Everything okay?”

“Yup. Changed my mind, though. Wanna go back.”

Just as I’m reaching for the handle of the passenger door, the sound of breaking glass fills the nighttime air. I scream and jump back, staring at the red stain spreading across the front of Peppe’s white shirt. Shards of the shattered windshield are scattered all over him.

“Peppe!” I cry out, reaching for the door handle again. My fingers barely wrap around it when I’m grabbed from behind and yanked away.

“Shut the fuck up,” Salvo growls next to my ear as he drags me back to his car.

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