Page 253 of Syndicate of Sin Bundle

His voice sounded gruff. “I’ll talk to you later.”

Then, there was more clinking of glass and some shuffling, and then the phone went dead. Something inside of me didn’t sit right. I stared down at the phone and frowned even more. He never called me like that, never said he loved me and sounded like he meant it.

A car raced down the street, and I pushed my phone into my pocket. They were here.

Whatever it meant, it would have to wait.

The car pulled up in front of us, and I squinted at it. Two cars, a handful of men at the most. It wasn’t anything like what I’d experienced last time. Last time, there had been at least five cars with so many more guards. Something was wrong. Something was very, very wrong.

I stared through the glass, and my eyes widened. There wasn’t just anyone in the other car.

It was Tommy.

33

alessandro

Chiara’s father sat across from me, knocking back a glass of scotch. My vision was blurring, my head feeling light, and all I could feel was pain. Everything hurt, but my heart hurt worse. They were going to kill her. They were going to take her away from me, like they had taken everything away from me when I was six.

Six.

I had been a damn kid then, and I felt like one now because I was helpless.

I couldn’t help Chiara, no matter how hard I tried.

“You’re disgusting,” I said through clenched teeth. “Ordering a hit on your own daughter.”

He chuckled and knocked back more alcohol. “Who says she’s going to die tonight?”

“You order a hit on your wife too?” I asked, blood dripping from my mouth. “You wanted to kill her because she knew the man you really are, what kind of business you’re really in, that you abuse ch—”

With a set of brass knuckles, he hit me hard in the face again. My head bounced around, and darkness slowly filled my vision, but I fought it as hard as I could. I wouldn’t let him kill Chiara. I couldn’t let him kill Chiara.

“You care too much about her,” he said. “You know too much. You aren’t getting out of here tonight. Chiara will prove herself and kill you for everything you know.”

My heart sank in my chest. What a sick fuck.

That was what he wanted me to believe. I knew it wouldn’t happen, and if it did, he’d be waiting to kill her too right after I was dead. Chiara knew too much about him. She’d dug when he told her not to dig. If she got out of this alive, she’d be one hell of a don.

chiara

This was all a setup. Everything about this was a setup. From the moment Dad had called, I had known something was up. And now? Now, I was trapped with my stupid fucking guard in the passenger seat, Tommy in front of me, and a boatload of mafia men who wanted the money for my head.

I pretended like I didn’t know a thing. What was I going to do? How was I going to get out of this? I didn’t have enough bullets in my gun to kill them all. I had to get out of here, and I had to get out of here now.

“Chiara,” the guard said to me from the passenger seat.

He stared at me, waiting for me to respond, but there was a look in his eye that told me it was over. I was going to die tonight.

I blew out a deep breath and nodded to the SUV in front of us, still blinding me with its headlights. If I went for my gun, I knew he’d try to kill me. There was no escaping unless …

“Maybe I should change my shoes before we get out,” I said, staring down at my red bottoms. “I don’t want to get them dirty. They look kind of dangerous.”

He paused, brows furrowing together for a moment. “That’s not neces—”

I yanked my heel off my right foot and stabbed him right in the eye, shoved the heel as deep as it would go. He reached for his gun, pointing it right at me and fumbling with the trigger. I grabbed the barrel with my bare hand and forced him to point it right at him before he could pull the trigger.

The sound of a gunshot echoed through the night. A bullet went straight through his head, blood splattering everywhere, including on me. I hit the accelerator and sped out of this damn place.

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