Page 52 of His to Possess

I nod. “Got a knife in that boot of yours?”

She smirks and tilts her chin slightly.

“Good girl,” I say under my breath, wanting to pull her into my arms so badly. Instead, I force myself to stand there and wait.

Carmine Gallo eventually walks into the conservatory with a slew of enforcers. It’s seriously like a parade of armed men escorting him and, for the first time, I feel a little on edge.

“Well, if it isn’t the infamous Rossi family—minus one little sister, I believe?”

No one answers him and I think Miceli may have growled.

“But you’ve gained a new ally, I see.” His attention zeroes in on Blake and the look he gives her is pure ice. My protective instincts flare to life and I step closer to her, ready to throw myself in front of her if it comes to that. “Foolish girl.”

“Why? Because I didn’t kill Miceli like you wanted?” she asks boldly.

And there goes my little butterfly, already flying way too close to the fire. I stifle a sigh.

“We had a deal,” he reminds her in a cool voice.

“I didn’t like your deal,” she says. “But, I do like this family and I refuse to do anything to hurt them. If that doesn’t work with your agenda then that’s just too damn bad.”

“You do realize everyone is still after you, right?” Gallo asks. “And because of your new allegiance, you’re forcing me to up the price for your head.”

He practically snarls the words and I don’t appreciate him threatening my girl. “Over my dead body,” I growl.

“That can be arranged,” he hisses.

“Enough!” Miceli snaps, stepping closer to Gallo. “We’re here to discuss what your problem is with my family and what the fuck possessed you to put a hit out on my brother. Consider ita courtesy that we’re even here, Gallo, because normally I’d just put a fucking bullet in your head.”

When Miceli turns on his dark side, it’s intimidating as shit. And right now he’s projecting mafia kingpin in full force. Gallo might have fifteen armed enforcers backing him up, but Miceli is the scariest man in the room at this moment. All I can say is I’m glad he’s on my side.

“Your foolishness will be your undoing,” Gallo warns.

“And your arrogance will be yours,” Miceli retorts.

Vin lifts his hands, attempting to be the peacekeeper. “I thought we came here to have a civilized and rational conversation, not to toss threats back and forth.”

“When you’re dealing with an idiot,” Enzo says smoothly, “that isn’t always possible.”

I cross my arms, realizing that this whole thing is going nowhere fast. “First thing you need to do is take Blake’s name off the Kill List.” She’d already told me on the ride over that she’d had Gallo take my name off but the fact that hers is still on there makes me extremely uneasy.

And with good reason because the next second, a section of the windowed wall is completely blown out by bullets and absolute chaos erupts. I throw myself into Blake, covering her with my body as we drop to the floor. Glass shatters in several more panes and shards fly everywhere, peppering my back and getting caught in my hair.

All around us, guns start firing and since my people don’t have any weapons—they’re all still locked up in that damn cabinet—I figure it must be Gallo’s enforcers shooting at whoever is attacking us.

“Find cover!” Miceli yells above the racket, and my brothers all scatter, diving behind furniture.

Blake rolls away from me then reaches out to grab my hand. “This way!”

I push up off the floor, but lean forward and try to stay as low as possible as she tugs me over to a small spiral staircase. It’s narrow and we hustle up it in a single file, her in the lead. I hate leaving my brothers, but I know they can take care of themselves. Plus, they have Leo who is a first class badass.

At the top of the stairs, we look down and I recognize the man climbing in through the broken window, a determined look on his face and gripping a pair of sharp-looking knives. It’s one of the bounty hunters that had been chasing us earlier.

“Fury,” Blake whispers.

Right behind him, a huge man follows on his heels, his face scarred and brutal-looking. He looks like something that just crawled out of a nightmare.

“Oh, God,” she murmurs.

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