Page 39 of Blood and Penance
His head turns to me, and he glares. “You don’t think, I know that!” he says, his pale skin turning red. “If I could go back and undo what the fuck I did, I would. He told me she wouldn’t be harmed, and I fucking believed him. I always fucking believe him,” he mumbles to himself, but I heard him loud and clear.
“You’re old enough to know you shouldn’t trust a fucking snake, Sergio. They always bite. And that’s what your father is, a fucking snake. You should have learned a long time ago the type of man he is. Now look what’s happened.” He doesn’t say anything, but he continues to stare at me with so much hate. “I swear on my life, if anything happens to my child or my sister, nobody will be able to save you from me. I will finish what Gianni started. And trust me, I don’t have any allegiance to you. I will kill you.”
He stares at me for a moment, and the anger dissipates from his eyes. “You don’t have to worry about that. If she doesn’t make it, I’ll kill myself.”
His comment leaves me speechless as a wave of shock washes over me. And I can see in the intensity of his gaze, that he means every word. Before I can ask him any questions about their relationship and how long it had been going on, gunfire erupts outside the building, causing me to jump.
Fear takes over my entire body, and it’s like I can’t move as shouts and more gunfire erupt outside the building.
Sergio jumps to his feet and grabs me by the arm. “Take her.” He pushes me toward one of his men. “Don’t let anything touch her.”
The man nods, then drags me to a room not too far from where we were sitting. He opens the door, then pushes me in, causing me to stumble. When he closes the door, he locks it. He frantically looks around the room. It has stainless steel shelving with labeled bins and boxes sitting on them as well as medical supplies, including glove boxes, sterile gauze, bins of syringes, and IV bags. There’s also a linen cart full of gowns, sheets, and medical pads.
“Hide,” he orders as he pulls out his gun, backing away from the door.
“Where the hell do you think, I’m going to hide,” I whisper yell as gunfire continues to sound outside the room.
However, it sounds closer than it did before. They've made it inside the building.
“Fuck if I know lady." He glares at me over his shoulder. “Just get somewhere and hide.”
“Give me a gun."
He arches his brow.
“Give me a fucking gun!” I scream. “I need to protect myself.”
He reaches down, and pulls a gun from an ankle holster, then hands it to me. “Don’t shoot me or yourself.”
I roll my eyes, before looking around the room, trying to find a place to hide. But there’s no time. Voices filter through the door. The doorknob rattles, and Sergio’s man, aims his gun.
The door is too thick for either of us to shoot through it. So, the only choice we have is to wait to see if they can get in here.
Somebody gives the order from outside the door to shoot the lock. And within seconds of the order, a gun goes off then, the door is kicked in. Sergio’s man fires off a few rounds along with me, before he falls to the floor. I shoot until the gun clicks, but nobody comes through the door.
“Fuck!” I yell as I toss the gun to the floor.
A dark chuckle sends a shiver down my spine. My eyes narrow on no other than Matteo Mancchione, Lio’s right-hand man as his frame fills the threshold. “Nice to see you again, Mrs. D’Amico.”
“You son of a bitch!” I step back until my back collides with the shelving behind me. “I knew I shouldn’t have trusted you.”
He steps over the bodies of the men laying in front of the door. “No, you shouldn’t have. But we wouldn’t be here if you had done what the fuck you were supposed to do,” he sneers. “Now you have to face the consequences of trying to kill the boss.”
He grabs me by the arm, then drags me out of the room. Shell casings, bodies, and blood decorate the hallway. My eyes land on Sergio. I can’t tell if he’s dead or alive when we walk past, but he’s not moving and he’s covered in blood.
“I’ll tell Lio, you’re the one who helped me.”
He looks over at me, and a wide grin crosses his face. “And do you think he’ll believe you?”
By the way he looks at me and the confidence in his voice, I already know the answer. Lio won’t believe a word out of my mouth especially when it comes to Matteo. He looks at him like he’s a brother even though he’s just as power-hungry and ruthless as Lio, if not more.
Matteo’s dark chuckle bounces off the wall as he yanks me harder toward the exit. At least Giancarlo will be spared having to deal with Lio or watching him take out his anger on me. I pray that Gianni keeps him safe and raises him outside of this world because once I’m in Lio’s hands, I’m not getting away from him unless it’s in a body bag.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Gianni
So much adrenaline is moving through my system, it’s hard for me to sit still as one of Lorenzo’s men races toward our family’s cabin at the lake. We'll be lucky if the cops don't pull us over with the amount of traffic laws that we're breaking trying to get there.
