Page 92 of Ruthless Consequences

“Light her up!” Gallo screamed, trying to take cover behind some racks. Racks that were closer to the door.

We’d hit the floor and were rolling, equally matched in strength. When I got on top of him again, I took him by the shirt and slammed his head into the floor. But I had no idea where the third shooter was, or if Gallo was going to try to light the big oven himself. Leaving The Head on the floor, I went to move toward Lucila, but he got back up and jumped on my back. He got me around the throat with his arm. I kept moving, refusing to stop.

Her cries were muffled from under the tape, and she was kicking, trying to wiggle her way out of the oven. I took her by the feet and yanked her out just as the fires came to life around her in awhoosh!that felt like it singed my face and hair. I dropped her to the floor, my vision starting to get blurry. I teetered like a drunk, until I slammed my back against the wall, hitting him repeatedly.

Finally, he let go some and I was able to slam my head back and catch him in the face. On instinct, he went to reach for his nose. I spun around, took him by the hair, and slammed his head into the wall. Over and over, until a hand squeezed my shoulder.

“It’s done,” Aren said. “Let him go.”

Reality set back in then. The air had cleared. My wife was on the floor, sitting up, her eyes wide, looking straight at me. Michele held on to the steps, blood running down his shoulder, the flour absorbing it. We were all coated in it. It was sticking to all our wounds.

The third man was down. The Head was down. Gallo was gone. The place was dead silent, except for the hiss of the flames.

Lucila made a noise in her throat, half whimper, half sob, and I went to her, falling on my knees in front of her.

TWENTY-EIGHT

LUCILA

PRESENT DAY

Molly’sold Oldsmobile was packed with wounded. Lilo drove. I sat next to him. Michele and Aren sat in the seat behind. Ava sat all the way in the back, refusing to sit up front. She was pissed she’d missed the entire night. In her mind, it was the equivalent of missing a stickup in action that she could report about later. She’d gotten there right as Lilo was picking me up off the floor.

Lilo glanced at me. He wouldn’t stop. He was worried I had a concussion. We were on the way to the hospital because we all needed attention. Though the men were all grumbling about it. Everyone except for Lilo, who only had bruises on his throat and graze marks on his skin from the bullets. The oven had saved me from that. But Michele and Aren both had non-mortal wounds.

It didn’t matter, though, whether I was injured or not. After Lilo told me what had happened to Sonny, I had to see him, if I could. Or just be there for him, so he wasn’t alone. Lilo had talked to his uncle Tigran and gotten an update. Sonny was in critical condition. I glanced at my sister through the mirror. She had a faraway look in her eyes. I’d told her about what happened to Sonny, but I hadn’t told her the truth yet. I wanted to sit down and have a serious talk with her.

As we drove, she used her phone to blast Gallo’s recorded conversation. My hand reached out and grabbed Lilo’s.

Aren and Michele were taken back as soon as we arrived in the emergency room. So was I, because Lilo insisted. We all looked messed up, especially with so much flour and sugar coating the blood, but there was something especially crazed about his eyes. And no one dared to tell him no.

After I’d seen the look on his face when he was dealing blow after blow to that Head guy…I understood what Shawna had meant. He had kept that part of his life separate from me. But I’d seen it, and it was what it was.

I saw so much more in him, though. I saw the man who picked up a girl from the floor because she didn’t know to get rid of the weights she carried around. I saw a man who was loved by kids and animals. I saw a man who respected his mom enough to play the piano for her, simply because it made her happy.

“You keep looking at me that way,” he said, refusing to let my hand go.

“What way?”

“Like you don’t know me.”

It was easy to tell he was thinking about what I had watched him do—and the look on his face while he’d done it: an animal who refused to let go because the scent of blood was too strong in the air. He’d done it for business before, but this time, he’d done it for me. It was personal.

“No,” I said. “I’ve always known you. Dark.” I brought our hands to his chest. “Light.” I brought our hands to mine. “Together, we meet in the shadows. You have light in you, too, Lilo. You just got caught up in the darkness.”

He kissed my hand, his forehead resting on my arm.

I sighed. “Am I your only wife?”

He was still before, but he went rigid. He lifted his head slowly and his eyes slammed into mine.

“What kind of fucking question is that?” He looked behind him. “Nurse! Nurse!”

“Shh!” I said, because he was being too fucking loud. It was hurting my head. “Nothing,” I told her when she walked in. “My husband—”

“My wife is asking absurd questions. Her head. What’s going on with it?”

The nurse walked out, leaving us with a “Doctor will be in soon to go over the results. But all was good with her initial check.”

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