Page 52 of Surrender

I briefly glare at him. He isn’t showing anyone his ass except me, especially with Silvano right here. “No,” I tell him. “We’ve done nothing wrong. Cresci is… was…” I look at Silvano. Has he told them his father was about to retire?

Silvano’s steely gaze meets mine. “Do you have an explanation as to your whereabouts?” I stay silent, and Silvano turns to the other gathered people. “Did anyone see Cristiano and his bodyguard in the past hour?”

I notice Giulio Pavone whispering something to his consigliere. When Giulio notices me watching, he smiles and waves at me.

Silvano catches that interaction and turns to Giulio. “You have something to add, Pavone?”

Giulio shrugs casually. “Nope. I have no clue what Cristiano and his friend were doing. I think I would have noticed the redhead.”

Well, he said he’d keep his mouth shut, but for once, it would’ve been nice for someone to not keep their word. Of all the fucking times for someone not to blab my business all over…

“You know I didn’t kill your father, Silvano,” I tell him, forcing his attention back onto me. “You’re wasting time accusing me and Fox, while his real murderer potentially finds a way out of this house.”

Silvano sneers at me. “I don’t know anything. Perez, search Cristiano and his… bodyguard. Whom we don’t know anything about, except suddenly Cristiano is bringing him everywhere.”

“Because someone tried to fucking murder me,” I snap. “Of course I’m bringing someone to watch my back. Just because it’s not someone with all muscle and no brains doesn’t mean he’s incapable of doing his job.”

Perez ignores me and stalks over to me and Fox. Fox tenses up, and I realize we’ve got a problem without him saying a word.

Because Fox is armed. And not just with a gun. He has my knife on him too—a knife like the one that was used to murder Cresci.

Fuck.

For the first time in a long time, I realize I have no idea what to do. I have only seconds before they discover the weapons, seconds before they close in on us. This is an offense worthy of torture and worse, and—

I want to tell them that Fox and I were fucking—maybe even show them his ass, like Fox had said. But they’ll just claim they have no proof that happened during the time I said it did, and Pavone is annoyingly going to keep his mouth shut even if I wouldn’t want him to. Beyond that…

I’m in a room full of homophobic fucking mobsters, and someone might pull a weapon on me just for admitting I’d been sodomizing my supposed bodyguard. I’d definitely alienate my allies. I have to think that I’ll get through this in one piece, and I can’t destroy my present and my future by announcing to everyone that I have a boytoy. Let them suspect, but I can’t confirm it.

“Silvano,” I say again, but it’s no use. Perez has already started to search Fox, and I start to look for ways out of this fucking room.

“Sorry,” Fox mumbles, and in the next instance, Perez cries out and stumbles back. There’s a very long red gash along his neck.

Before anyone has time to react, Fox dashes toward the entrance to the room. He has his gun out, and even though the two guards there raise their arms to aim at him, he’s managed to shoot both of them before they can pull their own triggers.

Way to make us look innocent, I think, but as the entire room erupts in chaos, I use the opportunity to flee. I hate it. I hate running away, but until I can figure out who murdered Don Cresci—the same person who probably tried to have both Fox and me murdered—I can’t show my face around these people. I have to solve this mystery once and for all before I can return to my life as I know it.

I catch up with Fox, somehow, and I follow him through the front door. There’s a trail of injured, potentially dead, people in his wake. “What the fuck?” I hiss, but I can’t be angry. He probably just saved our lives, but at what cost?

“They were going to kill me either way,” Fox growls, ducking behind the closest car. “That Peter guy wasn’t going to have it any other way. And Silvano… fuck, I should have realized. He called me robin.”

That’s significant. I can tell that much, even though I don’t know why. I can hazard a guess, though. “Only one person has ever called you that?” I pull my keys out of my pocket. We’re being pursued, but I head straight for my car.

The bullets are flying, but it’s dark and there are enough cars to block most of them. As long as we lay low…

“They’re heading to the west exit,” Pavone shouts.

Except we aren’t.

More bullets pop off, this time farther away.

Goddammit. Now I’m going to owe him a favor, a really big one.

We finally manage to reach my car, and I don’t wait for either of us to be buckled properly before hitting the gas and driving out of there. The front gate is closed—but with how often I go in and out, I have a remote opener for that.

The gate opens, and as soon as my car will fit through, we’re off.

Fuck.

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