Page 148 of My Mafia Queen

It’s a large SUV like ours.

The signal arrives that the street in the back of the house is clear.

“Time to walk, ladies,” I say, pulling a pair of gloves on and grabbing my gun.

I signal to all of them, and we quietly slip out and walk in the same direction.

No noise announces our presence. The street is quiet. The sky is clear. A big moon smiles coldly from above.

Muffled voices waft through the air as we get closer, and before long, a man barks furiously inside the house.

The news hasn’t been good, and as expected, Joe Lizard has a temper. Like that jerk, Beau Anthony. And like Carmina’s father.

What is it with these men?

A few doors get slammed. I lift my hand, and we all freeze. I show them to a nicely trimmed bush, and we hide behind it and listen.

“She can’t be here,“ Vito says, “Or he wouldn’t scream like a lunatic,” he adds, and that’s exactly what has crossed my mind.

But the alternative is so much worse.

There’s no way he touched that girl. He needs her to make me come to him.

And here I am.

I am here.

The main door opens and we all pull back.

The man we followed from LA walks out empty-handed. No girl. No guns. No Joe Lizard.

Tension sets in my jaw.

Are we on a wild goose chase now?

Have we driven so far outside LA for nothing?

And what’s worse…. Do they keep Tina someplace else?

“We’re going in,” I say, and without saying anything else, I walk straight to the man who is about to climb into his car, and I gun whip him.

He falls to my feet and looks at me, blood gushing from his nose, not knowing what to do first. Stop the bleeding with his hand or bark to warn the others.

I cock my gun and put it to his head.

“You know who I am. Do you want me to blow your brains out? Or would you rather talk?”

“I can’t talk,” he mumbles, blood dripping into his mouth.

“You can nod, yeah?”

He nods.

“Is she in?”

He just looks at me.

“The girl?”

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