Page 167 of My Mafia Queen

Maybe he needed to protect himself. And he had protected himself from what?

Maybe he’d hooked up with the wrong kind of people and thought I could threaten his arrangement.

Is he in bed with the enemy now? Would I be surprised?

Everybody knows this is not a perfect life. Not even regular life is perfect all the time.

If he’d gotten in bed with people who had something on him and blackmailed him, that would do.

That would explain this shit.

He thought I was a liability.

But what made me a liability in his eyes?

I can’t figure out this shit since I don’t have all the information right now.

Huh…

So all this time, they were after me.

Not Carmina.

Not even Tina.

They used Tina because they couldn’t get Carmina.

And they used both of them because they couldn’t get to me.

I barely finish that thought when something unexpected happens.

I’ve been distracted for the past few seconds, reflecting on what had brought us here. And Joe here, thinking that he’s smart, uses the opportunity to make a bold move by leaping from his chair and charging at me with all his force.

Head tilted forward, he hits me straight in the chest while the other two soldiers spring into action, and my men start shooting.

I fall backward, my gun pointed to the ceiling as it goes off several times.

I fall back with Joe on top of me and wrestle with him while he shouts from the top of his lungs to whoever is nearby.

“Kill him first,” he growls, and within seconds, several guns are pointed at me.

* * *

CARMINA

This is not happening.

Desperately, I fight to release my hands.

Damaso is down. The first bullet flies and misses his head through some miracle as he rolls over and jumps to his feet.

He hits one of Joe’s men with his elbow, and that makes his gun go off, bullets flying like confetti.

I crawl away from the middle of the room and try to get to the wall while I hear a thud behind me.

Someone has fallen, yet I can’t look that way.

Vito barks orders, and so does Damaso, and deafening gunshots echo in the small enclosure.

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