Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 88326 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 442(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88326 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 442(@200wpm)___ 353(@250wpm)___ 294(@300wpm)
“Are you even listening to me?”
My attention snapped back into focus. I got lost in her angry eyes and the way she could produce so much hatred for someone so small. “I’ll handle it.”
“You call me a tough bitch then tell me to sit out?” she asked incredulously. “I can’t ask Leo and the rest of the guys at the vineyard to fight for you while I sit on my ass. I’m not one of those rulers who sends their army to do their bidding. I’m on the front lines like everyone else.”
Could she be more perfect? “I understand, but you’ve never been in this type of situation before—”
“I covered Leo while he dug you out of that hole. You tell me how capable I am, but then when I want some skin in the game, you tell me no.”
“This isn’t your fight—”
“Yes, it fucking is. I had to stand there and watch you be buried alive. You’ll never understand how that felt. You might have been lying there grinning like a psychopath, but I sobbed until my ribs nearly broke, so that son of a bitch is mine.”
“Baby—”
She jabbed her finger up at me. “Don’t baby me right now.”
“Time is of the essence. As much as I love arguing with you, because you’re so sexy when you’re pissed off like this, I don’t have the time. I know it’s hard, but you need to step aside—”
“No.”
“Francesca—”
“I said no.”
“I can’t do my job if I’m worried about you.”
“You don’t need to worry about me. I can handle myself. Or do you not actually believe in me like you say you do?”
“I absolutely do, but I don’t want to risk your life needlessly—”
“And why is my life more important than yours?”
“Because it is!”
She flinched slightly when I yelled at her—and I never yelled at her.
Our reunion should be a beautiful one, but we were thrown into another critical situation, so we had no time to savor the joy.
Leo must have been eavesdropping on our conversation because he came over with a tentative stance. “I’ll keep an eye on her. I’ve known my sister for a long time, and I know when she’s not going to change her mind.”
I didn’t appreciate his taking her side and ganging up on me, but I did appreciate the way he supported her.
“You know I wouldn’t let anything happen to her.”
I had a smartass comment to make, but I chose not to make it. It would be easy to throw the past in his face when the past was so recent it nearly felt like the present, but that was combative and unproductive. “You go with Don Russo through the garden while I hit them from the front with the others.”
She nodded. “Thank you.”
I turned to Leo. “Let anything happen to her, and I’ll skin you alive. You want that responsibility?”
He nodded. “None of us would let anything happen to her.”
I didn’t like this. I didn’t like my wife being separated from me during a fight, but it would be stupid to have her with me when I crashed the gate and came at everyone head on. My intention was to draw Icarus straight to me while Don Russo secured the house from the rear and got his family out. Francesca was safer with them.
I shifted my gaze back to Francesca.
Leo took the hint and walked off.
“Are you sure about this?”
“Yes,” she said without hesitation. “Nobody—and I mean nobody—touches my man and gets away with it.”
I drove with Santino in the passenger seat, other guys in the rear. I was driving an SUV with damaged windows, while Francesca and Leo went with Don Russo and the others. For the whole drive, all I did was worry about her.
The drive was spent in silence, all of us thinking about what we were preparing to overcome. I wanted to kill Icarus to honor my debt to Don Russo, but in truth, I just needed him dead. He was smarter than I gave him credit for, realizing he hid his intelligence behind his psychopathic demeanor. He pretended to be unpredictable and unhinged, but he was playing the long game before anyone else knew the match had even started.
I respected him—but I still wanted him dead.
Santino lifted his phone toward his face to read a message. “Don Russo is in position. They accessed the passage.”
“Alright, then we move in.” There was an underground passage that led from the garden, under the road and partially through the sewer system, to a basement that connected to a restaurant a couple blocks away. All they had to do was use that passage to reach the garden, and with everyone focused on us, they should be able to do a lot of damage.
Santino’s vest wasn’t strapped tight, so he fastened it into place before he made sure his handgun was loaded. Everyone else in the car did the same, and a line of cars was behind me as we approached headquarters in the center of Palermo.