Mafiosa (Blood for Blood #3)(33)

‘Stand up, Libero,’ Nic commanded. His gun was pointed directly at Libero’s forehead. A threat, only. The killing shot was mine.

‘Fuck yourself, Falcone!’ Libero cut his eyes to me, hatred twisting his mouth. ‘You traitorous bitch. Killing your own family in cold blood.’

‘Watch your mouth, Marino.’ Dom fired off a warning shot and it lodged in the wooden table between them. Libero didn’t even flinch. He didn’t look away from me.

‘Are you proud of yourself?’ he said, his voice falling deadly quiet. ‘Vince Marino’s daughter, a coward and a turncoat. You’ll suffer when my family gets their hands on you. When my mother shows up she’ll gut you and then Zola will cut you into little pieces and listen to you scream yourself unconscious.’

When my mother shows up. What the hell did that mean? I shook the paranoia away. He was just trying to psyche me out, to get in my head. Nic and Dom weren’t reacting to it, so I took my cue from them. I stared at Libero, trying to work myself up to what I had to do. His hatred was definitely helping.

Dom ripped the table away and flung it against the bar. Libero fell forwards on to his hands, spluttering. Blood was running down his left side and staining his T-shirt. He had already been shot. The colour was draining from his face, his black goatee appearing stark against his white pallor.

Dom and Nic stepped back to either side of me, and I was conscious suddenly of what I had to do, of what they were waiting for. This was it. The time had come.

I raised my gun.

Libero laughed, and with it came another trickle of blood, painting his lips crimson. He spat it at my feet. ‘They gave their plaything a gun.’ He spat again, and this time it reached my shoe. I kept my gaze forward, focused on his leering grin, using all that hatred to fuel my own.

‘Yes,’ I said, barely recognizing my own voice as I curled my lip at him. ‘They gave me a gun.’

Libero returned my twisted smile. ‘Which one are you sleeping with, turncoat? Which one have you whored yourself out to? All the honour and dignity in your blood and you debase yourself like this. You disgust me.’

My composure faltered, his words breaking through my defences. ‘Shut up!’ I snapped. ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about!’

‘Sophie,’ Nic urged from somewhere over my shoulder. ‘Just do it. End him.’

‘End me!’ Libero shouted. ‘End me the way you ended your own mother! No wonder she didn’t want to live in this world any more. No wonder she ran into those flames. Away from you!’

My finger was on the trigger. The world had fallen still. It was just me, Libero Marino and all that malevolent hatred spewing from his lips, wrapping around me, taunting me. ‘Shut your mouth,’ I said.

‘Your hand is shaking.’ Libero’s lips peeled back to reveal bloodstained teeth. ‘I can see it.’

‘Sophie,’ Nic warned. ‘He’s going to bleed out.’

My hand was shaking. But my aim was still squarely on Libero’s sweating forehead. I bared my teeth at him, feeling the ferocity in my face. ‘I’m going to shoot you now,’ I told him. ‘And you deserve it.’

His grin faltered. His eyes were big, so big. Just like Sara’s. I watched his Adam’s apple flare as he swallowed, and I could almost taste it – that feeling of fear. Bone-chilling fear. He knew I was really going to do it. And it made me feel … powerful. It made me feel completely unlike myself. And somewhere deep down inside, that terrified me.

‘Kill me, just how you killed my sister.’ His words tripped and slurred, the energy petering out of him rapidly now. ‘What’s one more betrayal?’

My heart clenched. My finger faltered on the trigger. Come on, Sophie. Come on.

‘Now, Sophie.’ I could sense Nic bristling. ‘Stop letting him talk.’

Libero’s head flopped forwards, his weakness dragging his body towards the ground. There was so much of his blood around him already. I could smell it. He forced his head up, his eyes glassy and red. ‘Shoot me,’ he said. ‘You fucking coward.’

‘Shoot him!’ said Dom. ‘What the hell are you waiting for?’

‘Do it,’ urged Nic.

So shoot! Shoot him!

I was freezing up. I was staring so hard at his face my eyes were starting to water. This face that was so like Sara Marino’s. My father’s dimples. My own fear reflected back in his eyes, hastily painted over with false bravado. Time slowed to an agonizing pace. A bead of sweat dripped into my eye.

Shoot him. You have to shoot him.

My hand was shaking.

Your mother would be so proud of you.

I took another step towards him, trying to propel myself into the deed.

Do it, you coward. Show him that he’s wrong.

He’s dead either way.

I tried to press my finger against the trigger.

I can’t. I can’t do it.

The door behind me swung open and the silence exploded. Sharp, angry shouting swept into the room behind me. My attention splintered in two. My arm lagged. My breaths were coming in quick short gasps. The adrenalin was seeping out of me and panic was rising in its place. Libero was bleeding out in front of me, and all my bullets were still in my gun.

Then there was a hand on top of mine, trying to prise the weapon from my grasp, and Luca’s voice, calm and insistent in my ear.