Mafiosa (Blood for Blood #3)(34)

‘Give me the gun, Sophie.’ His other hand pressing gently against my back. I was still staring at Libero, his body folded over into a crumpled heap. ‘Give it to me.’

A prick of relief in the back of my eyes. My grip faltered, the cool sleek metal leaving my skin.

Nic was yelling at me. ‘Kill him! Kill him now, Sophie! You have to do it. She has to do it, Luca!’

Luca yanked me backwards. A gunshot rang out right beside my head just as Dom and Nic roared together.

‘Donata!’

I felt the vibrations of Luca’s recoil as the bullet sailed through the air towards Libero. And then, through the haze and the panic and the thwack of Libero’s body hitting the floor, came the sound of Donata Marino’s screams as her bullet sailed past my left ear.

I jumped away from Luca, stumbled backwards, as Donata marched through the doorway, her gun raised. Her trench coat was buttoned all the way to her pointed chin, her hair coiled tightly in a bun. Her foundation was thick and her eyes were over-rimmed in kohl. She looked like her sister’s shadow – her sharp features and cruel mouth as terrifying as the gun she wielded. Her lips were a slash of crimson in the dimness. Luca lunged to the side as her next bullet exploded in the space between us. Nic grabbed the back of my coat and yanked me towards the back door, pushing Dom with him while Luca opened fire on Donata, narrowly missing her next bullet. He backed up after us, using the moment Donata noticed Libero’s corpse face down beside the bar as a distraction. We sprinted back through the fire escape as her howls filled up the bar behind us like an aria.

‘Il mio bambino! Mio figlio!’

‘Move, move!’ Nic snapped, as we fell into formation and ran from The Sicilian Kiss like our lives depended on it.

We dropped into the parking lot, Luca out in front and Dom close behind him. Nic came around the back of me for extra cover as we sprinted towards the SUVs, our guns raised in every direction.

‘She’ll have backup!’ Luca called over his shoulder. ‘Keep your eyes open!’

A flurry of shots exploded around us, and I didn’t have to look back to know that Donata was out on the roof of The Sicilian Kiss, spending all of her bullets on us. We could all hear her wailing into the night sky. ‘Ti scuoierò!’ Shot. ‘E ti ucciderò!’ Shot. ‘Molto Lentamente!’ Shot.

‘Zigzag!’ Luca roared. We covered our heads, panting as we skidded between a wave of bullets. We reached the SUV, flung the doors open as shields and threw ourselves inside, gasping and shaking. A bullet ricocheted off the windscreen – bulletproof glass – as Luca slammed his foot against the accelerator and sped out of the parking lot.

Donata’s screams might have been thundering through the world outside, but all I could hear was Libero sneering inside my head, You failed! You failed! You failed! You’re a coward!

I knew he was dead. But he would always be alive in my head, taunting me, freezing me in that moment where I had faltered.

I failed.

I was a coward.

And now I had to face my punishment.





PART II

‘We … are all in the same boat, upon a stormy sea.

We owe to each other a terrible and tragic loyalty.’

G. K. Chesterton, All Things Considered





CHAPTER SIXTEEN


A DIFFERENCE OF OPINION




Nic and Luca sat in stony silence up front, the car moving so fast it felt like we might break the sound barrier. Dom was beside me in the back seat, on the phone to Paulie, who had escaped to a nearby restaurant to wait out the Marino ambush. They were still trying to figure out what went wrong with their intelligence, how they didn’t know the Marino boss was planning to show up when she did.

Dom just kept asking Paulie the same thing, his voice tinged with a strange mixture of confusion and awe. ‘What the hell was she even doing there?’ By the sounds of it, Paulie wasn’t coming up with any good answers, because Dom kept saying over and over again, ‘She must have known we were coming. She must have.’

Finally, they seemed to settle on the same conclusion: ‘We have a rat.’

A rat that was going to die slowly and painfully when they tracked him down.

I tried to take solace in the fact that Jack hadn’t been with Donata. That would have definitely cut our chances of escape in half. I was deliberately avoiding thinking about my father’s whereabouts, how easily he could have sauntered into that room with Donata too.

When we were almost back at Evelina, Luca turned to Nic, his voice deadly quiet. ‘I told you not to do it without me.’

I watched the sides of their faces as they stared at each other. Nic could sense the rage festering beneath Luca’s careful demeanour. We all could. Nic leant away from it, pressing his head against the window. When he spoke again, he sounded like a little boy. ‘But Valentino said—’

‘I told you to wait,’ Luca said.

Nic blinked at his brother, once, twice, and then said, ‘Why, though?’

‘Why?’ Luca repeated. ‘Why?’

‘Donata was a surprise. It’s not like I could foresee that.’

‘Oh, you think? I told you not to do it without me.’

‘I had it under control,’ Nic shot back. ‘She doesn’t need a babysitter.’