“The fuck?” Mario’s saying over and over. “What the fuck? What the fuck?”
I crouch down and stare into his eyes.
He looks like nothing. That’s what pisses me off the most. This man nearly killed my future wife. He hurt her, traumatized her, fucked with her family’s business, and he’s barely even scum. The man’s so far beneath my notice that he’s nothing. He’s a stain on the concrete.
“Who hired you to attack the Serrano family’s garage?”
He blinks at me rapidly. “The what? Who are you? What’s going on?”
I shove my gun against his neck. “Who hired you to attack the Serrano family’s garage?”
Mario’s face goes pale. He stares around him at the grim faces of my crew.
“We need to be fast,” Enzo murmurs, always the sensible one. “Kill him so we can get out of here.”
“Wait.” Mario’s eyes go wide. “Hold on. Please, don’t.”
“The garage.” I press the gun harder against his throat. “Tell me who hired you to attack the Serrano family’s garage.”
“I don’t know!” He’s shaking now. Probably pissing himself. Fucking nothings like this won’t hesitate to kill whoever they want, but as soon as the gun’s turned on them, suddenly life and death matters. Pathetic slime.
“Not a good answer.”
“Hold on. Wait! I was just given orders by my crew chief! That’s all I know!”
“What were your objectives? Were you trying to sabotage the Serrano family’s business? What were you doing there?”
“I don’t—I can’t—” He looks around in a panic. Distantly, the whine of sirens echoes over the city. Perfect fucking timing.
“Time to go,” Enzo says gently. He’s such a damn good actor. Everyone here knows we’re not killing this guy until he talks. “Pull the trigger and be done with it.”
“The girl!” Mario screams, eyes wild with terror. “We were there for the girl!”
I go very still. My men stare at me with varying looks on their faces. Enzo seems thoughtful. Leo looks confused. Stefano’s pissed.
“It wasn’t the cars? You weren’t trying to hit the Serranos directly?”
“No, no, it wasn’t like that. We were told to kill the girl no matter what. Make it look like a robbery, but kill the girl. Please, that’s everything I know. Please?—”
I pull the trigger.
Mario’s throat bursts out the back of his neck in a spray of blood. He topples backward, gagging and choking, clutching desperately at his wound like he can turn back time. I step back, rage rolling through me in white-hot waves.
They were there forFiorella.
“Guess we’re not getting more out of him,” Enzo comments with a sigh.
“Should we clean this up?” Leo asks, looking around.
“No, you idiot,” Stefano says, batting at his head. “Come on, time for you to go.”
“Don’t talk to me like that; you know it annoys me.”
“Now, now, boys,” Enzo says, dragging Leo away. “See you back at the depot.”
I’m barely paying attention. I keep staring at the corpse in front of me, trying to make sense of what he just said.
I went into this assuming it was some kind of hit against the Serranos. I figured whoever was behind it wanted to drive their business into the ground. The Serrano Famiglia is deep in debt, and they can’t afford to lose more work. It wouldn’t take that much effort for a rival to torch them to the ground.
