“Who takes orders from you?” Rocco snaps back.
The room goes silent. Carmine’s seething, but he takes a step away. His jaw works. Rocco remains defiant, his anger turned toward Raf.
“You take orders from me.” Raf’s voice is cool and in control. He gazes at the four gathered Capos one at a time. “You all take orders from me.”
“Nobody hailed you as Don yet.” Rocco’s lip curls. “The way I see it, your father put us in this position. Why should we turn to his son to lead us?”
Silence. Thick and awful. Carmine’s the only one standing behind Raf, glaring hate at his brother. Nicolo’s slowly getting to his feet, while Filippo remains separate, watching with a curious frown.
This is the moment. Everyone in this room knows why they’re here. Raf needs them to proclaim him as the Don if he’s going to move forward with leading the Famiglia. This is Raf consolidating his power in the wake of our father’s sudden death.
Except it’s not happening like he thought it would.
“My father named me as his heir. You’ve known that for a long time now.” Raf steps forward, looking hard at Rocco. “If you had a problem, you should’ve spoken then.”
“And piss off the Don? While he was old and sick? I’m not stupid enough to do something like that. But you’re nothing yet, and I don’t plan on proclaiming you as anything.”
“You motherfucking traitor,” Carmine growls, yanking his jacket back and reaching for his gun. “I’ll fucking kill you.”
Chaos erupts. Carmine’s yelling at Rocco, waving a gun around, and Rocco’s shouting right back. More guns are drawn until everyone in the room’s pointing a weapon at everyone else,except for Filippo. He’s busy hiding in the background, watching the spectacle with a deep frown.
Luca quietly and slowly moves me and Elisa toward the door.
“Everyone calm the fuck down!” Raf shouts over the noise. “Rocco, goddamn it, stop it. Carmine, put the fucking gun away. This isn’t how we do business!”
“You don’t know shit about how we do business,” Rocco says, leveling his gun at Raf.
For a second, I don’t think he’ll do it. Nobody moves a muscle. There should be guards, soldiers, anyone that could keep my brother from getting himself killed. Except that’s not what he wanted. He probably thought these men would fall into line now that there’s a vacuum at the top of the Famiglia.
But he clearly was wrong.
“Don’t throw this business into chaos,” Raf warns, not flinching away from the gun. “Don’t be fucking stupid, Rocco. My sister’s marriage to the Marino Famiglia is all that’s left keeping us afloat. You need me.”
“I don’t need shit.” Rocco’s lip curls into a sneer. “Sorry, kid, but Corrado’s got better ideas.”
“You stupid bitch,” Carmine says and lurches at his brother.
Rocco’s gun goes off. I scream in shock as Raf crumples backward, blood spraying. More shooting and more blood, and suddenly I’m thrown away from the massacre, the door banging open, Luca’s body wrapped around mine. I twist my ankle and cry out in pain as we stagger down the front steps, Elisa getting dragged in our wake, and the gunshots keep going off, each one an explosion right into my heart, and I keep seeing Raf fallingto the floor, blood spraying into the air. I scream, struggling against Luca, trying to get back to my brother, but his grip is iron and my ankle feels like it’s going to break apart.
“Stay here,” Luca snarls in my face, shoving me into his car. Elisa gets in beside me. She’s trembling and splattered with blood. Luca draws a gun from his belt and steps away. “Don’t fucking move.”
He strides back to the house. The shooting abruptly stops.
My ears are ringing. I try to open the door to go after my husband, but Elisa grabs me and holds tight. “Don’t do it,” she says, fear in her voice. Her eyes are big and wild with terror. “Please, just stay here. Stay with me. Don’t go after him.”
“He’s in trouble. Raf might be dead. I can’t just leave Luca in there alone.” I try to pull away, but Elisa clings on tight.
“We can’t do anything. Please, Fio, stay here. Stay with me.”
I let out a frustrated scream. I can’t leave Elisa. Not when she’s begging like this.
All my life I’ve protected her. I nearly gave my life for hers when we were trapped in that panic room together. I’d do anything for her, but she’s not the only important person in my life anymore.
I have Luca now. And he’s in danger.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” I say, staring at the open door. Nothing moves. Nobody comes out. There aren’t any more gunshots, and the quiet is even more ominous than the shooting. I don’t know what’s happening in there, but I want to race inside. I hate sitting still, trapped in this fucking car.
“It’ll be okay, it’ll be okay,” Elisa’s saying, over and over again.
