slamming him to his back on the floor. The knife is in his hand again, piercing another part of his uncle’s throat. “Pops would be ashamed of you,” Danny hisses in his uncle’s face. “You filthy piece of shit. All this time you’ve been playing the good guy, the law-abiding citizen, the saint, the respected member of the family.”
“He wasn’t your father, bastard. You’re not even blood. My cousin was weak and pathetic. If he wanted a kid, he should have just come to me.” Ernie grins, and I flinch in my chair. “Picking up some fucking waif and stray off a London street. Signing everything over to a bastard kid. The man had lost his stupid mind.” He looks at me. “And Nox assured me he could keep you to heel.”
Danny smiles, taking the steak knife and dragging it deeply through Ernie’s face, from his eye to his lip. Blood gushes from the cut instantly. “Now we match,” Danny taunts.
“You won’t get out of here alive. The moment I’m dead, the men out there will be coming after you. So go on, kill me. Do it.”
“As much as I’d love to gut you and carve you up, I’m not going to kill you.” Danny pushes himself to his feet, wiping his knife on the napkin once again. He’s not going to kill him? Is he mad? Danny points to me. “She is.”
She is? “What?” I turn back to Brad and Ringo, like I may have forgotten that they’re both men. “Me?”
“I told you tonight would be good.”
My gasp pushes me back in my chair, my fingers clawing into the arms. “You knew?” I ask, my eyes flicking to Ernie. “You knew he was working with Nox? You knew he was going to try and kill you?” He could have fucking told me! “You knew he was the man who took my son from me?”
Danny reaches for Ernie’s neck, pulling out a chain that’s tucked behind his shirt. I nearly choke when I see the serpent ring dangling from it, the green eyes as evil and bright as I remember.
It forces me farther back in my chair. “Oh my God.”
“You mentioned this.” Danny drops the chain. “My father had one too. A gift to them both from their grandfather. Ernie’s fingers got too fat for it so he started wearing it on a chain a few years ago.” Danny looks at him like he’s filth. “You always hated living in Pops’s shadow, didn’t you, Ernie?”
“Fuck you, bastard.”
That word. Bastard. I see it turn something in Danny, just like it has so many times before. But he doesn’t go psycho. Instead, he calmly kneels and takes Ernie’s hand, splaying his fingers on the floor. Then he rests the knife on his little finger and starts sawing back and forth, making Ernie squeal like a pig. I look away, sickened by the sight. The screams go on and on, piercing and shrill, forcing Danny to stuff a napkin in Ernie’s mouth to muffle the sound, and Brad and Ringo to become extra watchful at their posts, looking out for any men who may come to investigate.
When I look back to Danny, he’s pushing Ernie’s little finger into his mouth to join the napkin. “Say goodbye, Ernie.” Danny stands, his body trembling and sweating, and he holds the knife out to me. I stare at him, stunned. “Never hesitate to kill someone who’s hurt you,” he murmurs. His words are like a shot of life and purpose, and I slowly stand, walking forward. I take the knife from Danny’s hand, adrenalin burning my bloodstream. “In the neck. The chest. Take your pick.” Danny takes up position behind me, sliding his palm down my arm until he’s at my hand, steadying it. His mouth falls onto my nape, kissing me gently. “I. Love. You.”
I close my eyes briefly. He was telling me before. When he bowed my head and whispered in my hair, he was telling me that he had it all under control. I step forward, raising the knife.
Ernie spits out his mouthful of napkin and flesh. “You kill me, you’ll never know where your son is.”
My arm freezes, and my breath abandons me. A spark of hope threatens to light my world. “You know where he is?”
“Of course I know. Every baby I sold was filed. How do you think Dimitri got the photos?”
I swing around to face Danny, finding him shaking his head mildly. I step back as his lip curls