deceased friend Levi here.”
Giraldo starts to yell something as Dujar aims the gun at him, but the yell is cut off by the sound of the gunshot.
Just like that, he’s dead.
Angelo’s hands immediately snap up, covering my ears and softly turning my head away. I clamp my hands over his, pressing them closer to my ears, but I don’t let him turn my gaze all the way away.
“I hate rats,” Dujar sighs, curling his lip at Giraldo’s corpse. He barks something in Albanian. Artan and three other men start carrying both corpses into the next room. Then Dujar pours three drinks and slides two across to me and Angelo. He raises his own, as though he’s giving a toast. “Drink!”
After seeing him take a sip, I drink, mostly just to calm my quivering nerves. My leg wound is pulsing blood, but slower now, so I know it hasn’t hit an artery. That’s just dumb luck right there. Otherwise, I might be dead already. I feel lightheaded, though, and have to grip onto Angelo’s thigh to steady myself.
We meet eyes in the middle of the mayhem. He looks sad and mournful, and yet still defiant. It’s the familiar rage I’ve seen in him since we first met, but it’s somehow more focused now, more mature. He looks like an older man. Like his father, almost. Their blue-green eyes have the same kind of tempered fury.
Dujar looks between us, grinning, clearly enjoying this. I’m guessing he’s been trying to outmaneuver Angelo for a long time, and now that he’s got his chance, he’s going to draw every drop of sadistic pleasure from it.
“What was that?” he laughs.
“What?” Angelo growls, shifting. I can tell he wants to do a million violent things to Dujar.
“That look you just exchanged. It touched my heart.” He barks in Albanian, and all around us, men laugh. “I did not take you for a romantic, Angelo. I thought this whore was just your fake wife?”
“Whore,” I laugh harshly, shaking my head. “Ten points for sexism.”
Dujar just chuckles. “Some fight in her, eh? My men will like that. I could have them take her, you know, one by one, as you watch. What do you think about that, Angelo? You’re not so high and mighty now, are you? Talking down to me like I’m beneath you, like I wasn’t in this life long before you were even a drop at the end of your stupid father’s limp cock.”
Angelo growls, “Is this about money? Territory? Or something else? Let’s talk business, if you want to talk business. But this shit—this fucking talking just for the sake of it—it’s starting to bore me.”
“You don’t like it when I insult her, do you? What about this?” Dujar casually points his gun at me.
I flinch, and Angelo sucks in a breath. “Don’t fucking point that at her,” Angelo says. “I swear to God, Dujar! Ti ammazzo, cazzo!” I’ll fucking kill you.
Dujar just keeps the gun pointed at me. He’s loving this. Finally, he lowers it, rocking back on his heels and looking from me to Angelo and back again. “You really love this woman,” he says. “Angelo De Maggio, a man in love. I wouldn’t believe it if I didn’t see it with my own eyes. Tell her you love her, Angelo.”
“I’m not doing a fucking thing you say—”
He raises the gun. “Tell her you love her.”
Angelo turns to me. “I love you,” he says. I can hear the sincerity in his voice, despite the circumstances. “That’s the truth, Dani. Even if this fucker wasn’t making me say it, it wouldn’t change anything. I love you more than anything. And I want you to be my wife, but for real this time.”
I blink back tears, overcome with emotion, the pain of my leg wound and the stress making me feel giddy in a warped kind of way. “I love you,” I whisper. “I love you so fucking much. I want that, too.”
“Ah, enough! My heart is going to break.” Dujar tilts his head from side to side. “The question remains, however: what are we going to do with you two?”
“Let us go?” I sass, forcing a vicious grin onto my face. “You can’t really think you’re going to get away with this. Because even if you kill us, do you really think the De Maggio family is going to forget it?”
Angelo flinches, but then a smile touches his lips. I can tell he’s shocked that I’d use his name as a weapon, but