Mo
I’D NEVER BEEN in a situation like this before. I’d heard about it, I’d witnessed it, but I’d never lived through it, wasn’t so sure I was going to live through it now. Tex was still bleeding from getting shot in the leg, though by the way he had staggered towards me I imagined it wasn’t as bad as I first assumed. Not that it mattered since he had a freaking knife sticking out of his shot-up leg at the moment.
“So this is fun.” Tex spat out blood onto the cold cement floor, more blood dripped down his chin.
“I agree!” Another slap from his Uncle, followed by laughter. “I’m having the time of my life.”
Tex’s head fell back against the chair for a moment before he blinked in my direction. Blood caked his entire face, but his gaze was unwavering. I held onto the look he gave me, I cherished it, pulled it close and prayed that God would deliver us from the hell hole we were in. One thing I was hopeful for? That they wouldn’t kill us, that they weren’t that stupid, but that didn’t mean I’d escape with all of my limbs attached to my body.
“Twenty years!” his uncle shouted. “Twenty years I’ve waited to take my rightful spot, and your father was this close!” He held out his fingers in front of Tex’s face. “So very close to naming me his second. He was tired, he was ready to step down, and you go and kill him!”
“Aw, shit man.” Tex shook his head. “So you weren’t smart enough to get it in writing or something? Pity.”
His Uncle screamed and punched him in the gut. Tex gagged as his body convulsed. “I am Alfonso Campisi, and I will be the next in line.”
Then he burst out laughing, his head hanging a bit like he didn’t have strength to lift it. “Holy shit, you could have totally starred in Gladiator, ‘I am Alfonso Campisi!’” His voice mimicked Alfonso’s to perfection.
“This—” Alfonso pulled the knife from Tex’s thigh. “—is no game.”
“Good, I freaking hate Monopoly.”
Alfonso lifted the knife into the air. Tex had finally pushed him too far.
“Stop!” I yelled. “Please, just stop!”
The hand holding the knife paused in the middle of the downward stroke as Alfonso looked in my direction. Tex groaned and shook his head at me. The knife impaled itself again into his leg, Tex let out a string of expletives as Alfonso started making his way towards me. I instantly regretted my decision.
“So.” He unchained me, then grabbed me by the hair and dragged me towards Tex. “You must love him… with all your heart?”
“Yes,” I whispered. “Desperately.”
“Then you’ll do anything to secure his safety.”
Yeah, I already had and looked how that worked out. “Naturally.” I lifted my chin and spat in Alfonso’s face. “He’s ten times the man you’ll ever be.”
“So now you challenge my manhood?” Alfonso grinned. “How about I take you up on the offer then?”
“Offer?” I squinted as the light above Alfonso’s head flickered in my line of vision.
“To save your love…” Alfonso tilted his head and reached out, cupping my chin with his fingers, his thumb caressed my lower lip. “What will you give me?”
“Hell no!” Tex shouted, his voice filled with gravel. “I’d rather die than see her breathe the same air as you.”
“That—” Alfonso dropped my chin and sneered at Tex. “—can be arranged.”
“Boss!” One of the men was talking on his phone in hushed tones. “Boss!”
“What!” Alfonso roared.
The guard held up the phone. “Problem.”
Cursing, Alfonso wiped his hands on the rag from the metal table. “Fine, it will give the couple time to say goodbye.”
With a laugh he followed the guard out the door. I slumped against Tex’s chair. “What do you need?”
“Well since you’re taking orders, a hamburger and fries would be killer.” Tex sighed. “Or maybe a milkshake? Yeah I’m changing my order, chocolate milkshake, stat.”
“Tex.” My voice shook. “I can’t joke right now. I can’t, not when you’re bleeding, not when you could almost die, not—”
“I’m not blood,” he said in a hollow voice. “Does it matter to the Abandonato princess what happens to me?”
I awkwardly staggered to my feet and grabbed the rag from the table, wiping his face as I answered, “The same could be said of me, I wiped across his lips, the blood had already started to dry, I’m not blood, what does it matter to the Campisi heir?”
Tex’s eyes fluttered closed for a brief second before opening, nailing me to the spot, consuming my very heartbeat, making my pulse do nothing but scream his name. “It matters.”
I nodded, touching the rag to the corner of his mouth. “It matters.”
I wasn’t sure if untying him would get us in more trouble, so I did the next best thing. I leaned down and kissed him.
Our mouths met in a frenzy.
He tasted like blood.
Which meant he was alive.
My Tex was alive.
And he was mine.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
When all hell breaks loose all you can really do is hold on and maybe close your eyes.
Sergio
“START AT THE BEGINNING.” Nixon paced in front of me, waving his gun wildly in the air. You know, the gun that he didn’t even have a safety on. When it pointed to my face I sighed and leaned back in my chair. We’d been over it for the past hour. Each detail.
And we still had nothing.
“Clearly I was taken from behind,” I mumbled, embarrassed that I had been taken at all and horrified that someone was able to even sneak by our men, which made me wonder what the hell type of people the Campisis actually were.
Nixon sat the gun at the table and sat in the chair next to me. “Where would he take them? He wouldn’t be stupid enough to kill them.”
Luca and Frank remained silent as they stared at the table. Yeah the table wasn’t going to help us folks. Then again, maybe they were just getting too old for this shit.
I ran my hands through my hair. “Mo they’ll let live.”
The room fell silent except for the hum of the fridge and the ticking of the Grandfather clock in the hallway.
Chase drummed his fingertips against the table and pulled out his phone. “Does she have her cell?”