Page 91 of The Red Queen

Finally, the door gave, and she was able to shove Giovanni out just as Antonio wrenched the other door open. He pointed his gun at her, and Desi glared at him as she prepared for death, but rather than kill her, he swung the gun around, spraying the front seats with bullets.

Desi screamed as Dino and the driver were each struck several times. Dino grunted and slumped in his seat.

Desi didn’t have time to think. She snatched up one of the guns Giovanni had dropped and dove toward the open door, covering Giovanni’s body with hers. Antonio gripped her by the leg and dragged her backwards through the other door, away from Giovanni.

Where were the other fucking men? Then she saw them. Their SUV had been hit and the force shoved it beneath the tail of the airplane. Two of the men were pinned down behind the plane’s landing gear as bullets flew around them.

She couldn’t help them.

Antonio lifted her up against the side of the car and hit her so hard in the side of the head with his gun that her vision went black, and she started to collapse. The gun she’d been clutching dropped to the pavement. Antonio picked her up and dragged her towards a waiting car.

She needed to fight, but she couldn’t get her limbs to cooperate. Her vision blurred and lethargy crept through her.

Motherfucker, she didn’t have time for this. She needed to kill Antonio and whoever was working with him then get back to Giovanni, make sure he was okay, then come back and put another dozen bullets in Antonio for killing Dino.

Antonio propped her up against the side of the car and dragged the door open, then shoved Desi inside.

“Move!” he snarled at the driver as soon as he cleared the doorframe.

The car jolted forward and hurtled down the tarmac. Desi twisted in her seat, trying to see Giovanni. She saw smoke coming from the limo, but no Gio.

“What the fuck are you doing!” she screamed, turning to look at Antonio, who was holding a gun on her, a manic expression of glee on his face. “You just killed your father!”

She didn’t know if Giovanni was dead or alive, but she had to think alive or she wouldn’t be able to function and get herself and her baby out of this situation.

“He was no father to me,” Antonio snarled.

“Whatever you think, he loved you,” she said, knowing it was true, knowing this was the only reason Antonio was still alive, despite all he’d done to destroy the Savino family.

“He didn’t love me enough to give me a good childhood and a piece of his empire,” Antonio replied angrily. “Now I’m taking the only thing he cares about. My replacement.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“The baby.” He pointed his gun at her stomach, and she felt the icy fingers of fear crawl through her.

She had to shake it off. She couldn’t allow the terror she felt for her unborn child to blind her.

“You would kill your own brother or sister?” she asked, trying to appeal to any sense of humanity he might have. She should have known better. He wasn’t capable of humanity.

“Si, and happily.”

“You’re disgusting,” she spat. “Why don’t you just do it now if you’re going to kill me and the baby, anyway.”

“Oh no,” he said with maniacal glee. “I want this baby alive and breathing when I destroy it and take everything that was meant for him.”

Desi had seen enough evil in her life to know when she was looking into the face of the devil. There would be no reaching Antonio, no point in trying. It was time for her stepson to die.

She lunged at him, taking him by surprise. She gripped his gun hand and slammed it into the window behind him. As he fought to free his arm, she turned her head and sank her teeth into his neck, biting down until she tasted blood.

He screamed and punched her in the side of her head. Their proximity stopped the hit from being too hard, but it was enough to jar her teeth from his flesh.

They fought to control the gun, Desi using every fighting technique she’d ever learned, slamming her knees into his body, and hammering him in the side of his head with an elbow. He got in a good few hits, trying to use strength over skill to subdue her, but Desi knew how to protect herself, twisting so she took a fist in the back of the shoulder and another in her thigh.

She absorbed each hit and kept fighting, doing her best to protect her belly. The driver and the passenger were both turned around, shouting and reaching for them. One got hold of Desi’s hair, but she didn’t care. He could rip every strand from her head. She wasn’t allowing Antonio to leave the airport alive.

“If you want to die so bad, then so be it!” Antonio screamed, spittle flying from his lips.

He used his superior strength to overcome her tight grip and aimed the gun at her head. His finger tightened on the trigger.

---