Page 44 of The Red Queen

“Takes more than a bullet to stop me,” Dino grunted, his words slurring.

Another bullet slammed into the car on the opposite side.

Giovanni leapt from the car, pulling his gun from its holster and crouching near the bumper. He looked around the side, trying to see who was shooting at them and where they were situated. A bullet hit the trunk next to his face, forcing him to retreat.

His men were crouched behind the car as well, attempting to return fire without hitting any of the people screaming and running on the sidewalk.

“Where is the fucker?” Giovanni snarled.

“Looks like he’s on the fourth floor of the building across the street.”

“Tiny, you go up, the rest of us will cover you.” Giovanni snapped out the order, knowing he was putting one of his best men at serious risk. They had to stop the shooter before he either hit one of them again or got away.

“Tell me when, boss.” Tiny crouched near the front the bumper of the car, preparing to launch himself out. Tiny was literally tiny compared to the rest of Giovanni’s men. He’d give the shooter a smaller target as he darted across the street, and Tiny would climb the stairs faster than any of the rest of them.

“Now!” Giovanni shouted.

He and the other guards took shots at the fourth floor of the apartment complex opposite them, aiming at the open window where they believed the shots were coming from.

Tiny made it across the street and hurtled directly toward the building, shooting out the glass door to ensure his entrance through what would have been a locked door. Giovanni winced. They were breaking the cardinal rule of the annual meeting; don’t draw attention to the Cosa Nostra while visiting the host city.

Giovanni had little choice, though. He wasn’t going to die on a sidewalk without putting up a fight.

An image of Desi flashed through his mind, sitting on the patio with him, sipping her coffee and watching him with those gorgeous, dark eyes. He couldn’t keep her safe if he wasn’t alive. She could be next to die if he succumbed and he wouldn’t allow that, not in this life or the next.

He had no doubt whatsoever his idiot of a son had set this up. The boy wanted him out of the way before he had time to marry Desi. Vitto had called Giovanni after Desi’s shopping trip, giving him a word-for-word rundown of her confrontation with Antonio. Giovanni had been proud of her when he’d heard, but deeply ashamed of himself. Of the son he’d raised.

Seconds later, they saw the flash of gunfire coming from within the room where the shooter had hidden. The flashes stopped and a moment later, Tiny leaned out the window and waved at them.

Giovanni stood and leaned into the car, inspecting Dino. “Where’s the bullet?”

“Shoulder,” Dino said with a grimace.

Giovanni knelt in the car and reached for his second-in-command. He yanked Dino’s tie down, then quickly unbuttoned his crisp white shirt, now stained with blood, shoving it over the injured shoulder.

Dino grunted in pain but remained still while Giovanni inspected the wound. “Lean forward.”

Dino did as instructed.

Giovanni looked at the exit wound, then helped Dino lay back down. “Good news. The shot went straight through and didn’t hit anything serious. Looks like the bleeding is slowing.” He reached for the white bar towel and turned to the man hovering behind him. “Use this to stem the bleeding.”

He climbed out of the car and stood, straightening his suit. There was blood on his hands, in his rings and on his previously immaculate suit.

“Move the car,” he instructed his other man. “We don’t want to be here when thepoliziaarrives.”

His man nodded and closed the limo door before jogging around to the driver’s seat. The wailing of emergency vehicles could be heard in the distance. There was no help for it, he had to move quickly if he wanted to avoid them, but he needed to see the shooter. Confirm his suspicions.

Antonio could have hired an unknown to take out his father, but Giovanni didn’t think so. Antonio was reactive. He would’ve talked to the people around him and hired within his circle, same as he’d done when he’d put out a hit on Raina.

He strode across the street, his shoes crunching on the broken glass as he entered the building. A woman sat crouched next to a desk, her arms over her head, her eyes wide with terror.

Giovanni shook his head at her. “It’s over now, you will come to no harm.”

He didn’t wait to see if she picked herself up off the floor, but jerked open the door to the stairwell and climbed the stairs to the fourth floor. Looking down the hall, he saw a room facing the street with the door open.

The lights were off, but there was a glow from the streetlights below. He saw them immediately. Tiny was crouched over a form on the floor that wasn’t much bigger than him. Giovanni was going to lose his shit if Antonio had hired a child.

“Do you recognize him?” Giovanni asked, approaching.

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