Page 537 of Sinfully Savage Mafia

“Fuck goodwill. I’d like to stay in one piece instead of having my body parts fly all over the Vegas Strip.”

“Make sure someone cleans my shit up in case that happens, yeah?” I take a deep breath and push open the car door. I open the door, hold my breath, and turn on the car, my eyes squeezed shut.

No explosion follows.

Must be my lucky day.

Lily hops out of the car and jumps into my front seat. I look at her, my eyebrows knitted.

“You didn’t think I was going to let you go alone, did you?” she asks, her dark eyes wide.

“Nah, you’ve made it pretty clear you’re a glutton for punishment,” I say in a teasing voice. Funny how just being around her makes me feel calm when I really should be shitting bricks about the fact that there are some very brutal killers hunting me right now.

Because there’s no way that’s fiction.

And the more I think about Lily’s theory, the more I’m convinced that those bullets last night were supposed to hit and killme.

I’m the one who took a life.

Messina believes I need to give it back…in the form of my own.

I grit my teeth as I pull away from the curb. I did what I had to do. I killed the guy who was gonna kill Salesi’s daughter, the same guy whose father came after my family. I snuffed out the threat to our organizations and to our families.

It was a win-win, for us.

But for Messina?

It was a devastating loss, one that he’s gonna try to reverse.

Howis the big question.

I know two things. It’ll be big and it’ll be very soon.

He’s waited too long as it is. This is the perfect time and place. Everyone who tried to destroy him will be in one place in a few days at that syndicate meeting.

One place.

I press my foot on the gas, speeding down the strip toward the Excelsior. I need to find Bruno and Sergio and figure out what the hell we need to do next.

“I’m scared,” Lily says in a soft voice, lacing her fingers with mine as I clutch the floor shift.

“You? Scared?” I force a chuckle. “I don’t believe it.”

“I haven’t felt this way in a long time,” she says. “Since I’ve been out here, I guess I’ve had a false sense of security, like all of the criminal stuff is back east and I’m safe here. Away from it all. But it turns out I’m not. I never was, I just tried to convince myself otherwise.” She sighs. “This is why I left, Zeno. Because I was tired of looking over my shoulder. Because I needed a life, my own life on my terms where I could breathe. For so many years, I felt like I was suffocating.”

I stomp my foot on the brake at a red light. “Hey,” I murmur, turning to look at her pale face. “You are strong. So goddamn strong, it’s making me hard right now just thinking about you kneeing that guy in the balls last night.” I snicker. “Okay, I know that sounds weird. But that fierce bitch attitude is hot as hell, Lily. You’ve got it. And I know you feel like it’s slipping away right now, but it’s inside of you. It always will be. But you need to hang onto it, especially today because I won’t lie. We’re up against a dangerous enemy and if we’re gonna defeat it, you need to bring that badass along for the ride.”

She nods, her eyes wide. “Okay,” she mutters. “Light’s green.”

I peek upward and slam my foot on the gas, taking off like a shot. When I get to the porte-cochère leading up to the hotel, I swing my car around to the valet and screech to a halt next to the curb. I jump out of the car and run past the head valet, Caesar. “C, keep it close, yeah? I’ll need it soon.”

Caesar salutes me. “No problem, Zeno.”

I pull open Lily’s door, grab her hand, and practically drag her toward the glass revolving doors, Aldo and Chloe close behind. I scout the lobby once we’re inside of the hotel but Rayleigh is nowhere to be found.

I dial Sergio’s number and let out a breath when he answers. “Jesus, Serge, I’ve been trying to get to you for hours. Where the hell have you been?”

“Running a hotel, Zeno. I’ve been in and out of meetings today and I had an event at the restaurant last night. What the hell is so urgent?”

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