Page 556 of Sinfully Savage Mafia

A few hisses and expletives later, and he’s finally close enough that I can climb on top of him and snatch the nail. I step onto his leg and he winces. “Just do it. Hurry.”

I hoist myself up and balancing my weight on his legs, I lean closer to the wall…close enough that I can grab the nail. My fingers close around it, and just as I’m about to stick it into the lock suspending my arms in mid-air, I lose my balance. I stick out my arms, trying to regain it, and then Gallo lets out an anguished yell. The chair falls backward and Gallo crashes to the floor with me on top of him.

He lets out a savage roar and I roll off of him. Dammit! They’ll be here soon. There’s no way they didn’t hear that noise and I’m running out of?—

The door slams open, the metal cracking against the wall.

Time.

Messina stomps toward Gallo who is writhing on the floor in pain. “What the fuck happened?” he screams.

“I guess that was his way of telling you he needs to take a piss,” I say with a shrug, trying to sound flippant when my heart is actually lodged in my throat. I clutch the nail tight in my fist, but not tight enough to break the skin. I’ve got enough problems right now. I don’t need tetanus on top of them.

Messina isn’t amused.

He walks up to me and like a flash of lightning, his fist connects with my jaw. The pain shoots straight up to my eye socket, and the entire right side of my face feels like it’s engulfed in flames.

But a little anguish never keeps me down for long. I try to find the keyhole, sticking the nail in every crevice I can find. My fingers start to sweat, and the rust is the only reason why I still have somewhat of a grip on the nail right now.

Come on, come on, come on!

Still nothing.

“If you try to fuck with me, Zeno,” Messina seethes. “The agony you’ll experience will be beyond your worst nightmares.”

“Actually, your breath is causing me plenty of pain right now. I feel like you’re hissing toxic flames into my eyes. It’s really gonna get worse than that?”

Another punch shatters my nose and I let out a loud groan, the pain shooting up to my brain.

“You stupid fuck,” Messina grunts, hovering over me, waving a 9mm in my face before doing an about-face and walking over to Gallo who is still groaning on the floor. “Everything that happens from now on is all on you, Zeno. You should have been smart enough to just bend over and deal with the ass-plugging. But you decided to play superhero for your family, and now the villain is about to win and take over the goddamn universe. You won’t be able to stop it.”

The hell I won’t.

Now I have a weapon. A disease-infested one, no doubt.

“Leave him alone, Messina,” I growl. “You deal withmeon this.”

That’s right. Just come a little bit closer, dickhead.

Lemme show you just how much worse it’s gonna get…foryou.

Bang! Crack! Pop!

An ear-splitting roar erupts from my lips.

No!

Fuckno!

CHAPTER24

LILY

“Sergio! Are you fucking crazy?” I hiss, grabbing the arm that didn’t just fire his gun. The enormous guy, a bodyguard of some sort from the looks of it, goes down hard and fast like a cement block to the bottom of the ocean. He was the first guard we stumbled upon when we crept into Route 66 Fuel.

“Listen, Lil,” he says in a low gruff voice. “That’s how you get shit moving. These assholes will scatter like roaches if they hear a shot. They’re gonna come running and boom! That’s when we take them out, one by one. Now get the fuck down unless you want to be the next one to get your head blown off.”

Bruno pulls me back so that I’m next to Chloe, shielded by his back. She squeezes my hand tight like she’s afraid someone is going to reach out and snatch her.

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