Page 539 of Sinfully Savage Mafia

“Holy shit!” he exclaims. “What the hell happened?”

Bruno grips the sides of his head and lets out a loud roar. “Shut the fucking door!”

A loud knock on the apartment door jolts me and I nod at Aldo to open it.

A minute later, Sergio storms into Bruno’s bedroom. He lifts an eyebrow. “I always figured you for a boxer guy, B.”

“Look, guys, we have a serious problem right now,” I say, shielding my eyes from Bruno’s studded undergarment. “But I really need you to put on some pants right now because I can’t concentrate with all of those studs flashing at me.”

Bruno grabs a pair of sweatpants and ducks into a corner for a quick change.

“Tell me, Zeno. Exactly what problem do we have? Or maybe I should ask what serious problem you caused for us now?” Sergio snaps.

“You know what, Serge? You have a right to be pissed off at what I did last night to those guys because it was stupid to go after those hackers by myself. I was angry and wanted to fix what they broke.”

“Oh yeah? And how’d that work out for you? How much deeper did you dig your grave?”

“Deep enough to find out who the hackers are working for and the real reason why Joe Salesi wanted me to go after Messina’s crew.”

Sergio furrows his brow. “Salesi? What does he have to do with the hackers?”

I rake a hand through my hair and pace over to the windows. “Those hackers weren’t just a bunch of genius kids from MIT looking to make a quick buck, Serge. They were hired by Domenico Messina. To come aftermebecause I killed his son.”

“You killed hisson?”

“I didn’t know it at the time. It was part of the arrangement my father made for this fucking syndicate. The hit was supposed to be a message to Messina to stop screwing with Salesi’s territories. All business.”

“Then you killed his son and made it personal,” Sergio grunts.

“Salesi didn’t tell my father the truth about the target because he was trying to protect his own ass. This whole thing started because his daughter Lily was almost kidnapped by Messina’s son, something I didn’t find out until last night. The same Lily I met on my first night out here. Salesi wanted the kidnappers dead but knew he couldn’t have that blood on his hands. So he delegated it to us, using the syndicate as his shield, and Papa jumped at the chance to cripple Messina. And with the promise of membership to the syndicate, it was a win-win. Or so he thought.”

Sergio narrows his eyes. “Something tells me that’s not the end of this story.”

“Much as I’d like to tell you you’re wrong, as fucking wrong as that shock jock Bruno has on, I can’t.” My shoulders deflate and I push back my hair. “Last night at the club, after the hackers basically told me Messina is on our asses, I ran into Lily again.”

He groans. “Don’t tell me you fucked around with her again after you were told not to.”

“Of course, I did. But that’s not my point. There was a shootout last night in the back parking lot of the club. Car full of guys wearing masks sprayed a sea of bullets at me, Bruno, Aldo, Lily, and her friend. We jumped ship and headed to her friend’s place to hide since coming back here would have brought a shit storm to the Excelsior.”

I lean back against a wall. “Lily thought the bullets were meant for her. But I realized they were for both of us.” My lips stretch into a tight line. “I killed hisson, Serge. And that asshole Salesi never let on who the real target was. I thought I was killing some low-level thugs.”

“Jesus,” Sergio mutters, sinking onto the mattress. “So now what?”

“We need to find the hackers. They can lead us to Messina. He needs to die. I’ve got a bad feeling about this syndicate meeting. All of us here together, at our hotel, with Messina here in Vegas. It’s not a coincidence. Something is gonna happen and we need to be the ones to stop it or else we’re all going up in smoke.” I let out a dry laugh. “All for one, yeah?”

Bruno walks toward us, rubbing the back of his skull. “I think you need to add one more person to your Most-Wanted list.”

“Tell me,” I growl.

“I woke up by myself in here,” he says. “Whenever the drugs wore off. It was dark and I couldn’t yell or move. Freaked me the fuck out. I didn’t know if I’d been gang-banged or what. The only thing that worked were my ears. I didn’t know if Rayleigh had left, and I couldn’t call for her, so I just listened. It was quiet for a few minutes, but then I heard voices. Guys. Right outside of my room. I figured they were there to tear my ass up with God only knows what devices. But they didn’t come inside. I caught little things here and there, never a full sentence. I heard them mention the word ‘bang’ but not much else that made sense. And then I heard Rayleigh again, talking about some meeting that went badly, that their client wasn’t happy. Said she had unfinished business to handle because nobody knows how to get a job done right. She sounded pissed.”

“Dammit, Bruno,” I say. “She’s withthem. She knew we were together at Bang last night and that you have security access.” I kick over a chair in my rage. “And I found out from Mike DeLuca this morning that she took off right after I called you this morning. Left the hotel. The big question is what the hell did she do after she drugged you?”

“We need to find her,” Sergio grumbles. “And next time,I’mgonna be the one dangling people over the side of the parking deck, starting with her skanky ass.”

“I have an address.” I narrow my eyes at Bruno. “You wanna get dressed or something? So I can have another image of you in my head? Please? Because I can still see the shock jock.” My phone rings and I grab it from my pocket. “Yeah?”

“Zeno, it’s Mike.”

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