Page 134 of Ruthless God

“Then we have to hold them off until then.”

“How?” he asked, looking hopeless. I didn’t fucking know. Romeo appeared to my left. He looked unharmed for the most part. No blood on his body.

“Matteo and the girls?”

“I have the girls hidden in the far corner of the warehouse. They’re not out of sight completely, but it would take time for any of the fuckers to find them. And Matteo is with them, guarding them.”

My fists clenched. It wasn’t enough. If anything happened to Matteo or Giulia… or Luna… Fuck, I would burn down the world until there wasn’t one single fucking Russian left.

“What’s the plan?” Romeo asked, looking at me.

Elio was looking at me, too, but I didn’t have one. I didn’t fucking know.

“Did Boris come here or Anatoly?” I asked.

“I saw Boris going at it with a machete to the left of us earlier. The fucker is in a blood frenzy. I don’t think he cares who he kills, just that he gets to kill someone.”

I nodded. “Perfect. That makes him easy picking.” I pointed to Elio. “Find Andre. I want his head. Bring him to me, dead or alive.”

I knew the fucker was here. He was still trying to prove himself, both to the Russians and to the men who had betrayed Emilio to follow him.

“Romeo will look for Cameron O’Connor. And Boris is mine. We get them, and we’ll have the advantage. Outnumbered or not. It gives us some time before the men arrive.”

My brothers nodded and went their separate ways. I watched them for half a second. It didn’t matter how much I had trained them, how many years had passed, and how many battles we fought in—it never got easier for me to see them leave, especially with the knowledge that something might happen to them.

I focused my thoughts on the task at hand. Now was not the time to get distracted.

I headed to the left of where Elio had pointed, moving through the crowd and shooting at any fucker brave enough to try and take me on.

A big fucker got in my path. I stopped and looked at him. Fucker was only a few inches taller than me, and he was wide.

He grinned, showing off an ugly row of yellow teeth. “There’s a big price on your head, De Luca.”

“And you think you’re going to be the stupid fucker to get it?”

Heat bloomed on his cheeks, and with a yell, he rushed toward me. I easily dodged out of the way, twisting around and kicking the back of his knee and watching the fucker go down. He screamed and tried to get up. I was on his back, not giving him the chance, and pointed my gun at his temple. The fucker froze.

I shook my head. “You still think you can get that price?”

He opened his mouth just as I fired the shot, watching as his blood splattered all over the ground.

My mistake was not watching my back. Something hit me against my side, causing me to lose my balance and fumble to the ground next to the big fucker’s body. I groaned and looked up to see Boris grinning down at me.

“Are you surprised, Massimo?” he asked, kicking me in the side of my stomach. I curled in on myself, flexing the hand I hadholding the gun, only to realize it was no longer there. I must have lost it when the fucker tackled me to the ground. “You were so nice, showing up at my wedding and congratulating me on my marriage; I thought it would only be right if I showed up to your home state.”

“How fucking generous of you,” I gritted out as the fucker yanked me up by the front of my shirt. He smiled, pulled his hand back, and punched me.

I felt my head fly back from the impact as I fell to the ground once more. I tasted metal in my mouth and felt something wet and warm drip down my nose. It didn’t feel broken, but there was no doubt the fucker had done some damage.

“Yup, that’s me,” he said, laughing. “Generous as fuck. It’s a shame, really, that the De Luca Famiglia didn’t approach us first before Andre did. I would much rather work with you than fucking Andre Lombardi. Has the fucker always talked that much?”

I laughed. “You’re pretty talkative now.”

He pulled back once more, holding me close to him. “You’re right about that. What can I say? I always wanted to make friends with you.”

“Yeah?” I asked. I slammed my head against his nose. The fucker let go of me and backed away a few steps but didn’t fall. “I have enough friends.”

I grabbed his shoulder and brought my knee up to his stomach a couple of times, hearing that satisfied crunch that told me I might have fractured a rib or two.

---