Page 60 of Savage Poet

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I breathed in deep. It was good to be home despite the fact it felt like I left every piece of me back in the room with the tiny girl with bright blue hair. Vito picked up Johnny and me from the private hanger at O’Hare and it wasn’t long before we noticed the dark SUV tailing not far behind,

“They think they can tail me? On our home turf? Fuck that!” Johnny grinned as he checked his clip and slid the wrack.

I crouched down so no one could blow my head off and undid my gun holstered by my ankle. “It’s so fucking on!” Vito cut the wheel and we exited the freeway, banging left and right turns as the SUV followed in hot pursuit.

“Get down!” Johnny barked, as he noticed the passenger in the car behind us lower their window and started firing. The first spray of bullets ricocheted off the back glass.

Our SUV’s glass was bulletproof, so they lowered and went for or tires. “Turn! They are trying for the tires!” Johnny roared.

Vito turned and hit the gas; the SUV tottered on two wheels I crashed into Johnny throwing all my weight to the opposite side hoping to stop a rollover. When the car tipped back on all four wheels, I lowered the window next to me, aimed for their gas tank and emptied my entire clip.

“Fuck!” Vito roared as the explosion of the car behind us rocked ours. He lost control and we hit a row of parking meters and cars but kept going. Our tires blew, but we didn’t stop. Sirens were wailing all around us.

“We gotta dump out here!”

Vito entered an underground garage. Johnny loaded another clip and shot out the security cameras. I took off my suit coat, ripped off my shirt and dipped the white linen fabric into our own gas tank. Pulling it out halfway, I took out my lighter and lit the fabric as we ran. Our shoes smacked against the pavement as we ran for cover before the blast would blow us off our own feet.

Vito opened the door to the nearest stairwell, and we made it inside just as the friggin’ car exploded. The blast sounded like a warplane dropping a bomb.

“That was a bit dramatic,” Johnny drawled.

I shrugged. “We couldn’t leave prints.” Then I slid out my burner and texted Geno that we needed a safe pick up and to move to our underground bunker until further notice.

I holstered my gun, ran a hand through my hair and straightened my suit. We rolled out of there like three executives who could give two fucks about the sirens and screaming people.

We walked a few blocks then waited under a nondescript awning. Like clockwork, Geno rolled up to a stop and we got in the car.

“You just killed Vince’s top dog. He’s pissed AF.”

“Fine. He started this.”

“No, actually you did when you murdered Constantine and cleared out half of the Castellione cash.”

“I’m not done with that family yet. Where’s my bride?”

“Change of plans. Vince wants you in Palermo.”

“Guess that punk has no balls after all. He can’t face me on our turf, so he had to run home to the five families and hide behind their skirts,” I scoffed.

“Fuck it! A trip to the homeland it is. I wanna see this bridezilla of yours anyway.” I pinched the bridge of my nose feeling a massive headache coming on Johnny is such a fucktard sometimes. “Fine. We go to Palermo. It’s my ground zero anyway.”

Johnny grinned like a mother fucker and made the calls to the jet and his crew in New York. We were going and bringing a kick-ass killing crew with us.

I walked in the darkness—somethingI was used to but hadn’t done for a while. I never had problems seeing in the dark either. Maybe it’s because my eyes glow. Maybe I was born part man, part monster. Hell, I’d believe it.

So many things happened in these walls. So many people that once roamed them were now ghosts themselves.

Everything was just how I had left it.

The dishes were still on the table.

Clothes still hung in closets.

Only the office where I had taken down my uncle was cleaned, although layers of dust covered everything.

“Ashes to ashes… dust to dust,” I murmured, as my finger ran along with the old books in my father’s study.

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