Page 67 of Broken Mafia Prince
The first man charges at me, and I manage to shoot him, but not before the second guy knocks the gun out of my hand. As he lunges for me, I sidestep, raise my elbow, and smash it into his windpipe with everything I’ve got. He staggers back, crashing into the glass table behind him, shattering it into jagged shards. The whole floor becomes a treacherous minefield.
Ignoring the sting in my palm, I grab a piece of glass, feeling it slice into my skin as I drive it into his chest—deeply—until he stops moving.
A sharp blow slams into my stomach, knocking the air from my lungs. I double over, and before I can react, the third guy sweeps my legs out from under me. I hit the ground hard, shardsof glass biting into my skin. Pain flares, but I grit my teeth and try to push myself up.
Before I can regain my footing, a rough hand grips a fistful of my hair, yanking my head back. I barely register the burn before he shoves me toward the wall, aiming to smash my face into it.
I hold out my hands to stop my face from smashing into the wall, and slip under his arm, grabbing it and twisting it behind his back. He lets out a scream as his shoulder pops. The man steps back, and we tumble to the ground, his weight dropping on me.
I cry out in pain, but before the man can slip away, I wrap my legs around him to lock him in place and slip a hand under his jaw, tightening with all my might. The man begins to choke, fighting for air, hands flailing and trying to claw at my face, but still, I hold on. From the corner of my eye, I see Father snapping the last man’s neck.
He picks up his gun from the floor and looks over at me. “Need help?”
“I’ve got it,” I grunt.
The man in my arms shudders one more time and then goes still. I check his neck for a pulse, and when I don’t find one, I fall back onto the floor, panting, my heart pounding in my chest.
“We can’t stay here tonight,” Father points out the obvious as soon as he steps back into the house after doing a sweep of the yard. “We don’t know if more of them are on their way.”
“I’ll go get dressed and stay at Isa’s.” I climb to my feet.
“We should go to my penthouse in the city.”
“That place looks like the Bat Cave, Father. It’s creepy. I’ll just stay with Isa instead.”
He glances over at me, taking in the cuts on my body. “Get those cleaned up first.”
Over an hour later, I’m stumbling into my cousin’s apartment, ignoring her horrified stare. I make my way to herkitchen and pull out a bottle of whiskey, opening it and gulping down some of it, enjoying the burn that spreads down my chest.
“Start talking now.” When I peek over the bottle, I see Isabella with her hands parked on her waist and looking less than impressed by my sudden presence. “First, you go off to meet with that man, and then you ghost me, then show up here looking like something the cat dragged in. You’d better start talking, Giulia.”
I sigh, rubbing a hand over the back of my neck to suit the tension building there. “You might want to sit down for this.”
She obediently takes a seat on one of the stools, and after another gulp of the burning whiskey, I give her a detailed recap of everything that’s happened from the moment I left her apartment until now. I carefully exclude the kiss, deciding that part is best kept to myself.
“I don’t trust that Raffaele one bit,” she tells me after I’m done. “But it seems he has access to a lot of information that you might need. Information that can help you.”
“What are you suggesting?”
“I say you use him.” She shrugs. “He has what you want, and he doesn’t know what you’re capable of. Why not pretend to be his ally in this fight against the Syndicate and get what you want?”
“But…” I trail off. The truth is that it’s a brilliant idea, except for the brief problem that is the fact that I’m supposed to be avoiding him so as not to have a repeat of that kiss. I can’t tell my cousin that since she doesn’t know about the kiss.
“What do you say, Giulia? This is your chance to be a part of whatever is going on instead of just being a pawn or an afterthought. Do you really trust your father to keep you in the loop?”
No, I don’t. If I want to be in the loop, I have to put myself in it, and what better way than an alliance with Raffaele.
I’m about to make the biggest mistake of my life.
“You’re right, Isa.” I nod resolutely. This affects my life, and I can’t continue letting Father make decisions for me while driven by his revenge. “It’s time to take control of my life.”
22
RAFFAELE
No matter how much I command my brain to figure out the Echelon Syndicate’s motives and how my father plays into it, I still find myself thinking about the kiss. The kiss that should never have happened. The kiss that’s easily the best damn kiss I’ve had in my life.
What was I thinking?
