Page 65 of Long Live the King
Dominic, too distracted by his fight with Jimmy to notice the huge bald man at the entrance, finally decides to stop the struggle. He lets go of Jimmy’s hand and swings a monstrous punch at the capo. Dominic’s fist lands on Jimmy’s jaw, sending him stumbling backwards, and Dominic knows if he hesitates, Jimmy may get the upper hand because of the wounds he suffered yesterday morning. So, he takes advantage of Jimmy’s loss of balance and hits him with another solid punch to the face, knocking Jimmy to the floor.
“Dominic, we need to go,” I scream as I recognize the bald man at the door to be the same guy who put the holes in Dominic in the first place. It’s Giovanni, and the goon that’s with him is already running towards us and only a few feet away.
The goon is a skinny Italian with a gun in his hand, running full speed when he collides with Dominic, sending them both crashing to the floor. I let out a scream as the goon gets up with quick reflexes and jumps on top of Dominic, gun in hand. He’s obviously underestimated Dominic though, because as he tries to aim his weapon, Dominic grabs a hold of it and pushes the barrel to his throat. He pulls the trigger and the lobby goes into a panicked frenzy at the sound of gunfire, while the goon falls to the floor with blood shooting out of his neck like a leak in a pressurized pipe. Dominic pushes the kid off of him and gets up like he hasn’t just shot a man through the neck.
“Time to go,” he says to me, as he takes me by the hand and leads me towards the back of the building. Security comes rushing towards us, so Dominic and I have to speed our way through the oceans of people just trying to go about their daily lives. We rush into the casino and weave through the slot machines and poker tables, but we can hear footsteps close behind us. I take a moment to glance backwards and see Giovanni in hot pursuit. Security must’ve stopped to check on Jimmy and the dead goon on the floor, but Victor’s hitman is still coming, trying not to draw too much attention to himself. Being as big as he is will do that all by itself.
After crashing into a waitress holding a tray of drinks, Dominic and I find a door in the back of the casino. It’s an emergency exit, but I think this qualifies as an emergency, and we push through it, setting off an alarm that blares through the gigantic building. The people behind us don’t know what’s going on, but they don’t waste a second heading for the exits, creating the perfect roadblock between us and Giovanni. As the door starts to close behind us, I steal a glance backwards and see the large man throwing bodies out of his way as he starts to run towards us.
“We have to go faster, Giovanni is coming,” I yell to Dominic, who does his best to pick up the pace. He struggles through the pain of the bullet hole in his leg and manages to break into a half-run, but the pain is obvious on his face.
After the casino, we find ourselves in an alley, because that’s just our luck. It’s dark and quiet, with large dumpsters on each side for the casinos that use it to discard trash. I can see the pain on Dominic’s face as we try to run towards the lights on the busy road at the end of the alley, and I know if we don’t take a quick break, we won’t make it there before Giovanni comes through the door right on top of us.
“Over here,” I say to Dominic, pulling him towards me.
We crouch down behind one of the dumpsters and hope we’ll have some luck on our side for once. Our breathing is heavy and my heart may give out any second now, but the rest is needed. Dominic is in excruciating pain, and I can see blood soaking through the back of his pants. River City is only a few blocks away, but Dominic is gonna need my help to make it there.
While I think of a way to get to the street to flag down a cab, I hear the door to the casino finally open. I can’t see who’s coming, but I know it’s Giovanni. He was faster when he came after us the first time, but maybe he knows Dominic is hurt so he doesn’t bother to waste his energy.
The footsteps stop as soon as the door closes. Giovanni is obviously searching for us, and I hold my breath, hoping he’ll just go back inside when he doesn’t see us. When I hear his footsteps start up again, coming towards us, I know we don’t have that much luck. The footsteps come closer, and I make eye contact with Dominic. He’s obviously weakened, but he’s about to make a move. I shake my head, telling him not to do it, but I see it in his eyes. The decision’s been made, and there’s no stopping Dominic once his mind is made up.
“How much of a bitch have you become, Dominic?” a voice says that I think I recognize. “Hiding with your girlfriend? Wow. I thought you were a boss.”
Dominic doesn’t respond verbally, but I watch him pull the nine millimeter out of the holster under his shirt. He moves slowly so he can’t be heard as the man walks past where we’re seated. We can both see the back of him now, and he definitely doesn’t look as big as Giovanni. I think it’s Jimmy, but I’m not sure, and Dominic doesn’t care.
Completely disregarding my hand on his arm, pleading with him to stay hidden, Dominic gets up and steps out from behind the dumpster. He aims the gun at the back of the man’s head and holds it there.
“Jimmy,” he says in a cold, uncaring tone. Jimmy stops in his tracks, but doesn’t turn around. He knows it’s over for him. “Who’s hiding?” Dominic says, just before he pulls the trigger and fires a bullet that enters the back of Jimmy’s head and exits the front of his face. Jimmy instantly collapses, and blood pools under his lifeless body at Dominic’s feet.
“I never fucking liked you anyway,” I hear Dominic say to Jimmy’s corpse as I step out from behind the dumpster and get an up close view of Jimmy’s body.
The two of us look down on him, and I’d usually feel regret over something like this, but I know if Dominic didn’t kill him, he gladly would have killed us. So, there’s no regret. There’s nothing at all. It’s us against the world, and I stand next to Dominic with pride. But it’s short-lived, because in an instant, the door behind me bursts open and Giovanni steps into the alley.
I feel his oversized arm wrap around my neck and I see the pistol he’s holding aiming at Dominic. His breath is heavy and labored, and his sweaty skin sickens me, but I’m frightened. I’m scared and pissed that he got the drop on us, but it happened, and I don’t know what we’re going to do to get out of this.
“Nice!” Giovanni exclaims loudly in my ear. “Thanks for taking care of Jimmy for me, Don Collazo. Nice gun too. Toss it, don’t fuck around,” Giovanni commands, and Dominic glares at him with fire blazing in his eyes as he tosses the gun at Giovanni’s feet.
“Good,” Giovanni says, satisfied with the ease of this whole situation. “I’ve gotta hand it to you, Dominic, you’re a tough motherfucker. But you were never ready to be a boss. You should’ve killed Jimmy as soon as you found out he took Victor’s truck in the first place, then this whole thing could’ve been avoided. Oh well, it is what it is, I guess. It’s nothing personal.”
Dominic glares at Giovanni, then he glances at me. We make eye contact for a split second, then Dominic looks down at the ground, signaling for me to try to get away by ducking under Giovanni’s arm. I give him the slightest nod to let him know I understand, just before he speaks again
“You don’t know us very well,” he says with a sinister grin. “And I’d hate for you to get the wrong impression, so it’s important that I’m honest with you. Your miserable, fat fucking life will be over in the next sixty seconds. You should’ve never stepped foot in this alley. It’ll be the last place you ever see.”
As if Dominic’s threat is my cue, I lower my chin and bite down on Giovanni’s meaty arm. I immediately feel the metallic-tasting blood shoot into my mouth as Giovanni lets out a horrible scream. He pulls the trigger, but Dominic has already moved, and the next sound I hear is knuckle on bone.
Giovanni stumbles back, giving me enough time to wiggle out of his grip as Dominic comes at him again. Dominic swings another punch, but Giovanni sees it coming and ducks out of the way, countering with a punch of his own. This time it’s Dominic who stumbles backwards, but he regains his footing quickly, the adrenaline of the moment numbing the pain in his leg and shoulder. He charges Giovanni just as the huge hitman tries to raise his gun, and the two of them collide and crash into a dumpster. Giovanni tries to raise the barrel of the weapon to Dominic’s face, while Dominic fights with everything in him to keep the gun down, but Giovanni is nothing like the skinny goon from inside. He is too big and too strong.
I can see the shift happening. The gun slowly starts to move towards Dominic as the muscles in his injured shoulder succumb to being overused and betray him. Dominic lets out a scream as he realizes he’s losing, but my body goes into cruise control, and the next thing I know, I’m reaching down and picking up the gun Dominic tossed at Giovanni’s feet just a few moments ago. I lift it as fast as I can and point it at Giovanni’s face.
“Stop!” I scream. “Drop it, you fucking asshole!”
But Giovanni calls my bluff. I literally see him grin at me as he continues to overpower the weakened Dominic, and the barrel ends up right in front of Dominic’s chin.
“Do it, Alannah!” Dominic screams. Then it happens.
The flash scares me, and once again, I jump at the sound of another gunshot ringing throughout the alley. My heart surges into a panic as the body falls down into a heap in front of me and I realize what just happened, and I feel the urge to scream.
Giovanni is face down on the concrete, blood oozes from the side of his head, and Dominic is still standing.
