Page 228 of Snaring Emberly
I nod. Rumors have spread across town about how Cesare and I took out an entire firm of assassins. Some of Galliano’s lackeys have the good sense to understand my threat isn’t bullshit.
“You’re bluffing.” The waver in his voice suggests that he isn’t sure of my intentions. “You ain’t gonna do shit.”
“You want to bet your life on that?” I pull out my gun and wave it toward the four men. “How about you?”
“Don’t move,” Tommy hisses at them.
They back away, their eyes widening.
“Looks like they remember what happened to the last people who fucked with the Montesanos.” I raise my gun and aim at Galliano’s head. “You’re not paying them enough to risk getting blown to pieces.”
His nostrils flare. “The first man who abandons me won’t just die. I know where your women and children live. Don’t betray me, and I won’t put them to work in my brothels.”
I laugh, the sound harsh. “This is why you men are loyal? Because he threatens your families?”
“Watch your mouth.” Galliano raises his gun, but I’m faster. A bullet hits him in the chest, and he falls to the ground with a satisfying thud.
“Who’s next?” I ask, keeping my aim in their direction.
His men swap glances, looking like they’re debating whether to run or exchange fire.
Bullets fly from the shadows, hitting each man in the head. Blood and brain matter splatter against the hanging carcasses, and each man falls dead.
That hesitation cost those men their lives.
Galliano told me to come alone, but he didn’t tell me not to surround the building with assassins. It looks like the firm we paid to track him are finally earning their retainer.
“Thank you,” I say into the darkness.
I’m too focused on Galliano’s fallen body to notice the assassins leave.
The slaughterhouse is quiet and still, save for the faint whir of an electric fan. Galliano lies flat on his back, his chest barely rising and falling, his fingers still curled around his pistol.
I shoot the hand holding the gun, making Galliano’s fingers spasm around its trigger. A bullet lodges in his leg and he roars.
“Playing possum?” I walk a wide circle toward him, using the hanging carcasses as shields.
“Kill me, and Emberly dies,” he grinds out through ragged breaths. “My man has instructions to slit her throat if I don’t return to the hideout.”
“Where is it?”
He cackles. “Come here, and I’ll whisper its location.”
Heat flushes through my veins, and my nostrils flare. Galliano knows he’s lost. He’s more likely to shoot at me with a second gun and detonate my explosives, so we both die in a blaze.
The air thickens with enough tension to make my ears ring. I need to disarm myself and get close to Galliano. Now. Keeping my distance, I fumble with the fastenings of my vest to loosen the explosives. Every second feels like an eternity as my fingers tremble over the delicate clasps.
Isabella said the compounds were volatile to friction, heat, and shock. One false move and I won’t live to earn Emberly’s forgiveness.
“Don’t tell me the great Roman Montesano is afraid of an injured man?” he croaks.
The corner of my mouth lifts into a smirk. He’ll have to do better than that if he wants me rattled. I breathe hard, forcing my fingers to slow down as I work the fastenings.
“You never asked about your mother,” he says, “Or how she degraded herself every day to save your brothers.”
My jaw clenches, and my fingers freeze over the explosives. I need to continue freeing myself and ignore his desperate rantings, but I say, “That’s low, even for you.”
He barks a laugh. “Cousin Freddy and I knew your little brothers would come after him, and he wanted them dead. Your mother made a deal.”