Page 35 of Ribbons and Roses
But waiting for that to happen is its own form of torture. I sigh and pray that while we’re under gunpoint in the den, Salvatore and the others are safe upstairs. He’s well on his way to figuring out an escape out if this.
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salvatore
“You’re making a mistake, Pauly,”I say calmly. “You don’t want to do this. It’ll only end badly for you.”
He cranks out a dismissive laugh and jabs the barrel of his handgun into my lower back. “Yeah, yeah, keep up the shit talk. You just don’t want to admit I’ve finally got the jump on you, Mancino.”
“Hate to break it to you, Pauly, but showing up like a coward during Christmas with my family isn’t getting the jump on anybody.”
“It’s Paulio. And the fact that I’ve gottheSalvatore Mancino at my mercy sure feels like a win.” The pitiful little man winks at me, his grin wide and toothy.
Unlike his predecessors Hector and Giorgio, Paulio’s a small thing. He’s not round like Giorgio was and he’s not tall like Hector. Instead, he’s some five-six, skinny-fat excuse for a man who seems to think he’ll come out on top.
He and his men nudge us all the way up the stairs.
Seven of them.
Three of us, not counting Marcel, whose loyalties remain a mystery.
He’s held at gunpoint like we are, though he refuses to meet anyone’s eyes. Shame rolls off him, like he’s regretful he ever wound up involved in this mess. I’m still not even sure how he was caught by Paulio when he claimed he was leaving the area.
Suddenly, there’s a lot about Delphine’s brother that makes no sense.
We’re taken outside into the snow. Paulio and his men make us walk ’til we’re swallowed up by the woodland trees and the cabin slips into the distance.
It’s started flurrying in the last half hour, adding to the snowfall on the ground.
We come to a clearing where Paulio finally barks at us to stop.
“Get on your knees. Keep your hands up. Now!” Paulio shouts.
“This the only kind of control you’ve ever had over people, Pauly?” I ask with an antagonistic half grin. “What’s it feel like finally being in charge? Feel good to not be a little bitch anymore?”
“Mancino, you keep talking shit, and I’ll put a bullet in that mouth of yours!”
“The thing is, it doesn’t change a thing. You know that, right? Doing what you’re doing is the definition of LMS. Otherwise known as Little Man Syndrome.”
One of his henchmen breaks out in a laugh that he quickly chokes back the second Paulio shoots him a filthy look. He holds up a fist to his mouth and tries to disguise the laugh as a cough.
Paulio grits his teeth as he starts pacing in front of us. We’ve done as he says and kneeled in the snow, though I’ve done it as defiantly as a person can. I’m grinning at him, generally atease, somehow coming across like I’m unconcerned by the seven different guns pointed at my face.
That’s because Paulio doesn’t scare me.
I’ll defy all odds to take him out. Just like I’ve done so many times before.
The others aren’t so brazen. Marcel hasn’t uttered a peep from the far end of our lineup, while Ernest is visibly shaken. Stitches seems more concerned with the fact that he’s kneeling in the cold and his glasses have slid off his face.
“Hey, buddy, you mind if I grab my second set of eyes? They’re in the snow.”
The henchman he’s asked shares a look with Paulio and then steps forward to crush the glasses.
Crack.
He lifts his boot to reveal the pair snapped in half.
“You assholes have no manners. If the situation were reversed, I wouldn’t break your glasses,” he says. “I’d have manners and return the pair to you. How am I supposed to get around when I’m blind as a bat?”