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“Whatever,” she muttered, adrenaline flushing her skin.
He rolled off of her, showing her his restricted hands. “Not sure you can do anything to these ties without a knife.”
“The barehanded thing just sounded good.” She pulled the thin blade she kept hidden in her breasts. “Only the Irish ever frisked me properly. Most men get weird around my breasts.”
“Because they’re gorgeous,” Antonio said.
“Don’t be a jackass.” She cut him loose. More bullets tore through the door, forcing them lower. “I only brought Luka, and I’m sure he’s doing his best, but our odds would go up if we brought in the calvary. You know, now that we’re not immediately dead and all.” A Barone soldier pushed open the door, and she clipped him with one of the few bullets she had left. It made the next soldier more cautious, but still intent on his prey, and she shot him as well. “Fuck, maybe I can pile up enough bodies to block the door.” She shifted closer to Leandro Barone’s body, finding another gun there, along with Antonio’s phone.
She also finally noticed the strangely dressed woman cringing in the corner. “Oh, hey. You know how to shoot?” she asked.
The flurry of foreign words she got in reply sounded less than happy.
Vespa grimaced. “Guess not. Just hold tight.” She glanced at Antonio. “Friend of yours?”
“Rossi’s fiancée,” Antonio said with a grimace of his own. He had confiscated another gun from the body near the door. They used bullets to make the Barone soldiers adopt caution.
Vespa slid him his phone. “You make the calls. Montrell’s going to be pissed at me.”
Antonio had already dialed. “You didn’t tell him?”
She grimaced, firing at yet another Barone who tried to approach the doorway. “No reason for our people to get hurt if I walked into you dead and a gunshot to my head.”
Antonio stared at her. “That could have fucking happened.”
“Hey, we’re alive.” She wasted her next bullet because it plowed into the doorjamb, but it still bought them another reprieve. “I didn’t realize you were such a damn pessimist.”
“Yes, you did,” he said, but then he talked into his phone. He must have had some hope of them getting out alive because he invited Giovanni to join them.
Chapter 29
Antonio finally got to change out of his ruined clothes at the Di Salvo estate half a day later. His cast was still gross. He was going to call the doctor to come and remove the damn thing. A sling would do well enough for the rest of the healing process.
Exiting his bedroom, he found Luka and Giovanni standing together at the top of the stairs. Antonio’s face lost its forced smile. He was so fucking grateful to the hitman that he felt nervous approaching him.
He gave Luka a nod that was ignored. “I appreciate all the help.”
Luka’s pale green eyes shifted to meet his for a moment; then he shrugged and slipped down the stairs.
Antonio watched the former Bratva leave, and Giovanni watched him. “Dammit,” Antonio muttered. “Your pet assassin took out half the Barones on his own. I’ll have to think of a way to repay him.”
“Luka was repaying a debt.” Giovanni’s smile was soft as he stared after his friend. “Not to you, but to Vespa, or so he said, in his way.”
“Vespa still feels guilty about sending Alina after him alone.” Antonio shouldn’t have begun thinking about Vespa because now he wouldn’t stop. He told himself she had her own shit to deal with and didn’t need him racing to the Coronella estate to cling to her and rip into her all at once.
“She shouldn’t feel guilty. She was the one who was there for them when they needed it.” Giovanni’s blue eyes looked warmer than ever. “Just as she was there for you.”
“Fuck, she walked right in. I nearly had a heart attack.” Antonio ran his good hand over his hair. “I made a mess of things.”
“You did.” Giovanni scowled at him, crossing his arms. “I told you to go talk to the woman you love, not try to take out all our remaining enemies at once.”
Antonio winced. “You’re convinced I love her, then?”
“I heard a story about that,” Giovanni said, smirking at him.
A commotion started downstairs. Antonio’s heart sped up before he even saw her. Vespa glared as she jogged up the stairs. She looked put together again, not half wild like she had at the Barone estate.
Her mean-looking expression didn’t drop when her eyes shifted to Giovanni. “I hope you’re ripping him a new one after the shit he put us through today.” She turned the full force of her glare on Antonio. “Christ knows Montrell chewed my ass up for going after this idiot.”
