In a nice touch of irony, I had Brando poison their coffees, before putting a bullet in each of their skulls, ensuring the message was driven home.
There was a slight chance DeLuca might call Ian and become suspicious when he didn’t answer, so I had Phillip mess with the satellite signal to cover our tracks. He ensured all telecommunications were down in the area for a few hours.
“Rowan?” Sierra whispers, looking up at me with fear coating her green eyes.
“He’s safe,” I assure her, pressing a fierce kiss to her head. I want to tell her I love her. That I’m sorry she had to endure what she’s endured. How I hate that it took me this long to rescue her, but that will have to wait until after this is done.
“You said no one would touch her,” I snap, keeping Sierra against me as I turn us to face DeLuca. Alessandro, Ciro, and Brando crowd around us. Out of the corner of my eye, I spy the other bosses walking this way having escorted their wives to safety.
The moment of reckoning is here.
“And you agreed to marry Saskia. It seems we’ve both broken part of our arrangement.” DeLuca stands, and around me, men reach for their guns as guests start running from the room, sensing the impending battle.
“That isn’t all you have broken,” I say. “You have crossed one of our most sacred rules,” I add as the recording breaks out over the sound system. Phillip has eyes on this room, and that was his cue to play the small segment from that day in DeLuca’s car.
“We got rid of Felix to pave the way for this to happen.” DeLuca’s distinctive voice booms through the speakers around the room. The confirmation that he killed a made man, without justification, causes The Outfit’s capos and soldati to trade angry looks and wary expressions.
Thomas Barretta showed equal anger but less confusion when I played it for him, hours after I left DeLuca at Lawson Pharma that day. Thomas was already suspicious—Saskia’s behavior at the church and graveyard had tipped him off—and now he had the proof to confirm it. Taking a risk, I told him everything DeLuca had planned, and he readily agreed to help in exchange for him taking temporary control of The Outfit after we deal with DeLuca and Gifoli. I took it to The Commission who immediately agreed, and a plan was formed.
Gifoli thought he was clever taking my cell from me in the car, but he didn’t realize my tie pin had a recording device inside. It’s only one of a handful of technical devices my internal team has created for our soldiers’ use in the field, and I’m grateful it came in handy.
“Did you really think you could murder my son and get away with it?” Barretta says, pressing the muzzle of his gun to the back of DeLuca’s head. No one, except Gifoli, had suspected anything when the consigliere started slowly moving toward him. DeLuca’s bodyguards know him as a friend, family, and to most of The Outfit’s soldati, Joseph Lawson is only the man who washes the money. I’m sure some of them must have wondered about it from time to time, but I doubt anyone guessed his true identity. Why would they? To them, the big boss resides in Sicily. Gifoli is the one they respect. The one they report to. Which is why this needs to happen fast— before the truth is revealed and before Gifoli makes a preemptive strike.
I nod at Barretta as I push Sierra into Alessandro’s arms. “Keep her safe.”
Sensing the very real threat, DeLuca opens his mouth, shouting so his words carry across the room. “I am—”
“This is for Felix,” Barretta says, pulling the trigger.
Saskia screams as DeLuca falls face-first onto the table, the back of his head blown wide, brain matter and blood seeping from his open skull onto the pristine white linen.
Gifoli immediately gives the call, rousing his soldati, as our men pull out their weapons and open fire.
54
BEN
Chaos descends as shots are traded across the room. While The Outfit’s soldiers may be confused as to why Gifoli gave the order and why some of their crew is siding with New York, they obey.
Out of the corner of my eye, I spot Alessandro shielding Sierra behind him as he fights his way to the exit. Leo upends the nearest empty table, hauling it over to the side as I aim and fire, hitting The Outfit men who aren’t wearing the small red pin on their jacket pockets. It was a risky move asking them to wear them. If DeLuca had noticed, it might have given the game away, but I guess it shows how little regard he held for his men. Barretta will make a much better boss. He cared enough to protect those loyal to him. To ensure they wouldn’t get hit in the confusion.
Several of The Outfit’s men are taken down by soldiers who fought beside them at one time, and I know this won’t last long. Not once news filters down that Gifoli conspired with Lawson to murder Felix Barretta.
Gifoli must know his days are numbered as I watch him making a beeline for the exit on the opposite side of the room. He is holding a terrified Serena in front of his body, using her as a shield as he attempts to flee.
That fucking coward.
“Cover me,” I shout at Leo, moving to go after them as my eyes scan the room for Saskia. Fear prickles my skin when I don’t see her.
We can’t let her escape.
I find Georgia hiding under the table, her dead husband’s blood staining the white linen tablecloth crimson red, but she’s alone. “Where is Saskia?” I shout.
“I don’t know. She ran off as soon as the shooting started.” She stares at me with a dazed expression, clearly shocked.
“Stay there and don’t move. I’ll come back for you.”
I straighten up, and a shot whizzes over my head, narrowly missing me. Leo takes out the shooter as I spin around, shooting the guy creeping up on me from behind straight through the eyes.
A scream rips through the air, and I race around the overturned tables, ducking to avoid more shots as I head toward Serena and her husband. Gifoli is literally using his wife to deflect blows, and Serena is cradling her wounded arm, blood seeping through her fingers, as she screams in agony, wriggling in an attempt to get out of his hold.
What a pathetic piece of shit he is. An embarrassment to The Outfit and made men everywhere. He has no honor, and he deserves to die.
Gifoli shoots at a couple of my men as they aim toward him, and they dive behind tables in the nick of time.
“Sierra. No!”
My head whips around, halting my forward trajectory, when I hear Alessandro call out. They are almost to the side exit, but I wasn’t the only one who heard Serena’s screams. It’s so typical of Sierra to ignore her own safety to come to her sister’s aid. Running in her bare feet, she sprints across the room, firing the small handgun curled in her hand at anyone who dares cross her.
“Get down,” I scream, spotting the nightmare in pink who rises from the shadows, just behind Sierra. I leap over tables, shoving people and chairs out of my way as I race toward my fiancée. Sierra hasn’t seen Saskia. She’s too occupied watching her injured sister, and now it’s too late. My heart is in my mouth as I watch Saskia grab Sierra from the side, yanking her roughly against her body, pointing a gun at her temple.
I can’t take aim at Saskia, not from this angle, without risking Sierra.
“Stay back,” Saskia snaps, as I reach them. “Do it, Ben, or I’ll kill her.”