With his gun already drawn, it took Dante but a second to decide that the person coming up the stairs was the enemy.
He squeezed the trigger and fired a bullet into the man's chest and then his head. I flinched, but the loud bang I was expecting didn't happen, instead, there were two soft pops.
A silencer.
I couldn't help but noticed that silencers weren't only good at silencing guns. They were superb at silencing meaty, tall men wearing dark clothes who dared to show up unexpectedly on Dante's turf.
The stranger never got a chance to utter any words before his heavy body fell backward, smearing the wall behind him with a streak of bright red blood before collapsing on the floor.
The burnt scent of gunpowder floated in the air toward me and caused my nose to twitch.
Two other goons showed up around the corner and Dante shot them too, using the blind curve of the stairs to his advantage. He didn't waste any bullets, using only one bullet per opponent.
I ducked behind the wall next to the stairs and continued to peep at what was going on down below. Dante looked behind him for a second as if looking to see if I was still there. Satisfied that I was gone, he rounded the corner and disappeared from my sight.
I swallowed the tight knot in my throat and pushed back the fear I felt roiling in my stomach. What if there was an ambush waiting for him on the other side?
Using my backside like a sweeper, I slid down the stairs, one step at a time. When I finally made it to the bottom, I heard the sound of two men fighting, hard fists striking skin and bones, their painful grunts echoing up the stairs.
Peeping around the corner, I saw that Dante was a bloodied mess. His shirt was torn open and a string of blood trickled down the side of his mouth. Streaks of blood covered his chiseled torso. His opponent's blood. His black hair was wild as he continuously punched the man before him in the face.
He held the much taller man by his collar and repeatedly punched him in the nose. His muscles undulated powerfully with every move, reminding me of a dominant predator in the wild. He drew back and I saw how bruised and bloodied his knuckles were.
"Who sent you?" he demanded.
"Fuck you, Dante. Your family deserves to die. Your father and your uncle don't play fair and neither do we." The man's eyes and nose were swollen like a wild macaque's behind and he could barely get the words past his battered lips.
"I recognize you. You're one of Santiago's men. Did he send you?"
Who was this Santiago, I wondered? Perhaps he was some high-ranking underboss within the clan?
"You killed his son. He was only twenty-two years old."
"Santiago knew what he signed up for when he and his son decided to join our family. His son was out of line and I had a direct order from above to execute him."
"He was just a child!" the man spat, flecks of blood landing on Dante's face.
Dante didn't flinch. "The fuck he wasn't. He knew what he was doing when he fucked and then convinced my girlfriend to help him steal a shipment of Columbian cocaine. My mother caught them in the act and they fucking shot her in the heart. So don't tell me he was a fucking child!" Dante punched the man in his mouth, knocking out one of his teeth. The bloody tooth landed on the floor next to my foot.
I stared at the three-rooted molar in disgust. There was a massive cavity in the crown, so maybe it was a good thing Dante had violently extracted it. That should save him a couple hundred bucks from having to get a root canal.
"What would you have done?" Dante continued. "Give him a pat on the back of his hand and let him walk away? We have our justice system and justice was served. Tell Santiago that this war of his is fucking pointless."
The damaged front door creaked behind Dante and a well dressed gentleman wearing a suit entered. He looked like he was in his fifties, his well kept hair graying at the temples. In one hand he held a gun, and with his other hand, he was dragging a woman by the handcuffs around her wrists.
Dante was too busy pummeling the culprit before him to notice the new guy behind him.
I gasped when he came to a stop a foot away from Dante and held the gun to her temple. He had gagged the woman with a dirty piece of cloth and her messy brown hair fell like a curtain on her face. Yet, I could see that she had gotten a good beating recently.
"Dante, behind you," I said loud enough for him to hear me.
His head snapped in my direction and his eyes narrowed angrily. "Carla, get the fuck away from here. Please."
I cowered back against the stairs but didn't move. The way he supplicated me to leave certainly broke my heart and caused me to empathize with him. I couldn't imagine what he was going through right now as he fought to protect his sister. To protect me?
Dante released the battered man in front of him, who was too tired to fight back, and turned to address the well dressed man. "Santiago. How did you find me?"
Santiago smiled, a slimy disgusting smile that didn't touch his eyes. "Easy. Your boy Mateo led us straight to you. All one of my men had to do was mention the war in his presence and we knew he would lead us to you. And voila."
Dante spared the girl in Santiago's grasp a long glance, a tick working his jaw when he saw the black and blue bruises marring her pale skin. "What do you want? And what did you do to Mateo?"
"He's dead, of course. My job is to get rid of the Caneos family. Your father and your uncle don't have a fucking clue how to run a clan. They tell you to murder my son but they let this bitch run off to the United States as if she wasn't the one who pulled the trigger on your mother. Why didn't they tell you to put a bullet in her head too?"
"We couldn't find her," Dante said.
"Don't you fucking lie. She was easier to find than a whore working the street corners. Right, sweetheart?" He grabbed the woman's chin and squeezed, causing her to whimper in pain. As if he relished her pain, he forced her to her knees in front of him, chuckling as he did so. "Sit down, bitch. It looks like we're going to be here a while."
Dante's expression remained neutral like Switzerland and it was difficult trying to read him.
"I told you we couldn't find her and she wasn't worth the chase. She's a cocaine junkie and we figured soon enough she would overdose and die."
"And you're still fucking lying to me! I know you paid for that bitch to get away. And then you disappeared from the clan thinking we were too stupid to notice."
"It took you a couple of months to notice. That says a lot about how smart you are, Santiago."
"Don't play smart with me, boy. When I asked about your whereabouts, your father had the gall to say that you were conducting business out of the country. I knew that was a lie because your father and your uncle handle everything out of the country by themselves. I'm an underboss and they have no respect for me. They are the only ones who have ever met the Columbian kingpin or the Sicilian Don. I want to know why you thought my son deserved a bullet but this bitch could just walk free?"
"Your son took an oath when he was inducted. He was a made man and he knew the consequences of stealing from his clan." Dante's voice was calm but deadly, and somehow my brain thought that was the hottest thing in the history of mankind.
Damn it, girl. Focus and try to stay alive. The deep sexy sound of his voice is the last thing you should be noticing right now.
I focused my attention on Santiago's mean face and the manacing grip he had on the woman's hair as she knelt helplessly in front of him.
"You might have a point there, boy, but still, this bitch needs to be punished."
"Then punish her!" Dante yelled. "But don't come after my family. You will regret ever crossing me, Santiago. Elisabeth is no longer my problem. Do with her as you wish."
So she had a name, Dante's ex. Her eyes widened and she shook her head wildly, screaming behind her gag for Dante's attention. He ignored her and then proceeded to empty his clip on the man groaning in pain behind him.
I looked away and squeezed my eyes shut. Shit shit shit. Dante was a fucking monster, wasn't he? But then again those same men he'd killed had killed my friend Eduardo and Dante's cousin, Mateo.
But still, I couldn't help but think that Dante would have been a perfect boyfriend if he wasn't the Galician clan boss's son, and killing people didn't come so easily to him.
"This war is over, Santiago. Go home," I heard him say.
"Not so fast, boy. I'm not leaving here until you put a bullet in her head. That's your job. You're the clan's executioner, not me, so do your fucking job!"
I peeked around the stairs once more. Dante's face was a thunderous mask of fury and his eyes lit up menacingly as he charged toward Santiago with his gun drawn. Without hesitation, he aimed his gun at Santiago's head and pulled the trigger. A clicking sound happened and that was it, no soft pop that was followed by the acrid scent of gun powder permeating the air, and there was no sign of a blossoming bullet hole in Santiago's forehead.
Damn it, I was so looking forward to seeing his brain splattered all over the walls.
Santiago shook his head, his wicked eyes narrowing with disappointment. "You were going to shoot me, boy?"
Dante made a move to grab the gun concealed at his back, but Santiago shook his head and raised his gun as a warning.
"Don't even think about it. All you have to do is shoot Elisabeth and I'll consider us even."
"I can't do that," Dante said looking down at the woman he once loved. She stared back at him with sad doe eyes and I knew there were a million things she wanted to say to him but couldn't.
I'm sorry I betrayed you. I love you and I loved your mom dearly. I did it because I wasn't thinking straight, because of the drugs. Please forgive me.
Did Dante have a million things he wanted to say to her as well?
Santiago shook his gun in Dante's face like an uncontrollable puppet. "Yes, yes you will. A true assassin doesn't distinguish between a girlfriend, brother, or clan member. You executed my son for the same crime she committed. Now it's her turn."
"I said I won't do it. Shoot me if you will." His hand fell at his side, a sign of defeat.
"Fine then. Maybe I need to give you a little incentive." Santiago aimed his gun over Dante's shoulder and a slew of bullets flew in my direction.
One of the bullets lodged itself into my arm, the force throwing me back against the stairs. I cried out in pain when a burning sensation crawled down my arm.
"Carla? Am I right? Is she your new girl? Will you kill your old girl to keep her alive?"
Dante turned in my direction. "Carla, run! Dammit, I told you to stay away."
I tried to cover my arm where blood was streaming down to my fingers like the bloody Niagra falls, but it hurt so fucking much. At the sight of all the blood, my head started to spin in earnest. In the back of my mind, I heard Dante's command and I knew I had to get up.
With the rubbery legs of a baby calf, I managed to stand up. However, as soon as I was vertical, the world flipped on its axis and I fell down the last couple of steps. I landed on my bad arm on the cold tiles of the restaurant, directly in line with the aim of Santiago's gun.
°°°
I'm terrified about what's going to happen next.