“I will kill your little soldier here if you take one more step. Don’t test me!” I look at Nico. He is our best man, and I don’t want to lose him. I have no plans for Dominic to take yet another person away from me.

But I need to get to Little Red. I need to make sure she is safe, because if she isn’t, I already know it will break me.

“You lay one hand on him, and I will slice your fucking throat and hang you upside down to bleed out in front of the whole mafia family,” I growl, my voice dripping with venom.

A small flash of panic runs across Dominic’s face, so I know I unnerved him, and he must know that no matter whether he fires the gun at Nico or lets him go, he will be dead either way. There is no way out of this for him. It is the end of the line. As long as Little Red stays hidden, everything will be okay. She will be safe and be in my arms very soon. Where she belongs.

“You think you know it all, don’t you, Dante?” he spits out, his face flushed, sweat beading down his cheeks. He is under pressure and at the end of the road.

“You all think you are just so high and fucking mighty, so impenetrable. I have waited YEARS for you to accept me. YEARS, I have worked for you, doing every shit piece of work you gave me, and you still didn’t accept me as part of the fold!” he yells, sounding completely unstable.

“Was that before or after you fucked my wife and got her hooked on drugs?” I yell to him. I am livid. I have never hated someone as much as I hate Dominic fucking Russo, and my insides swell with the intense need to end him right this second.

He laughs then, a cackle. “She was so fucking good at sucking my cock, Dante. All I had to promise her was an ounce, and she would be on her knees in a flash.” He’s trying to goad me, but it isn’t working. All that matters to me now is Little Red. My heart is pounding wanting to get her out of here, wanting to end him, so I can get to her.

He must see that I am not stirred up by his words, and a sly grin comes to his face.

“I wonder if your little redhead will also be as accommodating.” His voice edges out to me, and I take another step toward him, about to explode. It takes all my energy to try not to respond, to try and remain calm, because one false move here and Nico won’t make it.