Breaking Bones (Mariani Crime Family Series Book 2) (29 page)

“Mom. About a month ago she disappeared for a couple of days and when she came back, she had this. Said she’d met with an old friend who gave it to her and told her Carlo had killed dad.”

I couldn’t stop staring at the watch. If Pops was truly dead, then whoever killed him should have taken the thing and hocked it. That’s what I would have done. I had an agreement with a guy off Stewart Avenue, who knew my previous owners never came looking for their shit. He’d give me at least five hundred for the watch. Wiseguys didn’t give up a penny, much less five hundred bucks. No way would they just hand it over to the mistress. But if that wasn’t Pops’s watch, someone had gone to a lot of trouble to replicate it.

Natalia shifted, stuffing the watch back in her pocket. “By the way, Dad didn’t bring down the Durantes. Mom said Great Uncle Maurizio was a monster who never should have been made into the Capo di capi. Everyone was scared of him. Half of his own family was feeding secrets to the Mariani family, and Carlo Mariani promised to protect everyone who turned on Maurizio. But Carlo’s a snake.” She spat. “He took out every single one of them.”

My stomach sank. “What happened to your mom?”

Natalia dropped her gaze to the gun in her hands. “She was murdered right after she gave me Dad’s watch.”

“Which is why you’re here.” Everything clicked into place. “You think Carlo had her killed.”

“I know he did,” she growled. “Mom knew a lot of secrets about Carlo… broken promises, lies, where he buried the bodies of people he swore to protect. She should have gone to the Mariani boss years ago, but she didn’t know whether Carlo was acting on his orders or flying solo.”

It didn’t matter. Even if the boss had no clue what Carlo was doing, Ambra Durante never would have made it in to see him. “Is that your plan? Go to the boss and tell him his uncle broke his promises to your dead family?”

She shook her head and her eyes hardened. “No.”

When she didn’t elaborate, I asked, “You gonna kill him?”

She shook her head. “No. Death is too good for him. I want Carlo to live while I kill the person who matters to him most.”

Did anyone really matter to Carlo? He’d throw his own life away for the good of the family. Constanza, though… he’d be lost without her. He played it off like she was just a housekeeper, but I was certain there was more to them than that. I liked Constanza, and would hate to see her caught up in this mess.

“You think you can go up against Carlo?” I snorted. “You’re suicidal.”

“He won’t even know what hit him,” Natalia replied.

She was going for surprise? “Too late for that, don’t you think?”

Her brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”

“Carlo knows you guys are here. Well, at least Joey.”

She froze. “How does he know about Joey?”

“You can’t drop dope in this city and expect Carlo not to find out about it. Because of Joey’s little stunt—”

Her eyes widened and she leaned forward. “Wait, what?”

She seemed genuinely clueless, which sent a shiver up my spine. I had a bad feeling about the whole setup. “The bad dope Joey sold hit the streets and—”

“Joey didn’t sell shit. Franco, Joey doesn’t have any money. Look around you. We’re in the garage of a rental house. What was left of our family was run out of town with little more than the clothes on our backs. How would Joey pay for dope? We don’t even have the money to make it. There’s just the two of us left and—” Her eyes widened. “Oh shit.”

The hair on the back of my neck rose. If Carlo had killed Pops and was trying to tie up loose ends, he’d get all three of us together and take us out. “Shit. Joey’s here, isn’t he? He was the driver, right?”

Natalia’s eyes only grew wider.

“Shit,” I muttered.

“You already said that.”

“I know, but there aren’t enough swear words to cover what I want to say. I bet Carlo’s been tracking us the whole time. He probably already has a team on the way.”

“You make him sound like some sort of super-power. We’re safe here, nobody knows—”

“You have no idea what he can do.”

And if Natalia was telling the truth, Carlo had never planned to let me out of Vegas. I was stupid to believe he would. I knew the rules. Once you were in, the only way out of the family was in a body bag.

“You gotta let me go, Natalia. If he’s coming for us…” Then what? There wasn’t a single place in Vegas where we could hide. Carlo would find us. “At least give me a fighting chance.”

Natalia hesitated. Her gaze went to something behind me. I turned to see the door leading to the house where Joey and their muscle were probably watching television or sleeping, not suspecting a damn thing.

“What are you waiting for?” I asked. “Cut me loose so we can warn them or we’re all gonna die.”

Before she could respond, I heard the faint sound of a car door shutting. The look on Natalia’s face told me she heard it, too.

“Joey and Bastian,” she breathed. She took a step toward the door.

The doorbell rang.

Natalia looked from the door to me, her expression torn.

“They’re already dead. If you go in there, you’re dead, too. We both are. You cut me loose, and we have a chance.”

“For all I know, you could be with them. Why should I trust you?” she cried.

Several reasons tumbled through my mind, but I settled on the one with the most impact. “Because you don’t have any other choice. We’re surrounded. Cut me loose, you can drive while I shoot, and we might make it out of here.”

She looked from me to the door one last time before whipping my knife out of her pocket and using it to release me. Shots rang out from inside the house. We grabbed guns on our way to the black Camry. She climbed behind the wheel, started the vehicle, and hit the garage door opener, while I got into the passenger side and rolled down my window, turning the safety off the semi-automatic.

I recognized members of Renzo’s team as they filed into the garage, popping shots at the car while we waited for the garage door to roll up. I returned fire, mowing down two shooters while the rest sought cover.

A bullet shattered the windshield. I ducked, feeling it whiz by my head. Natalia fired, hitting the guy who’d shot at me. More men surged in behind him. We had to get the hell out of there before we were overrun.

“Go. Drive now!” I shouted, returning fire on the men swarming the garage.

Natalia threw the car into reverse and stepped on the gas. Tires squealed as we zipped out into the dark. She slammed on the brakes and turned the wheel. Our attackers got a few more shots off, shattering the back passenger-side window as I fired blindly at the house. Natalia punched down the gas again. We fishtailed around the corner and sped to the end of the block, turning again.

She hung a right and merged onto a bigger street.

“Where are you going?” I asked.

Natalia’s hands trembled against the steering wheel. “I… I don’t know.” The trembling moved up her arms.

“You okay?” I asked.

“Joey,” she sobbed, then clamped her mouth shut. Her body started full-on jerking.

“Pull over,” I said.

She glanced behind us, clearly uncertain.

“You need a minute. Pull over. I’ll drive.”

She nodded and turned down a side road, rolling to a stop. Without cutting the engine, we switched seats and got back on the road.

“Wh-wh-where are we going?” she asked.

I had no goddamn clue. We were so screwed. No doubt Carlo had Tech monitoring our progress and had already dispatched additional teams to take us out. If we had any chance of surviving, I needed to pull out every resource I had access to.

“Gimme my phone,” I replied.

Natalia pulled it out of her pocket and handed it to me. I called Angel.

“Bones!” The level of Angel’s relief made me certain he’d already written me off for dead. “Where are you?”

“I’m with Natalia. Carlo’s put a hit out on us.”

“Carlo? On both of you?”

“Yep.”

“Shit. What can I do? What do you need?”

Angel’s uncle—the number two man in Vegas—was out to get me and Angel didn’t even hesitate or ask questions before agreeing to help me. I hated the idea of possibly putting him in harm’s way, but I was out of options.

“Ideas. I need ideas. You got anything for me?”

Before he could answer, my phone buzzed with an incoming call. I pulled it away from my ear long enough to see Nonna’s number before returning my attention to the road.

Nonna? What the hell?

“Uh… Nonna’s calling,” Angel said, surprising the hell out of me. “Which gives me an idea. Let me call you back.”

How could Nonna be calling him when she was calling me? Before I could ask, he hung up.

Curious, I answered her call.

“Bones?” Ariana asked.

Her voice brought instant relief, followed immediately by confusion. “Yeah. Ari? Why are you calling me from Nonna’s number?”

“Why are you answering? Doesn’t that psycho bitch have you tied up? I expected to be talking to her.”

There was something wrong about the girl I liked calling my sister a psycho bitch, but since Natalia
had
kidnapped Ariana, I let it slide. “Yeah, we ran into some trouble and the situation changed.”

“Angel’s uncle, right?” Ariana asked.

Floored, I asked, “How do you know that?”

“That’s why I’m calling. Nonna said you and Natalia need to get here—to Nonna’s house—right now. She can help you, but only if you’re here.”

I glanced at Natalia, afraid of how this would play out for her. She was a Durante, after all, and Nonna was a Mariani. “Both of us? She can help both of us?”

“Yes. That’s what Nonna said. But I don’t get why either of you care what happens to Natalia. Who is she?”

“I’ll explain later. I’m going the wrong way. I need to turn around. We’ll be there in a couple of minutes.”

I started to hang up, but Ariana shouted my name. Putting the phone back up to my ear, I asked, “Yeah?”

“I… I… I’m sorry. About everything.”

“Me too. We’ll talk when I get there.”

“I… I…” She sniffled. “Just don’t die, okay?”

“I won’t.”

Then I disconnected so I could keep the promise I’d just made.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Ariana

I
T FELT LIKE the world was on fire, but Nonna remained the queen of cool. While I paced the space between living and dining rooms, gnawing off what was left of my fingernails, she sat calmly at the table, sipping tea while she made phone calls on her home phone. Her cell phone sat on the table between us, where I’d set it after talking to Bones, and it took everything in me to not pick it up and call him back. It had been twelve minutes and forty-six seconds since I spoke to him and I needed to know he was still okay.

“Oh yes, I’m sure it’s all just a big misunderstanding, which is why I’m calling you, dear. I’d hate to see anyone acting rashly and regret the decisions made in error.” Nonna said into the phone.

Bones should be here by now.

I went to the window, pushed aside the curtain, and scanned the parking lot. There was still no sign of him, so I went back to pacing and listening in on Nonna’s conversation.

“Angel’s on his way now,” Nonna said. “I’d hate for him and Markie to get caught up in this mess, so I invited them over.”

Markie was coming. My stomach twisted in knots at the thought of seeing her again. I never should have told her about Trent, but I was glad I did. The secret had been eating me alive for years and I felt much better now that it was out in the open. Now she was coming, and I needed to face her, and the horrible things I’d said to her—unless, of course, Bones got here first. Then I could reassure myself he was okay, force that bitch Natalia to give me back my phone and purse, and get out of there long before Angel and Markie made their appearance. Where would I go? I had enough money in my bank account for a few nights at a cheap motel, then…

Before I could fully contemplate my complete lack of options, someone pounded on the door. I rushed over to peer out the peephole and saw Bones and Natalia waiting.