“Well, he didn’t go down till the fifth one.”
“Oh.” That was the part she hadn’t heard, and she understood why he had brought it up now. “Really?”
Angel was the one who answered, “He’s right.”
She strangely looked over to him wondering how he knew that.
“Lucca has a tape of it. I asked him to show me.”
“He’ll be okay, Kat.” Adalyn and the rest of the girls who were being smothered by their men started reassuring her as well.
“Cassius!” She grabbed her youngest brother’s hand, jerking him down when he found them all behind the table. “Are you crazy? Get down!” This was going to be another conversation she was going to have with him about fear.
Cassius looked at her in-between trying to peer out. “Your husband is badass.”
Oh God. “Did you see him. Was he okay?”
“Yeah, I saw him chasing after some guy right after he flipped this whole fucking table over.” Clearly, he had been just as much as in awe as they had.
“Did you see who it was?” Angel asked.
“No, I didn’t get a good look after everyone started running.” Cassius glanced out again.
“Stop it.” She tried to keep him down this time using the bloody hand.
Cassius’ face turned serious when he saw her covered in blood. “Are you hurt?”
“No, but I think Drago is….”
The serious expression quickly vanished, returning back to his usual self as he tried to take a peek again. When Kat didn’t let him, he revealed something else. “It’s safe to look. There’s no one doing anything. It’s a standoff right now.”
Matthias, Angel, Nero, and Vincent quickly glanced up to take a look after what Cassius had said, all of them giving a collective, “Oh fuck.”
Kat’s eyes went two times the size. She had a feeling she knew what they meant by that.
Lake was the only one brave one to ask, “What is it?”
“Well…,” Vincent began, opening his beautiful but big mouth. “It’s exactly what he said… a fucking standoff between the families.”
Twenty
The Man Who Had Met His Untimely End
On one side, the Carusos stood, and on the other, the Lucianos, as they all held out their weapons staring the other family down.
“They killed one of ours,” one of the Caruso men yelled out, ready to pull the trigger.
Everyone behind the table looked at each other. Nero and Vincent stared at her twin brothers a little harder with a scrutinizing gaze.
“Our men wouldn’t have shot anywhere near my sister,” Angel hissed at the two, and knowing he was right, unlike the rest of the Carusos, they no longer scrutinized them.
Leaving only one question between them. Which Caruso had fallen?
What if it’s… She made herself not say her new husband’s name in her head. I’m sure he’s fine.
“How do we know you didn’t accidentally kill one of your own?” a Luciano yelled back.
“Because we’re Carusos. We don’t kill our own.” A different Caruso spoke up, referencing the new Luciano boss, who’d let his own father get murdered to save the family.
Dominic stepped into the middle of no-man’s-land without fear, jumping on a table to stand and look down on all the men in the room. “We came without guns like I promised.” His voice commanded the room, demanding attention from every soul. “You checked every one of my men on the way in.”
The Caruso men’s eyes scanned, only seeing small knives and anything they could get ahold of to use as a weapon.
“Dante, call your men down.” He spoke louder, his voice traveling farther, calling out the other head of the family to step out. “So we can deal with this man to man.” However, the Luciano boss wasn’t done. He spun on the table to only look down and address his family with a threat. “And if it was one of my men who defied my orders, then I will hand him over to you myself.”
The Caruso boss finally rose, coming into focus with an unforgiving face that looked like he wanted to see every Luciano man, woman, and child dead. He opened his mouth to give an order when the ballroom doors flung open and a furious Drago walked through.
Drago walked straight to his boss, quietly whispering to him what he knew. Whatever it was only made his boss look more confused and unhappier.
It appeared Dante was beginning to have a change of heart after their conversation, but the boss didn’t say anything, clearly still contemplating how he wanted to proceed.
“He’s going to make his men step down, right?” Kat asked, looking at Nero, knowing full well they were father and son.
Nero didn’t say anything, his emerald-colored eyes still fiercely glowing. It looked like he was about to defy Drago’s orders to protect Elle when the ballroom doors opened once more, making him stay right where he was after seeing who entered.
Lucca walked through, seeming to be in the same state as Drago, a bit out of breath and sweaty like the two had been running. Except he hadn’t entered as the Caruso underboss, but the boogieman.