DeLuca (Mafia Romance)

“I was up on the catwalk with Matteo, Leo,” he said gesturing to the two men sitting stoic on the couch next to Michael, “And Nico. I saw them throw the grenades in the door. I tried to warn the men but it all happened so fast,” he took a deep breath and gathered his thoughts. It was the most emotion I had ever seen from him and it made me feel for him. Antonio was clearly carrying some serious guilt over what happened today, but for the life of me I couldn’t figure out why. I made a mental note to ask Angelo about it later. “The first blast wasn’t that bad, not causing a lot of damage, just enough of a distraction for us to reveal ourselves. The second explosion came so fast we didn’t have time to prepare. One second Mouse was warning us and the next it was chaos. Nico lost his footing. I couldn’t get to him in time and he fell.”

He cleared his throat before continuing, “The place was filling up with smoke, and since we were so far up it got thick fast. I knew where the others had been placed so I made my way down to find them. I came across Enzo first. He was the only one out of his group that made it. He had burns on the right side of his body. The worst of it was a piece of shrapnel stuck in his leg, but he could still walk with some help. We started to make our way over to where Carlo and Angelo had been. It took us a while since half the fucking building was on fire.” He had stared at the floor while he recounted the events but now he turned his dark gaze to me, his eyes so dark they were almost black as he addressed me, “But when we got close enough to see through the smoke, Ivan and his men were already dragging Carlo out.”

“You saw them taking him?” I raged, shooting to my feet to tower over him, “Why didn’t you fucking do anything?” Reaching around my back, I pulled my gun from the back of my pants and aimed it at his head, “Give me one good fucking reason why I shouldn’t blow your fucking brains out right here you disloyal fucking pig.”

“Mia, you have to know, if I thought for one second we stood any chance of taking them out and saving Carlo I would have tried. They were just so far away and we were in no position to attack.”

“Bullshit, you could have tried!”Exclusive © content by N(ô)ve/l/Drama.Org.

“Mia, I was there. There was no way any of us would have made it out alive if we’d tried to intervene, and Carlo could have been caught in the crossfire,” Enzo said, making his way into the room with Frankie at his side. Her eyes were rimmed red and her face was blotchy as if she had just finished crying. They made their way over to a large recliner, Enzo settling himself down and Frankie perching herself onto the arm of the chair beside him.

I took a minute to calm myself. I was letting my emotions run wild and I needed to clamp it the fuck down for Carlos sake. “Fine, tell me the rest,” I said through a clenched jaw as I put my gun away and took my seat again.

Relief shown in his eyes before he went back to staring at the floor, “We made our way over to the alcove where Carlo and Angelo had been. When I made it through the debris, I found Angelo on the ground. I thought he was dead,” he paused swallowing down his emotion before continuing, “He was unconscious but breathing and I couldn’t get him to wake up so I pulled him out to where I had left Enzo and together we drug him around to the back entrance. It would have been easier to go out the front but we couldn’t risk walking right into Ivan.”

“What about you two?” I asked the two men Antonio had identified as Matteo and Leo.

Leo, I think, spoke up, “Matty here got pinned down by some fallen equipment, and I stayed behind to help him while Antonio went after the others.”

Accepting his explanation, I turned to Antonio again, “How the fuck did they know you guys were there?” I asked. My blood had started to heat as I listened to Antonio recount the events of the day, and it was positively boiling now. “Do you think we could have another rat?” I asked the question that had been niggling at the back of my mind all day. It was one of the reasons I sent all the other men to the hotel, I only wanted my most trusted men involved in planning Carlo’s rescue.

When did they become my men?

“I doubt it,” Enzo spoke up first, “Our guys are solid. It’s possible they had the place under some sort of surveillance. We swept the warehouse for bugs and there were no cameras so maybe they had eyes in the sky.”

“I agree with Enzo,” Angelo spoke for the first time since I’d arrived.

I nodded, “Okay,” I took a deep breath, “Frankie was able to track Ivan back to a club in Portland. That’s where he’s keeping Carlo. I have an idea how we can get in but you’re not going to like it.”

“What?” Angelo asked, his whole body tensing at my words.

“The night I killed Boris, I ran into Ivan on my way out of the hotel.” I paused and looked around to see a mixture of shocked and confused faces.

“You did WHAT?” Michael, who had remained silent up to that point roared, getting to his feet and towering over me. I closed my eyes at his outburst. I knew he was upset because of his concern for my safety, but I wasn’t the scared little girl he used to know. I needed to make sure he realized what I was capable of now that I was all grown up.

“Michael,” I started, but I was cut off by Pauline who had just entered the room.