Page 91 of Taboo Flames
“And one more thing,” I add. “Nobody touches Giordano. He’s mine.”
The men nod, and I see some of them make signs of the cross before they scatter off in different directions.
I hold my Glock tightly in one hand as I make my way deeper into the building. When I come across one of Giordano’s men urinating in the corner, I fire a bullet into the back of his head.
I continue advancing deeper into the building, shooting anybody in my way. The stairs leading up prove tricky as they are far too broken, and they don’t look at all secure.
I search around and come up short on another route leading up, so with a muttered curse under my breath, I take the deathtrap-looking stairs, running up on light feet.
I don’t encounter anyone on my way, but when I get to one of the floors, I find some armed men playing cards and laughing. I flatten myself behind a wall, then grab a stone and throw it in the opposite direction. I shoot them when they all turn away to investigate the source of the noise.
As I turn a corner, a fist flies toward me, but I grab the fist, yank it forward, and twist the hand until I hear a satisfying snap and howl. Then I push the man away and shoot him twice in the head.
I take another set of stairs up and burst into another room, and finally, there she is. Aurora.
I take my first full breath since finding out she’s missing. She looks a mess, but at least she’s alive. Her lips are swollen and bruised, and one side of her forehead has a bleeding cut. She alsolooks spitting mad rather than scared, and I’m sure if there isn’t tape slapped over her mouth, she’ll be raining curses down on everyone’s head.
I chuckle lightly.
“Hello, princess,” I drawl.
Her head snaps forward, and she stares at me wide-eyed. She tries to say something, but it comes out muffled.
Just as I take a step toward her, Giordano steps out from another room with a gun trained on her.
“Take another step, and I’ll blow a hole through her.”
I freeze immediately. Gone are the pastel-colored shirts and pressed cargo pants. He looks nothing like the man I’ve known for a while and exactly like the man from my childhood days who had been a force to reckon with.
A compressed T-shirt exposes an arm with thick, whip-cord muscles that I hadn’t known he had been hiding behind his pastel-colored shirts and pressed cargo pants.
Even his eyes are different: cold, remote, and hard.
“You bastard!” I snarl.
“Drop your gun,” he orders.
Aurora begins to mumble loudly, her eyes clearly telling me that I shouldn’t do anything he says.
Giordano cocks his gun. “You do not want to test my patience, Giovanni.”
I raise my hands in the air in surrender and slowly lower my gun to the ground.
“Just let her go. This is between you and me,” I say harshly.
“It is, isn’t it?” He smiles, his lips lifting in a cruel, humorless curve.
“You killed my mother, didn’t you?” I ask him, my voice cold.
“Ysabel should never have gone snooping into my business,” he says angrily. “She found out about my trade, and I didn’t trusther to keep quiet. She had a weak point, which was you, and I knew she’d sing like a parrot if it meant saving you.”
He makes a pitying sound before continuing, “I enjoyed pushing her toward death and burying my cock inside her before I sliced her open ear to ear and threw her into the ocean.”
Fury ignites my blood, making it pound in my ears.
“You were a bonus I never expected to get. I came to kill you, the poor orphan boy of the woman I just murdered, but then I saw something in you that reminded me so much of myself.”
“I’m nothing like you,” I retort immediately with a frown.