Page 53 of The Don

Salvatore

“Do they not bring bread in Italy? Is that not a thing here?” she asks, kicking my foot under the table playfully; impatiently. “Or water? Didn’t we order water?”

“We did.” I glance at Federico, and he dashes down the stairs to the main floor of the restaurant.

“What should we do after this?”

I lift my eyebrows. “Home,” I say. “We have plans.”

Her foot slides along mine up to my ankle. “Do we?” she asks, a slow smile spreading across her face.

“Shae.”

“I’m hungry. I forgot. You should remind me.”

I’m out of my chair in a heartbeat. We do have plans, and all I can think about is the fastest way to make her come now. I don’t care who’s around to see it.

But the moment is interrupted by shouting from the bottom of the stairs.

We all turn at the sound, but I don’t stop. I learned that early — a moving target is harder to hit. I circle around the table and pull Shae as gently as I can from her chair. “Come, bella.”

“What’s—” she starts to ask and then stops, rushing from her chair and grabbing my hand.

My god, I couldn’t love her more.

There’s a door behind the stairs that leads to another stairwell. I’d spotted it on the way in because it’s natural for me to be aware of my surroundings. Shae and I sprint toward the door behind Lorenzo while the rest of my men split between covering our exit and rushing down the other stairs to help Federico.

“Come, padrino,” Lorenzo says. He pulls his gun from his holster. “I will go first.”

I nod and let go of Shae’s hand to pull my own gun from the holster under my arm.

“Wait, have you had that on you the entire time?”

“Not now, my love.” I send her out onto the metal stairs after Lorenzo so I can watch our backs.

After the commotion from the restaurant, the world outside seems peaceful. Sure, I can hear people hawking their delicacies at a nearby market, but there’s no gunfire, and besides our shoes clanging on the steps, it’s peaceful.

Relatively.

Lorenzo makes it off the steps first, and he lifts his gun, heading toward the mouth of the alley quickly but cautiously.

Shae steps into the alley and immediately turns to look up at me. She’s shaking and throws her arms over her stomach protectively. Seeing that makes my heart pound against my chest.

The silence breaks in an instant.

The door above us slams open. I hear someone shouting, but I can’t make out exactly what they’re saying. I’m only focused on getting to Shae, and I grab her hand in mine before I take the final step from the metal stairs. She squeezes my one hand with both of hers.

We turn toward the mouth of the alley just in time to hear Lorenzo yell and a burst of gunshots.

Shae gasps and screams. Lorenzo falls to the ground.

I pull Shae behind me and lift my gun level with my chest to set my sights on Pedro Lombardi.

“Hello, Salvo.”

“What are you doing here?”

“You called us.”