Indebted to the Mafia King
Firestorm

Dante

My bullet pings off a metal shelf as Luca Lombardi ducks at the last moment, dragging El down with him. She yelps and tries to disentangle his fingers from her hair. My vision narrows to her, half-dressed on this filthy warehouse floor. She looks so vulnerable, nothing like the iron woman who tried to stand up to him moments ago. How dare he expose her like that, how dare he grope her with his fucking gun like a piece of meat, how dare he threaten- Tony drags me down behind a table I didn't realize he flipped over for cover. "Head in the game, asshole."

"Fuck off." I reload my gun. I don't want to miss my shot on Luca because I emptied a chamber into a fucking shelf.

Tony slams me against the table. "Head in the game, or I'm dragging your ass outside and chaining you to the car until it's over."

I grit my teeth and try to swallow down enough of the white-hot anger that filled me and made me fire that first shot. I can't save El if I'm dead. There's no life to share with her if I don't have one. Tony releases me and nods. I peek up over the top of the table to see Luca's men hiding in crevices amidst the shelves. Fuckers. This is Thano's fucking warehouse in Jersey. There's no reason for them to know the place so well already. "Whack-a-mole," Tony hisses.

I nod and disappear back behind the table. Tony pops his head out like he's not paying attention. When Luca's men expose themselves trying to get the shot, I shoot one, two, three of them in quick succession. They drop, and Tony hides himself again.

"Me next," I spit.

Tony grits his teeth but doesn't refuse me. I need to see where El is. I lean out, perfectly unconcerned.

Luca's gone. Luca's fucking gone, and he took her with him. Tony's gun fires next to me, but I don't duck back down. I whip around, trying to replace her.

There, by the open loading dock. Luca still has her by the fucking hair, and he's dragging her-

Tony yanks me back down hard enough that my head slams into the table. "Are you fucking stupid?"

"He's going for the loading dock." I shove more bullets into my gun. "We have to move."

Tony mutters something that sounds suspiciously like, Uncle John was right, and nods around the table toward the loading dock. I'll tear him a new one for that later. There was a whole fucking fleet of identical black cars in the parking lot when we pulled in, after chasing the tracker all the way to the Jersey fucking Shore, and I'm not losing El in one of those. Luca will replace the tracker before long.

Tony and I dodge to a nearby shelf. Bullets fly. Someone grunts, and I glance into the next row over to see Seb and one of Luca's men, fighting hand to hand on the ground. I take aim and splatter his enemy's head.

Seb looks up at me and wipes gore off his face. "Thanks."

"Figured I owed you." I nod at the loading dock. "El that way."

The three of us prowl forward, dodging bullets and sprinting between the thick cover of the shelves. Every time I drop one of Luca's men, I duck behind Tony and reload. I won't miss. I can't miss. It's just barely easier to think straight when I can't see El, her breasts barely contained by a black lace bra she must've bought at the same time of the suit, covered in bruises and refusing to break under Luca's force.

We reach the edge of the shelves. Only floor between us and the loading dock. Floor, and seven of Luca's goons. Behind them, I can see Eleni struggling, can just barely hear the tirade she's unleashing against Luca as he drags her through the gravel. That white-hot anger fills me again.

A crowbar sits on top of one of the crates next to me. I pick it up and throw it in the opposite direction of Seb. When the guards turn to follow the noise, Tony and I charge. My gun judders back and forth in my hand, barely a breath between when I fire one bullet and when I sight my next shot. In the head, in the chest, in the stomach so I can interrogate him later. One of them clips my shoulder, a searing flesh wound. Tony takes him down a second later.

And with all the attention on us, Seb has all the time he needs to creep past the guard and fire on Luca. His gun's distinctive, raspy fire cuts through the fighting to me. Tony drops the last guard here, though gunfire deeper in the warehouse tells me the rest of our men are still fighting. I whip around to check on Luca and El.

Seb's first shot went uselessly wide. His aim still isn't what it used to be, even on the edge of the loading dock in perfect form. Luca opens a black SUV. Seb's next shot shatters the window of the door Luca is holding. The big fucking coward dives into the car, releasing Eleni's hair. My chest squeezes.

El scrambles to her feet in the gravel and begins racing toward me. I drop my gun and run for her. She's here, she's safe, she's mine. I'll move her out of the city, to fucking Greece, wherever she wants, as long as I never have to see her within a hundred feet of Luca Lombardi again. My grasp on the monster inside of me is slipping. It's almost hard to run to her instead of throwing myself at the SUV to gut Luca and feed him his own entrails. As long as she's safe, I can be the man she cares about.

Like a monster out of a movie, Luca rises up behind her. He lifts his gun. I throw myself forward, and he fires.