Page 11 of By Blade, I Love
“There’s my girl.” I bent my head and gave her a kiss. “Love you.”
“Love you too.”
I finally left the house and picked up the guys at headquarters before we made the drive to Trapani. Now that I was a lieutenant again, I had free rein to do whatever I wanted. I could recruit whomever I wanted for these jobs. Don Russo had given me carte blanche, and no one hesitated when I gave my orders.
We arrived at the restaurant early and left our car farther down the road before we all took up our positions in various spots. One guy was on the roof of the opposite building, while another was on a bench farther down the street. We were all spread outside the restaurant that was mostly indoors.
An hour later, Warren and his men arrived. Made a huge spectacle of it in a line of SUVs like they were going to war instead of dinner. I was seated in the café down the block, looking through the window and mostly out of sight.
Warren was dressed in trousers and a blazer as he headed inside, flanked by some of his men. I could only see the back of his head, but I was furious at the sight, knowing what he’d wanted to do to my woman. Don Mancini had berated me for the way I’d body-slammed him into the table, and now I wished I’d put a knife through his neck. He’d taken one look at Francesca and the obsession had kicked in, just the way it had for me.
I would carve his eyes out of his fucking head just for looking at her.
Some of the men went inside with Warren, but the rest of them took exterior positions.
I spotted Leo, his shoulders slumped like he had no desire to be there but didn’t have a choice. He lit up a cigar then leaned against the wall in the alleyway with his ankles crossed. He’d only been there for a minute, and he’d already checked his watch. “Gonna move in. Make a distraction to the east.”
“On it,” Damiano said.
I left my untouched espresso on the plate and exited the café before I crossed the street and headed to the restaurant.
I heard the sound of brakes and saw the streak of a car across the road then the audible crash that happened afterward. Up ahead, I noticed all the men on guard turn to see the collision that was out of my line of sight.
It was a small crash, more of a fender bender between a little car and a motorbike, and Leo didn’t seem concerned about it because he continued to smoke his cigar, his eyes staring at the commotion.
I scanned the men around me, all of them looking at the collision in the middle of the narrow street. I made it into the alleyway between the restaurant and the other building, and Leo was so engrossed in the crash he didn’t see me approach him from the side.
I grabbed him by the arm and tugged him with me. “Come on.”
“What the—” He tried to twist out of my grasp before he realized it was me. Then his eyes snapped open in abject terror.
Good.“I’m not going to kill you, so keep your mouth shut.” I moved to the locked door of the other business, a closedseamstress operation, and I kicked the door one time before it broke open. I shoved him inside then shut the door behind me.
“Wolfe, what the fuck are you doing here?”
I found the light switch and flicked it on. Clothes were hanging from racks and needles and thread were everywhere. A bowl of different buttons were on a table with clothes waiting for alterations.
Leo took several steps back, running into a rack of clothes covered in plastic before he stepped back out again. He was tense and nervous, like we were about to have a brawl right here in the middle of this shop.
I’d thought this would be a straightforward task, but the second I looked at his face, I was paralyzed by monstrous rage.
He must have been able to see it because he backed up into the clothes again.
It was more than bloodthirsty anger, but rather disappointment. I’d never lost respect for someone so quickly and so irrevocably. Don Mancini and I hadn’t seen eye to eye at the end, but I respected the hell out of him for raising Francesca to be so capable. And the fact that Leo had taken that away out of sheer fucking stupidity sent me over the edge.
He looked like someone trapped by a wild bear. One wrong move might set me off.
I wanted to say my piece, to viciously destroy him with my words, but I knew he wasn’t worth the effort. “You’re going to share Warren’s plans and movements so I can kill him, everyone who works for him, and then you.”
I reached into my pocket for the phone I’d brought.
He jerked like I was about to pull out a gun.
I tossed it at him.
His hands automatically moved, and he caught it like it was instinct. Then he looked down at the phone in his hand.
“You’re my snitch now.”
