Page 97 of When She Unravels
Hard enough to make her flinch.
Hard enough to make her gasp in pain.
The room around me starts to tremble.
There’s no holding it in this time.
Flinch. Gasp.
It sets off an inferno of rage.
I move as fast as lightning. My bowl and the entirety of its steaming hot contents end up in Vito’s face. He shrieks from the burn. Good. I hope he goes blind.
Nelo jumps, reaching for his gun. Suddenly, Ras is there, pushing Vale out of the way and knocking Nelo’s gun out of his grasp.
I jerk Nelo by his wrist and slam the hand that touched Vale on the island. The dark scab stares up at me for a moment before I cover it with the barrel of my gun.
“I really thought you’d learned your lesson the first time you insulted her.”
His wild eyes meet mine. “You’re fucking crazy. What the fuck—”
Flinch. Gasp.
I pull the trigger.
CHAPTER29
VALENTINA
The last timeI heard a gun go off was when I shot my husband. I remember the silence that followed as Martina and I stared at his unconscious body and the growing pool of blood.
This time, the silence is replaced by screams.
Screams that trigger a host of other memories. Nelo, in particular, sounds just like this one older man Lazaro bought to me. My fourth. He was so loud. It was like he thought the louder he was, the less it would hurt.
When my gaze drifts over the hole in Nelo’s hand, I start to retch.
Damiano’s got his gun pressed to Nelo’s head. “Get her out of here,” he snaps at Ras.
Ras makes a move toward me, but I shake my head. He needs to stay here. Vito is still curled in fetal position, whimpering on the floor with remnants of the stew stuck to his face, but the pain will fade eventually. Damiano shouldn’t be here alone with the two of them.
“I’m fine,” I say to Ras and get the hell out of the kitchen.
I don’t stop moving until I’m back in my room. For once, I wish I could lock the door from the inside. The broken plates from earlier are still scattered all over the floor, and when I step on a shard, a sharp pain shoots through my foot. Crap.
I sink down to the floor and cradle my foot in my lap. The piece of glass is lodged inside, but I can tell it’s just a shallow cut.
The same can’t be said about Nelo.
What is Damiano going to do?
He said they were here sniffing around on behalf of the don, and if their clan is anything like the Garzolos, shooting one of the don’s men is a big no-no. Given what I now know about the relationship between Damiano and Sal, this could be all the excuse Sal needs to deal with his Damiano problem once and for all. So much for avoiding an escalation.
He just jeopardized his entire plan for…me.
He stood up for me.
It might be the first time anyone in the mafia has actually given a shit about my discomfort. Shouldn’t it feel good that he cared enough about me to do what he did?
