Twisted Loyalties (The Camorra Chronicles 1)

I could see one tall masked intruder heading our way, already reloading his gun. This wasn’t the end I’d imagined. Being shot in the head by some Outfit or Famiglia asshole.

Nino reached the cage when two men began firing at him. Before he dove under a table, he threw a gun over the top of the cage. It landed with a soft thud in the blood puddle between Remo and I.

Remo had only one good arm though, so I dove forward and grabbed the gun with my right hand while I used my left one to punch Remo’s dislocated shoulder to stop a grappling match before it could even start. He growled as he fell back. I knelt immediately, gun pointed straight ahead.

Remo smiled crookedly and opened his arms in invitation. “Do it. Better you than them.”

Sorry, Remo, not like that.

I took aim, trying to stop my bruised arms from shaking, and then I pulled the trigger. The bullet hit its target right between the eyes.

Remo whirled around to what was behind him and could only watch the attacker who had been pointing a gun at his head tumble to the ground. I stumbled toward Remo, ignoring my body’s screams of pain. I didn’t waste time, nor warned Remo, instead I grabbed his dislocated arm and located it with one practiced tug. Remo groaned, then stumbled to his own feet. I threw my arm over his shoulder and steered him toward the door of the cage, shooting at anyone who looked like they might be a threat. I hammered against the locked cage door, but people were busy saving their own asses. And Remo’s men and brothers were having a shooting match with five attackers who were hiding behind the bar.

My eyes searched our surroundings. Where was Leona? Was she save? She knew this place and would be hiding somewhere safe. She was clever, I tried to calm myself. It wasn’t fucking working. I ripped at the door, but the thing was built to last. “Fuck!” I screamed.

Remo tried his luck as well but that thing was too strong. It rattled but apart from that: nothing.

Suddenly Leona’s head popped up before us. Her eyes wandered between Remo and me, but she didn’t say anything. She’d probably given up understanding me and this world a long time ago. She fumbled with the key in the lock until finally the door swung open, releasing us. I let go of Remo and jumped out of the cage, gasping at the impact. I’d be bruised for weeks.

If Remo let me live that long; I was still supposed to die for my betrayal. Remo landed beside me, and picked up a gun from a fallen man on the ground. “I go ahead, you have my back,” he ordered like in old times. I pressed a kiss to Leona’s lips. He watched with an unmoving expression.

“Let’s leave,” she begged. “This isn’t our fight.”

I smiled apologetically. “This will always be my fight as long as Remo lets me.” I pushed her under the side of the cage where she wouldn’t be spotted easily. “Stay there. It’s too dangerous.”

She nodded like she understood why I had to do this as she pressed herself against the side of the cage.

Remo and I turned around, and then we did what we did best. It took another hour to break down the attack. The last two attackers raised their guns to their heads to end their own lives before we could get our hands on them. I shot one of them in the hand before he could pull the trigger, then I was on him. “You’ll regret the day you decided to enter our borders.”

He spat onto my naked feet. “Fuck off.”

Remo chuckled, then coughed and spit blood on the ground. “That’s how your spit is going to look soon too,” he murmured.

We let Nino and Savio bring the man down to the sound-proof storage room. Adamo stood back against one of the booth, looking shaken. He held a gun in his hand and stared down at one of the attackers. Was this the day of his first kill?

I could feel Leona’s eyes on me as I followed after Remo to press details out of the attacker. I knew she was appalled by what I was doing. But she knew what I could do, and was still here.

It took forty minutes to get the information we needed, Remo and I both were bruised and tired, and needed medical treatment. We couldn’t waste time on elaborate torture methods. Luckily Nino did most of the work. The man was lying on the ground, wheezing. Remo knelt beside him. “So let me get this straight,” he said calmly. “The Outfit sent you to my territory. For what?”

The man shook his head. “I don’t know. I’m following orders. Your territory is bigger than ours. We want a piece. This was a good time.”