Abby screams again as three more guys grab her, and something inside of me just snaps. And suddenly, it’s like I’ve gone feral. I roar like a beast, lunging naked and swinging my fist into a cluster of them, fisting swinging, knees bashing, and an animalistic roar ripping from my throat.
It’s like I’m a caged beast, and I’m ready to take them all. I’m ready to fight every single goddamn one of these assholes threatening the woman I love. And I’m about to do just that, when I’m knocked to my knees, and four shotguns are shoved in my face.
I make a move, but a voice yanks me to my senses.
“One more fuckin’ move, funny guy. One more fuckin’ move and we’ll see what happens.”
My eyes dart towards Abby at the sound of Nino’s voice, and my blood chills.
No.
Nino’s face is swollen, his nose broken from where he face-planted at Abby’s apartment when I knocked him out. But that’s not what has my attention. What has my full and undivided attention is the fact that he’s holding a .38 against my wife’s temple.
He grins at me wickedly, slowly shaking his head.
“Go on, tough guy,” he sneers. “Go on and keep fighting. See how fast I splatter the insides of her pretty little head across your goddamn walls.”
White-hot hatred sears through me. An aguish I’ve never known—just at the thought of him hurting her—jolts through me, taking the wind from my lungs and fight from my blood.
Nino snickers. “That’s what I fuckin’ thought.” He shakes his head at me. “Colm. Goddamn, buddy. You really gonna do the family like this? Just gonna start taking out your own team?”
“Why don’t you ask your bosses why the fuck they were after her, asshole,” I hiss, my chest heaving, blood roaring in my ears.
Nino shrugs. “They were there for her because we got wind that you were planning an early retirement, pal.”
He makes a tsking sound with his tongue against his teeth.
“Colm, you know you don’t just walk out on family.”
“The Lucretas are not my goddamn family,” I snarl. “And I’m through with that life. All I want is to be gone, Nino. This doesn’t have to go down like this.”
But it does. I know it, he knows, and every one of what seems to be the fucking army the Lucretas sent here for me and Abby knows it. I swallow, my mind churning at a million miles an hour, trying to calculate the odds, trying to look for an angle.
…Except I’m coming up short. Really, really short.
My gut sinks, and a rage begins to burn through me as my eyes scan the room and situation. There’re easily forty guys here, all armed, all with guns trained on me and Abby. I can fight my way out of some real shit, but this?
My jaw clenches.
This is more than I can swallow, and I know it.
Nino chuckles, like he can see what I’m thinking all over my face.
“Colm, buddy. You had it good, my man.” He shakes his head. “But you had to go fuck it up over some piece of ass.”
He pushes the gun against Abby’s head, making her wince, and suddenly, I snap. I roar as I lunge for him, and I even almost make it there before the stock of someone’s shotgun slams into my core, knocking the wind from me as I go crashing to the ground.
“Colm!”
Abby lunges for me, but Nino catches her fast by the wrist, yanking her back.
“Your boyfriend here—”
“Husband,” she hisses defiantly.
Nino rolls his eyes. “Whatever. See, he’s done, sweetheart. Finished. They’re gonna sink his ass in the east river in a barrel of cement.”
Anguish and rage blooms over her face, but she doesn’t say a word as her eyes lock on mine. She’s saying something with that look, but I can’t quite read it.
“So, look, sweetheart. If you’re lookin’ for a new man…” Nino grins lecherously at my wife wrapped up in bedsheets, and it’s enough to get me lurching off the ground and charging him one more time before three other guys haul me back.
“Colm!”
I hiss when one of them punches me in the face, but when I look up and into Abby’s eyes, there’s that look again, like she’s trying to send me a message non-verbally. She holds my eyes fiercely with hers, until suddenly, they flick to the bed next to us. I frown, and she does it again, and again, until finally, slowly, my eyes move with hers.
It takes me a full three seconds to realize what I’m looking at. And then, suddenly, I’m laughing.
That’s my girl. That’s my girl.
“The fuck are you two making eyes about?” Nino snaps, yanking her back by the wrist. His eyes dart between us. “Hey! I’m talking to you! The fuck are you up to?”
Slowly though, his gaze moves to the bed, and when he sees what I saw, he frowns.