The Luciano boss looked at the men around the room when no one came up to face him. “Any takers?”
Just as she suspected, the men were all talk and no action.
Vincent was lucky he had looks, because the dumbass stood as he gave Lake a look like I’ve got this.
“Sit your ass back down,” Dominic told him, knowing there would be no competition. It would be like hitting a helpless bab—
“What? Are you fucking scared?” Vincent gave him his pretty boy smile.
“Dominic …,” Maria spoke from behind him, “kick his ass.”
Dom nodded, agreeing to the slaughter.
“On the count of three,” Maria began. “One …”
Dom and Vincent drew close but maintained a four-inch distance between them.
“Two …”
Vincent raised his fists up in a fighting position while Dom remained relaxed.
“Three …”
“Let’s go, motherfucke—”
Vincent took one step forward, and it was his last, as Dominic punched the pretty boy so hard right in the face that he immediately fell backward like a ton of bricks, unable to finish his sentence.
The only ones who didn’t collectively jump from watching the action were Dom’s siblings, Maria, Drago, and Lucca.
“Vincent!” Lake was beside her boyfriend in an instance. “Your nose is bleeding.”
“I think he fucking broke it!” Vincent touched it as he came to.
“Sorry about that,” Dominic told him, obviously not sorry. “Who’s next?”
None of the men came for—
“I will.” Amo stood, taking Vincent’s place, as he was off on the sidelines, being nursed by his girlfriend. The respect from the men in the room went up for Amo.
Dom nodded again, agreeing to the fight right out the gate, which made Maria realize he had probably been waiting to get his hands on Amo after what he had done to Angel.
Angel sat back, smiling.
“I got a hundred on Dom. Any takers?” Mathias immediately called out.
“I’ll take that bet.” Dumbass Vincent couldn’t resist, while his girlfriend held a bag of peas over his nose. Pulling out his wallet, he bet on Amo.
Maria couldn’t help but notice Lucca and Chloe. They sat farther away from anyone and the Luciano brothers didn’t come close to the scarred girl, all of them keeping their distance out of respect for her and the underboss after what their father had done to her. But she was solely focused on Amo, while Lucca hid a smile that Amo was about to get his ass kicked.
Wanting to get the hot show on the road, Maria began the countdown, “One …”
Amo eyed Dominic in confidence.
“Two …”
Dominic stared him down. “You wanting to fight to show off in front of the girls or because I’m a Luciano?”
The room went deathly silent at Maria’s … “Three.”
Amo rushed toward Dom like a bull in a china shop, his eyes on Dom’s hands. Unlike Vincent, Amo was a better match, body-wise, as De Santis men were huge, but even though he might not look his age, Dom was too experienced for him.
Dominic waited until the last second before he took a small step to the side, stopping the big man from running when he grabbed his neck. Holding it in his grasp, he watched Amo’s shocked face as he reared back his fist, punching Amo in the small of his back and sending the man to his knees.
Fuck hockey, this was the hottest fucking thing she had ever seen in her life.
“Did you break his neck?” Nero went to help Amo, but his hand was shoved away as Amo got to his feet like a ninety-year-old.
“Want another round?” Dom offered.
With one hand on his back and the other on his neck, Amo shook his head. “Not if I’m working tomorrow.”
Dominic held out a hand, and Amo stared at it for a moment, shocked, before he shook it and squashed the bad blood between them.
Matthias snatched the cash unrepentantly from Vincent’s poor hands. He had plans of getting richer.
“Who’s next?”
Drago slowly stood, moving to stand in front of Dominic, as every breath halted in the room.
Now this would actually be a fucking fight.
While Dominic had trained under the Luciano enforcer, Drago the motherfucking tank De Santis, had come from a long line of the best soldiers a Caruso had to offer. If the Carusos handed out that title, then Drago would own it.
Katarina’s face dropped. She had been enjoying the fights, but even she couldn’t hide her nerves.
“Okay, new ground rules,” Maria called out. “No hitting in the face or below the waist. We’re getting married tomorrow, and I need his face to be pretty for the pictures, and … the other thing for tomorrow night.”
“Now you say that?” Vincent’s ground out with the peas attached to his face. He was going to have a rude awakening when he looked in the mirror to see he was sporting a hell of a black eye.
Nero was still gagging. “I could have lived without hearing that, but I bet five hundred on Drago.” He took out his wallet.