Page 29

I'm on borrowed time.

The urge to return to Sabina is strong, but there isn't enough time to persuade her that I mean her no harm and get her out of here since I have no idea when Mario will be back. Her blatant mistrust in me would also make things difficult in getting her to even come with me in the first place.

"Fuck." I stand out in the sun and then turn back to the manor. Getting out of here in one piece has to be my priority for now.

I tell myself that in the hour it takes Mario to come back home, but the moment he walks into the lounge with that trademark smile that's swallowed by his mustache, all my self-preservation flies out the window.

"The sick girl," I grind out through clenched teeth. "How is she?"

Mario sighs deeply as he walks toward me and then passes me to the wall unit, housing countless alcohol bottles and decanters. "She is suffering, but we will be resolving that soon," he replies.

"Good. Now you can tell me why Sabina is here?"

Mario pauses while pouring his drink and he sighs once more, then resumes the pour. "You went snooping. I am disappointed."

"If you knew anything about me, you wouldn't be," I reply quietly. "Tell me why she is here."

"That, Ragazzo, is none of your business."

"I'm not your boy," I snap. "I haven't been since you decided your little empire here was more important than saying goodbye to your son and my father while I put him in the ground." I straighten my spine and glare at him as he turns to face me. "Tell me."

Mario drinks slowly and then gazes at me over the rim of his glass. "No."

"Fine. Then I am taking her. It's what I came here to do in the first place, and the fact that you have her changes nothing."

Mario laughs. "Cassian, the fact that I have the person you are looking for changes everything. For one, I am surprised she even has your attention. Do you even know who she is?" He slowly walks toward me. "Do you know what she is?"

My eyes narrow. "What I know is none of your concern. I am taking her back to New York."

"No. You are not."

"Do you remember that club you scoffed at?" I maintain eye contact as I fish the Suit card out of my shirt pocket. "Did you ever even bother to look into what they are?"

Mario eyes the card and drinks slowly, then he begins to chuckle. It quickly grows into deep laughter, and he waves me away. "I know what the Suit is, but you forget one thing, Cassian. You are a long way from New York. Your little rule book doesn't apply out here in Italy. We have our own rules. Our own laws. We fight for what we want and we take it without some annoying fucking parrot on our shoulders telling us no."

Anger ignites in my chest, and I'm caught between correcting him on the role of the Suit and just punching him in the face for talking to me in such a patronizing tone.

"You're mistaken if you think the Suit has no pull in Italy," I reply as calmly as I can.

Mario scoffs sharply. "Am I? I think you are the mistaken one." He drains his glass and slams it down on the small coffee table. "This is family business, Cassian. I invited you in here because you are family and I thought you had finally decided to come home and put some real honor behind that name of yours. But I see now that you are just as pathetic as your father was. No guts. No honor. You should leave."

I grit my teeth so tightly that my jaw aches while my hands curl into fists. "Not without Sabina."

"Be careful," Mario replies, and his tone completely changes. Gone is the kindly old man with laughs and smiles. The man who stands before me is dark like the clouds before a storm, and he snaps his fingers once. "One more word and you will leave here without your life, understand?"

Before I can respond, a rush of air behind me is the only warning I get before a fist collides with the back of my head. I move with the blow in an attempt to minimize the pain, then twist around and punch at my attacker's ribs. The blow lands but it's three on one, and two more hard punches collide with my face and jaw.

Another hits my kidney, one collides with my stomach, and a foot crashes into the weak, sore spot on my thigh from my healing wound. I go down like a sack of bricks and grit my teeth, ready to fight back. I can brawl. It's one of my strengths. I'm slow but I'm strong.

Then Raven's words filter through the fog of anger in my mind.

Be careful.

I'm no use to Sabina dead. No use to anyone. Getting out of here alive is the only way I can guarantee I'm able to help her.

So the blows come and I don't defend myself other than to protect my face and my leg. They punch me, kick me, twist my arms painfully up my back, and drag me from the room while Mario watches me with a heavy, disappointed expression.

It would hurt if I held him in any kind of regard.