His right hand

Chapter 2

Angelo POV

I heard the footsteps outside long before she shut the door and threw the lock. Uneven pace, like someone running from something that’s toward it.

I almost let her walk back out into whatever she was running from. That would have been the smart thing to do— maybe.

But I didn’t.

I needed information— who was chasing her? Whether it connected to my own man circling closer everyday this week or whether Costello had gotten desperate enough to start pulling strangers off the street as leverage.

That was the story I told himself while I was watching her from the dark, cataloguing her way I catalogued everyone.

“Liv” I turned the name over once, filed it and decided already that I would remember it longer than I needed to. She had no idea what she had walked into. She had no idea what an open door at midnight in this district usually meant, or who usually walked through it or what happened to most of them.

I should have sent her back out into the street the second she said “followed”. Instead I let the silence stretch out between us and and let myself notice the shape of her mouth when she talked back to me instead of flinching.

“Not every open door is an accident” Even as I said it, I wasn’t sure what door I meant.

Liv POV

He shoved me down behind a stack of crates, his body angling in front of mine like a wall.

“Stay on the floor behind me”

He drew his gun and returned fire before I finished registering what was happening at all.

*How did I get in the middle of this?!*

I couldn’t see the other side of the room, only him- steady, precise, moving like this is a language he had spoken his whole life.

“We don’t want problems with you Angelo. We just want the girl.” his voice shouted across the warehouse landing perfectly in my ears. *Huh? Me?! Why me?!*

Angelo looked down at me confuse but still with a really sharp look in his eyes.

“Why are they looking for you?” He didn’t yelled but his voice sounded upset. * the heck I know!*

“I don’t know! I promise!” My words can lie but not my eyes. He looked at me just for a few seconds, trying to be sure whether I was saying the truth.

He looked back to the people out there. He didn’t answer right away, and he didn’t look he was trying to have a conversation either. The gunshots didn’t stop so neither did he. He wasn’t trying to kill anyone— yet. He was making sure neither of us died in the next thirty seconds.

“Angelo, we don’t want to start a war, just give us the girl and we will leave.” *I don’t even know you!*

Angelo? So that’s his name.

“I’m being generous for not starting one right now, considering that you are on my side of Rome, shooting at me” he said flat and final. “Leave now, or I stop being nice”

Don’t ask me why, but I believe him.

Without meaning to, I reached out and grabbed a fistful of his jacket— just two fingers worth, like that alone could keep either of us safe.

“What the hell are you doing?” He glanced down at me, sharp— but I didn’t let go. Everything in me was screaming for help and my voice had abandoned me entirely. Like a little child will look at his dad when they are scared of the monster under their bed.

It had been long time since I’d I felt this way— but why now?

Something shifted in his face. Understanding? Maybe— he didn’t say anything else, he turned back toward the men.

“I saw her, pretty little thing. Planing on having fun with her, or why are you protecting her? Just give us the girl”

*Having fun with her* My whole body went cold *Hr is not like that— I don’t think he is*

“I don’t care the reason of why are you looking for this woman and I don’t want to hear it. If you want her” Angelo said. “ You will have to kill me first” *He said what?! Is he nuts?!*

“No. What? No, no—“ I whispered. I looked at him. “Angelo stop it” I almost yelled at him. “Don’t say that” my face was a mix of confusion and fear— not for me, for him.

He didn’t say anything back at me, didn’t even looked at me.

“Costello, one more chance for you to leave”

“If not, what?”

“Angelo, stop!” I don’t want you to die!” The words came out of me before I could stop them. I didn’t even know this man. I’m probably not a saint but the thought of somebody else losing their life for me was just driving me crazy. I don’t want that.

He looked down at me. Confusion and something else, something careful, crossing his face.

“I will fix this” he said quietly but firmly.

“How? They will kill you if I don’t go.” My voice cracked. I didn’t even know why they wanted me so badly, but maybe going with them was for the best. “I’ll go”

“Like hell you will”

I was standing up carefully but he noticed my movement.

“Get the f**k down, now!” My body involuntary went back down to the floor, so fast it looked like I was carrying ten thousand pounds on my back.

*Dang, is he always like that?*

“She’s already decided, Angelo” the other man called. “Let her come, and we leave. Stop making this harder.”

“Is that what you want?” Angelo looked at me and asked me directly, ignoring the man entirely, like the only voice that mattered was mine.

“No” I whispered. A tear slipped free before I could stop it. “But I don’t want you to die. Not after you tried to protect me.”

His eye softened, just slightly— like he was trying to tell me “you don’t have to carry this” without a single word.

“I’ll ask you once more” he said. “Is that what you want?”

“N-no”

“Then, what do you want me to do?”

“What?” I stared at him, completely lost.

“You heard me. Tell me, what you want, and I will do it”

What did that mean? Kill or be killed? Was that really the question? I didn’t want blood on my hands, but they’d fired first— they’d tried to kill us first. Us or them.

“Angelo” he looked down at me, waiting, patient, while my two fingers were still curled into his jacket like they had found somewhere they belonged.

“Please— kill them all”

“As you wish”

He rose and the room dissolved into a gunfire— but his aim never wavered, never hesitated. He knew perfectly what he was doing.

I stayed in the same spot while he did what he needed to do. I didn’t turn around, I didn’t want to see at all. I was just waiting until everything was over, hoping that moment would come.

Then in an instant, the gunfire stopped and a hand found mine.

“We are done here. Come with me”

He led me into his office and locked the door behind us.