“I’ll drink to that,” Neeya said.
Luca gave a rare smile before raising his own glass. Melina followed suit and breathed a sigh of relief. Her worries had been for nothing. If Luca Pivetti had given the okay to The Dollhouse, then things were going to be fine. She wasn’t breaking some unwritten mob rule. She wasn’t shaming her husband. She was just a business owner.
The four of them enjoyed their glasses of champagne and made small talk before Melina was motioned over to the bar by one of the bartenders. Excusing herself, she headed behind the counter and then stopped in her tracks.
Pop.
Pop.
Pop.
Melina’s blood froze in her veins.
She’d know that sound anywhere.
Gunfire.
The Dollhouse descended into chaos. People were running everywhere. Half-naked men and women emerged from the private corners of the club. Shattering glass mixed with the sounds of gunfire. Melina turned, eyes searching the crowd for her husband. Her heart rate increased when she couldn’t spot him the crowd.
“Mac! Mac!”
Before she could yell again, he was at her side.
“I’ve got you, doll.”
Pulling his gun from his waistband, Mac grabbed her hand and navigated them through the maze of people rushing to the front of the club. Melina looked for Neeya Pivetti in the crowd but spotting one person in the mass of people was impossible. Melina held tight to her husband’s hand as one of the back door entrances to the club finally came into view. Flinging the door open, Mac went through first, gun raised before he pulled Melina behind him.
Descending the concrete stairs that led down, Melina scarcely dared to breathe as she followed her husband down the alley. In the distance, sirens could be heard. Damn. No doubt the cops were already on their way. When Mac abruptly stopped, Melina crashed into his back.
“Mac?”
“We have to get out of here. Now.”
Before Melina could react, he was half dragging her out of the alley and toward a side street behind a neighboring building. But Mac wasn’t fast enough. As they ran, Melina saw what had captured her husband’s rapt attention.
A man lay in the alley. What had once been his face was unrecognizable.
Holy fuck.
Death had found them once again.
Melina knew that one way or another, the storm they thought they’d been facing was about to get worse.
Much, much worse.
“No comment,” Mac said to Melina. “That is always your response, doll.”
Melina gave him a look from the side, questioning and exhausted at the same time. “Is that—”
Another knock on the apartment door interrupted her question.
Mac wanted to reassure his wife as much as he could before he opened the door. He wanted to tell her things were perfectly fine and that it would all be figured out without any sort of trouble.
He’d be lying.
Mac didn’t want to lie to his wife.
He didn’t know what the fuck was going on. He didn’t know why yet another person was killed at an event that had been planned around something he and his wife had done. He’d gotten Melina out of there the night before, only because he didn’t want police backlash on her during business hours, and he figured it was a buffer zone between Melina and the activities going on inside the place.
Just in case …
However, they couldn’t stick their heads in the sand forever.
Luca had already called. He wanted a meeting—soon. Another Capo had called, confirming Mac’s suspicions that the police had been all over The Dollhouse the night before. Enric also called, thankfully with the news that no one was arrested.
The body, on the other hand, had been identified, according to Enric.
Luca Pivetti’s new lawyer, hired after Matthew had been killed, Kyle Reeves.
Mac didn’t know why the lawyer had been at the club, never mind in the back alley, but apparently, he had been and that’s where he’d ended up dead.
The who, why, and what were still the questions of the hour.
“Answer the door, Mac,” Melina said softly.
Mac blinked out of his daze, losing his thoughts in the process. He could plainly hear the police detectives behind the front door announcing their presence and asking if anyone was home. He should have ignored them, but he knew it wouldn’t do him any damn good. If not today, they would be questioning them tomorrow.
He wanted to make sure that fucking no one questioned his wife when he or a lawyer wasn’t present. It was her business, so there was no doubt they would come for her.
Finally, Mac pulled the door open. He faced two familiar police detectives, the same ones that had questioned him the night of his wedding. That in itself, just seeing their snide smiles, was more than enough to make Mac’s blood boil.
He almost slammed the door right in their faces.
Melina’s hand curving around his shoulder was the only thing that stopped him.