Like they could make it.
All three of them could get to the car and just fucking leave.
It was a dumb idea.
Something a twelve-year-old came up with as he grabbed the metal railing on each side and lifted his feet, because he’d been practicing this shit. Stupid cast. Tino went first, but Carina was right behind him, with Nova at her heels.
Tino was halfway down when the others came from around the pool.
The gunfire must have sent them running.
“Grab those fuckers!” Frankie’s voice was gravelly and furious.
Tino didn’t turn around, but he heard Nova go back up, felt the tackle shake the entire staircase. Tino had other problems, namely the four big, thick men in front of him and Carina behind him.
He lifted his legs higher as he slid the rest of the way down and nailed the first guy in the chest, which made the pain explode in his foot like a nuclear bomb.
He couldn’t outrun these assholes, and he suspected they weren’t going to start shooting with Carina in the mix. So Tino fell onto the guy he kicked and hit him like he meant it. It was a Nova sucker punch, something meant to knock someone out rather than just play.
And this motherfucker obviously wasn’t expecting it. He hadn’t even thrown his hands up to protect his face. When he dropped his gun, Tino grabbed it, though he didn’t have the faintest idea how to shoot one.
Tino did, however, know how to slam a blunt metal object into the face of the second asshole who came up from behind and tackled him, but these Sicilians were just like rats. They didn’t go down easily, and they worked better in packs.
Maybe if he’d been a full-grown Sicilian instead of a twelve-year-old, he wouldn’t have ended up choking on grass and blood after fighting for his fucking life. Someone’s knee dug into the back of his neck so hard it cut off his air supply. Then he felt the cold press of a gun against the back of his skull.
“I think this little shit’s on amphetamines. Did you see him coldcock me?” the guy growled, sounding completely breathless. “What the hell are you feeding these bastards, Frankie? I think he broke my friggin’ nose!”
The gun clicked.
Tino still couldn’t breathe, but something about that sound made his body fall still.
“Is he the smart one?”
“Nah.” The stairs shook again, as if Frankie was lumbering down them. “This one’s useless, but it’d be really traumatizing to watch your brother get shot right in front of you, wouldn’t it, sweetheart?”
Carina’s and Nova’s screams blended together. Tino wasn’t even sure which of them Frankie was talking to, and maybe it didn’t matter. Tino still wasn’t breathing. His heartbeat got louder in his ears the more the world started to fade out, and he wondered how long it would take them to notice he’d died.
Without the fucking bullet.
“You better nip this shit in the fucking ass, Frankie. He downed you like you were his bitch. He doesn’t respect you.”
“No, he doesn’t, but that’s okay. He can fear me instead.”
Tino blinked, feeling like all the blood in his body had run to his head. It wasn’t until he blinked a few more times that he realized the lights were dim, and that was why he was having a hard time focusing.
“Drop him right there.”
If Tino had stayed passed out for a few more seconds, he wouldn’t have tensed before whoever was carrying him over their shoulder dropped him on the cold cement floor, and it might not have hurt so fucking much.
Tino shouted when he landed wrong on his already broken leg. His neck still hurt like a motherfucker. Really, all of him hurt, and he rolled over, struggling to keep breathing. His eyes stung, and he blinked again, fighting tears because he was fucking terrified.
Tino knew something horrific was about to happen.
And he was fairly certain it was going to happen to him.
’Cause, as his father pointed out, he was pretty much useless.
Strangely, he saw Nova first, maybe because someone was forcing him to his knees, and it made him more eye level. Nova’s nose was bleeding. His shirt was torn. His eyes were wide, his chest rising and falling in sharp, hard breaths.
The fear off him was potent, maybe even more than Tino’s. He thought it was because Frankie had a gun against the back of Nova’s skull. Maybe Nova picked up some self-preservation while Tino had been out, but then Tino noticed the guns on him too.
He rolled onto his back, looking up at the three guys who all had their guns level at his chest. Which, really, was probably overkill. His heartbeat was thundering again, so deafening he might not have noticed Carina’s screams from somewhere far away, if one of the men with a gun on him didn’t say, “Damn, Frankie, she’s got some lungs.”
“She gets it from her friggin’ mother. You ever hear Mary scream? Jesus.”
“Look, man, I’ll give it to you. Your balls make some tough kids. Ain’t got an ounce of respect, any of ’em, but they’re tough.”