BOUNTY: A Bad Boy Mafia Romance (Giustini Family Mafia)

by Sophia Gray

  But somebody had been shot. Maybe all of them, Kimmie and the intruders alike, all were dead or dying now. Nyssa inhaled deeply and steeled herself as much as she could, given the circumstances. She had to be strong. She had to be brave and get up and look, even if it meant seeing her dead friend sprawled bleeding across the floor. She had to do this.

  Nyssa forced herself up off the bed, only flicking her eyes open after she was on her feet again, ready to fight if necessary. But there was nobody to fight. The leg sticking through the door was stiff and motionless. Kimmie must have shot the first intruder before he could finish kicking the door down.

  It took Nyssa a few moments before she spotted Kimmie next to the closet, lying down on the ground with her hands wrapped around her ears. Nyssa’s heart froze in her chest, her blood turning to ice water as she slowly leaned down to check if Kimmie was dead.

  For a few excruciating, hopeless seconds, Nyssa didn’t hear anything, nor see any movement anywhere on Kimmie’s body. She can’t be gone. She can’t be. She can’t be, she can’t be, she can’t be dead! Nyssa thought about screaming, but she still wasn’t sure if there were other gangsters somewhere in the condo waiting for her to make her presence known.

  Finally, mercifully, Kimmie inhaled deeply, several times in a row, like she was just shaking herself awake after passing out. “Oh, Kimmie, thank God,” Nyssa whispered, leaning down to wrap her body around her friend’s. “Kimmie, you saved me. You saved us.”

  Kimmie laughed lowly and reached behind her head to tangle her fingers together with Nyssa. “Don’t count your chickens yet, sweetheart. We still don’t know if we’re alone here.”

  “You’re not,” a male voice said from somewhere out in the hallway.

  “Oh, fuck, oh, fuck, no, fuck! Shit!” Kimmie whispered, slapping her head roughly.

  “Give me the gun,” Nyssa said in a rush. “It’s my turn. I can do it this time.”

  “No, you don’t understand,” Kimmie said. Her eyes were full of tears now, making Nyssa feel like something in her heart was breaking apart. “There’s no bullets left in the gun! I used them all, and I don’t see any spares around here that we could use! We’re stuck! We’re stuck, Nyssa! We’re going to die!”

  Nyssa felt a thousand emotions at once. Terror stopped up her throat, making her feel like she was going to suffocate before the last gangster could come in and shoot them both. Despair clutched at her heart, wrapping it in dark shadows so thick that no light could ever pierce them. Resignation set in, finally, making her whole body go numb and fuzzy-feeling, like she was a little drunk. So this is how it ends, she thought to herself as she wrapped herself around Kimmie more tightly than before. With two bangs and my best friend’s whisper. I can live with it.

  Still, tears flooded her eyes, hot and insistent, as she kissed the side of Kimmie’s head, wanting her to feel as close to safe and loved as she possibly could. Nyssa blinked the tears away, focusing all her energy on treasuring this last moment that she had with her best friend on this Earth.

  The door creaked open. Footsteps, slow and heavy, crept up behind them.

  The man was there. Right there behind them. There was nowhere to go. There was no way to hide.

  This was it.

  I’m not scared. I’m not scared. I’m not scared. I’m alive. I’m alive and in love and I’m a mother and a friend and a warrior, and I am not scared, Nyssa thought, her breath coming out hard and quick as she dug her hands harder into Kimmie’s sides, holding her as close as possible. I am not scared.

  “You can get up now,” a familiar voice said.

  What?

  “You can get up. It’s over, baby. It’s over,” the voice said, right as a warm strong hand landed on Nyssa’s back, rubbing over her spine soothingly.

  Looking back on it, Nyssa couldn’t figure out why it took her so long to realize it was Sebastian. Her brain must have just been overloaded with stimuli, too distracted to be able to piece even the most basic signals together.

  But eventually, her body relaxed into his touch, and she knew it was him, instinctively, immediately, without any doubt. And she knew they were saved.

  Nyssa slowly let go of Kimmie, turning to see Sebastian squatting on the ground next to her. “Are you hurt?” she whispered as she reached out to grab his face, forcing him to look her in the eyes and tell her the truth.

  “No,” Sebastian said, smiling a little at her. His fingers found the tears that had fallen on her cheeks seconds earlier, wiping them away gently.

  Nyssa reached down to try to find his other hand, so she could grip his fingers and wrap them under hers, but there was something cold and hard in his hands. Sebastian pulled away, then, lifting his hand to show her what it was. A gun.

  “So they’re all dead?” Nyssa asked in a hushed voice.

  Sebastian nodded. “There was one of them stationed outside and two of them in here. But I guess you guys took care of one of the guys before I got here.”

  Nyssa shook her head. “Not me. It was Kimmie. All Kimmie.” Nyssa reached over to press a hand on Kimmie’s back, just to reassure her that she still there. “She saved me. She saved… both of us,” Nyssa said, gesturing to her stomach.

  Sebastian put his hand on top of Nyssa’s, his fingers rubbing over her skin lightly a few times, but his eyes became unfocused and glassy, like his mind was a thousand miles away. “Is everything okay?” Nyssa asked hesitantly. She’d never seen Sebastian look like this, like he’d just seen a massacre happen, like he was genuinely shaken up.

  “No,” Sebastian said, shaking his head. “It’s not okay. But it will be soon.”

  “What do you mean?” Nyssa asked.

  “The Giustinis. I’ll make them pay for this.”

  “Please, don’t,” Nyssa said, feeling panic surge within her chest, her body slowly waking itself back up as fear returned to her. “I just want it to be over. I just want us to be safe.”

  “We will be,” Sebastian said. “I promise. And I’ll bring you in when we are. It’ll just take me a few hours. I swear.”

  “Swear on what?” Nyssa asked.

  “On us,” Sebastian said, rubbing her stomach a little before pulling away. “I’ll be back. Take my gun. It’s full of bullets.”

  “What about you?” Nyssa asked.

  “I’ve got plenty more,” Sebastian replied as he got to his feet. “Just wait here. And take this burner phone, too. I’ll call you on it as soon as everything’s taken care of.”

  Nyssa nodded as Sebastian exited the room, leaving Kimmie and Nyssa alone with the two bodies. Nyssa knew she should have been freaking out still, consumed with worry about what Sebastian was up to. But at this point she was too exhausted to be afraid. She’d faced death and walked away tougher, harder, and less frightened.

  For now, at least, she just wanted to hug Kimmie. So that’s exactly what she did, remaining cuddled up with her best friend even as some of Sebastian’s friends came by to dispose of the intruders’ bodies. She held her close, hoping that in some way she could take the pain and fear and exhaustion away from her best friend, even though she knew there was no way she could really comfort her at the moment.

  But it was okay. Somehow, Nyssa just knew that it was over. It was all over, and they were alive. They were safe. They were together.

  Some six hours after he left, the phone Sebastian left with her rang. Nyssa answered it right away. “Hello?” she said.

  “It’s done. You can come home now.”

  “What?” Nyssa asked, confused. “I am home.”

  “Home to the brothel. You know, Katrina’s old palace. It’s ours now. Come claim your throne.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  When Nyssa finally convinced Kimmie it was safe to leave Sebastian’s bedroom and head outside, there was a town car waiting in the front of the condominium complex, a familiar-looking chauffeur waiting to usher them into the backseat.

  Kimmie followed Nyssa’s lead, but she still jerked a little
bit in alarm as the car lurched into motion, heading in the direction of Katrina’s brothel.

  “It’s okay, Kimmie. It’s all okay,” Nyssa said soothingly. “Sebastian took care of it. I promise.” She spoke with perfect confidence, even though in all honesty she still had no idea what was going on. In the back of her mind, she was a little worried that the whole thing was an elaborate trap. Maybe the Giustinis found Sebastian and put a gun to his head, forcing him to lure Nyssa and Kimmie back to the brothel so they could be killed, too. No, Nyssa admonished herself silently. He wouldn’t do that. Even with a gun to his head. He wouldn’t put me in danger.

  The town car eventually rolled to a stop in front of the old brothel, and Kimmie started shaking her head, trembling powerfully like a piece of sand tossed back and forth inside a tornado. “It’s okay, Kimmie,” Nyssa said again, rubbing her best friend’s knee. Kimmie was obviously traumatized at having to kill someone, even to save her own life, but Nyssa didn’t know exactly what to do to help. She probably should have insisted that Kimmie be brought somewhere else, anywhere other than the Giustini brothel, but she didn’t want to leave Kimmie’s side for a second. So she had to pull her out of the car by her wrist, tugging her along like dead weight. “I’m going to protect you, Kimmie. Just like you protected me. It’s going to be all right,” Nyssa said reassuringly as she dragged Kimmie into the brothel.

  “I’m guessing he wants us to meet him in the parlor,” Nyssa said to herself, pulling Kimmie along to Katrina’s favorite room in the building.

  When Nyssa opened the door and stepped aside, her jaw almost dropped open in utter shock. “What? I—what?” she stuttered out helplessly.

  There, in the center of the room, were Katrina and Papa Giustini, handcuffed to each other, staring stonily at the wall behind Nyssa’s head. Sebastian was standing behind them, holding a gun, while various guards were stationed at other points in the room, strapped with weapons all over their bodies.

  “Welcome to our new domain, princess!” Sebastian announced. “Or should I say queen?”

  “Give me a fucking break,” Katrina muttered under breath.

  “What was that?” Sebastian said, dangling the tip of his gun in Katrina’s face. “I didn’t quite hear you.”

  “Nothing,” Katrina mumbled.

  “Yeah, that’s what I thought,” Sebastian spat. “You see, you’re not the queen anymore, Katrina. You were a spoiled little daddy’s girl, and now you’re going to be a very poor little daddy’s girl. I was going to let you guys keep your side of the business while I went away to bigger and better things. But you just couldn’t let me go, could you? Worse, you had to go after the mother of my child. And that is something that I can never forgive.”

  “Sebastian, boy-o, please, just listen,” Papa Giustini started to say, but Sebastian cut him off with deep, throaty laughter.

  “Don’t waste your breath pleading with me. You must know, though, what your daughter doesn’t. That you’re ruined. You’re over. You’re done with in this town. In the whole world, actually, because all of your henchmen that didn’t come over to support me are dead now. Gone.”

  Nyssa stepped a little deeper into the room, still gripping hard onto Kimmie’s wrist. “Sebastian, what is this? What are you doing? What’s going on?”

  “They tried to kill you,” Sebastian said. “They tried to kill our baby. They have to pay. But I figured you should pick how they do that.”

  “What? Why?” Nyssa asked.

  “Because,” Sebastian said with a shrug. “You’re going to be my queen. You need to get used to this kind of decision-making. I’m going to need you to counsel me on everything from now on. We’re a team.”

  Nyssa smiled a little, feeling a hint of excitement climb up her spine as she considered Sebastian’s offer. He was asking her to be his equal, his partner, his other half. It would mean a lot of responsibility, a lot of authority and power that Nyssa had never had before. It was honestly thrilling, but at the same time Nyssa felt a little fear unsettle her already unsteady stomach. She’d only ever been a streetwalker her whole adult life. How could she pretend to be anything else?

  “Sebastian, thank you, but I don’t know if I can—if I should… you know. Decide on something like that,” Nyssa said sheepishly.

  Sebastian frowned, furrowing his brows together and shaking his head. “No. It’s up to you.”

  Katrina gasped softly and shut her eyes, breathing hard. Nyssa couldn’t be sure, but she had a feeling that her former madam and torturer was trying hard not to cry.

  Despite everything—all the pain and worry, all the disrespect, all the fear that Katrina had forced her to feel—she felt bad for the woman. She wasn’t like Nyssa, after all. She hadn’t had to grow up on the streets, working hard for everything she ever had. She didn’t know what it was like to suffer, to struggle. To fight to stay alive. Somehow Nyssa thought that Katrina probably wasn’t capable of that.

  “It’s up to me?” Nyssa said. “You promise? Whatever it is I say to do to them, you’ll do?”

  Sebastian nodded, a solemn, serious look on his face. “I promise.”

  “Don’t be so sure about that,” Nyssa said with a nervous laugh. She slowly let go of Kimmie’s hand, turning to look at her friend for a moment and making sure that she was relatively okay before looking back on the Giustinis. They looked so pathetic, so horribly weak, sitting there chained together on the ground. How could Nyssa ever make things worse for them? They’d already lost their empire, their power, their prestige, and their legacy. And yet they’d killed so many people, terrorized so many people. Even before Nyssa came here, they hurt her by killing her pimp. How many working girls had gone without protection, all because the Giustinis acted without a single drop of empathy for any other human being?

  “I know what we have to do,” Nyssa whispered. She saw Katrina’s whole body go stiff, while her father bent his head down to the ground, sniffling a little.

  “What is it, baby?” Sebastian asked, clearly getting a little impatient at this point. “Anything you want. Just tell me.”

  “Let them go,” Nyssa said as confidently as she could. As soon as the words left her mouth, she knew they were right. This was what had to be done.

  “What?” Sebastian and Kimmie said in union.

  “What are you talking about?” Sebastian said.

  “You can’t do that, Nyssa,” Kimmie interjected.

  “They’re murderers. Psychopaths. They can’t be loose on the street,” Sebastian argued. “Besides, they could just come back and try to kill us. Of course, with all the guards I’ve got now, they wouldn’t get very far on their own, but it’d still be a pain in the ass.”

  “I know. I know,” Nyssa said, blowing out her breath before slowly walking across the room to approach the Giustinis. “But I can’t let them win.”

  “What do you mean?” Sebastian asked softly.

  Nyssa stopped a few inches away from the Giustinis, staring down at them with as much disdain as she could muster. “These people walk through life thinking that everyone is as horrible and rotten on the inside as they are. That’s the only way they can live with themselves. Because it’s a dog-eat-dog world, right? And the survival of the fittest means that the ends justify the means and you have to do whatever it takes to survive and come out on top, even if it means hurting everyone else on the planet to do so.”

  Katrina scoffed at Nyssa’s words, rolling her eyes, but she made no move to interrupt, so Nyssa kept going.

  “They think that everyone is equally horrible. Well, I can’t live that way. I can’t imagine what it feels like, to live without hope. But it’s what they’re going to do, isn’t it, guys?” Nyssa knelt down low on the floor, meeting Katrina’s eyes. “You’re going to live for a very long time, Kat. And you’re going to suffer, but you’re not going to make me like you. I’ll never be like you.”

  “Oh, yeah? And why’s that? Being a whore somehow made you more compassionate than me or so
mething?” Katrina spat out harshly.

  Nyssa shrugged. “Pretty much.” She got back on her feet and headed over to Sebastian, wrapping her arms around his neck to pull him in for a kiss but pulling away after a few moments to yell over her shoulder toward Katrina. “See, whores are people who sacrifice their bodies to help others. I’ll always be a whore, even though I doubt I’ll fuck more than one person for the rest of my life. But you, Katrina, you weren’t good enough to be a whore. And you never will be.”

  “Whatever,” Katrina muttered, but there was something in her voice that Nyssa hadn’t ever heard before. Fear, with a healthy dose of shame.

  “Untie them,” Sebastian said to the guards stationed around the room, who had been watching silently up to this point. “Untie them and throw them out on the street.”

  “Sebastian, please, I—” Papa Giustini tried yet again to plead with his former employee, but Sebastian just shook his head and pressed a finger to his lips.