Drago: Made Men, #6

by Brianne, Sarah

  Feeling her heart pumping, she didn’t have time to answer before the pressure of his large body was lifted off her and she was forced to turn over and begin crawling with Drago’s help with her heavy dress.

  Once they reached the corner, Matthias found them, keeping low to the ground himself.

  “Cover her,” Drago ordered her brother.

  Matthias reacted quickly, doing what he was asked.

  Standing up, Drago flipped the long table that was holding their wedding cake, sending everything on it flying.

  Taken aback at the sight of him, it took Kat a second before she and Matthias crawled behind the table that now sat on its side, putting it to their backs and using it as a shield.

  At that time, the rest of the crew she was dancing with started to crawl over, with Nero bringing Elle over first, then Vincent with Lake.

  Drago squatted down in front of them, taking the protection from the table, and grabbing the material at Kat’s waist.

  “What are you doing?!” she screamed at him when the poufy material of her outer layers was ripped off.

  “In case you need to run.” He continued, only leaving a couple of thin ones remaining.

  Her mouth fell open already hearing the aftermath of all this. “Maria is going to fucking kill you.”

  He couldn’t care less. “You do not move from behind this table unless you absolutely have to.” Putting his sole focus on Matthias and looking him dead in the eyes, he ordered, “Do. Not. Let her out of your fucking sight. Got it?” He emphasized some of the words with even more severity.

  “Got it.” Her brother nodded sternly right when Angel got Adalyn safely behind the table.

  This time Drago addressed all the men. “I don’t want anyone moving from behind this table. You stay here and protect the women.”

  A fierce Nero, Vincent, and Angel nodded.

  Satisfied by their responses, Drago stood again. The fire in his eyes burned to fevering heights as he started walking away from the safety he had created and into the chaos.

  She and her two brothers stared at him in awe.

  “Does he think he’s the fucking Terminator?” Matthias asked, watching Drago leave them without at least crouching down, uncaring if the shooter decided to strike out again.

  The Carusos with them, however, weren’t surprised one bit by him, but it was Nero who responded simply, with fire in his green-emerald eyes as well. “That’s because he is.”

  It was then she felt the liquid that coated the front of her dress right over her heart. Pulling her hand away, she saw thick, deep-red blood staining her hand.

  “M-M-Matthias….” She finally got his name out, her heart thumping faster and faster, trying to work harder and harder.

  “Kat!” he cried out, seeing the blood on her hands while he quickly touched her chest trying to find where it came from in order to apply pressure. “Where are you hurt?!”

  Angel and the rest of them became just as fearful and grabbed to help her.

  Her heart finally stopped…. “It isn’t mine.”

  * * *

  Drago had felt it the second the bullet had pierced through his arm. It had been a kill shot that only missed the target because he had put his body in front of hers at just the right moment.

  Someone had intentions to kill Katarina, almost making their marriage the shortest one in history. That might have been a plus to him before they’d been married, but now that she was his wife and she had almost died in his arms, he couldn’t get the image out of his head of what would have happened to her if his instincts hadn’t kicked in to protect her.

  Now that they were married—regardless if they wanted to be or not—she was his, and if someone threatened what was his, he took it personally and… someone had hell to fucking pay.

  It had taken everything he had to leave her in her brothers’ trust, knowing he could only guarantee protection in his own hands, but he had others to protect as well. He had been doing this too long, knowing full and well that first shot that had been fired… had found its target.

  It was the way that woman had screamed. She wasn’t the one who had been shot. He knew the difference between a cry for help from a victim and a cry for help from someone who’d witnessed it. The witness always screamed louder, and he feared she had seen the worst.

  That bullet had taken a soul with it.

  * * *

  “It’s his blood.” She felt her heart start back up again with the pounding. “It’s D-Drago’s blood.”

  “He’ll be fine,” Nero reassured her with confidence.

  This feeling of worry for him rushed over her. She didn’t know why it was there, but the fact remained, it was there. “How do you know?”

  Vincent wasn’t worried in the slightest. “I would be surprised if that bastard even felt it.”

  Kat looked at the handsome blond like he was crazy. “He got shot!”

  “He’s been shot lots of times,” Vincent told her with a shrug. “You know how he got shot five times?”

  She rolled her eyes starting to understand why the door got slammed in his face. “Yes, I’m aware my father tried to have him killed.”

  “Well, he didn’t go down till the fifth one.”

  “Oh.” That was the part she hadn’t heard, and she understood why he had brought it up now. “Really?”

  Angel was the one who answered, “He’s right.”

  She strangely looked over to him wondering how he knew that.

  “Lucca has a tape of it. I asked him to show me.”

  “He’ll be okay, Kat.” Adalyn and the rest of the girls who were being smothered by their men started reassuring her as well.

  “Cassius!” She grabbed her youngest brother’s hand, jerking him down when he found them all behind the table. “Are you crazy? Get down!” This was going to be another conversation she was going to have with him about fear.

  Cassius looked at her in-between trying to peer out. “Your husband is badass.”

  Oh God. “Did you see him. Was he okay?”

  “Yeah, I saw him chasing after some guy right after he flipped this whole fucking table over.” Clearly, he had been just as much as in awe as they had.

  “Did you see who it was?” Angel asked.

  “No, I didn’t get a good look after everyone started running.” Cassius glanced out again.

  “Stop it.” She tried to keep him down this time using the bloody hand.

  Cassius’ face turned serious when he saw her covered in blood. “Are you hurt?”

  “No, but I think Drago is….”

  The serious expression quickly vanished, returning back to his usual self as he tried to take a peek again. When Kat didn’t let him, he revealed something else. “It’s safe to look. There’s no one doing anything. It’s a standoff right now.”

  Matthias, Angel, Nero, and Vincent quickly glanced up to take a look after what Cassius had said, all of them giving a collective, “Oh fuck.”

  Kat’s eyes went two times the size. She had a feeling she knew what they meant by that.

  Lake was the only one brave one to ask, “What is it?”

  “Well…,” Vincent began, opening his beautiful but big mouth. “It’s exactly what he said… a fucking standoff between the families.”

  Twenty

  The Man Who Had Met His Untimely End

  On one side, the Carusos stood, and on the other, the Lucianos, as they all held out their weapons staring the other family down.

  “They killed one of ours,” one of the Caruso men yelled out, ready to pull the trigger.

  Everyone behind the table looked at each other. Nero and Vincent stared at her twin brothers a little harder with a scrutinizing gaze.

  “Our men wouldn’t have shot anywhere near my sister,” Angel hissed at the two, and knowing he was right, unlike the rest of the Carusos, they no longer scrutinized them.

  Leaving only one question between them. Which Caruso had fallen?

  What if it’
s… She made herself not say her new husband’s name in her head. I’m sure he’s fine.

  “How do we know you didn’t accidentally kill one of your own?” a Luciano yelled back.

  “Because we’re Carusos. We don’t kill our own.” A different Caruso spoke up, referencing the new Luciano boss, who’d let his own father get murdered to save the family.

  Dominic stepped into the middle of no-man’s-land without fear, jumping on a table to stand and look down on all the men in the room. “We came without guns like I promised.” His voice commanded the room, demanding attention from every soul. “You checked every one of my men on the way in.”

  The Caruso men’s eyes scanned, only seeing small knives and anything they could get ahold of to use as a weapon.

  “Dante, call your men down.” He spoke louder, his voice traveling farther, calling out the other head of the family to step out. “So we can deal with this man to man.” However, the Luciano boss wasn’t done. He spun on the table to only look down and address his family with a threat. “And if it was one of my men who defied my orders, then I will hand him over to you myself.”

  The Caruso boss finally rose, coming into focus with an unforgiving face that looked like he wanted to see every Luciano man, woman, and child dead. He opened his mouth to give an order when the ballroom doors flung open and a furious Drago walked through.

  Drago walked straight to his boss, quietly whispering to him what he knew. Whatever it was only made his boss look more confused and unhappier.

  It appeared Dante was beginning to have a change of heart after their conversation, but the boss didn’t say anything, clearly still contemplating how he wanted to proceed.

  “He’s going to make his men step down, right?” Kat asked, looking at Nero, knowing full well they were father and son.

  Nero didn’t say anything, his emerald-colored eyes still fiercely glowing. It looked like he was about to defy Drago’s orders to protect Elle when the ballroom doors opened once more, making him stay right where he was after seeing who entered.

  Lucca walked through, seeming to be in the same state as Drago, a bit out of breath and sweaty like the two had been running. Except he hadn’t entered as the Caruso underboss, but the boogieman.

  She had seen him in the all black suit earlier, thinking he somehow looked more dangerous than usual, but now he looked absolutely fucking terrifying.

  Lucca didn’t even look to the boss, giving out his own orders without consulting his father. “Put your guns down,” he ordered his men with a voice so deadly that not only his men put down their guns, but the Lucianos lowered their weapons out of fear.

  With the threat of an almost war breaking out, Drago’s eyes went to the table they were hiding behind until they fell on hers, peeking out from behind it.

  “Is he coming over here?” she asked, seeing him start to walk their way.

  “I think so,” Adalyn told her before glancing over at her to give her a sympathetic look.

  “I don’t like the way he’s fucking looking at her,” Matthias said and looked at the other end of the table to his twin.

  “Me either,” Elle admittedly whispered.

  Lake reached over to pat her hand. “It’s going to be a rough night for you, sweetie.”

  Kat swallowed as she hunkered down behind the table, no longer able to watch the bodyguard stalk closer.

  “Fuck that.” Adalyn moved closer to her. “We need to all protect her. We can’t keep letting these men run over us.”

  Nodding, Lake moved closer to her as well. “Where the hell is Maria with her Louboutins when you need her?”

  When sweet Elle tried to move closer, Nero grabbed her, keeping her right where she was, daring her with his eyes not to try it.

  By the time Drago reached her, the tense air in the group only got tenser when he saw them blocking him from her.

  “Fuck this. It has nothing to do with us.” Vincent quickly grabbed Lake back, realizing Nero had known best.

  The handsome blond quickly got demoted to just cute for her.

  “If you really thought I would ever hurt her, you wouldn’t have let me marry her.” He addressed her brothers who were protecting her in seriousness before he changed back, becoming angry again. “Now, you have five seconds to move away from my wife.”

  “Yep. Okay.” Matthias quickly agreed, backing up along with his two other brothers and Angel grabbing a still protective Adalyn. They didn’t only agree because they knew Drago could crush them with his foot after what they had seen, but because they knew what he had said was true. Tonight had even proven that. They’d watched him get her to safety.

  “What the—!” Katarina was snatched up as Drago threw her in her torn-up dress over his shoulder. He was getting her the fuck out of there, not trusting her to come with him if he let her walk, when the arguing between the two families started up again, but at least this time weapons weren’t being used.

  Seeing Dom, she almost yelled out for help, but then she saw Lucca with him, both of them staring down at a man who lay flat on his back, lifeless on the floor. Having the advantage of the view of being on his shoulders, she saw it then, the bullet hole that sat right between his eyes.

  Oh God.

  Bile was rising in her throat as she recognized the dead Caruso.

  Her eyes flew back to the boogieman and saw an unremorseful expression, like he couldn’t have fucking cared less his man was dead.

  “Did you find who did this?” she asked Drago the question, not knowing if she really wanted the answer.

  Drago slightly adjusted her on his shoulder before he gruffed out the answer. “No. I lost him.”

  Chills coated every inch of her skin as she watched Lucca get farther and farther away in the distance. She remembered how the underboss wasn’t there to be found in the room during the standoff and had conveniently come back after Drago.

  The exact words she had used the last time she had seen the Caruso alive came back to her mind… Well, he’ll be dead soon.

  She whispered the name of the man who had met his untimely end, “Todd.”

  Twenty-One

  Bullet Holes from My Father

  Drago threw her in her gown onto his bed. “You’re going to stay right here, and you may not leave this apartment unless I say so, do you understand?”

  “W-Why?” She stared up at the fierce man.

  He didn’t sugarcoat it. “Because someone tried to kill you.”

  “How do you kno— Are you okay?!” Her mindset quickly changed as he pulled off his black suit jacket that was hiding his white stained button-up shirt underneath.

  Taking a seat on the bed beside her, he was beginning to reveal the tiredness he actually felt. “I’ll be fine,” he assured her, starting to unbutton his shirt to access the wound and placing the bloody shirt on the floor. “It’s just a graze.”

  “A graze?!” She looked at his arm, seeing a chunk of skin missing.

  “Yes, now, can you go into the bathroom and hand me the first aid kit under the sink and a towel?”

  Getting up, she quickly gathered the bottom of her dress that still remained before going into the bathroom, grabbing the kit, and taking a towel from the hanger.

  After she returned, Drago took the towel from her first, draping it over himself, and then the kit, opening it and pulling out a bottle of alcohol. Carefully, he poured some of the liquid over the wound, washing some of the blood away.

  Watching him do that to himself without even making a sound, she found herself awestruck again before she finally snapped out of it. “I-I can help.” Kat grabbed the alcohol pad to help clean the area, not touching him till Drago gave her a nod. She began wiping the wound and getting the blood that was starting to dry off the area.

  Not liking the quietness while she was tending to him, she asked him another grave question. “What makes you think he wanted to kill me?”

  “Because whoever it is doesn’t miss.”

  She stopped wiping
and focusing on the wound to look at him. “Why do you say that?”

  His voice became just as grave as her questions. “He’s killed two of our men now, both times right between the eyes. He shoots to kill and doesn’t miss.”

  “Well, he did tonight….”

  “Only because I moved at just the right time, Katarina,” he told her with force, knowing full-heartedly he was right. “I just don’t get one thing…”

  She licked her dry lip. The pounding in her chest started back up again.

  “Why he went for your heart.”

  Going back to wiping with a shaky hand, she could no longer stare into his fiery eyes. It wasn’t until she wiped away the last of the blood that she made a joke to hide the fear in her voice. “Poetic justice.”

  Drago’s brows drew together. “Why would you say that?”

  “Aren’t those bullet holes from my father?” She couldn’t help it when her eyes drifted to the five scars that marked his chest, one of them so close to his heart, she wondered if he would have said it was just a graze as well. “I suppose it would have been poetic, especially on our wedding day.”

  “I need to go.” He quickly grabbed the white bandage, slapping it on his arm, then wrapping it with tape. Clearly, what she had told him made some sort of sense, even if it was only a joke.

  She looked at him like he was crazy. “I think you need to rest.”

  However, he didn’t listen to her and stood up.

  Her eyes went wide when he towered over her, seeing him in all his bare-chested glory. She could safely say he was the biggest man she had ever seen… Wait, is he bigger than the last time I saw him?

  She watched him go to a closet and pull out another shirt, her wandering eyes unable to look away to see all the scars the man carried. It was quite frightening, to be honest. Afraid for him, since he really didn’t seem to know when to stop, she tried again. “You really don’t look so good, Drago.”