His Kind of Beautiful (Carlisi Familia Book 2)

by Maia Dylan

  “Gavriil must have a plan? How is he going to get Gino back without putting us at risk?”

  Tony’s smile lit the room. “Thank you, bellezza, for trusting in us. The plan is still coming together, but we have to get back to the city as soon as possible so that we are in a position to help. Gavriil has sent the chopper and it will be here any minute.”

  Leona nodded, rushing to grab the rest of her things. Her family needed her and she would be there for all of them.

  ****

  “Porca miseria!”

  Tony didn’t even flinch at the pain caused when he drove his fist through the wall. His rage and anger enough of a painkiller that he felt nothing.

  Over his heavy breathing and pounding heart, he could hear the soft cries of the women in the room. Sofia had buried her face against John’s chest, but her sobs could be heard, as could Abby’s, who stood in front of Gavriil, wrapped safe in his arms. He turned to his own woman where she stood silently crying just to his left and yanked her into his arms.

  “It’s okay, Leona. We’ll get him back.

  Her entire frame shook in his arms, and he held on a little tighter. They’d only just gotten back from the lake house and walked into the office John used as a meeting room. They’d been in time to see a video message the Battaglia family had sent as an incentive to give them him and Leona.

  When the video started, they all gasped at the sight of Gino tied to a chair in the middle of the screen. He was bleeding from multiple knife wounds across his chest and shoulders. They weren’t deep, but there were so many, and it was obvious whoever was cutting him not only knew what they were doing, but that they were acting to inflict as much pain as possible.

  Tito, Angelo’s older brother, stepped up beside Gino and grabbed a handful of his hair, pulling his head back so the camera got a better view of his face. But it was barely recognizable as Gino. He’d been badly beaten, his right eye was completely swollen shut, blood poured from both sides of his mouth, his jaw swollen, and there was a gash over his left eye. But Gino was still glaring at the room at large.

  “You want your man back, Poppa John, then give me my brother’s whore and the bastard who took him from me.” Tito sneered into the camera. When he took a step closer, the camera shook, as if the person holding it started to shake, and Tito’s gaze slipped to the side of the shot, no doubt toward whoever was shooting the scene. “Hold that fucking camera steady, bitch, or I swear I’ll start back in on you.”

  Gino went wild against the bindings, proving that the chair was indeed bolted to the floor. He cursed the man for being a coward for hitting a woman but was silenced by a vicious backhand from Tito.

  “Keep your goddamn mouth shut!” Tito roared and the sound of a very feminine sob could be heard from the screen. Tito turned back to the camera. “You have two hours to get that slut and the murdering bastard you call an enforcer to me, and if you do, then maybe I’ll return your man in one piece. If not?”

  Tito turned back to Gino, moving to stand beside him. He took his knife from the sheath he wore at his side and deftly removed Gino’s pinky finger on his left hand. Tony would never forget the sound of one of his best friends screaming in pain as Gino did at that moment. Not ever.

  Tito, the sick bastard, then walked to the camera, the blood-soaked finger in his bloodied hand. “Then I will return him to you piece by piece until you do.”

  The camera tilted crazily and the sound came of someone vomiting before the screen went black.

  “Where the hell is that room?” Gavriil growled. “We’re going to need to find out where the fuck they have him.”

  “It’s Angelo’s apartment in town,” Leona whispered. “It’s where he took me. Tito would know I would recognize it.”

  “The other families will want to hear about this.” John’s broken voice brought him back to the room.

  “We don’t have fucking time to bring them all together, John,” Gavriil snapped. “We need to act now and apologize later. Or not. Blyat! They all know the Battaglias are unstable, that their thirst for power and money is without conscience. We take them out of the picture, we end this shit.”

  John nodded. “We do this, we’ll take some losses.”

  Tony thought about that for a moment. One of his best friends was being tortured because of his actions. Other men, his friends, his family were about to go to war because of his actions. Could he live with that?

  “We’ve known this life was not without risk,” Tony said quietly, holding Leona tighter when he felt her shudder against him. “Sofia, Abby, could you take mi amore back to my rooms? I don’t think she should have to see this.”

  He was sure his woman would argue, but it was a clear sign of how unsettled she was when she simply nodded. He kissed her gently then handed her over to Abby. As soon as all three of the women left the room, they began to plan.

  Tony mooted the thought that perhaps he went in to try to buy them and Gino some time, but that got rejected emphatically by John and Gavriil. Then John began the task of calling all the other families to bring them up to date while Gavriil called the heads of every one of their crew and while Tony started organizing for their weapons to be delivered. They had catchments of guns and ammo all over the city, and tonight they were going to war. They were almost ready to leave when Abby came charging back into the room, her face pale.

  “Leona’s gone.”

  There were those two damn words, again. He should have known, he should have fucking known! His woman was intelligent and so fucking selfless, of course, she would give her life for someone else. He turned from the room, ignoring Gavriil and John calling out to him, and ran for his truck.

  Chapter Seven

  “Well, I didn’t take you as the hero type?”

  Leona held her head high, aiming for a casualness she didn’t feel and fighting to keep her body from shaking so hard Tito had to have seen it. “You wanted me to come, and you said that you’d let Gino go. I’m here, so let him go.”

  Tito sneered. “You think that was ever a real possibility? Man, you are such a dumb bitch. Gino was never gonna walk outta here. Nope. He was always gonna end up in pieces. Now I get to do the same thing to you and then let my momma know you got the end you deserved.” Tito leaned in a little closer. “I can see my brother’s handiwork all over that once pretty face of yours. He fucked you up good, didn’t he, sweetheart? Ain’t nobody gonna love that.”

  Leona shrugged as if she wasn’t fazed and cast her gaze around the room, taking in the three men at the back who were no doubt Tito’s bodyguards, Gino who was glaring at her from the chair in the middle of the room, his hand still bleeding sluggishly, and the form of a woman slumped in the corner. Leona frowned when she realized the poor thing was naked, covered in scar tissue, bruises, blood, and God knew what else.

  “I figure I should have died that night Angelo was killed.” Leona looked back at Tito. “I’ve been living on borrowed time ever since. So, why the hell not come out here and see if I could exchange myself for Gino? I mean, he’s a good guy.”

  Tito laughed, smacking Gino hard on the back of the head. “Yeah, Gino’s a real peach. He even thought he should step in and save a woman in need of help. A damsel in distress. Fucking chump. Pussy’s pussy. It’s free and easy to get so why risk getting yourself caught by the enemy to save just one?”

  Leona got a quick picture of how they must have got Gino to cooperate and the sob from the back of the room told Leona that perhaps she was the damsel in distress in question.

  Steeling herself and pulling her courage around her like a cloak, Leona moved toward Gino, putting as much movement into her hips as she could. Her entire plan, if she could actually call it that, was to ensure every eye in the room was on her. Or more accurately, her ass.

  She approached Gino and placed a gentle hand against his swollen cheek, grimacing at how painful it looked. “I’m sorry I got you into this Gino.”

  “Not your fault, Lee.” Gino’s voice
was slurred.

  Leona leaned in and hugged him, making sure to stick her ass out high, knowing the short skirt she wore would ride up and hopefully give the other men in the room something else to look at. She might be a little scarred and bruised in the feminine confidence department, but she could only hope it would be enough of a distraction.

  She only needed a moment. Then, as she stepped back, she moved her hand to take Gino’s, sliding her push-blade through the plastic ties around his right wrist, then slid it under his hand. It had been a present from Marissa. A small T-shaped blade, easy to hide up a sleeve or press between a man’s hand at the arm of a chair he was tied to, for example.

  “Tony will come,” she whispered.

  Gino gave a barely perceptible nod. “He is gonna be pissed as hell with you, Lee.”

  Leona gave him a small smile as she stood up and mouthed, I know.

  She turned back to Tito and sashayed in his direction, pouring every lesson she’d ever had on arousing a man and holding his attention into the movement.

  “What happens now, Tito?” she asked in a voice some man had once told her rang with sin and smoke. “Looks like you hold all the cards, so tell me, what’s next?”

  Tito ran his gaze down her body and back up again in a way that made her stomach churn at the realization of what that meant. “We’re gonna have a little fun with you, take up where my brother left off, cutting you a little, making you scream. I bet with a voice like that you scream real sweet.”

  Leona smiled, knowing the move wouldn’t be as wide or as beautiful as it once was, the scars making it twist strangely at the side. Tito frowned, and that only made her smile even more.

  “Oh, Tito, I really am going to enjoy disappointing you on that.” Leona paused as the sounds of gunfire erupted from outside. “I’m guessing that it won’t be my screams that you’ll be hearing a lot of tonight at all.”

  Leona moved then, away from Tito and over toward the naked woman still huddled in the corner. If things got too dicey in the room, then she would drag the woman out if she had to. As she passed him, Gino moved quick, slicing through the plastic tie that held his right hand immobile. Then he was on his feet, slicing and stabbing in the direction of the two men who had moved to follow her.

  She heard the grunts and gasps of pain as Tito began to yell, calling for reinforcements, but Leona had a feeling there wouldn’t be that many available to answer his call. She knelt down to the woman who was now shaking violently, her hands pressed to her ears, making sounds of distress that sounded more animal than human, and sent up a silent prayer that Tony would be okay. She looked up and her gaze locked with Tito’s. She inhaled sharply as he lifted his gun, barrel held steady on her, his eyes filled with a crazed kind of rage.

  “You think you’re gonna fucking walk away from here?” Tito spat at her. “Fuck no.”

  Everything then seemed to move in slow motion. Leona hunched in on herself, trying to get low, making herself as smaller a target as she could. She saw Gino’s hand slide into the jacket of the dead man he held in front of him as a shield, then threw his hand out as he dropped the body. She saw the light catch the blade he’d thrown as it traveled across the room. She never actually saw if it hit the target because at that moment, two surprisingly strong hands gripped the front of her shirt and pulled her down and to the side. The injured woman had taken Leona to the ground.

  Two loud blasts filled the room one after the other as pain exploded on the left side of her head. The last thing Leona heard before a sudden darkness swept up to drag her into its numbing depths was Tony calling her name.

  Chapter Eight

  “Tony, baby, I can’t breathe.”

  Leona’s tone was dry, as if mocking him for the tight hold he had on her. “I don’t really give a shit, Lee.” He was balanced precariously on the side of her hospital bed, but comfort be damned, at least this way he knew she was safe. “Hell, as soon as I can spring you from this place and have assured myself that you are in fact in one piece, then I might actually give in to this insane urge I have to spank that ass of yours ’til it’s glowing.”

  The press of her lips against his forearm still wrapped tight around her shoulders and the soft laughter that filled the air told him exactly how threatened she felt by that.

  “Goddamn it, Leona, I thought I’d fucking lost you.”

  The memory of slamming through that door and storming into the room to watch the exact moment Tito fired his damn gun in his woman’s direction would stay with him for life. He’d faced death before, but he’d never known fear like he did at that moment. He’d absently noticed as he lifted his own weapon and fired that a knife Gino had thrown at the fucker struck true, perhaps at the same time as Tony’s bullet. Tony had been on the move before Tito’s lifeless body hit the ground.

  He’d cleared the large room in four strides to get to his woman. His heart stopped, literally stopped when he saw blood pouring from a wound on her temple. It had pounded back into life when he saw her flinch when he moved her. He didn’t think it would ever beat in a normal rhythm again.

  Perhaps sensing his train of thought, Leona rubbed her hand down his arm, pressing herself tighter against him. “I’m okay, Tony. I’m here.”

  Tony exhaled slowly, making himself relax his hold a little. “I know that, baby. I just have to remind myself of it. Probably a lot over the next few—years.”

  The two of them lay quietly for a moment, listening to the sounds of the hospital around them and Tony was struck once more about how very wrong things might have gone that day. And of course how much different things would be from now on.

  The city officials would be watching the Carlisi family a lot closer now. Hell, John was probably still dealing with the legal and political fallout of what was essentially an organized crime war between two family factions in the heart of the city. Gavriil and Abby were somewhere in this hospital, not leaving until they had the all clear from Gino’s doctor. Gavriil had promised to come by with an update before they left. Tony was staying right where he was, wrapped around his heart, keeping her safe until such time he felt safe enough to allow her out of his sight.

  Then there was the woman who’d dragged Leona down. She was in a room on this floor, and from what the doctors had said, she had suffered more than anyone, and not just today. Apparently, her body, both inside and out, bore the scars of years of horrendous physical abuse, and Tony was fairly certain that would be matched with psychological trauma to go right along with it. No one on earth could survive that kind of torment and not have it change them.

  “Did Gino seem different to you?” Leona asked quietly and Tony could hear the sadness and guilt that tinged her tone.

  “Leona, what happened to Gino was not your fault.” He felt her sigh and wriggle a little closer to him, and he loved that she turned to him for comfort.

  “Logically, I know that. But he just seemed—different.”

  Tony knew exactly what she was talking about. Gino had insisted they see to the woman, the one no one had a name for, before he would let anyone see to him. Leona, when she finally came to, had also insisted the woman be taken care of, and as soon as he’d heard she’d pulled Leona down and potentially out of the way of that deadly headshot, Tony had joined that particular bandwagon.

  “He did, and he is. He was beaten pretty badly.”

  Tony knew that wasn’t what had Gino acting so differently. Gone was the happy-go-lucky jester of the crew, the peacemaker who could be relied on to bring Gavriil or even himself out of a homicidal rage. And in its place was a cold indifference that most would not recognize, but Tony did. And so did Gavriil. He suspected it had something to do with the woman.

  He pressed a kiss to Leona’s neck and willed his body to relax. “Sleep, baby. Just relax and know that I’m here and you’re safe. We can figure out what’s happening in the family tomorrow.”

  Leona sighed and relaxed against him. “That sounds good.”

  Tony smiled.
“You can sleep for as long as you like.”

  Leona shook her head. “Sleep sounds great, but thinking about tomorrow and knowing we’ll be together means a lot more.”

  Tony couldn’t agree more. “We’ll have all the tomorrows in the world, bellezza mia.”

  He held his woman as her breathing evened out, and she slipped into sleep. He took a deep breath, pulling her scent into his lungs, feeling his body relax slightly as he exhaled. If he never felt that fear again in his life, it would be too damn soon.

  “She asleep?”

  Gavriil’s whisper came from the doorway, and Tony shook his head. “Shit, Gavriil, you’re like a damn ghost.”

  Gavriil gave him a small smile as he came closer to the bed. “Perhaps you were simply distracted.”

  Tony nodded. “Maybe, brother, maybe.” He’d known Gavriil since they were young, and he knew when his brother’s mind was churning. “Spill it, Gavriil. What are you thinking?”

  Gavriil leveled him with a gaze. “The Battaglia family. I am getting sick of those bastards fucking with my family. I want to take the next round to them.”

  The tension Tony had been battling since the moment he’d realized Leona had left finally dissipated beneath the heat of bloodlust that flooded through him. “Hell yeah. They took my woman. They hurt her. When do we move?”

  Gavriil chuckled. “I knew you’d be one of the first to agree. We do this right. We go to the other factions and tell them what we’re going to do.”

  “Tell them?” Some of the other factions didn’t take to well to being told and not asked.

  “I’m not asking,” Gavrill all but growled. “I’m done with diplomacy. We might have to wait until the heat is off a little after tonight, but we will act.”