Guns n' Boys: Homicidal Instinct (Book 2) (gay dark mafia erotic romance) (25 page)

“Taking Villani’s cock
by night, killing five Family men within what? Five minutes? You’re on borrowed
time already.”

Those words unleashed
unexpected strength in the man, because he managed to rip the chain from under
Dom’s feet. To keep his balance, Domenico jumped up and grabbed an empty hook.
He used the momentum to swing forward, and kick the man’s chest, but despite
the grunt of pain, the mafioso managed to reach out and grab Dom’s ankle. It
was just the opening Dom needed. He swung around and hooked his knee around the
man’s head, clenching it hard. The world turned when Domenico let go of the
hook and fell down, bringing the mafioso with him. Just a split second before
hitting the floor with his back, he landed one hand on the tiles and turned,
forcing his opponent to fall on the side where the knife was sticking out of
his body.

The man let out an agonized
scream and reached out for Dom’s face, but he was too slow, lagging because of
crippling pain he had to be in. Sweat beaded on his face, shining in the sparse
light.

It took the chain to
finish him off. Domenico grabbed one of the ends and slid the tip of his
fingers over the sharp hook before driving it into the man’s back, hooking it
through the ribs. “Enough?” he asked and yanked out the knife. This could mean
the mafioso might bleed to death before anyone got here, but he didn’t care
enough.

The man gripped Dom’s
shirt, his eyes mad and bulging. “Enough…” he rasped.

Domenico sighed and
flicked his fingers under the scratchy chin. “Good boy,” he said before
untangling himself from the embrace. He picked up the other side of the chain
and threw it over the massive steel bar above their heads. The hook yanked on
the man’s flesh, making him hiss with pain and curl up on the floor.

“Deliver a message from
me, will you?” Dom asked.

The man spat some blood
out in return, shaking his head from side to side, but Dom figured it was
because of the pain he was in, not a sign of disagreement.

Dom exhaled and already
moved toward the freezer. “Tell them to fuck off.”

The man rasped
something, breathing hard, but what Dom needed to do now was to get him and Seth
out of this building before the police sent in special forces.

He pulled on the handle
and forced open the heavy door, his heart racing more now than it did during
the fight. He wanted to see Seth. But he wasn’t there at first glance. Only
when Dom walked in, looking around, he found Seth in the far off corner, hidden
behind a pig carcass. Seth sat on the floor gripping the gun, his eyes red and
wet all around when he looked up.

Dom’s voice was just a
tone above a whisper. “We need to go.”

“Are you all right?”
Seth uttered and held out his hand to Dom after turning on the safety in the
gun.

“Bruised but fine. Look,
we’ll be leaving a scarecrow,” he said, pulling Seth up into his arms. He
shuddered feeling his ice cold skin, but it wasn’t the time for hot cocoa with
rum.

With the bright light
shining out of the freezer, the man hooked to the chain was clearly visible in
all his gory glory, kneeling in his own blood.

Seth hugged Dom tight without
saying a word. His body was cold, but the heart in his chest beat like mad.

On the way to the door,
Domenico dropped the gloves back to the table and they ran. The building was
deserted as they grabbed someone’s uniforms on the way. With their hair hidden
and in the nondescript white clothes, still stained from the work the owners
had been doing, they looked just like the other butchers they’d seen leave the
building earlier.

“How much time has
passed?” hissed Domenico.

Seth looked at his
watch, his hands painfully pale. “Fifteen minutes?” he said slowly, and pulled
the thick yellow glove back on.

Domenico blinked. “Shit.
We need to fucking leave
now
. Act like a scared victim,” he said before
rushing down the corridor again. He could only hope Seth had miscalculated
because of stress.

With the masks on the
lower part of their faces and hair hidden, they just about stood a chance. Dom
froze for a second when he noticed a policeman aiming a gun at them from the
door at the end of the corridor. But the man lowered the weapon and gestured at
them to come closer.

“Are you the last ones?
Did you see the shooters?” the young policeman asked as they approached,
running down the corridor.

Domenico gave a loud
shuddery breath. “We don’t know. He got stuck in a walk-in, and we could only
leave when this maniac killed several others. I think he went toward the indoor
market,” he uttered in a Southern accent, watching the policeman for any signs
of disbelief.

The cop looked at Seth
who nodded, still shivering every now and then. “Go to the ambulance if you
need any help. We’ll take your statements soon, we need to deal with the
situation at hand first.”

“Be careful, this is
some crazy gang shit,” Dom said before stepping into the sun. The heat hit him
like a sledgehammer, but he needed to see what the situation was first. There
were many people gathered, still in their work clothes, chatting and making
nervous gestures. It was the perfect environment to flee. “Seth. Car,” he
whispered.

Seth nodded, and pushed
through the crowd, answering questions on the way. He kept saying he was fine,
but Dom could see the tension in Seth’s clenched fists. He could smell the fear
on Seth despite the scent of raw meat masking it.

Domenico made it seem
like he were walking through the crowd looking for a lost friend, but they
eventually made their way to the parking lot, still in the butchering clothes.
He hated the getup as it prevented him from hearing well with the plastic
hairnet rustling every now and then, but he couldn’t see anyone watching.
Everyone who wanted to run was gone already, and those who wanted to watch were
still at the market.

Seth got into the
passenger's seat. “I can’t drive, my hands are still numb. What did Santo want
from you?”

Domenico walked inside
the RV and quickly shed the whole butcher’s getup, tossing it to the floor.
Now. They needed to leave now.

“Not to trust
Frederico,” he said, changing into one of Seth’s T-shirts. It was pink, with a
fat unicorn on the front. The other item he borrowed was a baseball cap he
loathed, but it would cover his hair. With shades to complete the look of
someone completely dissimilar to himself, he jumped into the driver’s seat.
“Don’t come to the front.”

Seth followed the order
without question, and also changed in the back of the RV. Dom sighed with
relief when he noticed that no cops followed them. On the contrary, just
minutes after they left the market, a whole group of police cars sped past
them, which gave just enough time to cross the state lines.

His mood went sour half
an hour later, when he noticed a black car following them. This wasn’t over.

Chapter 16

Seth sat at the back of
the RV feeling as numb as his fingers. They were slowly getting warm again, but
the unpleasant sensation was still stuck with him. How were they even found?
When he saw Dom talking to Santo, he thought his heart would stop. How on earth
were they going to get out of this mess? He’d cried his eyes out in that
fucking freezer when he realized that he wouldn’t be able to get out and help
Dom if needed. The love of his life could have been brutally butchered in that
abattoir and he’d be able to do shit. And it would all be his fault because Dom
had given Seth his own gun.

“Seth, locate us on your
phone, take the map, and find me the shortest route to Holly Springs,” Dom said
from the front seat. In Seth’s clothes, and with his long hair invisible, he
looked nothing like himself, and Seth understood why this was safer but it
still left him alone and cold even in the thick hoodie he put on.

Seth turned on the phone
they’d purchased after getting the RV. He was advised by Dom to only use it in
extreme situations, so it had to be one of those. He quickly found them on the
maps app and sat on the floor by the table to be closer to Dom, yet not visible
through the windows. “We’re getting close actually. We need to turn left at the
next junction.”

“Cool. Now put all the
necessary items in one place, in case we need to change vehicles.” Domenico was
all business, as usual when shit went down. It gave Seth a sense of calm, a
feeling that no matter what happened, he could depend on his man.

Seth swallowed, but
followed the order without a word. Lucrezia was clucking in her cage, all
agitated, but Seth had no words of comfort for her. “You’ll need to stay, sweetie,”
he said to her quietly as he packed only the most important things into the
suitcase with money and passports. “I did all I could. Even bought you a
rooster, but I don’t think things will work out after all.”

“That cock would have
cheated on her anyway. He was gay,” Dom muttered from his place. Seth could
sense the RV slowing down, only to take a slow turn to the left, just as he had
instructed Dom earlier.

“Santo probably killed
the poor guy. He always liked shooting rabbits and shit.” Seth groaned and
slammed the suitcase shut. In case they did have room for more, he started
packing a backpack of less essential things that could still be useful. They
were gaining speed, but the RV was stable enough that he moved freely.

“That would be weird. He
was in the middle of a marketplace.”

“I don’t know. We used
to be friends. Sort of. But I guess there are no more friends for us.” Seth
sighed and tapped the cage with his hen. “Only my faithful Lucrezia.”

Domenico exhaled. “I
guess not. But Seth, we’re not alone now,” he said, and it was like steel
tearing through Seth’s gut.

He swallowed and
squatted, putting his hands over his head. Trying to breathe was getting too
hard. He could no longer pretend everything was fine by joking and talking to
his hen. This was it. More blood, more death, more pain. “How many?”

Domenico stared at the
road ahead. “Two cars.”

“Can we go faster?”

“We’re very fast.
Thought this fucking road is broader, but we are taking a reroute,” hissed
Domenico, and only then did Seth see signs of nervousness. The tension in Dom’s
shoulders, the whitening in his knuckles. Things were bad.

All he could do was get
the suitcase ready. Every bump in the road felt like a potential bullet. Lunch
was coming up Seth’s throat along with the memories of that mafioso bleeding
out on the slaughterhouse floor.

“Do you remember how far
we’re supposed to go? How many miles approximately?” Dom asked from the front.

Seth looked at the map,
finding it hard to focus. “About five.”

But there were no
soothing words. No ‘that’s fines’. Domenico yelled, “Hold on!”

“Dom, talk to me! I need
to know what’s wrong.”

“Hold on and stay down!”
Dom yelled, suddenly ducking, just in time to dodge a series of bullets that
came through the windshield, leaving cracks where they went in. It was a
surreal thing to watch.

Seth screamed and fell
to the floor. “Are they at the front? What the fuck is happening?” he asked,
and the moment the last syllable left his mouth, they collided with something
so hard his jaw slammed against the suitcase, and he bit his tongue rolling
forward with the impact. Metallic clangs resonated all over the RV, and when he
opened his eyes, already tasting copper, and looked at the light coming in
through small holes, he understood they were being fired at from the back as
well. Lucrezia’s cage fell over and the hen made so much noise with her
clucking Seth wanted to break her neck himself.

His heart beat so hard
it felt like punches to his ribcage from the inside. They needed to get out.
Maybe run into the woods, get a few seconds advantage on the chase. But truth
be told, he didn’t know what to do. The situation was far beyond anything he’d
experienced so far. There was nowhere left to run, they’d never be free.

“Did we crash?” he
yelled to Dom. The RV was trembling as if they drove down an extremely bumpy
road. They were slowing down.

Domenico looked back at
him. The cap fell off his head, leaving his hair in a tangled mess where it
hung over the floor as he leaned down. His face was flushed, eyes wide. “Our
tires are done,” he uttered.

Seth looked into his
eyes with his mind working like a perpetuum mobile yet getting him nowhere.
“What now?” he whispered, wanting to throw up when he heard several car doors
around them opening and shutting. Dom pulled on the safety break and quickly
crawled into the living space, shutting the door between the cab and living
space. He said nothing, just pulled Seth close for a tight hug. His heart was
beating at a pace Seth recognized back from their frantic escape in New York.
He’d almost lost Domenico then, but this time Dom didn’t seem to have a plan.

“Dom?” Seth hugged him
back, focusing on the heart of his beloved man beating next to his. The scent
of cigarettes and sweetness that always clung to Domenico was the only thing
keeping him sane at this point.

Domenico gave a shuddery
breath and pressed his lips against Seth’s head. “It’s fucking over. I
shouldn’t have left the main road,” he whispered.

Seth clutched onto Dom’s
arms in panic and looked into his eyes. “Dom, we have guns, maybe we could push
through into the forest…”

Domenico gritted his
teeth, but then quickly kissed Seth on the mouth, hard and deep, their bodies
so close it felt almost unreal. All of a sudden, Vincente’s voice seeped
through the holes in the body of the vehicle.

“Seth Villani! Domenico
Acerbi!”

“Vincente. Our brother,”
Seth muttered and gave Dom a trembling kiss, not knowing if it wouldn’t be
their last. A bullet shattered the glass in one of the side windows and made a
rip in the blinds. This had to really be the end.

“What?” Domenico yelled
before slowly reaching for his trusted Beretta. He pulled the safety off and
glanced straight into Seth’s eyes. “Whatever happens, I won’t let them get
their hands on you. We’ll always be together,” he whispered over Vincente
saying something that became a blur in Seth’s mind.

Breath got stuck in
Seth’s throat, and his muscles turned into sponge. “You… you once promised me
that you’d let me die without pain.”

The depth of pain he saw
in those amber eyes stabbed him in the heart like the sharpest knife. “No
pain,” whispered Domenico before asking for a few minutes in a loud yell. He
was buying them time to say good-bye.

Vincente yelled again,
clearly basking in cornering them. “I always knew you were soft, Seth, but come
out and at least
die
like a man!”

“I’m scared, Dom…
please, no…” Seth’s whole body trembled from the muscle-numbing tension.

Domenico’s Adam’s apple
bobbed with the background music of a snarky tone and laughs. The men outside
were taking their time, certain they already had their prey, the only thing
between them and death.

Domenico drew in a sharp
breath and gently pulled his thumb down Seth’s cheek. His whole jaw was tense.
“Love, they will torture you and make me watch,” he whispered. “I’m sorry. I
should have taken care of you better.”

Seth swallowed, the
steel of the gun already warming up against his throat. His mind though, wasn’t
getting used to the idea of dying at all. Another bullet flew in through the
window to remind them of the countdown.

“Come out, you fucking
coward!” Vincente yelled, probably talking only to prolong his own sadistic
pleasure. “I’m gonna kill that bitch as well! The blond slut. You made friends
with her, right? Made her lie for you! You think we wouldn’t find you because
of a few false leads? Maybe you shouldn’t appear on fucking TV then, you
moron!” He started laughing along with some other men, and Seth’s mind went
blank. This was
his
fault. Why did he talk to the fucking television
crew? What had he been thinking? Domenico would die because of him. And then
his eyes trailed to the back of the RV, behind Lucrezia’s cage, and hope burned
bright in his heart.

Seth gently pushed the
barrel of the gun away. “Dom, I have an idea. Hear me out,” he whispered
despite his voice trembling.

When Domenico looked
back at him, there was nothing but grief clouding his beautiful eyes.