Chapter 17: Steel Cage

The cage was a steel mesh box bolted to the floor of an Albertini warehouse, and it smelled of diesel.

Gemma sat in the corner of it with her lip split and her left eye swelling shut.

Rosanna had come to look at her an hour ago, in a pearl-grey coat.

"You were always going to end up in a cage, darling," she had said, kindly. "I only picked which one."

Gemma had spat through the mesh, and hit her on the cheek.

Rosanna had wiped it off with a tissue and left.

Now the warehouse door rolled up, and two Orsatti men dragged someone across the concrete.

They threw him into the cage and bolted it.

It was Raffaele.

His shirt was dark down the left side, and he fell to one knee.

"You idiot," Gemma said. "You complete idiot."

"I walked in the front gate." He grinned, with blood on his teeth. "I told the heir he could have me in your place."

"And he said yes!"

"He said yes, and shot me for good manners."

She scrambled to him and tore his shirt open at the side.

The bullet had gone through the flesh above his hip and out the back.

It was bleeding steadily, and she pressed her scarf against it, hard.

"You walked in with no men."

"My men are at the fence. They'll come when I give the word."

"You gave the word to be shot, Raffaele! Who does that?"

"A man who can't be without you," he said.

She stared at him.

His grey eyes were fierce and bright, and he did not take the words back.

"You said it again," she whispered.

"I'll say it until you hit me."

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