Chapter 259: Failed

Rafe Luciano paced the length of the dingy apartment like a caged wolf, his teeth clenched so hard his jaw throbbed. Plumes of smoke from his smoldering cigarette trailed in his wake, the harsh scent of tobacco and desperation hanging thick in the air. "Someone wanna run that by me again?" His gravel-toned growl cut through the uneasy silence blanketing the room. Beside the squalid kitchenette, two of his most trusted Wolf Gang lieutenants shifted uncomfortably under their boss's laser-focused glare. It was Gino who spoke up, the wiry man unable to meet Rafe's eyes. "It's like Paulie said, boss. That hit went sideways 'cause the civilian turned out to be the new...wife of Mathew Shaw himself." The words hung in the air like a damning pandemic, each of Rafe's men seeming to shrink a few inches where they sat or leaned against the peeling wallpaper. A vein began to pound menacingly at the Wolf's temple as he processed that disastrous information. "La famiglia..." he hissed through c