seen too many powerful, violent men hurt and manipulate and torment everyone around them without ever paying the consequences to think anything but good riddance, this man was gone.
Especially when her voice shook as she said, “I’m not him. I never will be.”
“No, you won’t,” I told her.
By then, I’d reached the door. I shifted her, reached for the handle, and asked for a third time, “Ready?”
Her eyes slid closed then opened back up, the pain hidden, determination written in every line of her face.
“Let’s go.”
Twenty-Two
Southern Italy
Unknown hrs local time
Ava
My head was getting fuzzy, pain was making my reflexes slow.
My vision was blurry unless I closed one eye, and if I did that, I couldn’t very well be Dan’s eyes if I was only using one, could I?
But I didn’t have time to worry about it, not when I had to focus.
“Go to the end of the corridor and turn right.”
A nod as he picked up the pace.
We made it out of the room without seeing any guards and began winding our way to the surface, so I was trying not to focus on how the jarring from Dan running sent bolts of agony shooting through me every step of the way. The rumbling was continuing, stopping and starting at regular intervals, and that gave me hope it was Laila and the rest of KTS coming to say them with guns blazing.
Because if it wasn’t, if it was some other criminal organization attacking my father’s compound and we suddenly needed to outrun two enemies, I knew we wouldn’t make it.
I wouldn’t make it.
I would slow Dan down.
As it was—
“Down!” I hissed.
Dan didn’t hesitate, just dropped into a crouch.
I squinted, fired off two rounds, and one of my cousins hit the ground.
Family and blood and bullets and death. How many Toscalos would I be responsible for eliminating that day? And how many had been like me? Were innocent until they were pulled and coaxed and cajoled into a serious situation they couldn’t get out of.
I’d managed to find a way to exit the family.
But it had taken years, and my survival after leaving the family had largely been due to me stumbling onto a KTS agent.
I’d helped Laila when she was injured, offering what little money I’d earned at my under-the-table waitressing job and letting Laila stay with me in my hidey hole until she’d been able to contact headquarters. Laila had brought me to KTS, offering protection. That protection had turned into self-defense training, and that training had transformed me into someone who was strong, who wouldn’t be taken advantage of again.
And that training had brought alongside it a safe home and something that resembled a family.
Even though I had been so damned careful to keep Laila out.
My friend had gotten in anyway. Then Olive and Dan and Ryker.
“Clear,” I murmured. “Take that right and then there should be a stairwell at the end. It leads upstairs.”
We made it to the stairs and up the short flight.
And then we were creeping through a dimly lit room. It was large and open, the only barrier between the windows showing the sea in the distance a narrow stretch of wall separating the dining area from the rest of the space.
“I’m assuming you did me a favor, cousin?”
I stiffened at the sound of the voice. “Sergio,” I murmured to Dan.
Footsteps on the marble floor, several men I didn’t recognize coming out to flank my cousin, where he sat on a large cream couch.
One of them stepped close, whispered in his ear.
And I watched a sick smile spread on his lips.
“Are you the reason your dear father has a bullet in his skull?”
I swallowed, whispered. “Three exits. One back down in the dungeon, another through the kitchen via a servant’s door, the final one behind that couch there.”
Dan nodded slightly.
“I’m leaving,” I said. “You do with the family what you want.”
I’d take Sergio out with KTS’s help another time.
Today, I wanted to get the fuck out of here alive.
Still in Dan’s arms, still feeling very much like a pathetic damsel in distress, I held tight as Dan shifted, moved toward the door I’d indicated with my head.”
“Not so fast,” Sergio said casually. He glanced at his watch.
Clicks surrounded us. Safeties disengaged in unison.
Another rumbled shook the house. “Ah, right on time. Your pathetic little play army is trying to blast into the dungeons.” A nod. “Go take care of that.” Two men peeled off, pounding across the floor and slipping through the narrow door