Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 65433 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 327(@200wpm)___ 262(@250wpm)___ 218(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 65433 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 327(@200wpm)___ 262(@250wpm)___ 218(@300wpm)
That gets his attention, but I know it’s momentary because the control of earlier is gone, and even then, it was barely there. I felt the rigidity of his body beside mine as the will was read. I saw how his hands fisted and what it took for him to maintain control.
“Take me away. Please. Take me away from here. I need you.”
11
AMADEO
What the fuck just happened? What the fuck did Lucien Russo just manage to pull off?
I look down at Vittoria. She’s frantic, tugging at my hair and face to get my attention.
“I need you,” she keeps saying. “Please, Amadeo. I need you.”
I blink, forcing myself to focus on her face. Her hair has come out of its chignon. Her cheeks are flushed with the exertion of getting my attention. Of getting away from her brother. I wrap one arm around her waist and nod. I turn to find Lucien Russo with his tail between his legs, scurrying out the door to the elevators, flanked by two men in SWAT gear. He took advantage of my distraction because he has just declared outright war.
“What the fuck just happened?” I demand of Bruno.
Bruno rushes in as he disconnects one call to answer another.
“He’s going to kill him,” Vittoria says, her eyes red and watery. “He said accidents happen. He said—”
“Those weren’t cops. They were soldiers,” I tell Bruno when he disconnects.
He shakes his head, caught off guard and rattled. “Shit.”
“We need to find out where they’re taking him.”
He nods, his attention in his phone as he types back a reply to a text. “The car tailing them lost them.”
Fuck!
“Take her,” I say, digging my phone out of my pocket as I hand Vittoria to him.
“No!” she cries, clinging to me.
“Get her to one of the SUVs. You ride with her. I want two soldiers in the vehicle with you, and you two follow with a second car. You’re with her at all times. Am I clear?”
The soldiers nod.
“Amadeo, you’ll be on your own,” Bruno says. “This isn’t our city.”
No fucking shit. “I’m calling in a favor. Get her out of here. Do not go back to the hotel. I’ll send you an address as soon as I can.”
“Amadeo!” Vittoria breaks away from Bruno and runs to me. I’m surprised by the force of her hurling herself into my arms. “I want to stay with you. We need to get him out of there. We need—”
“I need to make a call. And you need to go with Bruno. Now. Do you understand?”
“He’s going to—”
I shake her. “Dandelion. Now!” I gesture to a soldier who takes her and turn my back so I don’t have to see her struggle against him as he drags her away. I hit the call button on a number I’ve never used. One my grandfather passed along.
Favors are carried down from generation to generation. And my grandfather had helped Franco Benedetti when he ran this city. Franco’s dead now and has been for years, but this successor will answer this call.
“Who is this?” says the man who picks up on the second ring.
“Amadeo Caballero, Humberto Caballero’s grandson. I need Dominic Benedetti.”
A long silence follows, then footsteps.
“Amadeo. This is Dominic Benedetti. How can I help you?”
I text the address of the penthouse to Bruno and make my way down on the elevator. Just as I step out of the building and head toward the last SUV with its lone driver, four more SUVs pull up. Dominic works fast. One circles around ahead of us, and my driver follows while the other three tail us.
Those men weren’t cops or any arm of any legal establishment. They were Lucien Russo’s men. Or at least men Russo most likely borrowed from one of his associates. It was done to distract us. To separate us. He couldn’t kill us outright. Not so publicly.
Vittoria’s panicked words repeat in my head, her worried face swimming before my eyes.
They’re going to kill him.
They’re going to try. I know that.
I grit my teeth. At least Dominic with all this contacts in the city was able to learn where the entourage was headed. We ride fast to the location my brother has been taken to. I don’t let myself think about being too late. I can’t.
Over an hour later as we slow to enter the lot of the abandoned meat processing plant, I get a text from Dominic telling me to stay put. I watch as men dressed much like those who filed into the top floor of Russo Properties & Holdings to take my brother stalk close to the wall toward two separate entrances.
I don’t want to stay put. I want to be there. I want to put a fucking bullet into every one of the bastards who grabbed my brother.
I take my gun out of its holster and climb out of the vehicle. My driver does the same. Neither of us is wearing protective gear while Dominic’s men came dressed for war.