“What are you doing here?” I rasped out. My heart was lodged in my throat.
He looked around the room like Nino had. For an Italian man usually full of sun kissed color, he was as pale as the snow outside. “One of our men was attacked and killed by a savage animal.”
“B-Brando,” I barely got out, feeling my knees go weak, but somehow, I stood upright.
“Fine, fine.” He moved around the room. “He is attempting to get home now.”
“Attempting?” I followed him around, not sure why.
“The snow. It is coming down hard.”
“Guido—” I stopped his searching, knowing for certain no one was in the room with me until he came, by grabbing his arm and squeezing. “Who did you see?”
His mouth came open, then he closed it on a snap. “Niente.Nessuno.”
Narrowing my eyes at him, I saw right through the coverup. Omission was still a lie. Guido knew it too.
He’d seen the ghost of Burgess, but instead of realizing the man was made of warm flesh and pumping blood, he thought he saw a ghost.
The Italians I knew were superstitious people, and I could almost feel what Guido was—seeing a ghost was a bad omen. Probably for me. I wasn’t worried about a ghost, though, not when a human could do so much more damage.
I was about to tell him this when shouts erupted in the house. Before Guido could tuck me behind himself, I pushed him toward the room Mia was in.
“Take care of my baby!” I whispered in an urgent tone, before the men made it up to me. “Don’t leave her until Brando comes!”
Guido was one of the few men who knew the room existed. If he ever double-crossed us in that way, he knew his son was doomed. More than that, there was a reason why the Fausti family kept family in the higher ranks. They were related by blood. Mia’s blood pumped through his veins, too, and that meant something to most of them.
He wanted to deny me, but when he saw stubbornness in my eyes, a burning that refused to dim, he nodded and moved like a shadow himself, vanishing into the darkness.
The chaos seemed to be contained to the bottom of the chalet.
What was going on down there?
A minute or two later, keeping my eyes forward and not on the room that led to my daughter, I looked out into the impenetrable darkness of the hallway, to be met by a face close to mine.
“Hello,” Burgess said.
The air caught in my throat, even though I knew he was somewhere close.
“You come with me now, without a hassle. Or this entire place will go up in flames.”
I believed him and gave no fight as he led me through the house without even a gun to my back. I wanted to close my eyes, not to see, but couldn’t help the glance that landed on Nino. His body was on the floor, blood seeping from around his head.
Outside, the men huddled around, all guns drawn on a dark figure beside the house, holding the explosive device.
Burgess nudged me. “Tell them.”
“Don’t!” I said, voice clear and high. “None of you—don’t you dare shoot or make a move.”
I refused to say the words aloud, because I wasn’t ready to admit that my daughter slept in the chalet, as helpless as a little lamb among wolves.
If they chose to save me, they would doom her.
“If you do, I’ll kill you myself.”
“That’s a good girl,” Burgess said.
I hadn’t seen the man beside the dark figure I’d first noticed. Primo Bruno and another man were in control of whatever it was they were holding—the device.
