Blood ran down the side of his face in branched-off rivers. One of his eyes was swollen shut. The other was dilated. His clothes were torn.
At first, I thought the smell of charred meat and burnt tomatoes was coming from the house. It took me a second to realize it was coming from him. A pepperoni flopped to the floor from his shirt when mamma grabbed him by it.
“Brando,” she said, almost breathless. She was burying the panic, but her grip on his tattered shirt was white-knuckled.
He looked down at her hands, then at her. It was like he was trying to answer but couldn’t come up with one.
“We were ambushed,”zioRocco said, holding his side. “We went to Mamma’s to pick up some—” He closed his eyes and had to take a breath.
Mamma’s was a pizza place in New York. It was a staple. And something they would do after blowing up million’s worth of drugs and weapons—grab a couple of boxes to celebrate the victory, probably along with sharing whiskey straight from the bottle. Passing it around like a bunch of fucking tokers.
WhenzioRocco opened his eyes, the green had bled out because of the black. His eyes were dilated, too. “It does not matter now. It was not Bykov. Americans. Free agents. In it for the bounty.”
It didn’t matter. Groups with no true stake in this war wouldn’t care who they captured first. My husband and Arsenius Bykov both had high prices on their heads. And then there was the credit they would get for taking down either one. A higher price for someone associated with the Faustis. Especially my husband, given who I was.
“My husband?” I said, my voice eerily calm, even though my knuckles were about to burst through my skin. “The rest of our men?” I glanced at Mari, who was fidgeting with her sweater, not knowing what to do with herself. Not only was her son not walking through the door, but neither was her husband.
ZioRocco took a deep breath and leaned on his son a little more. “We had sent our men ahead of us after we had taken care of the shipment. We decided on pizza. Brando had to take a piss. We went in to grab the food. We heard gunshots. The situation escalated after that. We returned fire. Our car and us. Men were on foot. Surrounding the place. We managed to get in the car. There was a collision after we took off. We rolled. More men. More of ours and more of theirs.” He took a breath. His words were coming out uncharacteristically fast for him. “We were stuck in the neck with the drug at some point.” He nodded toward papà. “Our men were able to get us out and drove us straight here.”
“Saverio,” I breathed out. “The rest of the men?”
ZioRocco shook his head, like he was trying to shake the thoughts loose.
My brother groaned. He was holding up half of my father’s weight, who had almost collapsed. He wasn’t light.
My stomach turned.
“Get them to the room!” one of the doctors ordered.
Papà started mumbling something. Then he told them to stop. “Mia,” he called.
That fucking drug!
“I’m here, papà,” I said, touching his cheek. He was burning up.
“I saw you,” he said, his voice slurred. “I saw you outside of the office. Crying. I see it now. The candlelight. The darkness. Your face. My heart breaking. Don’t cry, my baby. I didn’t want this for you. This life. I didn’t want him for you—no one is good enough. Still. As much as I respect him, I love him. I love him because you do. He is my son now.” He showed me his arm, covered with black blood. “With my blood, I vow to seal the crack I made in your life.” His words had been a mixture of English and Italian.
“Papà,” I barely got out. I knew what that meant. He was going to die for this—die for our love because he’d hurt me with his.
I wouldn’t allow it. I wouldn’t allow him to leave mamma. I wouldn’t allow him to leave me. His leaving hadcausedthe crack. He couldn’t repair it by doing the same thing, no matter who it was for.
He growled like he was in pain, but at the same time, he seemed to be trying to fight something we couldn’t see.
Tears blurred my vision as they led him away from me, mamma on their heels.
“Mia.”
I whirled and Evelina took a step back. But she quickly closed the gap and grabbed me by the arm, all but dragging me into the office.
“Look—” she said, not even bothering to sit. She bent over the desk, the monitor lighting up her face. A red light pulsed like a heartbeat, moving through the city. “If they continue along this route, they’re going to a private airport.”
“How—”
She waved a hand. “I put a tracking device in Saverio’s wedding ring. He never takes it off. If they keep it on him, we have a way to find them. If—if they—if they keep them together.”
She refused to entertain the other possibility. They would kill everyone but Saverio. They would keep him alive to get to me.
“Irish,” Mari said, suddenly appearing in the room. She looked mad…not angry, but possessed in the glow of all the lights. “Rocco thinks they were Irish from a tattoo he caught. I called Kee. She talked to Cash. He’s almost positive it’s a group that’s newly formed. Trying to make a name for themselves.”
