Scarlett turned the light out. She reached over and ran a hand over Mia’s head. “My baby,” she said in Italian, “mamma’s here. You’re going to be all right.” Even though anyone could tell she was scared and angry, her voice was steady, in control.
Mia snatched her hand and held tight to it. Brando didn’t have to say a word. He was as still as a statue filled with lava. One move and he was going to combust. Fire might as well have blown out of his nostrils instead of air.
“Saverio,” Evelina whispered. “They’ve blocked all exits but one. The last resort.”
I looked to my left and then to my right, like I could find another exit. Two secret passageways existed in the theater, just like in Leroux’s novel. They began five levels down into the belly of the house basement, and then they climbed to the fourth floor with a metal ladder. One of the tunnels was still in use, while the other was used for a rainwater evacuation chute. I’d done some research on the one still in use. Eerie, with its alcoves and cellar arches that were lit only by candlelight.
“There isn’t another way,” Evelina whispered. “We need to get her out of here.”
“Now,” Scarlett said in a rushed whisper. “Now!”
“Follow me!” Evelina whispered.
Matteo and Mariano flanked her on either side. Mia and me. Brando and Scarlett bringing up the rear. We were headed down into the basement.
Every so often, Evelina touched something on her eyeglasses. After, two small beams illuminated a short distance ahead of us. My sister had all kinds of fucking gadgets.
“There—” Evelina pointed, turning her lights off.
We all turned in that direction when a man said something in Russian from behind. Scarlett replied in the same language. A bone crushingcrack!echoed a second later, then a body hit the floor.
“Keep moving,” Brando ordered.
The group tried, but we were being ambushed. It had taken them a while to get to this area of the theater, but they were going to try and stop us from getting out. Matteo and Mariano went to stand next to Brando, pushing Scarlett behind them, into my back.
We were so fucking close.
Mia whimpered in my arms, and I was about to lose my mind. The urge to help her and kill them were warring with each other. Knives slashed in the air around us. Skin impaled skin. Bones were cracking.
“Saverio,” Evelina said. “Saverio! Focus. Brando is the better swimmer. He’s swam in conditions like this before.”
Even though the Phantom’s Lake was fiction, the house did have an enormous artificial reservoir below the basement. It was Garnier’s answer to groundwater that was uncovered during building. Steam pumps couldn’t drain it entirely, so Garnier decided to do a double foundation that would keep the main structure from too much moisture. The only thing living down there was an enormous white catfish that some of the staff fed. The only people who used it were firefighters training to swim in pitch-black conditions.
Brando Fausti could swim in any condition. He was trained for it. We’d set a blow-up boat down there for this purpose. Even if they had to get into the water for a second, it was there.
Still.
“I can’t let her go—”
“You’ll meet them outside. It’s the safest way.” She opened and closed her hands. “We have to hurry. More of them are coming.”
“Please,” Mia cried. “I’m hurting so bad, Rio.”
“Brando!” I roared.
His back came against mine and, surrounded by Matteo and Mariano, Brando and I turned toward each other for the handoff. He hauled ass toward the entrance of the tank with Evelina next to him. He’d already lost the jacket to his suit and had rolled up the sleeves of his white dress shirt.
Scarlett squeezed my arm. “She belongs to him, too,” she whispered. “He’ll take care of her.”
A scream echoing from the bowels of the earth made us both turn. Sweat poured out of my skin, and my heart felt like it was being split in two.
Evelina came back, her lights on, breathing heavy. “The water,” she said. “It burned the cuts.”
Her lights illuminated the men that were down. They each had tattoos on their hands. Three small eyes with stars in them. The mark of Arsenius Bykov’s men.
I wanted to steal whatever they loved in this world and then kill them again.
“Saverio,” Evelina whispered, breaking through the red fog I was in. “Mia is going to need us outside. Nothing left to do here. Let’s go.”
