Geno wished he didn’t have the gut instinct that told him things weren’t going to go as well as they all were expecting. They were missing a key component. He kept his hands on the railing, not joining his brothers near the shadows, where they could help Lorenzo if they were attacked. He needed to be able to think clearly.
Geno, are you certain you’re on alert?Amaranthe poured into his mind, filling him with her essence—the beauty of her. The promise of a life of companionship, laughter, loyalty and most of all love. In that moment, he realized she would leave the stage, blow her reputation as a dancer and come to him if she believed he needed her for any reason. She wouldn’t hesitate. He felt that as surely as he drew air into his lungs. He didn’t know why he’d gotten so lucky, but he recognized that he had, and he knew what he had in Amaranthe—a miracle. A treasure.
I’m covered, Amara. Lorenzo is controlling and getting joy out of telling me what to do. No one is going to slip past him.He poured reassurance into her mind.
We’re missing something. I know we are. I can feel it.
That really put him on alert. All along his radar was blaring a warning.We’re on the same page, baby. I’ll make certain the others know that both of us feel something else is in the works. They’ll pay attention.
They’ll strike when the play is at its most intense, she warned.
He agreed.It’s difficult to keep from being mesmerized by your performance, he told her.I’ll admit, even knowing we’re being stalked, when you’re dancing, I just want to watch you.
Well, don’t. I really have this bad feeling, Geno. I’d rather be in the shadows protecting you than up on the stage.
Funny thing,la mia danzatrice ombra, I feel the same way. I want to be right there with you.He poured love into her mind. He didn’t have his protection to give her—he was trapped in the luxury box, bait for killers—but he could give her everything he felt for her. Let her know she was his world. He might not have the words, but he had the ability to share her mind and give her the absolute honesty of his true emotions.
Geno despised allowing her to slip away from him, but the lights dimmed, signaling the audience to return to their seats. The bells chimed softly, alerting everyone the dancers were in place and act two was about to start.
The second half of the performance was even more emotional than the first half. Geno realized it would be so easy to forget his family was being stalked. He couldn’t take his eyes off Amaranthe and Jason as the tragic love story played out. Geno realized the story wasn’t just about the tale of two innocent hearts being destroyed, it was about power, greed, ego and pride. Those particular values played out in families across the globe in modern times. Often, the young lives being destroyed, the hearts broken, didn’t seem to matter as long as those in power got their way.
Some parents wanted control and insisted their children follow their dictates no matter how soul-destroying those demands were. The consequences were often the loss of the child, but those in power would rather sustain that loss than entertain a different way of thinking. Geno could see theparallel so easily between the tragic play written long ago and what was happening in the modern world.
It was difficult not to fall in love with the dancers, not just the roles they were playing. While it was true that Geno didn’t know that much about classical ballet, both principal dancers seemed world-class to him. He’d taken a lot of time to study the dancers considered best in the world, and Jason and Amaranthe were up there with them in the performance they were giving.
The audience was enthralled. Spellbound. They believed the two young lovers as they declared their ardent feelings for each other and then later met at Friar Lawrence’s garden to be secretly married. The passionate scenes were riveting, the dancing taking each act to new heights.
After killing Tybalt in the marketplace, Romeo spent the night with Juliet but had to leave at sunrise under sentence of exile. There was so much emotion between the two principals, it brought many in the audience to tears.
Geno’s warning system began to blare at him as Juliet went to the friar and he gave her a sleeping draft that would make her appear as if she’d died. The Ferraro enemies were closing in just as the Montagues and Capulets were coming to a crucial point.
Geno reached out to his brothers and cousins.The Boutlers are moving into position. Be alert.
He leaned closer to the rail, his gaze fixed on the stage and his woman dancing there. The spotlight created all kinds of shadows on the set, where she took the sleeping potion and her parents discovered her, believing her dead. The shadows made him nervous. There seemed to be more than usual.
The final scene was the most dramatic. Juliet lay as if dead in the tomb. Romeo rushed in and discovered Paris mourning her. A fight ensued. The timing was perfect for the Boutlers to attack.
Simultaneously, all six boxes were hit. Cooper and another older man slid out of the shadows into Geno’s box.Each held a knife in his hand as they went straight at Geno, who had turned to face them. Salvatore and Lucca closed in on them from either side, controlling the wrist holding the knife while Lorenzo glided silently up behind first Cooper and then the older man, snapping their necks and murmuring the traditional “Justice is served.”
Lorenzo dragged Cooper into the shadows and Lucca followed with the older man. The entire incident took seconds. Geno returned to the balcony railing, his gut still knotted. Salvatore kept his gaze fixed on the other boxes just in case his cousins might need help.
Neil and another younger man entered Stefano’s box, riding the shadow directly to Stefano. Neil’s knife was held low, stabbing upward toward Stefano’s abdomen. Giovanni slapped the knife away, hitting Neil’s arm so hard there was an audible crack. At the same time, Vittorio caught the younger man’s wrist, yanked him forward and turned hard, snapping his wrist and putting pressure on him until the knife fell. Franco came up behind him and snapped his neck as Stefano easily spun Neil around and broke his neck. Franco dragged the younger man into the shadows and Vittorio followed suit with Neil.
Calen rode a fast shadow with his partner, a young man of around the same age straight into the box where Taviano, Nicoletta, Ricco and Mariko waited. The four Ferraros closed in on them while Matteo Ferraro followed them into the box. Calen and his companion went from sheer confidence to shock and horror, realizing too late that their victims were waiting for them.
Ricco took control of the knife, turning it on Calen while Matteo snapped his neck. It was Taviano who blocked the weapon the stranger wielded, and Mariko administered justice. The two assassins were dead within seconds of entering the box. Matteo and Ricco took the bodies into the shadows to dispose of them a great distance from the theater.
Owen Boutler and Martin, a distant cousin discoveredthrough genealogy research on the internet, rushed through the shadows into the box where Dario, Val, Emme and Elie sat watching the performance ofRomeo and Juliet. Val and Dario looked up at the two men as they entered, Val raising an eyebrow, Dario smirking.
Owen tried to stop his forward momentum, ducking behind Martin, nearly skimming the poisoned blade of his knife across his cousin’s back as he half turned to face the man emerging from the darker side of the box. Elie Archambault had a well-earned reputation for being very fast. He moved with blurring speed, kicking the knife from Owen’s hand and catching his head in his hands, snapping the neck almost in one move.
Elie turned to help Emmanuelle with Martin, but Lucio was already there, not that Emme needed any help. She’d already disarmed Martin, and Lucio was behind the assassin, meting out justice and dragging the body into the shadows. Emmanuelle calmly returned to her seat as Elie removed Owen’s body.
Parker Boulter rode the shadows into the box nearest the stairway. The box contained cousins who had come from Los Angeles to watch Geno’s fiancée perform. Severino, Veila and Remigio should have been watching the last act with rapt attention, but only Veila faced the entrance to the box and Parker. She smiled sweetly at him, ignoring the knife in his hand as if she didn’t even see it. Warily, Parker looked around the box seats before he took a step toward Veila.
The moment he took that step, he knew it was a mistake. Her brothers emerged on either side of him, gripping him with tremendous strength so he was unable to wield the knife. Behind him, Santo Ferraro from San Francisco caught his head in his hands and wrenched, breaking his neck. Santo calmly pulled him into the shadows while his cousins seated themselves to watch the fight play out between Paris and Romeo in the tomb.
At the last box on the far left, Max and Tore sat in theseats, swinging around to face two strangers as they emerged from the shadows. Both stood slowly, waiting in place as the two Boutler assassins came closer. Vico and Marzio closed in on either side of the two men. Instantly, Max and Tore moved with blurring speed, both going for the wrists holding the poisoned knives while behind them, Brio, their cousin from San Francisco, caught first one neck, then the other, administering justice.
