Then the line went dead.
While Rory’s passionate plea might have been compelling—and beyond selfless—there hadn’t been time to make her that promise.
Not that I had any plans of upholding it anyway.
I was going to do whatever it took to get them out of there. Even if that meant sacrificing myself.
Shocked to high hell didn’t even begin to describe my reaction when Matteo pulled up outside my front door, seated atop a snowmobile. He explained that Bianca enjoyed fishing year-round, and he’d purchased the vehicle to get around on the frozen lake during the winter months. While he never expected to use it as a primary mode of transportation, it sure came in handy today as we dealt with the aftereffects of a blizzard.
Navigating the empty snow-covered streets, we made it to the industrial park that housed our underground casino. And as expected, there were armed men—Dario’s men—waiting for us outside.
They wasted no time in patting us down, stripping away our weapons, before granting us entry.
The minute we stepped inside, I could feel my uncle’s eyes on me.
I lifted my gaze to the one-way glass of the office, high above the casino floor. There was no question, that’s where Dario waited for me. The only uncertainty was whether he held my family captive in the same room or if they were holed up in another location. Fuck, after our phone call, there was no longer a guarantee he hadn’t already killed Rory and Luca.
No. I couldn’t think like that.
They were still alive. They had to be.
“Come on,” Matteo urged, already walking toward the back staircase.
I hastened my steps to catch up so that the two of us were shoulder to shoulder by the time we reached the office door.
My fist was poised to knock on the reinforced steel surface when it swung open, revealing Nico’s smug face.
“Cousins,” he purred in greeting. “So glad you were able to clear your busy schedules to join us.”
His casual remark—acting as if this were a family reunion instead of a hostage situation where my wife’s and child’s lives were at stake—set me over the top, and I had no fucking idea what happened after that.
Gripped in the clutches of a rage blackout, the only thing that brought me back to my senses was the distinct feel of a gun being pressed to the back of my head.
Blinking away the haze of red, I found myself straddling Nico, his face a bloodied mess, several teeth broken or missing. But even though he was beaten to shit, high-pitched maniacal laughter spilled from his lips. Clearly, he was as fucked in the head as his father.
I would be doing the world a favor by erasing them from existence.
“Almost seems too easy.” A female voice spoke from behind, close enough to determine that she was the one holding me at gunpoint.
As I lifted my head, my eyes locked on Dario’s across the room. “I might’ve been impressed that you were evolving, breaking away from the patriarchy in giving your daughter an active role in your new regime, if only it didn’t highlight how much of a coward you are, letting her be the one to kill me. Do your men know she’s got bigger balls than you?”
With a jerk of his chin, Dario relayed a silent signal to Arianna, a split second before the pain that came with being pistol-whipped radiated through my already tender skull, and I collapsed to the floor.
“Gio!” Rory’s voice was distorted, almost like I was hearing it from underwater.
Black spots danced across my vision, but I managed to push myself up onto my hands and knees. “You can put my head on a fucking spike for all I care. Just let her and the baby go.”
Humming, Dario mused, “Just now, you remind me a lot of your father. His final request was that I spare his boys.”
With my father’s murderer uncovered, I couldn’t stop the roar that tore up my throat. “You disloyal piece of shit!”
Unbothered, he remarked, “You’re certainly entitled to your opinion. And while I’ll happily accept your surrender, you only represent the tip of the iceberg. I’m unwilling to take any chances of a future uprising challenging my claim. The opposing bloodline must be completely eradicated.”
The air was knocked from my lungs as a boot stomped on my back, pinning me down. Then a familiar grunt sounded nearby, and I turned my head to find that Nico had found his feet, his gun jammed into my brother’s ribs.
This was it. The end of the road.
I always knew I wouldn’t make it to old age, but I never could have imagined that I would be executed at the hands of my own blood, with Rory’s cries for mercy ringing in my ears as she waited her turn.
