Gio nodded, tight-lipped. “The boy doesn’t fucking listen. We argued this morning when I told them we weren’t going. He was raging, saying we were letting the enemy win by staying cooped up behind our walls in our own cities. He wasn’t going to let them stop him from putting flowers on his father’s grave. The kid has too much passion in his veins.”
“Sounds like two others we know,” I muttered under my breath, and both Elle and Gio glared at me within seconds.
If you had to sum up the Buccinis in one word, it would be passionate. It always made me laugh that they could never see how similar they all were. Santino was a mash-up of both Gio and Elle. Headstrong, stubborn, impulsive, reckless, but also insanely loyal, protective, and so damn passionate.
“Sani’s right, though,” Alessio said, shrugging. “This is our country. We shouldn’t have to keep our children protected behind walls because of foreign threats. We fought too hard to build the empire we have, where our families feel safe, to go backwards now. This ends. Tomorrow.”
Alessio locked eyes with me, and I nodded. That was the go-ahead I needed. Tomorrow, I’d be on a plane to America.
“How?” Gio asked, perched on the arm of a sofa. “What’s your plan?”
“I’ll fill you in later. Once we know what happened to Sani and Raya.”
Gio rubbed his forehead. “Sani sneaked into my office and sent a direct message from my laptop to their main bodyguard, saying I had given permission for them to visit ourpapi’sgrave today. I was in a meeting in Venice, so I wasn’t here to see them leave. And of course, wherever Sani goes, Raya goes too. They took a car and drove straight to our family’s mausoleum. Two unlicensed cars pulled into the cemetery and ambushed them. It was an attempted abduction.”
“Oh my God,” Elle exclaimed, lowering her head into her hands. “How did they get out of there?”
Gio huffed. “That’s the part we aren’t quite clear on yet. But none of the three soldiers who escorted Sani and Raya made it out alive. Sani hit the distress alert on his watch, and Maximus went out with three cars of men, expecting a battle. He found Sani walking down the road, covered in blood, carrying Raya inhis arms. Raya has a broken arm. Sani has a deep slash to the back of his head and a knife wound to his thigh.”
My eyebrows shot up my forehead. “And he still managed to carry Raya despite those injuries?”
A proud smile lit up Gio’s face. “Of course. The boy’s a tank and a Buccini. He’d protect his sister with everything he had.”
“Gio, do you think he killed someone? He’s only seventeen!” Elle cried, hating the very idea of her brother being put in a situation where he had no choice but to take a life. Elle knew that feeling all too well.
“He’s seventeen, but he’s no longer a child, Elle. You know what Sani’s like. He’s been craving action since he could hold a gun.”
I didn’t doubt it. Sani was a mafioso from the day he was born. It ran in his blood.
Elle shook her head. “But… Raya. They must have been terrified.”
“And these were definitely Americans?” I asked.
“Si. I just got off the phone with my cleanup team. Six American soldiers. Four dead. Two badly injured. They’re in my cells.” His black eyes gleamed with sadistic malevolence, promising unbearable pain.
“Don’t kill them,” I ordered. “We need hostages.”
“But we can torture them, right?”
Our heads whipped around as Marco, Cecilia, Raya, and Sani entered the room. The question came from the teenager, who had a large bandage covering his thigh beneath baggy gym shorts and an angry black eye beginning to show. Apart from his injuries, he looked as if he were buzzing out of his skin, ready for another fight. Clearly, the adrenaline was still coursing through him. Raya was tucked into Cecilia’s side, her arm in a sling, shaken but otherwise fine.
“Raya! Sani!” Elle leapt up, racing towards them and pulling them both into a tight hug. Sani allowed it for about three seconds before he peeled himself out of her arms and walked towards us men.
“I will torture them,si,” Giovanni said with a sharp warning at his younger brother. “You. Will not.”
Sani’s brown eyes flickered with that Buccini fire. I smirked behind my tablet, waiting for the drama to unfold. It was always like living in a soap opera with this lot.
“That’s not fair! They are mine to torture!”
“You’re seventeen, Sani!” Elle argued, keeping Raya pressed against her as she walked back to the sofas. “You shouldn’t be torturing anyone.”
“I’ll be eighteen in a few weeks. Think of it as an early birthday present. And no offence, Sis, but I just shot a man in the eye and bashed another’s brains out with a headstone. Torturing the bastards who got away from me should be a reward.”
“Sani!” Cecilia scolded him when Raya closed her eyes and turned her face into Elle’s chest.
“Elle, take Raya up to her room, please. She doesn’t need to relive this,” Gio commanded, shaking his head at Sani.
They were about to leave, but Raya lunged at Sani, wrapping her only good arm around his waist and burying her face in his chest. He hugged her, tilting his head to the top of her hair, and whispered something to her that none of us could hear. She nodded, sniffling, then let go and walked away with Elle. I had to admire the bond they shared. I wished Nerina could have that one day, a sibling she could be that close with. They were more than brother and sister. They were best friends.
