"I'm going to kill you both." My voice drops to a deadly whisper. I lock eyes with the quiet one, letting him see the truth in mine. "Not quickly. Not mercifully. I'lltake my time. I'll make you feel everything you're putting her through. I'll take pieces of you while you're still breathing."
The quiet one's smile falters for just a second.
"And when I'm done," I continue, "I'll do the same to Easton."
"Big talk from a man in chains," the big one says, but there's a new tension in his shoulders.
"I don't need these chains off to make you suffer," I say, my voice eerily calm despite the storm raging inside me. "I just need to be patient. And trust me—" I smile through the blood coating my teeth "—when it comes to revenge, I've got all the fucking patience in the world."
I pace the Feretti mansion's living room thinking. The ticking of the grandfather clock in the corner sounds like explosions in my ears. Fifteen minutes have passed since Alessio and Enzo left with their tactical teams.
"You need to sit down," Ginerva says, approaching with a cup of tea I didn't ask for.
I shake my head, my hand instinctively moving to my stomach. "I can't."
This is all my fault. If I hadn't agreed to Byron's twisted revenge mission. If I hadn't married Damiano. If I hadn't fallen for him. If I hadn't gotten pregnant.
If. If. If.
And now Damiano and Lucrezia are paying the price for my mistakes.
"They'll find them," Ginerva says quietly.
"You don't know that." My voice cracks. "You don't know what Byron is capable of."
I close my eyes and see Damiano's face as I left him at the café table. The way his eyes softened when he spotted me, before I ran to the bathroom. That might be the last time I ever saw him.
"I should have gone with them." I stop pacing and turn toward the door. "I can't just wait here."
Ginerva steps into my path. "And what would you do? Get yourself killed?"
"I know those warehouses," I insist. "I've studied Byron's operations for years. I could help them."
"Mr. Alessio was clear. You're to stay here where it's safe."
Safe. What a joke. There's no safety anywhere, not while Byron is out there with Damiano and Lucrezia. Not while he thinks I've betrayed him.
I sink onto the leather sofa, trembling with a mixture of fear and rage. "This is my fault."
"Self-pity won't help them," Ginerva says sharply.
She's right. Sitting here blaming myself won't save Damiano or Lucrezia.
I watch Ginerva disappear down the hallway. The moment she's out of sight, I spring into action.
I slip off my shoes. The floor feels cold under my feetas I creep toward the back of the mansion. Every creak and groan of the house makes me freeze, listening for footsteps. Ginerva might be the head housekeeper, but she moves like a ghost when she wants to.
I reach the service entrance near the kitchen and pause. The security panel glows red beside the door. Damiano had shown me the code once, offhandedly. What was it? I close my eyes, picturing his fingers moving across the keypad.
2-0-0-6.
The year his parents died.
The panel flashes green and the lock clicks. I slip outside, carefully pulling the door closed behind me. The perfectly trimmed hedges provide cover as I skirt around the edge of the property toward the detached garage.
The garage looms ahead, its sleek modern design at odds with the Renaissance-inspired main house. I duck behind a row of ornamental bushes when I spot one of the security guards making his rounds, his flashlight cutting through the darkness.
Once he passes, I dart across the open lawn to the side entrance of the garage.
