Taking that as my cue, I step out of the shadows. I can see the relief and the conflict in her expression when our eyes meet.
“You, traitorous little cunt,” her father says, incredulously.
I shoot him a deadly glare as I wrap her in my arms. “Are you okay?” I murmur in her ear.
She buries her face into my neck, clinging to me like I’m her salvation instead of the man who has her father in a cage. Donnelly is on his feet, grasping the bars frantically and coming to the rapid conclusion that he’s doomed. She tilts her face back, staring up at me with those beautiful blue eyes I can’t resist. “Can it be done quickly?”
"Quickly?"
For so long, I’ve dreamt of torturing him, of drawing it out for hours, maybe even days. My men will want a spectacle; proof that loyalty is rewarded while treason is punished harshly. At the very least, Faro deserves to be present for this.
But as my fingers map the curve of her spine under her sweater and I inhale her sweet lavender fragrance, I know my unfulfilled dreams of revenge, my men’s dashed expectations and even Faro’s disappointment are things I’ll learn to live with. “For you, it can.”
Donnelly has barely opened his mouth again when I pull my gun and shoot him right in the face. The silk bathrobe and concrete are covered with blood from where the back of his head once was.
Francesca gasps and staggers backwards. Outside, there are noises – shouts of confusion. I hear Renato shout my name, yet my eyes remain locked on my wife. Soon enough, they’ll know I denied them what they expected, that I betrayed them for her. I won't regret it.
“I can’t believe you did that,” she says, staring at me in complete shock.
Part of me can’t believe it either, but the part that burned for revenge has been replaced by something deeper and more meaningful. “I want to make you happy,mia moglie.”
She continues to stare at me like I’m insane. Maybe I am.
“Life with me will always hold you back from your dreams to some extent. Protecting you is too important to me for it to be otherwise, and our lives are bound by harsh rules. But what would make you happy? You just watched me commit murder. You’d make your friend at the Bureau very happy if you told her about that.”
“She’s not my friend, and I don’t care about making them happy.”
“What about your brother?”
“He… Carlo, I should’ve told you something earlier. Ronan called me tonight. He wants me to leave with him tomorrow.”
Ah, is that it? She wants to be with her brother. I don’t get the chance to ask as the sounds of shouting and confusion continue outside.
Then I hear gunfire.
Something isn’t right. I need to get her to safety. The door screeches open, and Renato races inside with armed men chasing him. I raise my gun to protect my brother just as Francesca screams at me to get down. A gun fires from somewhere behind me, and I fall.
51
Francesca
Too late, I saw Ronan slip inside the warehouse from the back. Too late, I shouted a warning.
I watched Carlo kill my father with barely a gasp.
I scream my head off when my husband crumples to the ground after my brother shot him in the back.
Sinking to my knees beside him, I’m sobbing and hysterical as I frantically try to apply pressure to his wound. “Carlo, oh God. Hold on.” Blood pools around my knees on the concrete. It looks bad. How bad? “Don’t die,” I tell him. “You’re going to be okay.”
Around us, the fighting carries on as three men are chasing Renato through the cavernous space. He’s still a boy. Will they kill him, too? What happened to the guards he was with earlier? Dead more than likely. If Carlo dies, maybe they’ll do me the kindness of killing me as well.
“You once asked if I'd give you your freedom,” Carlo murmurs with a strange smile. He reaches up to touch my cheek.
“I don't want it. I forbid you to die. We’ll get you to the hospital and-”
“This is yours… not that you need it,” he says, handing me something from his pocket - my broken silver hair tie, the one I considered my lucky charm. Why does he have it?
“I don’t want this. I want you to-”
