He can’t know how important she is to Maximo. But I also can’t make her sound so insignificant they’ll put a bullet in her head and be done with it.
“J-just a close friend. She’s staying with me for a while. Let her go.”
Niccolò’s gaze slides over Julianna’s petite frame. She’s built like a tiny ballerina. Small curves and long legs. Petite and delicate.
He licks his lips. “Pretty little thing. I think I’ll keep her.”
“Don’t you dare touch her!” I scream at him, redoubling my efforts to break free from Dario. A futile attempt.
The brothers laugh.
“Let’s go.” Niccolò starts walking. Julianna’s forced to keep up unless she wants her hair ripped from her scalp. I can’t believe these two have turned on us like this. Does Maximo know? Is he in danger, too?
My phone rings. I scramble to get to it in my pocket. Dario bats it out of my hand and the device drops to the floor, skidding across the smooth surface. It rings and rings, and in my bones, I know Maximo’s calling. But he’s too late.
I whimper. What’s going to happen to us now?
Dario and Niccolò force us down the stairs. We both scream, but help never comes. Did these guys dismiss the other guards outside, or kill them?
As we enter the foyer, I reach for my purse. After being shot at in the limo, I put all the tracking devices that I’d removed back in my bags. If I can bring it with me, Maximo will know where they’re taking us.
Dario swats my hand away. “You don’t need that.”
They shove us into the foyer’s elevator. We ride in the confined space down to the garage level, where Niccolò grabs a set of keys and presses the fob. Lights flash on a black town car. He pushes another button and the trunk opens.
Horror erupts across my skin like a million tiny ants. My lungs constrict. Dark spots invade my vision.
“No!” I scream as Dario tosses me into the trunk. I surge forward, trying to make my escape, when Julianna lands on top of me. Then the world goes dark. All sounds are muffled except for us pounding against the door. “Help! Let us out!”
The engine starts, drowning out our cries. Then we’re moving.
One last, desperate scream crawls up my throat.Maximo, find us.
CHAPTER 51
Maximo
The tracker in Elena’s phone shows her to be home. Though when I barge inside, see the mess in the foyer, like there was a struggle, I know she’s gone. Taken. Even so, I have to check.
Climbing the stairs two at a time, I call out, “Elena? Julianna?”
I spot Elena’s cell laying on the hallway floor.Cazzo. Dread hammers against my ribcage.
Darting to my office, I pull up the security feed from inside the penthouse and watch everything that happened with a growing sense of fury. Niccolò and Dario are dead men. When I’m done with them, they’ll be begging for the relief of death.
They’re the reason Lazaro willingly told me everything. The bastard knew I’d drag him in for questioning at some point. When I did, he was ready to implement his plan. Did he know I was following him? Is that why he drove past his house earlier, changing his destination?
While I had him in my clutches, he was playing me, buying his sons time to come in here and kidnap my wife. I doubt they even know who Julianna is to me, but they took her too. Now they hold the two most important people to me in the world.
Raking my fingers through my hair, I consider my limited options. Since Lazaro and his sons are traitors, who else is on their side? I can’t trust a single one of my own men. Once this is over—there will be a culling among our ranks. In the meantime, I turn to the only men I do trust. The only men who believe in taking action first and asking questions later.
Cian answers on the second ring, “Yeah?”
“They took Elena.”
A beat of silence. “Who took her?”
“Two of my soldiers. Lazaro turned on me. He’s locked up, but his sons took my wife. I can’t trust anybody else?—”
