I look at my family, committing every detail to memory. Fuel for the rage that will sustain me.
I stand up, my jaw set and my eyes dry.
The Montonis have no idea what they’ve created.
Present day
My booted feethit the balcony, and with a flick of my wrist, I detach the rope I used to rappel from the roof above. My breath turns to vapor on the cold air as I coil up the rope and unpack my sniper rifle. I fit the gun together with practiced twists and clicks, muscle memory taking over.
A moment later, I’m gazing down the crosshairs at the Montoni mansion.
Tonight, I’m a predator hunting prey.
I’ve chosen the balcony of this deserted apartment for Don Agnello’s assassination because it’s shadowed and forgotten. A ghost’s perch. No one will interrupt me here. But protection from the elements? It has none. My leather jacket is lined with thick shearling, but freezing wind cuts me to the bone. My gloved hands clench and flex on the gun grip as I watch for any sign of movement, eager for the moment I take vengeance for my family.
A golden glow fills the window of a second-floor bedroom, and there’s another light on farther along the same floor to the right. Most of the long windows are doors that open up onto individual balconies. My eyes narrow as I focus in on those two rooms, wishing I could see more through the gauzy curtains.
There’s only one resident of the Montoni mansion right now, and that’s Agnello Montoni. After the engagement party massacre, he hid his daughter away somewhere, probably flying her to Italy so she’s under the protection of her big brother. Keeping his family safe while mine rots in the ground.
Over the course of several stakeouts, I’ve seen half a dozen staff members coming and going, ordinary people serving a monster.
I need to be sure I have my mark before I fire.
One shot is all I need.
One shot to end this.
Suddenly, a door opens, and my heart rate spikes at a flurry of movement that resolves into two figures. A tall, stocky man in his fifties or sixties that has to be Don Agnello, and a slender woman wrapped in a small white towel. He thrusts her into the brutal cold, with the casual cruelty of a man who’s done worse, and slams the balcony door in her face.
What the hell?I jerk my head up from the rifle sights, struggling to process what I’m seeing, and then quickly refocus through the scope.
The young woman is frantic, and banging on the glass door as she cries out to be let back inside. I can’t make out her individual words, but her body language speaks of desperation. Her lank hair hangs like it’s wet, plastered to her skull. Meanwhile, the older man is standing on the other side of the glass, smiling like this is the most fun he’s had all week. Her suffering is his entertainment.
She’s going to freeze to death on a night like this, and that realization sends a spark of unwelcome sympathy through me.
Agnello Montoni and a younger lover? I watch the woman cry for mercy, and I wonder if the only thing the Montonis know how to do is dispense suffering. She doubles over and screams, the sound so agonized and raw that it pierces even my heart.
The man at the glass grins and vanishes into the warmth of the mansion.
I growl in frustration as I realize that I didn’t take the shot.
I may have missed my chance to put a bullet in Don Agnello.
For several minutes, I scour every window in the mansion, hunting for any sign of him.
Eventually, I turn my attention back to the woman and watch her through my scope. She’s crouched down now and has her arms wrapped around her body while her teeth chatter.
Even from here, I can see she’s turning blue as hypothermia sets in. Another twenty minutes, and she’ll lose consciousness. An hour, and she’ll be dead.
I track her movements, cataloging details about her. Blonde hair plastered to her face. Delicate features. Large amber eyes. Something about her is familiar.
Then the world tips on its axis as recognition hits me like a physical blow.
That’s doe. Jane Doe from last night.
What fresh hell has this young woman stumbled into now? Not content with saving an assassin and witnessing a quadruple murder, she’s now in peril at Don Agnello’s mansion, almost naked and freezing. I wonder if this could somehow be my fault. I’m Agnello’s sworn enemy, and he must know that I want revenge. He could have been the one to order those Dervishis to torture me to death last night. Doe thwarted his plans, and so Agnello had her kidnapped to punish her.
My muscles tense as I prepare to spring to my feet, abandon my plans for revenge, and rush over there to save her. My sister would have laughed her ass off at the irony. Vincenzo the assassin, going soft over a pretty face and a kiss.
