The machine fires up, and the blades start to rotate, creating both wind and noise. As I approach, I hear Stefano say into my ear, “Not all is what it seems,piccolo sole.”
I startle and stare at him.
Little sun.
Stefano called me little sun.
Climbing into the helicopter, I take one of the seats across from Arturo, and Stefano gets in beside me. He doesn’t look at me, but I notice he wears the same Santoro-crest ring Tommaso does, only his is a bit larger. And I notice something else: his fingertip covers part of the shield.
Or is he pointing at the top two quadrants of the shield?
Stefano knows I’m looking at him, yet he refuses to look at me. His finger taps once, and I realize heispointing at the top two quadrants of the shield.
The tree with deep roots and interlocking rings.
Legacy and loyalty; unity, alliance, and oaths.
Arturo turns around to say something to two soldiers in the front, and Stefano’s eyes, so like Tommaso’s, meet mine.
Then he mouths the words,Family above all. Santoros above all.
And resumes staring straight ahead.
I don’t know the game here. I only know that I’m right in the middle of it.
I’m just not sure if Stefano views me as family and a Santoro. Or if I’m the threat.
And if he does view me as part of his family, is he playing Arturo? Does that mean Vincenzo is part of this as well? Is this Tommaso’s plan somehow?
“You may not know it, but that man is as brutal and unhinged as they come if he decides you’re his enemy,”Salvo’s words from the other day ring in my mind.
I stare at Arturo when he turns back around to face me. A shiver runs through me. Not of fear or a foreboding omen.
But of anticipation.
Because I know without a doubt that I’m looking at a dead man walking.
Chapter 43
Tommaso
“Theyhaveher.”Riccardostudies me, hanging up the phone. “Zeus was shot.”
I drag my hand over my chin. The operation was risky as hell. I needed Gina away from the house when the explosion happened, and Vincenzo saw to it. ButPapàassured me he could control Arturo.
“It was one of Arturo’s men who shot Zeus,” Riccardo adds. “He killed one of them at least.”
“How is he?” Marco asks.
“Vincenzo said he’ll live. His surgeon was onsite with a full medical team.”
“How many of his men were killed in the breach attack?” I ask.
We knew of Arturo’s plan because our father had come clean and finally pulled his sons in, as he should’ve from the start of this shitshow.
“None.”
We knew the breach attack was coming, and that it was meant to be a diversion. Their main goal was to grab Gina—Arturo, stillthinking he was working with Vincenzo, had sent a team of his lowest-ranking men for the breach attack on the front gates.
