My stomach twisted in knots as I watched them go.
I glanced back at Sofia.
She looked conflicted…
But she was holding out a rifle to me.
“If you don’t go,” she said, “no matter what happens, you’ll always regret it.”
“I’m theconsigliere,”I said, though I knew she was absolutely right.
She shrugged. “Today you’ve got to be more.”
I smiled ruefully, took the rifle –
Grabbed her around the waist –
And kissed her hard.
“Come back to me,” she whispered.
I wanted to sayI will –
But I didn’t know that, and I didn’t want to lie.
So I just winked and said,“Ciao, bella.”
Then I ran up the steps after my brothers.
127
Rachel
Outside The Mansion
Three hundred feet away, one of the mercenaries shouted something in Russian. I could barely hear him over the ground-based helicopter’s noise –
But I got the general idea when he pointed up at my tree.
Shit.
Maybe he’d seen the glint of sun off the glass lens of the scope. Maybe the rifle’s suppressor stuck too far out of the branches.
Either way, it was bad.
The tree trunk was less than a foot in diameter at this point –
Not nearly enough to stop a hail of bullets.
I leaned in close to the trunk, slipped the nylon loop over my head –
And I fell.
Well, it was more like acontrolledfall.
I was, after all, plummeting through a thick carpet of small branches –
And I tried to hold on to the trunk with my left hand and gun arm.Anythingto slow my descent.
