My first instinct is to hurry to the cascades where Matilde said to find them until the other man shouts, “We have your wife!”
I freeze. Even with his companion dead on the ground, the man looks smug as if he has me right where he wants me… right before his head practically explodes.
“The fool was right. They’ve got her, Nico,” Uncle Leone informs me, strolling out of the nearby woods like it's any other spring day while chambering another round in his hunting rifle.
“How many men? The children?”
“The kids are still safe in the woods with the other women. I counted a dozen enemies. Killed two of them in the woods, and Primo got a third before he was wounded. I’m not sure how many are inside the barn, but Ugo and the others are battling for control of the house.”
“Okay, get to the others. Fuck the house if my family isn't there. Organize a counterattack for the barn and secure my children.”
“Sure, we will but… Where are you going, Nikki?!” he asks, alarmed as I rush toward the barn.
“To save my wife!”
***
Matilde
Cosima turns when we enter the barn. “Well done, Blake. I’d hoped it was this one. Where are his children?” she asks me.
I glare at her, surveying the surroundings. There are five other men with Cosima, all armed. They must be the bikers Nico told me of after Vera shared more information with him. "Nico already came to take his children home," I lie.
"Oh really?" Cosima is smart enough not to believe me. I had to try. She isn’t holding a weapon, but her deranged smile is enough to make me shudder. This lady is barely holding her mind together.
“We didn’t find the brats,” the man, Blake, says. “They must be in the house.”
“I need them.”
“Why?” I ask. “What have they done to you?”
“It’s enough that they exist,” she replies, coldly.
“Your coup is over. Your husband-”
“Yes, Antonio’s lofty and stupid plan to take over the Chicago Trio failed. If he had asked me, he should’ve acted years ago when the brothers were still teenagers. His mistake."
“You want to make your own mafia family? Don Vicini and Alessio will never-”
"No, my plan is simpler than that. I want revenge for my son. I’ll kill Nico’s children… and his little whore bride while I'm at it. I know I've lost but so will all of you. My only consolation will be reliving today in some sunny and remote corner of the world before I'm finally tracked down.”
Oh Dio,revenge never ends, and this woman's ready to die for hers.
“You said we could keep the twin sister in addition to those drug routes in Ohio if we helped you,” Blake interjects. “I lost club brothers in Chicago hitting the limo for you.”
“You were paid.”
“Money doesn’t buy back blood. You said it would be an easy strike, and it wasn’t. Now, my cousin’s dead in these woods, and we found a lot more resistance than we expected when we followed that bodyguard back from his pussy run to Chicago. So where is our reward for all this trouble? Don't tell me it's between your legs either, Cosima. I've had my fill of that.”
Blake’s gun is still aimed at me, but his anger seems equally directed at Cosima while I’m deciphering what he’s shared. They followed a guard back from Chicago, the one Leone was pissed at for visiting his girlfriend. I guess my slip over the phone with Frankie hasn’t cost us everything. I hope Nico can get here in time to save the children and my sister.
The biker didn't check me for other weapons after I dropped the gun. I don't want to die a helpless captive. I play back over what I've been taught. Can I poke someone with enough holes to end their life? If only I wasn't so hopelessly outnumbered.
Before I can act, I hear the sound of helicopter rotors. It sounds like salvation. Nico is here. Then, the fear takes over. Nico is here, and I don’t want him to die. I don’t want our children to be orphaned. Cosima tells two of the other men to kill or capture whoever’s arrived. Gunfire erupts outside the barn, and I can hardly breathe. Handguns… and a rifle.
“Kneel, bitch,” one of the bikers says to me as Cosima is gleefully envisioning her retribution.
And that's when my husband walks into the barn.
