I move to follow him and freeze when Dominic speaks up from the top of the stairs.
“What brings you here, Matteo? It’s a little late for company.”
“What brings you here, Matteo? It’s a little late for company.”
I race to the threshold of my room and look over Dominic’s shoulder. Running through my thoughts, I search and search, dread coursing through me when I recall my conversation with Sean at my first meetup.
“That’s Matteo and Andre, The Spanish Lullaby.”
“Why are they called The Spanish Lullaby?”
“Use your imagination.”
Matteo’s eyes meet mine over his shoulder, and his lips lift in a sick grin as he answers Dominic. “Business.”
Dominic stands ramrod straight, his back to me, violence in his posture, and protectiveness in his voice as I duck away from Matteo’s lethal gaze.
“Aren’t you playing on the wrong side of the fence?” Dominic asks.
“Money doesn’t care.”
“You need to turn the fuck around, and don’t ever let me catch you out of Florida again. It won’t end well.”
“You tapping that?” Matteo asks, batting away Dom’s threat. “I was thinking of sampling.” I’m sure Dominic’s eyes scream murder when Matteo speaks up again, clearly amused. “Pussy’s that good, huh?”
Matteo has to be pushing around three hundred pounds, a lot of it muscle, his hair as greasy as his clothes, his thick nostrils flaring as he eyes me with a look that turns my stomach as his knife comes into view. A hunting knife at least nine inches long. Panic zings through me as I turn and scan my room for anything I can use and come up empty. I step out onto the landing behind Dominic as he speaks up.
“Cecelia, baby, get back into your room, now.”
The door across the hall opens and Tobias appears, a similar gun in hand as the one Dominic discarded when he steps out, his eyes sweeping me with relief before he glances down at Dominic.
“What’s good, brother?”
“Got this handled,” Dominic replies, his voice lethal. “Speaking of brothers, Matteo. Where is yours tonight?”
“You know him,” Matteo shrugs, “probably out at the club.”
“Actually, he’s in here, resting,” Tobias says, jerking his chin over his shoulder. “You should join him.”
I peek over Tobias’s shoulder, and he shakes his chin subtly. I school my features.
Don’t fucking react.
There’s no one in that room, which means the other half of the Spanish Lullaby, Andre, is somewhere in my house. Have they been here the whole time?
Just as the thought occurs to me, Tobias’s eyes drift past me and widen, and he lifts his gun, training it just above my shoulder.
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“Come to me,” Tobias says in a steady voice as I leap into the clearing between the two doors. Tobias jerks his chin in an effort to get me to back up more, and I plaster myself to the wall behind me just as Andre appears at the threshold of the bedroom door, where I was just standing. There’s a knife in his hand similar to the one Matteo has. Fear paralyzes me as Andre gazes on at Tobias with black eyes.
“Oh, looks like he showed up after all,” Matteo says with a sickening lift to his voice.
“I must have been mistaken,” Tobias says in a dull monotone.
“Don’t worry, we have more joining the party,” Matteo assures.
Just as he says it, the doorbell rings, making me jump out of my skin.