Adrenaline carries me, but I stop short when the night lights come on and I see what’s lying there. It’s his phone.
Walking up to his car I see why didn’t answer me.
He’s dead. His throat has been slit from ear to ear and blood covers his chest.
I turn and gaze down to the gates about forty-feet away and my fucking heart stops beating when I see the shadowy figures of the two men who are supposed to be watching the house slumped at the sides and the fucking gate is open.
* * *
“Tell me everything again?” Massimo demands.
I gaze into my brother’s eyes and I try to calm the fuck down so I can answer him. I’m trying, but I can’t do it. Not now.
I grab the glass of whiskey and knock back the acrid liquid. Dominic just looks at me, cautiously. He’s been quiet this whole time, not saying a damn thing. Not because there’s nothing to say. It’s because of the obvious. It’s not often that someone is taken that we get them back. He’s not talking because he doesn’t want to tell me that.
I don’t know why but when shit’s going down it’s usually us three who stick together. My oldest brother, Andreas, goes off to be the hero and save the day. Maybe he’s got that big brother gene that makes him do that.
These two stick together and me with them. Today I don’t know if I want them near me or away from me.
Dominic’s not saying shit because he knows I’m right to fear the worse and telling Massimo what happened again isn’t going to help.
“We’ve been looking for her all night,” I say, my fucking voice sounds muffled. I’m a mess and I can’t control myself.
“Tristan, maybe we missed something,” Massimo answers.
I gaze at him and see the reflection of myself in his eyes. People say we look like twins. As I regard my brother now, I see he’s a reflection of me, internally and externally.
I focus back on Dominic. He’s the youngest of us and although we’re just a year apart I sometimes feel older than he is from the respect he shows me. People know the four D’Agostino brothers are a force to be reckoned with. People see the strength of us. Behind that, however, we each have our individual qualities.
Dominic is the heart of the group of us, the most perceptive and intuitive. He knows I’m hurting and I’m at the end of the fucking line.
The intensity of my gaze makes him glance down at the floor of this fucking cabin I thought safety would come from. I continue to stare at him even as his gaze climbs back up to meet mine.
“What say ye brother? You’ve been quiet?” I say to him. I don’t know why I bother.
His lips part to answer me but the click of the front door has me bolting to my feet.
I rush out to the passage as Nick, one of our enforcers, comes in the house carrying a box.
“Boss, this was at the office with your name on it,” he says.
Massimo and Dominic join me.
My eyes are on the box. It looks like a standard size delivery box. Nothing sinister, it’s my heart that’s clenching with the anxiety that’s gripping it.
“It was just left?” I ask.
Nick nods. “We checked the footage, and it was wiped.”
Yes… just like the fucking footage here.
I move to him and take the box.
It feels heavy. Strangely heavy.
Massimo comes to my side when I set the box down on the side table.
Drawing in a breath I open it and everything inside me changes when I see what’s inside.