Paulie sighs darkly. “Because he was standing up, out of the sunroof. He was sitting on the roof of the car and waving a gun around. That’s how we know, miss. As far as Luca is concerned, I have no idea where he is. The last we heard he was going to the Lounge with the men, but we can’t reach him.”
My footsteps falter. The only thing that keeps me standing is Toto pressed against my chest, his little heartbeat drumming against my palm. I can’t fall and hurt him, but walking feels impossible.
In the distance, thunder crackles.
No—softer, tinnier, closer.
Gunshots.
“Come on, dear,” Maria says briskly, touching my arm. “We’ll be safe in the bunker.”
“What about Luca?” I say, still unmoving.
“Wherever Luca is he’d want us to keep you safe. Now move.”
I walk on ghostly legs, following Paulie into the house and down the hallway to the sleek kitchen. He walks over to the tall shiny refrigerator and drops down, rooting around underneath it.
He presses a button and then steps back as the mechanism whirs and the refrigerator disappears into the wall, sliding aside to reveal a small lighted tunnel leading to a metal door at the end of it.
“They can’t get through those doors,” Maria says. “And they probably don’t even know it’s here.”
“They could,” Paulie says. “They might’ve bribed a member of the staff, or tortured one. But the doors are impregnable. Whatever you hear, do not try to open them. Unless they’ve brought some heavy machinery…”
He trails off as he realizes what he was about to say.
“Come on.”
Maria bustles me down the hallway toward the door.
Unless they’ve brought heavy machinery, you’ll be safe.
That’s what he was going to say.
Which means that if they have brought heavy machinery, they might be able to reach us.
Fear swarms my belly, making my body feel stiff and uncooperative.
I hug Toto closer to my chest as the metal door hums and opens inward with a mechanical noise, revealing a room with several bunk beds, a small kitchen area, a door off to the side with Bathroom written on it, and a small seating area.
I walk inside, wishing Paulie hadn’t said that last part.
Maybe we’ll be safe in here and I’ll see my man again.
Or maybe Franco and his goons will cut their way in and kill me before I get the chance to feel Luca’s protective body pressed up against mine.
Chapter Seventeen
Luca
“What’s the endgame here?” I snarl, still refusing to press myself against the wall like these assholes want.
I feel my men bristling all around me, the intent to do violence shimmering in the air. It’s a feeling I’ve experienced countless times before, the unspoken bond between the family, every one of us ready to go to war and kill and die for our brothers if it comes to it.
“Against the wall,” the leader snarls.
He’s the oldest of them all, his hair a dirty shade of gray. He’s got too much softness in his middle and his eyes aren’t anywhere near as tough as he’s trying to act.
“Shoot me,” I say, shrugging. “I’m not going to do a damn thing you tell me to, so you might as well put a bullet in my head.”
He bites down, tightening his grip on the gun.
I grin like a wolf. “That’s what I thought. Franco may be a coked-up fool, but he knows what executing me would mean. He’d be dead within a month.”
“But you’re gonna get in line when we’ve got our hands on your little prize, aren’t you, Lioni?” he snaps. “When we can send you videos of how we’re treating her, you won’t be so cocky then.”
Rage boils up inside of me, trying to take hold of my muscles as they bulge and pulse at this man’s words.
I somehow contain it, clenching my fists so hard it feels like my forearm are going to burst.
“If he touches her, you’re all dead. Everyone here. Everyone who has ever aligned with Franco. I will end you all. That’s a promise.”
“Don’t be stupid,” he growls. “You’re a prisoner. Up against the wall.”
“Nope.”
A few of my men laugh and the man wheels the gun on them, a petulant look capturing his coward’s face. “Quiet. No laughing. I might not be allowed to kill Luca or Aldo, but any one of you fuckers is fair game.”
“You’ve threatened my woman and my men. You really must not like living.”
He wheels the gun back to me. The men around him are just as weak and soft, some of them trembling as they aim their guns, the realization slamming into them that we are real Mafia men and they’re just pretenders.
“Talk all you want, Luca. Stand there instead of up against the wall if it makes you feel big. But right now Franco is storming your estate with enough men to conquer a fucking country. So none of this matters.”