911. Tell no 1 or he’s dead. Hurry. Place you met last.
CHAPTER TWO
Stupid, stupid, stupid, Emmanuelle,” Emme whispered to herself as she stood just inside the mouth of the shadow she’d ridden to the North Shore home on Lake Michigan that Valentino Saldi’s birth mother had had in her family for generations. The land had never been taken out of that name and transferred to his adopted name. “You should have told someone you were coming here,” she whispered and pulled out her phone with the idea of texting one of her sisters-in-law.
Closing her eyes tight, she knew she couldn’t do it. If Val was really in trouble, then she wasn’t going to make things worse by giving him up. Taking a deep breath, she sent a text. She was laying herself bare. Making herself vulnerable all over again. Maybe even getting herself killed.
I’m here, Dario, where are you?
Thank G. In main bedroom. Hurry.
She had really studied the layout. There didn’t seem to be any guards. No snipers on the roof of the building. Still, she caught another shadow and rode it toward the house. The tube was dizzying, the walls curved, the views going by at such a speed that if anyone was waiting to take her prisoner, they were nothing but a blur. Still, it was necessary to try to look around her as she passed through the gates and down the drive, at the lawns and, in the distance, at the lake.
Twice she had to hastily step from one shadow to another, but she moved fast. She was adept and very skilled at her work. The last portal took her up the long steps and under the door right into the house. She was familiar with the interior. She’d met Valentino there many times. It had been the one place they felt confident they could go without either family finding them.
Emme’s mouth went dry and her heart beat faster. She tried not to allow any memories to get to her. She was only there to make certain he was alive and well. Dario Bosco was Valentino’s bodyguard as well as his lieutenant, but more importantly, he was his cousin. Dario, in her mind, had always been a question mark. She didn’t quite understand his loyalties, but then she didn’t understand any of the workings of the Saldi family.
“Damn it, Emme.” She heard the whisper of Dario’s voice, coming from the main bedroom. “Hurry. Hurry.” He sounded like he was talking to himself.
Looking quickly around for cameras—there hadn’t been security cameras activated before, and she didn’t find any now—she stepped into another, smaller shadow that shot her straight to the main master bedroom. To her horror, there were smears of blood on the door frame. She could smell blood. The door was partially open, and she pushed it, staying to one side in case it was all a sham and she was being set up.
“Thank fuck you’re here, Emme. Hurry up. I didn’t know what else to do. He said not to call you, but he’s going to die if you don’t help him.”
She was already at the bed, staring down at Valentino Saldi, the love of her life, the man she would have died for, killed for, given up her entire life for. There was too much blood on his clothes, soaking into the sheets.
“He needs to be in a hospital.”
“If I could take him to a hospital, I would have,” Dario snapped. “Tell me what to do.”
There was only one thing she could do if she was going to save Val’s life. “You’ll have to trust me, Dario. You won’t like this, but he’s going to die if I don’t get us help now.”
She yanked out her phone and texted the emergency code to the one person she trusted the most in the world. She knew he would come through, no questions asked. He might flay her alive later, but right now, right when she needed him, he would come fast and bring help and get every single item on the list she sent to him to her as quickly as humanly possible without asking why. Even when she said who it was for and that he’d been shot and that he was dying.
“Dario, is anyone else in this house? I need to know now.” Emmanuelle began removing Val’s shirt as fast as she could. He’d been shot multiple times. She needed to see the entry and exit wounds.
“Giuseppi, his father,” Dario added unnecessarily. “He insisted on holding off Miceli’s army when they came at us while I got Giuseppi out to the SUV. It’s armor plated. By the time I got back, they’d nearly overrun the entire house. Valentino had been shot so many times I thought he was dead, but he’d crawled to the door, and I dragged him out and then carried him to the car. I don’t know if any of our boys made it out alive. We knew Miceli was going to make his move, but we thought he’d wait another couple of weeks. We’d heard he had an auction for young girls coming up. This seemed like a stupid time for him to chance fucking that up, so we weren’t really ready for him.”