I awoke hours later,dressed once more in the red, silky nightie Dominic had added to the safe house. Yelling came from downstairs. It must have been what woke me. Groaning, I sat up, noting it was dark outside.
“I did what you wanted! If you don’t like the fucking outcome, then that’s your fault!” Fallon bellowed, his voice carrying.
Dominic swore in Italian, and something broke.
I staggered out of bed and gingerly made my way to the top of the stairs. I’d felt a little better after the soup Vincent had made me. My stomach growled at the thought of food. I took the first step down and then another, definitely feeling stronger.
Dominic and Fallon were facing off in the living room when my feet touched the bottom floor.
“What’s going on?” I called out.
All attention in the room snapped to me. Dominic hissed and moved toward me in quick strides, closing the space between us.
He ran his fingers through my hair as he tilted my chin up. “Mia regina, you should be resting.”
“It’s hard to rest when all I can hear is you guys down here fighting. What’s going on?” I peered past Dominic to see Fallon staring at the floor and Vincent looking pained.
“Go back upstairs and rest—”
“Dominic, stop,” I said, cutting him off. “I want to know what’s going on. Is Levin OK?”
“Levin is fine. We gave him another dose of morphine. He’s out.” Vincent stepped away from Fallon and flopped onto the couch, rubbing his face. He let out a groan. “Dom, man. Just tell her. She needs to know.”
Dominic sighed and took my hand in his to lead me to the couch where he sat me down. He took up a spot on the coffee table and faced me while Fallon settled in the overstuffed chair beside us.
“What’s going on?” I asked again.
“The lords did a hit on De Luca and his horsemen. It was bad.”
“Did people get killed?” I glanced from Dominic to Fallon.
“Yeah,” Fallon said. “Trent hit up a club where De Luca was known to hang. Shot the shit out of it. Bunch of innocent people were killed and injured.”
“Did they get the guy they were after?” I turned back to Dominic, who swallowed.
“We don’t know. It was a sloppy, amateur job.”
“I don’t understand.”
“They left a calling card. A king calling card.” Vincent tossed a black card with a skull and crown onto the table. “These are used to send a message sometimes. If you get one of these, it means you’ve pissed us off. We rarely use them, but people know what they are. Apparently, the lords made up a stash of them when we took you from Hail. They planned on fucking us over. Looks like they did because now De Luca is after us.”
My heart skipped. “We’re in danger? Again? What are we going to do?”
“We’re in a bad spot,” Dominic murmured. “Especially now. I don’t have the manpower to fight three wars right now.”
“Three? Who the hell are the three?” My heart beat harder.
“De Luca, the lords, and now, my father,” Dominic said in a soft, flat voice. “I’ve been cut off. I guess beating the shit out of him didn’t go over too well.”
“Oh my God,” I whispered. “Is there one of those hit things on you?”
Dominic abruptly stood and tugged his hair as he let out a snarl. He punched a wall, putting a hole in it.
“Not for him, but it’s expected there’ll be one for you,” Vincent said softly. “We think he’ll put the hit on you. Matteo will pay a fuck ton to make it happen if it goes down the way we think it will. My father said he’s pissed. He’s been talking about paying for you either dead or alive.”
“How much is a fuck ton?” my voice shook.
“Millions,” Fallon said softly.
My heart stopped as the blood rushed from my head.
“Millions?” I finally squeaked out.