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I swallow down my dread and focus on Matteo instead, mentally trying to make a plan. It’s hard to plan for the unknown, but I take a second to become more aware of my environment.
I hear the front door open and let out a sigh of relief at the fact someone else is here so that it’s no longer just Matteo, me, and this creepy man I don’t know. From where we’re sitting, whoever comes home will be visible in a few seconds.
The clock ticks and no one appears. I glance back at the guard, who is almost smirking at me now as he grows closer and closer. I pull Matteo closer to me, not willing to let him get further than I can grab.
“Expecting someone?” The guard asks. His low voice makes chills run down my spine.
“Just waiting for some company.”
“I’m not good enough company for you.”
He stalks towards me and I find my hand inching towards the knife. Another man appears from the doorway. The two of them look sinister.
My guard lunges for me. I don’t have time to grab for my knife before his hands are closing in on my arms but I do manage to kick his stomach pretty hard. It knocks the air out of him which give me time to scramble away.
The other man has grabbed Matteo.
“Mommy!” He shouts out as he struggles against the man who has a bruising grip on him. His voice is like ice in my veins. I can’t get to him. Not yet, not when my captor has recovered enough to lunge for me. He has bloodlust in his eyes. I don’t know what this man wants from me, but I don’t think he intends on me making it out of here alive.
In one swift motion, I manage to grab at the knife I stashed in my waistband. I was right. With enough adrenaline running through my veins, I think I could have managed to embed a butter knife in this man’s guts. He wraps his hands around my throat but I tug it upwards, slicing through more of his stomach.
He lets out a grunt and a hiss as he stumbles backward away from me. I gasp in air as quickly as I can, trying to get oxygen back to my brain. The room is spinning around me but I don’t have time to wait for my vision to return to normal. I charge at the stumbling man, adrenaline fueling me.
The man holding Matteo struggles to keep a grip on him. If the situation was less serious, I would laugh. I’ve had the same predicament when trying to get him out of a store after he’s thrown a fit.
“You little shit,” the man hisses as he readjusts his grips.
“Language.”
The word slips out of my mouth unconsciously as I pull the knife out of my captor and plunge it in again. The more holes, the more blood he loses. Seems like the most effective way to do this.
The other man’s eyes snap to me, and I realize he hadn’t been paying attention to us at all while trying to wrangle Matteo. If he wasn’t trying to kidnap my child, I could sympathize with him. There’s nothing more difficult than holding onto a squirming toddler.
He drops Matteo on the ground and slips his hand down to the holster on his hip. I’m quicker than he is. I grab the expensive vase I warned Alice would get broken and throw it at him. It shatters over his head, shards breaking off all over the living room. I thought Matteo would be the one to break it, but I warned Alice.
The man I stabbed tries to sit up, but I kick him as hard as I can in the head before stomping on his face. The crunching of bones under my shoe is a horrific noise, and it makes me want to gag. The other man is unconscious. His chest is still rising and falling, so he’s still alive. I’m tempted to kill him for touching my son. I do not doubt that if the man I stabbed is still alive, he won’t be for much longer. He’s losing blood too quickly.
If I kill the second man, I kill the only person Enzo can interrogate to find out who sent them.
Not wanting to waste time in case there are more men waiting, I tuck Matteo into my side and run. Before I can second guess myself, I take the gun out of the holster. I know nothing about guns, but how hard can shooting one be?
Nothing about this house feels safe right now. If any enemies of Enzo have infiltrated his security system, which they must have if they’ve gotten into the house, they can watch me. I need to leave, and get away from the cameras dotted all over the property. So I run the garage. Enzo had shown me some of the collection of off-reading vehicles they have. I can’t take the normal roads. If those men have back-up, that’s the first place they’ll be.
I strap a helmet onto me and Matteo and pull the four-wheeler out of the garage. The helmets are a little big on Matteo, but it’s better than nothing. I don’t have time to adjust it to fit his small head since I don’t when the unconscious man in the living room is going to stir.
I don’t see anyone while we’re out in the trees, and I can’t tell if that’s a good thing. Hopefully, that means those two men were working alone, and they didn’t have backup watching me. It also means I don’t see any of Enzo’s men so I can alert them to what happened.
Do I want to alert them?
I don’t know where I’m going, but I’m acutely aware that for the first time, I have a chance to get away. If I want to take Enzo and run, now is my chance. I might not get another one. Without a cell connection, I don’t have to decide yet. All I want to do is get as far away from the house and as far away from any other potential attackers as possible.
I won’t stop until we’ve crossed the property line. The Lombardi’s don’t have many neighbors, and the ones they do are as private as they are, but the difference is immediately noticeable. There are no longer cameras hiding in the trees, there aren’t places set up for guard posts. I slide a shaky hand into my pocket. Whatever had been blocking the signal from my phone has disappeared, and there are four bars in the upper corner.
I scroll through my contacts and hit call.
Chapter Thirty-Eight- Enzo
Oleg has a smarmy fucking grin on his face. It oozes a confidence he shouldn’t have come into this meeting with. This time, we’re meeting on our land. A small bunker far enough away from the main house that you can’t see the mansion, but surrounded by our men. Despite being on our territory, the entire set-up is making me uncomfortable. Originally, we were supposed to meet at a neutral location next week, but Oleg requested to discuss the updated parameters of our agreement before coming to a final decision next week. He agreed to meet here, putting him at a disadvantage.
