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“Everything’s going to be okay,” Mom whispered. “We’ll be safe either way. They don’t hurt women.” Even as she said it, Mom’s gaze moved to Dad, and fear overtook her face.
Maybe we were safe, or as safe as a woman could be in our world, but Dad and the other men would definitely die.
An image of Nevio flashed in my head. He’d stayed home with the rest of the Unholy Trio, just like Savio and his family, and my brother Davide.
A van barreled toward us and stopped with squealing tires. The sliding doors jerked open, making my body clamp up with trepidation. How many more Famiglia soldiers would ambush us? But it wasn’t an unfamiliar face I saw. Nevio got out of the van. My eyes grew wide with relief, then utter shock when I noticed the woman in his hold. He was pressing a knife against her throat. Even from afar, I immediately recognized my aunt Gianna. She looked scared. I only knew her as a feisty, loud-mouthed woman so seeing her like that really drove the seriousness of the situation home.
I couldn’t believe Nevio was threatening her life, but then again, maybe this was our only chance to get out of here alive.
“Stop!” Matteo roared. The Famiglia stopped firing and so did our side.
“Surprise, motherfuckers,” Nevio shouted with a wide grin. I’d seen several versions of his grin, but tonight, illuminated by several headlights in an eerie way, I got a glimpse of how people felt that were terrified of him. There was something unhinged, wild, and hungry about him. I wasn’t sure if he’d care that Gianna was a woman.
He pulled Gianna along as he walked toward Remo, Nino, Adamo and Dad. She struggled against his hold but it was futile. One look at Remo’s face told me he hadn’t known Nevio was here. Nevio had always been bad at following rules, even when they came from his father, the Capo of the Camorra.
After him, Massimo jumped out, and then Alessio with my cousin Isabella in his grip. Isabella’s already wild mane was all over the place, her glasses were broken and she looked as if she’d cried. I tried to catch her eyes, maybe show her somehow that it was going to be allright, even if I was the last person who had any control over the outcome of tonight, but she never looked my way. The way we were hidden behind the van, she probably couldn’t even see us.
“If you touched a single hair on their heads, I’m going to make you regret the day you were born,” Matteo growled. I only knew him as the funny, easy-going husband of Gianna. I’d always loved his jokes. It was difficult to see him as the enemy all of a sudden.
I still felt pity for him for having to watch Gianna and Isabella being taken, and I felt guilty because part of me was relieved.
Nevio flashed his teeth at Matteo and briefly touched Gianna’s hair. She tried to escape his grip, but he pushed the knife against her throat as a warning once more. “I don’t regret anything yet.”
I’d never seen Nevio or my father in action as Made Men. I only knew their domestic side. It was easy to forget that it was only a small part of them.
“Isabella, Gianna, are you okay?” Amo called. I briefly glanced his way. He was the reason we were here, the reason things escalated. My gaze next moved to Greta. Her eyes were on him with a look I could feel deep in my gut and in my heart. Her face expressed what I sometimes felt when I looked at Nevio. Longing and wistfulness.
Her feelings for Amo, and his for hers had led to the conflict between the Famiglia and the Camorra. Love could be a destructive force.
Suddenly, Matteo stormed toward Nevio and had to be stopped by Luca. “The fucker hit you!”
My eyes registered the bruise on Gianna’s face. I sucked in a sharp breath, but I simply couldn’t imagine Nevio slapping my aunt. It wasn’t his style…
“I’m afraid that’s not true,” Nevio said as he walked over to his father. “Sorry, Dad. I disobeyed, but I simply couldn’t resist ruining a wedding. If I’d known it would come to this…” He chuckled and exchanged a look with Massimo and Alessio, looking like this was the greatest night of his life. He wasn’t scared at all. He’d walked into danger as if it meant nothing, as if his life meant nothing, as if death and pain meant nothing.
“You’re going too far,” Matteo said quietly.
“Too far?” Remo snarled. “You attack me and my family while we’re guests in your territory. Never talk about honor to me again. I’m the master at playing dirty, Vitiello. You just opened the fucking Pandora’s box.”
Nevio peered down at Gianna and sucked in a deep breath. “I smell war.” He laughed as if this was good news. War.
“Leave my territory. We’re even. And let Gianna and Isabella go right now,” Luca said.
Remo scoffed. “Even? Plenty of Famiglia blood will be spilled before I’ll consider us even, Luca.”
“I think Alessio took a shining to your daughter,” Nevio kept provoking.
I stopped listening to their power play. I clutched Mom’s hand, wishing there was something we could do to stop the men. It was too late to stop a war, even I knew that, but we could all leave alive today. I didn’t want people I knew to die. I didn’t want to have to watch them die. Maybe that was selfish, but the idea tore at me. Especially if I considered that someone I loved might kill someone I cared about.
A gasp sounded somewhere and suddenly Greta was running toward the water. Her face was determined. No sign of fear even as she flung herself into the Hudson and disappeared under the black surface.
“Greta!” Several screams rang out and people began running. Nevio released Gianna and rushed toward the water to save his twin.
Nevio flung himself into the water seconds later and Amo followed after checking the water’s surface for Greta. Both of them were willing to risk it all for Greta. Remo and Serafina rushed toward the edge too, calling Greta’s name.
Mom wrapped her arms around me as if she was worried that I’d run there too. I was too frozen to move, by everything that had happened. The gunshots had ceased.
Dad and Adamo stayed close to us while Nino and Remo ran toward the water’s edge.
