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She nodded, sniffling against me.
“I love you, Monroe,” I murmured, kissing her lips. “And I promise no harm will come to those you care about.”
I held her until she fell asleep in my arms, but once she was resting peacefully, I knew I had to get up. I didn’t know if she was talking crazy due to the head injury or if what she said was true, but either way, I wasn’t taking any chances.
If they were coming for her, I would make sure my men knew not to shoot. But I wouldn’t let them take her from me. She was the only good thing in the world, my peace, my fucking sanity.
And I would die before I let anyone take that away from me.
Chapter 20
Mila
I found I could wrap Lyric around my finger about as well as I could Dad. That didn’t mean it was easy talking my way on to the private plane with him, Barrick, Braxton, Maverick, Max, Reid, and Ben. It wasn’t. Not by a long shot.
But it had been a hell of a lot easier than talking my way into the back of the waiting van when we got to Tuscany.
“No fucking way!” Lyric roared when he realized I was planning on going farther than the airport with him and the others. “You said you only wanted to be here to reassure your sister once we got her back. To keep her calm and convince her she has to go home with us. You said you were the only one who could do that, and everyone else agreed it was the most likely recourse. But I’ll be damned if you’re going to be waiting in the van while we go in and get her out. No fucking way, Mila.”
“I won’t leave the van,” I promised, keeping my fingers crossed behind my back. I didn’t like lying to him and I felt so damn guilty doing it, but I had to get to Monroe one way or another.
Max and Reid snorted in disbelief, and I kicked them both. Reid clamped his mouth shut, and Max held up his hands in surrender. Lyric didn’t even pay them any attention, though, because his mesmerizing brown eyes were glued to me. “I said no, and that’s final.”
It was the middle of the night when the van stopped a half mile from the property line of the home belonging to Gian Fontana. Lyric was glowering at me from across the van, and I had to press my lips together to keep from grinning at him.
He was pissed, but I’d gotten my way, so I wasn’t going to rub it in. I made a promise to myself that once this was all over, I would make it up to him. He’d been so understanding through all of it, taking care of me when I was too emotional to take care of myself. Getting his cousins by marriage to find out where Monroe was, and even promising me he would go with the others to bring my sister back to me.
Maverick was just as pissed as Lyric was, though, because he was on babysitting detail. As in, he would have to sit in the van and make sure I didn’t leave, while the others went in and got Monroe. I couldn’t look at my brother, though, because if I did, I knew Lyric would know I’d lied to him. I was just thankful it was Mav and not Max or Reid. It wouldn’t take anything to get my way with my brother once everyone else was gone because he’d be chomping at the bit to get to Monroe as much as I was. Max and Reid would have probably tied me up and kept a gun pressed to my head until the others returned—with or without my sister.
I had this sinking feeling in my stomach it would be without her.
There was no way in hell I was going to sit in that damn van while they went in to get my twin. Lyric could be mad all he wanted, but I would be following him in and making sure with my own two eyes that Monroe was okay. My heart hadn’t beat right since I’d heard her fall.
But I needed to see her myself, because I was sure she didn’t want to come home with us.
Barrick reminded the group of the plan for the third time, and everyone but Maverick and I took off into the night. I gave them five minutes before I finally looked at my brother. “How many guns do you have?”
“Two,” he said, losing the frost because now he could see what I hadn’t wanted to show Lyric, which was why I’d avoided looking at my brother for so long. “You think that’s enough?”
“I haven’t heard any gunfire so far, so I’m hoping.”
He got out, then reached back in to assist me out, making sure I didn’t stand up too fast before handing me one of the guns.
“Let’s go get our baby sister back,” I told him.
Mom was a runner and had gotten all three of us kids into it, so running the three miles up to the house was nothing. It was kind of eerie how quiet everything was, though. I couldn’t see much of anything or anyone, could only smell the sweet, fruity blooms of the grapevines in the distance, but I would have expected Fontana to have the entire property protected like Fort Knox.
Even getting into the huge house was easy.
Too easy.
There were no guards, no dogs, not even a locked door.
But then I realized why when I skidded to a stop right behind Lyric and the others. They were being held at gunpoint by at least twenty men armed with semiautomatic rifles pointed right at their hearts, standing guard in front of what must have been the room Monroe was staying in.
“For fuck’s sake,” Lyric exploded when he saw Maverick and me. “I’m so spanking your ass when we get home. And you—” He pointed his gun at my brother. “I’m kicking your ass as soon as this is over.”
I was pretty sure I was going to enjoy that spanking a hell of a lot more than he intended for me to, but now wasn’t exactly the time to get into that. “Monroe!” I yelled at the top of my lungs. “Monroe, come out here!”
