Hurrying behind the couch, I crouched and hid. If I couldn’t go surprise him in his room, at least I would make him work for it. I held my breath and waited.
The door swung open.
Right before I jumped out to scare him, I heard more than one pair of boots stepping over the threshold.
The beat of my pulse changed from anticipation to fear.
Peeking around the couch end, I saw three men amble toward the stairs. They didn’t know about the step, and they cursed the first guy when he made it creak.
“Middle bedroom,” one hissed.
My room.
They were going to my room!
Panic surged through me. I didn’t have a weapon to protect Uncle Theo and Franky. Thankfully, their doors were usually locked. I whispered a prayer to anyone listening that that was the case tonight.
I have to do something.
I padded around the dark, not finding anything for a weapon. Crouching back behind the couch, I tried to fight back the rising panic.
Your phone!
Yes, my phone. I pulled it from the built-in bra strap. My clammy fingers slipped over the screen. When I managed to open it, I didn’t trust myself to text.
The call sounded obscenely loud in my ear. I turned the volume down and barely heard Nico answer.
“There are men in the house,” I whispered.
Even with the device’s volume down, his enraged shout crackled from the speaker.
“I don’t have a gun—oh shit! They’re coming.” I hung up.
I barely managed to silence the ringer before the men lumbered back into the living room. The screen pressed against my chest. I didn’t dare to breathe.
“The girl has to be around here somewhere,” one of the muttered. “Her vehicles are here.”
Dread leeched into my veins. They knew enough about me to mark my room, my truck…my car. Had they been watching me?
“We’ll come back another night,” the one who seemed to be the leader snapped.
They trudged out the front door, pausing to lock it.
I counted to ten. Inching forward, I peeked out. There were no faces in the frosted glass decorating the entrance. I sagged forward. Adrenaline made my gut churn.
But the fear of being discovered shifted quickly to anger. How dare they? How fucking dare they come after me, and I didn’t know who the hell these guys were.
“There’s one way to find out,” I spat, shooting to my feet.
Running to the kitchen, I grabbed the biggest knife I could find. Then I was out the front door seconds later. I planned to find their car and at least snap some pictures. If I got the chance to slice their tires, then they would be stuck…and at Nico’s mercy.
“Why the hell didn’t I slice them while they were upstairs?” Stupid me. I would have to do better as a mob wife.
I stuck to the side of the house. The shrubs reached out with bony fingers to snatch at my skirt. I needed to keep to the shelter, but their eager clutches were making me slow.
By the time I crept to the back, where the driveway was, their car was gone.
Or maybe they hadn’t parked in the staff lot in the first place. I chewed on my bottom lip, debating which way they could have entered the property. There was a road beyond the trees. The tall stone wall wouldn’t be hard for men their size to scale. If I hurried I could still catch them, still slash their tires—
