“We have seven hours,” Don Russo said calmly. “I’m sure he knows you’re coming for him.”
“Damn right he does.” He’d told me seven hours because he knew I would come for him, and he wanted me to know exactly how much time I had to pull it off. I couldn’t wait to carve Icarus’s fucking eyes out of his head with my knife.
“But it is a trap—and it’s a clever one,” Don Russo said. “We either come for him in the next seven hours, or we choose to let him die. Either way, Icarus wins.”
“Then you distract him long enough for me to get him out of the ground.”
“You aren’t going to be able to dig him out quickly?—”
“My brother will be with me.And damn right I can.” My hands moved to my hips. “You guys and my men distract him from the road and the front. His property doesn’t have a fence line, so I can drive through the wilds in the rear and come up to the cemetery. You just need to draw him to the east. Distract himlong enough for me to get Wolfe out of the ground. When we’re out, I’ll let you know, and you can pull back.”
Don Russo considered all of this for a solid minute before he gave a nod. “Alright, given the circumstances, that will have to do. Wolfe has done a lot for us. He’s still family to us. And we’re going to get him out of there.”
23
FRANCESCA
I picked up Leo from the meeting spot, and he threw the shovels and the drill in the back seat before he hopped into the passenger seat beside me. I took the long route around the house where Icarus buried Wolfe in the ground just to make sure I wasn’t spotted or crossed paths with anyone I wanted to avoid.
I came around to the other road that faced the west side of the property. Someone’s house was situated along the road, but I couldn’t easily drive through their property, the wilderness between the property lines, and come up to Icarus’s place. It was flat, but there was still rough terrain like rocks and hills, though I believed Wolfe’s Range Rover could handle it.
I parked the car on the side of the road with the phone gripped tightly in my hand, waiting for Don Russo’s signal that the battle was about to begin.
Wolfe had four more hours of air…he should be okay.
Leo was silent beside me. Sometimes he would look at me, and other times he would stare straight ahead. “We’ll get him back.”
“I hope he’s still alive.”
“If Wolfe told you seven hours, he’ll give you seven hours.”
“If it were me, I would panic and lose all my air immediately.”
“No, you wouldn’t.”
I turned to look at him.
“You would be calm—because you’d know Wolfe is coming to get you.” He turned to look at me. “He knows you’re coming, Frankie.”
My eyes wanted to well up in tears at the thought that my husband was in the pitch-dark in the ground but calm, knowing I wouldn’t give up on him. That I would move mountains and oceans to get him out of there. That I would put a gun to Don Russo’s head and demand his compliance.
My phone vibrated in my hand.
I looked at Don Russo’s message.We’re moving in.
I set the phone aside, started the engine, and rolled down the windows. Knowing the moment had arrived chased away my emotion and replaced it with adrenaline instead. All I had to do was drive up to the grave, dig him out, and get the hell out of there. I wore a bulletproof vest and so did Leo, but that would only protect our torsos. One shot to the head, and we were done for.
Leo’s hand moved over mine, a gesture he’d never made before. “We’ve got this.”
I let our hands touch for another second before I pulled away.
The gunfire reached our ears a moment later—and I knew it was time.
“Let’s do this,” Leo said.
I turned the wheel, and we drove right over some random person’s property, made our way along the side of their house, and then past their barn into the wildlands. I had to drive between a couple big trees and over some rocks, dipped into a trench that looked like it’d once been a stream or some kind of irrigation line, and then drove upward until we reached a low hill and Icarus’s property line.
The gunfire suddenly grew louder because we were in the thick of it. Cars were in the street, and men were shooting one another from both directions. The west side of the house was abandoned like I’d hoped it would be.
