Page 20 of Sicilian Savior

“But I didn’t talk. I didn’t give in. I took everything they threw at me and held on tight. And it’s not because I’m just that strong. It’s because I knew I only had to hold on a little longer. I knew my team would come for me. If I’d really given up hope on my release, I may have spilled it all. But I never gave up hope or broke because I trusted my team would find me. I knew they’d never stop, and they are the most capable, powerful people in the world. And I don’t mean that figuratively. They truly can find anyone, anytime, anywhere. The best of the best. The most elite team of people on this planet were looking for me, and I knew they would come. I never doubted it for a second. Just like I know we can get your boy back. You just have to trust me and my team. Let us help you, Lucia. I want to help you.”

I rolled my hand over hers and slid her fingers between mine, closing her small hand in my huge mitt.

“You really think you can help me get Luca back?”

“No.” I shook my head, and she furrowed her brow. “I know we can get Luca back. All I need is your permission to make a call and get started. We all retired a few years ago, but we’ll be a team until the day we die. Any one of us will come to the aid of any of the others, anytime. All I need to do is ask, and they’ll help us out.”

“And you can trust them? If Victor finds out I’m looking for Luca, he might kill him. He truly is capable of anything. Even killing his own son. This lunatic murdered his own father and brother in cold blood! He feels nothing, Knox.”

“Lucia,” I said as I lifted my other hand and brushed a piece of hair from her face. “Even the CIA can’t find us. Interpol. MI6. The KGB. None of them have ever even been able to prove our existence, much less get any information on our missions. Yeah. Your husband is a Class A douchebag, but he’s small fry compared to who we’re used to hunting. He’s a mangy coyote, and I’m used to taking down mountain lions. Wes will hunt Luca down, and the rest of us will get him out. All I need is your permission. He’s your son, and I won’t do anything without your okay.”

She wedged her lip between her teeth and looked into my eyes. Searching. I hoped that she’d see the truth in my promise because I damn well meant it.

“You swear you won’t get him killed? I don’t care if I die in this as long as Luca is safe and away from that monster.”

I stroked the pad of my thumb across her cheek. “If you think I’m letting you die so you get out of making me Bolognese on a regular basis, you’re crazy, girl.”

Her lips lifted into a smile, and it warmed me up from the inside out. I knew it was a shadow of the smile she’d exude when she was reunited with her son, and I made it my life’s goal to witness it firsthand.

“Okay. Let’s do it,” she said.

Without hesitating, I pulled out my phone and pressed Wes’s contact.

“Hey, Pretty Boy,” I said into the phone when he answered. “I need your help.”

Lucia squeezed my hand, and with how the small gesture made me feel, she may as well have squeezed my heart.

CHAPTER EIGHT

Lucia

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It had been two days since I’d fallen apart and let Knox in on my past—which I still couldn’t believe I’d done. It was rule number one in supporting my fake identity, and I’d gone and blown it out of the water. I’d already started planning for a new identity and moving again if this went south. The guy I’d found to create my new identity the first time had cost a pretty penny, but if I had to do it again, I would.

Even though my mind kept going to the worst-case scenario, that little flutter of hope kept rising up inside of me. Maybe Knox really could help. Maybe it wasn’t a terrible mistake trusting him with my secret. The way he’d looked when I’d told him the truth only confirmed how much I felt I could trust him. At least, I hoped that was what the look in his eyes meant.

He’d texted that he had info he didn’t want to discuss over the phone, and he was on his way. I paced back and forth in my store, waiting for him to arrive. When I heard the loud rumbling of his Harley, I raced to the window and looked out.

Knox climbed off his bike, looking over his shoulder before he stalked toward my store. He’d look different since my admission. He’d been at my place or the store every day doing repairs, but the laid-back guy I’d grown to know had been replaced by someone with sharp eyes and a tight jaw. Instead of me searching my surroundings all the time and being on high alert, now it was him. He looked like a warrior preparing for battle, and it made him look even more dangerous.

But never when he looked at me. Every time his eyes met mine, his face softened, just like it did now as he approached my store and saw me staring out the window. A smile spread across his face, his eyes crinkling at the corners as they locked with mine. I opened the door, and he stepped inside, glancing behind him quickly before shutting us in.

“What is it?” I asked. “What happened?”

Knox let out a breath and slid my hands into his. “Wes found him. He’s alive, and he’s okay.”

My knees threatened to give out, but I somehow stayed upright. “You... you found him?”

“He’s in Sicily. Looks like Victor bolted from the States and relocated his business to Sicily. Luca is there with him, living on an old Caruso family compound outside Palermo. The Caruso’s hadn’t operated there in years, but they still have their ties to the old country, so Victor slid back in.”

As elated as I was to know where Luca was and that he was alive, I was equally devastated that my son wasn’t even on the same continent as me, and I’d had no idea. No mother should ever have to endure not knowing where their children were. Especially knowing they were tight in the clutches of a monster.

“You found him? You really found him?”

“Yes. We found him, and we’re making plans to extract him. I’ve got Marcus working on figuring out the details, and Piper is ready to move whenever we tell her. All we’ve got to do is sit tight and wait until Marcus sorts out the best plan. Once he’s got it, we’ll go to Sicily, extract Luca, and I’ll bring him back to you safe and sound.”

“I want to go with,” I spit out.