Page 47 of Sicilian Savior

“Valid,” Piper agreed.

Knox turned his attention to me. “How does this plan sound? Any issues from you?”

I blew out a breath. “You guys are the experts. It all sounds unbelievable to me, but I trust that you know what you’re doing. Whatever you think will work best, I’m all for.”

“There is something I should add,” Wes said.

Everyone turned to look at the screen.

“After Knox took out Mario yesterday, I hacked into his phone and went through all his shit. I found an issue this morning.”

“An issue? What kind of issue?” Marcus leaned forward, furrowing his brow.

“Mario seems to have been turning on Victor, and he was working with rival mafia. The Vitalis. They aren’t pleased Victor has moved his business to Sicily. There’s a turf war starting.”

“There’s always a turf war with those guys. How does that affect us?” Piper asked.

“Because Mario was planning on kidnapping Luca and giving him to the Vitalis so they could hold him hostage to force Victor out.”

“What?” we all echoed.

My heart slammed to a stop.

“Yeah. The guy he met with yesterday, the guy Knox killed, was Franco Vitali. He was paying Mario to nab the kid and bring him to them. Mario intended to take him today.”

I struggled to breathe as I processed that new information.

“It’s a damn good thing you took him out yesterday, or we’d be up Shit Creek today,” Wes said.

“Fuck, Wes! Why didn’t you tell me this before?” Marcus growled.

“Hey, I just finished getting the info now. His encrypted track phone was a bitch to get into.”

Knox stiffened. “So, now that Mario is dead, is the plan defunct, or do we have to worry about someone else stepping up and snatching Lucia’s son? Our entire plan is based around extracting him from Victor’s compound.”

“I think, for the moment, we’re good,” Wes said. “No chatter anywhere about anyone else making a move. But that doesn’t mean they won’t be trying to find a new person to get in there.”

“So, we need to move. Soon.” Marcus tightened his jaw.

“You can’t let them get Luca,” I spit out. “Victor doesn’t care about him. The only reason he has Luca is to punish me. He’s a psychopath. A real one. He killed his own brother and father to further his business interests. What kind of a monster does that? If they take Luca and offer a trade, Victor won’t hesitate to sacrifice his own son. He’ll tell them to kill him before he gives up even a lick of power. They can’t get their hands on him.”

Knox tightened his grip on me as I tried not to break down.

“Does this change the plan?” I asked, trying to fight back the tears. Poor Luca. He’d never asked for any of this. Now his life was in constant danger thanks to the choice I’d made for his father.

Marcus sighed, and I saw the wheels turning. “We need someone inside. Now. Just to be safe. A body to protect him if things go south.”

Piper straightened up. “I can do it. I’ll get a job in there, close to the boy. A housekeeper or something.”

“Will they even be hiring?” I asked.

Piper’s smile looked downright devilish. “Oh, they’ll hire me.”

Marcus chuckled. “Piper always gets her way.”

She lifted one corner of her lips. “Always.”

“Let’s move on that today,” Marcus said. “Pretty Boy, I need you to hack in and see who does the housekeeping hiring. Piper can intercept them this afternoon and get inside.”