Page 69 of Sicilian Savior

“Everything will be fine, Victor. You’ll see,” I said, hoping to soothe the madness vibrating off him like plucked guitar strings.

“I’ll make it alright. Me. I took over this organization and turned it into what it is today, and I’ll do it again.”

“Exactly,” I agreed.

Just as I thought I might get through to him, his face hardened, and his eyes narrowed into slits. “I don’t need you anymore, Maria. I don’t want you anymore. What I want is my fucking money back. I want my organization back. And I’m going to get it with this guy here. And with you.”

I struggled to process his last words.

“Do you remember Joey Ricci?”

I did. A real dangerous guy and a frenemy of Victor’s. Joey ran a rival US mafia installation, and the two of them worked together from time to time when they weren’t trying to kill each other.

“He always had eyes for you,” Victor snarled out. “He always had eyes for everything of mine. Considering he’s a second-rate loser.”

“What does this have to do with me?”

“Joey and I have come to terms, and if I deliver you to him to do with what he will, he’ll help me broker the peace with the Vitalis. He’ll join forces with me to help convince Rico Vitali to accept my deal with Luca and put the past behind us. Then, I can rebuild my business in Sicily in peace, and Joey gets you and all my US business. We’re all happy.”

A wave of crippling anxiety washed over me. “You... you’re going to trade me to Joey?”

Victor sneered. “A good trade.”

I glanced down at Luca, his swollen eyes spilling over with tears. I took a breath and lifted my chin.

“Fine. You can trade me. But not Luca. Just let him go. He’s innocent in all this.”

Victor snorted. “Not happening. I need both of you to get back to the top. You go to Joey, Luca to the Vitalis. When it’s all over, I can pick up where I left off in Sicily.”

I knew now not to argue with him more. It didn’t matter. There was no talking sense to a man whose sanity had disintegrated into madness. All that mattered was staying alive until Knox could find us.

Victor picked up the phone and dialed a number. “Joey, we’re here.”

A few moments passed.

“Yeah. I got them both. She’s all yours whenever you want her. But we have a deal. You help me fix this shit with the Vitalis.”

A few more moments.

“I’ll see you in an hour.”

An hour? Oh God. That didn’t give Knox much time to find us. I just had to hope that he’d figured out where we were and had followed our trail. If not, Luca and I would be apart, and he couldn’t be in two places at once. And all that mattered was Luca. As long as he made it in time to keep my boy out of the Vitalis’s hands, I didn’t care what happened to me.

But I still held onto the faith that Knox would get here in time to save us both.

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

Knox

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I killed the engine a few blocks away from the address Wes had sent me. From the cameras he’d been hacking along the route, his suspicions of Lucia’s location were dead on. Victor had taken her back to his family’s home. Though what he planned to do with her, I still didn’t know. But my imagination had plenty of ideas, and they nearly drove me mad.

I slid the silencer out of my weapons bag and twisted it onto my gun. In a small neighborhood like this one, it made the most sense. Along with the knife strapped to my waist, I slid the Sig Sauer MCX Rattler over my shoulder. It was the most compact assault rifle they made, and it was perfect for these stealth situations.

I slipped my throat mic on and slid the earpiece in.

“Testing, testing,” I said in a whisper.