Page 74 of Sicilian Savior

I got up and walked over to Luca, taking his hand in mine, and followed Victor down the hall.

When we reached the bathroom, he leaned into my ear and said, “If either of you tries to escape again, I’ll gut the boy in front of you.”

Swallowing hard, I nodded my head.

“Come on, Luca. Let’s go—”

“No,” Victor growled. “You go in one at a time.”

I soothed Luca with my smile and gestured for him to go in first. “It’s okay, baby. I’ll go next.”

Luca’s big brown eyes darted between us before he ducked into the bathroom and closed the door.

A faint whisper of movement in the window behind Victor caught my eye, and I flicked my glance toward it. It didn’t go unnoticed, and Victor spun in the direction of my gaze.

“What was it?” he growled.

“Nothing,” I answered, the non-lie slipping from my lips. Even though I’d thought I’d seen movement outside, nothing appeared in my field of vision.

Victor didn’t seem convinced and lifted his gun, pointing it in the direction my gaze had drifted.

He walked toward the corner of the room, eyes searching everything as he looked.

“Joey?” he called out.

No answer.

He grumbled and came back to my side. Luca exited the bathroom, and Victor shoved me in the small of my back. I did as he said, hurrying up to get back to Luca’s side. When I came out, Luca wrested himself out of Victor’s grip to get back to me.

“Would you quit wiggling around?” Victor snapped and dragged him toward the stairs. “You can wait upstairs.”

“Wait!” I shot forward, taking ahold of Luca’s shoulder. “I’m not leaving Luca!”

“Mama!” Luca shouted, pulling toward me. “Don’t let him take me, Mama!”

He yanked himself free and wrapped himself around my leg, eliciting a groan from Victor.

“He’ll be calm and quiet if we’re together. Won’t you, Luca?”

Luca nodded slowly.

“I swear we won’t try anything again. Please. Don’t separate us.”

Victor grumbled and spat out, “Fine. You go together. You’ll wait upstairs where I can get some quiet to think and figure this out. But I mean it. You try anything again and...” He slid his finger across his throat.

I nodded my understanding, and we followed Victor up the stairs. He shoved me into a bedroom, then glared and said, “If I hear anything up here, you’re both dead.”

The slamming of the door echoing through the dated room punctuated his sentence.

“We’re okay, baby. We’re okay.” I hugged Luca tight, scanning the room for any weapons or a fast exit. But instead of an item to defend myself with, I saw something even more deadly.

Knox stepped out of the closet.

“Knox!” I whispered, closing my hand over my mouth. “You found us.”

He smiled, coming out of the shadows, his gun clutched tight in his hand. “Of course I did, Baby,” he whispered back as he came toward me. “Nothing could stop me from saving my family.”

“Knox!” Luca shouted, and I gasped at the volume of his voice.