Page 54 of Savage Little War

Leo nods his thanks before leading Isaak to the foyer.

“Andrei, I have to tell you something. It’s about Damien.” Dmitri’s jaw flexes like it hurts to speak at all.

Andrei holds up a hand to stop him. “I saw him when I swept the second floor. I’ll have my guys bring him home with us. He’ll have a proper burial.”

Dmitri’s eyes shut for half a second. “Thank you. I’ll make sure all the families are taken care of from now on.”

I thread my fingers through Dmitri’s to silently comfort him. He may be stern with his men, but I know that it still pains him to lose them.

“Look what I found!”

We all turn to see Luca heading back toward us with a gas can in his hand. “There was a mower stored in the shed. This is the gas can for it, and it’s full.”

“Ten minutes. Then we burn it,” Dmitri tells Luca before leading me to the foyer to leave the house.

“What happens now?” I ask Dmitri.

“We head home, bury our people, and make sure our enemies know not to try and fuck with us,” Dmitri replies, stopping next to one of the Italians’ black cars. “You did say that not all of the people who tortured you were Italian.”

I nod. “I didn’t see any women in the villa. Whoever tried to make me lose the baby is still out there.”

“We’ll find them all,” Dmitri promises as more of our men filter out of the house, carrying people out, whether they’re dead or just injured.

Cars steadily disappear from in front of the villa as everyone heads off to complete their duties, but our little group stays in front of the house, watching Luca move in and out of the house to splash gasoline all over the place.

“Whoever owns this property will see the damage done soon,” Andrei comments.

“Ferro’s allies will call off law enforcement,” Dmitri says confidently.

I breathe in deeply, still processing everything that happened tonight. There were too many close calls. Too many deviations in our plan.

But despite everything that went wrong, we still succeeded. We still won.

Luca steps out of the house and drops the empty gas can onto the porch before heading over to us. “Everyone is out of the house.”

“Do it. I want to watch it burn,” Dmitri replies.

Luca nods and takes a flip lighter out of his pocket. He walks closer to the house and tosses the lighter through the front door, the flame catching onto the gasoline on the floor.

The fire runs along the gasoline like it’s alive, up drapes, over couches, into hallways. Smoke billows out, swallowing the porch in minutes.

“Burn, baby, burn,” Luca says as he joins us again.

“By the time anyone figures out what happened, we’ll be over the ocean,” Andrei mutters. “Let’s hope things are over with now.” He sighs, sounding as exhausted as he looks.

Dmitri shares an unsure look with my father. We might’ve defeated the main enemy, but there were other people involved.

We only leave once the fire has spread to the outside of the villa, and the structure of the building starts to collapse as the flames take hold.

We take one of the leftover cars that belonged to the Italians and use the back street to make our way to the main road. Sean drives us to the airfield where both private jets are waiting.

After paying off airport security to look the other way, bodies are loaded into the other jet, along with most of the guards. We throw our baggage into our jet with the rest of our people. It’s a tight fit, but an uncomfortable, long journey back home is nothing compared to what we just went through.

I sit next to Dmitri and buckle in before the jets take off, leaving Italy behind us.

“Are you sure that you want to return to Las Vegas?” Dmitri asks Luca as he walks by our seats to head to the bar. “You’re free to go anywhere now.”

Luca smiles a little in a bittersweet manner. “Maybe one day I’ll return to Italy, but not today. I have unfinished business in the States.”