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70
IRINA
Istepped over Darragh’s severed head, making my way to where Scar stood staring at me with heaving lungs. Rushing into his arms was the only thing that made sense in my world that had been consumed by violence, the only thing that was right.
His arms came around me, his scent tarnished by the blood and dust covering his suit. He was still him, still his comforting weight pressing into me as one of his massive hands came up to cup the back of my head and pull my face deeper into his chest.
“Butterfly,” he rasped, clinging to me as I tried to settle my breathing and calm the beast that had come alive inside my skin.
To tame the monster that wanted more blood.
Footsteps echoed down the tunnel, making Scar go on alert. He grabbed the axe and raised it, shoving me behind him as we waited to see who had found their way from the house.
Yavin rounded the corner, limping as he ran. There was a tear in his pants that revealed a deep laceration, blood flowing steadily from that wound and a gunshot in his arm.
His chest sank with relief when his eyes landed on Aoife. “Thank fucking God,” he murmured, limping toward her as she turned from where she’d been holding her hands over Luna’s ears, helping Ivory shield her daughter from Darragh’s gruesome end.
Yavin’s hands enveloped Aoife’s face, her stare on him shocked but sweet as he crashed his lips down on hers and devoured her mouth.
She whimpered, probably from a mix of pain and pleasure. The entire side of her face was bruised as Yavin pulled back, inspecting with murderous eyes her injuries and the discoloration on her throat.
If Darragh wasn’t already dead, Yavin would have watched him die one hundred times over for Aoife’s wounds.
“Where’s Matteo?” Ivory asked, hiking Luna up on her hip. Smaug peeked out from Luna’s sweater, his little face giving me hope. If that lizard had survived…
Yavin sighed, turning to face one of the women who had quickly become family to him after his sister married Lino Bellandi. “Ivory…” he trailed off, and my heart dropped into my throat for her.
For the man she’d loved enough to forgive.
Oh God no.
“Where is my husband, Yavin?” Ivory asked again, her voice breaking as she considered the unthinkable.
“We haven’t found him. The first explosion—he was close,” Yavin said, confirming what Darragh had said. He must have gotten confirmation from one of his men before we’d stumbled upon him in the tunnel.
“I’m going up there,” Ivory said, handing Luna to Aoife. The other woman took the girl who wailed for her mother, hugging her to her chest as my heart broke.
“I’ll go with you,” I said, glancing toward Scar and daring him to deny it.
“We can all go,” Yavin said, bending down to check on Don. The older man clutched his head but rose to his feet with a slight sway to his body. Nothing could keep him away when Matteo’s life was in question. “Murphy’s men are either dead or gone. For now, we’re no safer down here than we are up there.” He glanced toward Darragh’s dead body, his meaning clear.
They knew about the tunnels anyway.
We made our way back toward the house, climbing over rubble as we got closer. To the left of where the stairs had once been, we climbed out the bulkhead door and emerged into the side yard of the home.
Scar went first, scanning the property for any sign of a threat. I watched, waiting for his signal until he finally sighed in relief and waved us out. Stepping up first, I placed my hand in his and let him guide me into the daylight.
It seemed so wrong that such an atrocity could happen while the sun shone down on us. The worst crimes didn’t always happen in the dark.
Bellandi men moved all around us, searching for Matteo in the wreckage of the mansion. Scar guided me into the patio entrance of the house, past the place where a sentry stood.
The Bellandis rummaged through the rubble of the kitchen, carefully shifting stones, drywall, and debris as they searched. Calix’s eyes locked with mine, his leg trapped beneath a piece of the ceiling as he and Rafael worked to lift it off his body.
Scar dropped my hand, stepping in to help Rafael lift it off until Calix could pull his leg out and stand on the undoubtedly broken limb.
“Have they found him?” Scar asked, looking over to where Ryker, Enzo, and Lino searched frantically.
Calix shook his head, setting a hand on my shoulder as I stepped up to the cousin I hadn’t known even existed a few weeks ago but already couldn’t imagine a world without him in it.
“The other women?” I asked.
“They’re all secure at the safehouse,” Rafael said. “As soon as we realized it was a ploy to get us off the property, we had their personal security move them. They’re all accounted for.”
I nodded, thinking how much it must have comforted the three men that their wives were safe while they searched for the man who had made them all a family.
Matteo Bellandi might have been an asshole, but he was an asshole who’d made something out of nothing. Who’d created a family from a criminal syndicate.
“I’ve got something!” Enzo yelled, grimacing with effort as he tried to heave an enormous slab of concrete off the floor. A twisted, mangled hand emerged from the rubble beneath it.
Unmoving.
“Oh God,” I whispered, covering my mouth with my hand as Ivory moved over to wait while Enzo and the guys uncovered a body. I watched with my heart in my throat, letting Scar curl me into his chest as my tears wet my face.
Another piece of rubble pulled away, another part of a body revealed. Another moment for the person to move, to breathe.
Ryker and Enzo worked together to lift a heavy piece off where the head should be, lifting it clear and away and dropping it to the side.
Simon’s face was revealed, turned to the side, his back curled around something unnaturally. His eyes were closed, his skin unnaturally pale.
“It’s Simon!” Lino called, reaching into the remaining rubble to touch the man’s neck. He waited, his brow furrowing as his face fell. He lifted his eyes to Ryker’s, shaking his head as pain consumed his features.
“Fuck,” Scar muttered, hanging his head forward as Ryker reached down to confirm what Lino had already said without words. He shifted Simon, turning him to his back to check his pulse in the front of his throat.
His eyes widened in shock, realizing what Simon had done at the same moment we all did.
Matteo coughed, his lungs heaving with the sudden expulsion of dust that came with his first full breath. Ryker reached out a hand, grasping Matteo around the wrist and pulling him free from the rubble finally.
He staggered to the side, holding his head where a gash split his forehead. Ivory hurried into his arms, plastering herself to his torso as her body shook with the force of her relieved sobs.
“I’m here, Angel,” Matteo murmured, his eyes finding Luna with Aoife on the other side of the kitchen. “Are you all okay?” he asked, touching his hand to Ivory’s growing belly.
“We’re okay,” she confirmed. “Irina and Aoife protected us.” His eyes found mine with a nod of appreciation before he turned to look down at Simon’s peaceful face.
There was no pain after death. None of the agony that had twisted his body beyond repair.
There was only freedom, only salvation.
“He covered me,” Matteo whispered, his face pinching as he fought back the surge of emotion. There was moisture in his eyes as he knelt at Simon’s side, touching a palm to his friend’s forehead and hanging his head.
We stared on, watching the agony play over his features. He’d lost nearly everything in a single day. His home, the fortune he’d stored within it, his best friend.
When he raised his eyes and stared over the horizon, I knew one single truth without a doubt.
His vengeance would be savage.
