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Enzo locked the door behind me.
Sucking in a deep breath, I put my hand over my heart to calm myself. It was dark and cold, with nothing but the sound of my heart beating loudly in the small space. I breathed through my nose, doing my best to control my anxiety. My inhaler was in my purse in the living room.
You can do this.
I crept down the narrow staircase, nearly tripping over my feet. The cold, stone wall broke my fall. My heart beat faster, the thumping louder in my ears as I inched my way down the stairs with caution.
Once my feet hit the ground floor, I expelled the air from my lungs. The motion-detecting lights on the walls illuminated as I walked toward the back of the house.
I heard footsteps slap the concrete floor.
Glancing over my shoulder, I spotted a man dressed in a suit. He wasn’t Enzo or any of the staff. My heart raced into overdrive from the adrenaline shooting through my veins.
Shoving down my fear, I bolted down the corridor. I could smell the grapes as I ran into the wine cellar, searching for a weapon—anything to help me subdue my attacker. So I fisted a wine bottle opener and hid behind a barricade of casks stacked up to the ceiling.
“Come out, come out, little girl,” the man taunted as he moved closer. “I just want to talk.”
Yeah, right.
I gripped the bottle opener so hard it dug into my palm. Sweat dripped down my back, and my entire body felt like it was on fire.
The man stood in the entryway to the room. Peeking out from behind a cask, I watched him move across the right side. I crawled toward the exit, careful not to make a sound. But I dropped the bottle opener, which scraped the floor.
“Come out,” he taunted in a harsh tone. “I won’t hurt you.”
He was hovering over me within seconds, staring at me from between two stacks of casks.
I attempted to run.
But he hooked his big arm around me, cutting off my air supply as his large hand closed over my windpipe. “Where is your father hiding?” Then he reached into his pocket and showed me a knife. “Tell me. Now!” The blade grazed the tops of my breasts but didn’t go deep enough to leave a mark. “Or I will cut the answer out of you.”
Before he could slice into my skin, a figure appeared at the entrance to the wine cellar. “Get your fucking hands off her.”
Nico aimed a gun at his head.
The man laughed. “Her father owes us a lot of money. You know how this works, Nicodemus. The girl has to pay for his sins.”
Thanks, Dad.
Asshole.
Teeth gritted, Nico shot the man in the head without a second thought. His blood splattered on my face and clothes. The man dropped to the floor beside me.
I raised my hands to wipe my face and screamed at the sight of so much blood on me. Without a second to process anything, Nico scooped me into his arms and carried me out of the wine cellar.
On our way to the pantry entrance, he tucked the hair behind my ear. “This isn’t the birthday you wanted. But we’ll make it up to you.”
ChapterTwenty-Four
DANTE
Ishot the last assassin in the head, his blood splattering on the wall. He dropped to the floor like a sack of potatoes by Angelos’ feet. So my brother kicked him in the head a few times to make sure he was dead.
“Dickhead,” he said with another kick, getting blood on his black Ferragamo.
If I hadn’t already wanted to whack Giancarlo before tonight, I did now. His recklessness could have gotten Ava killed. These men were sent here to bring her back to the Vitales as payment for his debts.
Nicodemus brought Ava upstairs with blood on her face and clothes, trembling with her arms wrapped around his neck. She sobbed on his shoulder, her eyes aimed at me. They were red-rimmed and glassy.
