AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Are you two okay?” I ask.
They step back. Nico nods but glares at Stefano. “Yeah, but what the hell, Doc?”
Stefano, or Doc as we’ve affectionately called him since we were innocent little kids and heard people refer to him asthe surgeon, pats Nico on the back. “I’m sorry, boys, but I had to make it look real. Besides, I barely scratched either of you.”
Dean wipes a streak of blood from a cut above his eye. “Tell that to my face, Doc,” he says, but he’s grinning.
“So, we’re not twins?” Nico frowns. “Not even brother and sister?”
I shake my head. Smiling, I try to lighten the mood. “I was born two days before you, by the way. So I’m officially the oldest now.”
He looks down, sorrow clouding his handsome features.
I cup his face in my hands. “You’ll always be my brother, Nico. No matter what.”
Stefano wraps an arm around my shoulders and kisses the top of my head. “Can we save the family reunion for later? Ludovica has to get out of here before anyone notices she’s gone, and we need to deal with all this. Nico and I will let the men know the new order of things.”
“You think they’ll accept it?” I ask.
“They’ll have no choice.” He shrugs. “I’ll stay on as Nico’s adviser for a while, and once the dust settles, I can finally go home.”
The look he shares with my mom makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up, but the soft expression flickers on my mother’s face and disappears as quickly as it arrived. Clearing her throat, she turns her focus back to me. “Come to the hotel as soon as you can, Liliana. We have things to discuss.”
“I will.” Swallowing a sob, I watch her slip out the door.
Stefano nods down at Carmine’s body. “Let’s get this mess cleaned up and you out of here before the cops show up. And I’m sure those friends of yours from New York will be here soon too, Marshmallow.”
I shake my head. “I told them not to come. I’ll call them and let them know I’m safe.”
Nico and Dean share a strange look. “What?” I ask.
Nico wraps his arm around me. “Don’t forget that I met them, Lily Pad. I saw the way they all looked at you.” He chuckles. “I guarantee that they’re already on their way here.”
As much as I’d like to believe that they trust me enough to let me handle things myself, I know better. With a sigh, I hold out my hand. “I need to borrow your phone.”
ChapterSeventy-Two
WEST
Cursing, I hang up after leaving yet another voicemail on Lily’s phone. Is this karma for all the times she tried to call us after we abandoned her with no explanation?
“She’ll be okay,” Xander says, trying to convince himself as much as me. But the worry on his face makes me feel sick. Carmine Constantine is one twisted fucker. Our girl shouldn’t be within three hundred miles of his cruelty.
“Can you go any faster?” As soon as the words leave my mouth, I wish I could take them back. I know Zeke is just as desperate to get to her as Xander and I are, but it feels like the car is barely moving. He could be going 200 miles per hour and it wouldn’t be fast enough for any of us.
Justifiably pissed, he bares his teeth at me. “I’m going as fast as this old fucking jalopy will go, asshole. We’ll get to her.”
I force myself to sit back and close my eyes. I’m grateful he had a car waiting for us at the airport, and even more grateful that it contains enough of an arsenal to take out a small army. But that gratitude is overshadowed by the tightness in my chest. A thousand sickening scenarios of what could be happening to her right now rush through my head at a million miles a minute. “What if we don’t?” Opening my eyes, I look over and see his jaw clenched tight.
* * *
When we finally arrive atthe ostentatious golden gate of Carmine Constantine’s mansion, the gates are wide open. We jump out of the old minivan before it comes to a complete stop and sprint down the driveway, but my footsteps falter as soon as I see two cop cars and an ambulance parked in front of the house.
My heart lurches so violently that I almost throw up. A cop approaches, and I’m vaguely aware of Xander talking to him, but I’m too busy looking for a sign of Lily.
Bile surges in my throat at the sight of Nico’s battered face. I want to shout at him, demand that he tell me where she is, but the words get stuck. Noticing me, he excuses himself from the cop he’s talking to and walks over.
“Where is she?”
