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“Do you want to wait for Sean?” Conor asked.
“No,” I said without removing my eyes from Jamie, who was doing a good job of holding an unreadable expression.
“Stefan meets quarterly with top officials in the state to play golf,” Jamie explained without looking away from me. His words were calm and factual. “When he was on his way home, his Escalade got a flat tire. As soon as they pulled off the road, two utility vans drove up, men in black ski masks jumped out, and they began gunning down Stefan’s security. They dragged him from the SUV, shoved him into one of their vans, and took off.”
“How do you know this?” I questioned.
“Only one of Stefan’s personal security survived the attack. He was shot three times. Two in the leg and one in the shoulder,” Louie answered. He also spoke in a calm voice and did his best to keep what he was thinking from showing. His eyes gave him away, though. They filled with apprehension the longer he stared at me.
I had to look away from him. “I want Vincent and Aiden on this now.”
“They already are,” Jamie said.
I looked around the rest of the table. “What are our next steps?”
“News of this is going to spread like wildfire through the family, the city, and then our entire territory,” Rourke said.
“Before anyone gets any ideas, we need to make it known that you’ve taken over,” Conor said next.
I shook my head. “I’m not taking over anything. Until we have proof that Stefan is dead, he is still the head of this family.”
The table went quiet, and I caught how they all glanced at each other.
Jamie leaned forward a little, his serious eyes locking with mine. “With Stefan missing, the entire family is vulnerable, Maura. He appointed you as his heir. If you do not assume leadership, others might try to take over.”
“Others still might,” Rourke grumbled.
“Not if we are united in our support of her taking over,” Conor said.
“Sean won’t be on board,” Louie said. “From day one he hasn’t hid his dislike of her.”
The more they talked amongst themselves, the more my chest got tighter, and my darkness’ hold wavered.
I didn’t want this.
I wasn’t ready.
“Maura?” Jamie said, saving me from my thoughts and granting me the distraction my darkness needed to strengthen its hold.
“I’ll do it,” I forced myself to say, because I had to. For the family and to make sure Stefan’s place was still here for him when we found him.
All of them began talking again and I couldn’t hear any of it. So many things were racing through my head. No one would support me—a woman. Scenarios and outcomes filled my head, overwhelming me.
I was losing it again.
I wanted to scream.
I wanted to leave.
I stood and everyone went quiet. “I need to pee,” I said as I walked out of the room. All I could hear was my heartbeat in my ears as I stormed through the house. There was a battle of control happening inside me and it was making the walls around me feel like they were closing in. I had to get out.
I rushed for the garage. Keys for all the cars were in a cabinet just inside its entrance. I ripped that cabinet door open and grabbed the keys to my Audi—the only car without a tracking device on it, thanks to Brenna’s help. When Brenna had come to get me from that shithole apartment in New York, she had said that Jamie was not that far behind her because they had tracked her. Apparently, Stefan had put tracking devices on all of the cars while I’d been on vacation. Brenna hadn’t known about the tracker until Vincent had called her and told her when she’d been outside the apartment building I was being held in. When we’d returned home, she’d eventually told me, and I’d asked her to figure out how to remove the tracker from my car.
I tore down the cobblestone driveway and paused just long enough for the goons to open the gate. Then I floored it and didn’t look back. I rolled down all the windows and sucked in the cool air that rushed in. At the beginning of my drive, I just drove around aimlessly until my darkness could take back full control. As soon as it did, an idea came to me, and I headed to New York.
* * *
Before I walked into Alessandro’s—a restaurant owned by the De Lucas—I sent a text to Nicoli telling him that I was in the city and to come find me. Then I turned my phone off. When I walked in, I went up to the hostess. “Tell Nicoli that I’ll be waiting for him at the bar.”
