43. Luna
FORTY-THREE
LUNA
“Our father will be back from his trip to Italy tomorrow,” Dante said. “It’ll be a good chance to surround him. He won’t see it coming.”
Valerio shook his head, leaning on the table. “He’ll still see us coming. He has security everywhere. Probably even more so now.”
“Does he think you’re alive or dead? I mean, have you heard anything from him?” Finn asked.
Luna listened in, her head already pounding from the hours of planning they had been doing. They enjoyed one night off just to be thrown into the thick of it.
“Not a single word,” Valerio confirmed.
“Same here,” Dante said.
“We have to assume he thinks I’m dead, or at the very least severely injured,” he said.
“Then he wouldn’t expect to see you, but he would expect to see Dante,” Allister said, tapping a pen against his lip.
“If Allister and I go in first, maybe we could disarm the system,” Dante said. “And then you could sneak in or something.”
“How high tech is the system?” Blair asked. She had her arms crossed, a serious look on her face. The fact the girls wanted any part of the planning meant a lot to Luna. It wasn’t an easy subject and she wouldn’t have blamed them if they decided to ditch it for their own peace of mind. “Maybe Augustus could disarm it himself?”
He snorted. “Uh, yeah, if I had a million hours to work on it.”
“You’ve hacked through sketchier shit before,” Finn said.
Augustus pushed him. “And I’m not trying to go to prison for it, so shut the fuck up.”
“I could help you get through most of it, since I’m the most familiar with it,” Valerio told him. “At least until I have to leave.”
“That should work,” he said. “As long as the system is out before you enter the house, you should be fine. If not, we’ll be planning our funerals.”
Luna swallowed harshly, ignoring the rush of anxiety that swept through her with those words.
“What do you do about the fallout?” Gianna asked. “He has guards all over the house. If they hear a gunshot, they’ll come after you. If there’s only three of you and like dozens of them, it’s not hard to assume who would win.”
“You have to take out whoever you see,” Finn said. “Unless they decide to side with you, but you can’t ensure their loyalty either way.”
Luna shook her head immediately. “Those are innocent people. They don’t deserve to die.”
“No one is innocent in our world,” Finn said. “They all knew what they were getting into.”
“I won’t kill anyone who pledges their loyalty to me,” Valerio said, giving her a look of confirmation. “I’ll try to keep the death count to a minimum.”
“We’ll prepare everything tonight then,” Allister said. “Now, we have to decide what the Kingsleys are going to do.”
“I’m meeting my father tomorrow to talk,” Finn said, sitting up now. “I’ll do it then.”
Luna looked confused. “That’s all? That doesn’t seem thought out in the slightest. Won’t he be suspicious that you brought me?”
Finn and Valerio shared a look, but it was the latter who spoke up. “You won’t be there. I won’t risk your safety.”
She shook her head immediately. “I’m not letting Finn go in there alone.”
“He can have Augustus,” Cecilia said. “Send him in after he figures out the stuff with the security system.”
“Sorry to burst your cold little heart, but there’s no way I can do both,” Augustus said. He blew Cecilia a kiss after she rolled her eyes.
“Perfect, then I’ll go in,” Luna said.
Valerio shook his head. “No.”
“We are plotting to kill my father. You can’t ask me to not be there,” she said. She was growing increasingly frustrated. Valerio couldn’t possibly believe that she was actually going to be sitting this out.
“Do you think you could actually handle seeing your father take his last breath or watch him bleed out?” Valerio asked. “That will destroy your life; you will never be the same.”
“It won’t destroy my life any more than he tried to,” she bit back. Luna turned to Finn. “What do you think about this?”
“I’m not getting involved,” he said, raising his hands in surrender. “I just don’t want any distractions.”
“I can’t be sure you’ll actually do it,” Luna said. “How do I know you won’t change your mind while you’re there? Just the other day you were convincing us not to do this.”
“I guess you’ll just have to trust me,” Finn said.
She did trust him. Not with this though. Not when he could be swayed by their father.
“She’ll stay here then,” Gianna said, interrupting Luna. “We’ll make sure she doesn’t leave.”
She gave Gianna a look of disbelief. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“I’m trusting you, Gianna,” Valerio said, ignoring Luna.
“Plan whatever you want then,” she hissed, letting her chair screech across the floor as she got up. “You don’t need me here for any of it anymore.”
Maybe it was immature leaving the room during such an important moment the way she did, but the frustration was too much. She was already on edge as it was. If one little thing went wrong, anything, then any of them could lose their lives.
She couldn’t live with herself if something really happened to any of them.
She almost made it back to the bedroom, when Gianna came running up behind her, trying to get her to stop. Luna ignored her. “I don’t want to talk to you right now.”
“Well, you should, dummy. I only said that so they would leave it alone,” Gianna told her, yanking her shoulder so Luna could turn around. It worked. The blonde was stronger than she looked.
“What are you talking about?” she asked, crossing her arms.
“Valerio would never agree to let you go, especially if he thinks Finn is dodgy. But if he thinks you’re here protected tomorrow, then he won’t have to worry about you. It gives you the chance to sneak out with Finn,” Gianna said.
“Why would you want me to go?” Luna asked, testing the waters. It felt almost too good to be true that she would willingly want her to go off into danger.
“Because you deserve to get your justice.” She grabbed Luna’s shoulders, looking her dead in the eyes. “Get your revenge for everything he did to you. For wanting you dead, for trying to sell you off. Do it for all the girls that never had the same chance.”
Luna felt like someone had kicked her in the chest. It made sense. She wasn’t doing this just for herself and everything she had ever been through in her life. She was doing it for every girl in their world that lived the way she had. Who were sheltered, forced to miss out on moments of their life for the sake of keeping their purity. Who contemplated ending everything to avoid the very fate that put them in the hands of abusers and predators.
Luna nodded her head. “Okay.”
Gianna nodded, pulling her along with her to her bedroom so they could discuss just how far Luna was willing to go.
Even if Finn didn’t do it, she would be there, landing the final blow.