73. Niccolò
73
NICCOLò
I sabella and I walk into our penthouse expecting to be met with silence, but the opposite happens.
“Izzy!” comes the high-pitched voice of Liana as she runs through the foyer, her arms wide open while she all but jumps into Isabella’s arms. “Oh my gosh,” she cries out.
Tito and Gianni come rushing in behind her, each of them looking us over with wide eyes. “You good?” Gianni asks, and I give him a nod. He takes out his phone, presumably to call Matteo.
Pulling herself back, Liana looks Isabella and me up and down as if searching to make sure we’re okay and says, “What happened? Where were you guys? We’ve all been worried sick.”
“M-Mauricio took me when I was out back at the boutique. He and Giuseppe brought Nicco and I to some abandoned warehouse. They had us taped to chairs and were going to kill us,” she says softly. “What’re you doing here?”
“When I went to look for you and couldn’t find you, Gianni called Teo who said Nicco was also missing. Tito and Gianni brought me here to wait it out since it’s so close to my place while everyone else went out to look for you guys.” She looks at me. “Dante and Leo are out there looking too.”
Shit.
I need to let them know I’m okay, but I don’t have my fucking phone, thanks to my dad. I’ll have to grab one of my burners.
Gianni walks over to me, holding out his phone. “Boss wants to speak with you.”
Taking it, I bring it up to my ear while turning away from Isabella and Liana. “Yeah?”
“What the fuck happened?” Matteo’s irate voice comes through loudly. “Is Isabella okay?”
“Yes, she’s okay.”
Matteo lets out a relieved sigh. “We’re almost back to your place. I want to know everything that fucking happened.”
Without another word, Matteo hangs up, and I hand the phone back to Gianni. “Your boss will be back soon,” I say.
Turning back to Isabella, I place my hand at the curve of her back, which causes her to tense up. Her eyes snap toward mine before relaxing as if she wasn’t sure who was touching her. It kills me that tonight has caused that reaction from her. I want to wrap her up in my arms and tell her nothing like this will ever happen again.
“Your brothers are going to be here any minute,” I say. “I can tell them to leave so you can get some rest if you want.”
She shakes her head. “No, it’s fine. We should talk to them. Besides, I doubt they’d leave until they know every single detail about tonight.”
Nodding, I say, “We can meet them in the living room. Come on.”
Liana steps aside while I lead Isabella down the hall to the living room. We both sit on the loveseat while Liana sits in one of the chairs. Gianni and Tito stay back in the foyer, waiting for Matteo and Enzo to show up.
“Where is she?” a voice bellows through the penthouse. Footsteps get louder as they get closer to the living room.
Matteo and Enzo make eye contact with me first before sliding their concerned gazes over to their sister. Isabella pushes herself up from the sofa and hurries over to her brothers, throwing herself into both of their arms.
“Please tell me you’re all right,” Matteo says, holding Isabella’s hands out to look at her. She nods, but I can tell by how she’s holding the bunched fabric of her sleeve that she’s trying to hide the blood on her sweater.
Matteo runs his gaze over his sister, and just as I had expected him to, he stops on the sleeve in question. “What is that?” he barks out.
“What?” Isabella responds, feigning ignorance.
“Isabella,” he snaps, pulling up her sleeve in a rougher manner than I’d like. It has me jumping up and at her side in an instant.
“Matteo,” I growl out in warning as I wrap my arm around Isabella’s waist and tug her into me, forcing him to let go of her.
“What happened?” he demands.
“Your sister saved us by sneaking a knife under her sleeve, but she ended up cutting herself by accident in the process.”
“I didn’t really save us,” Isabella mutters, causing me to snap my gaze to her.
“Of course you did. Had it not been for that knife, I would’ve never gotten out of the zip ties, and there’s only so much I could’ve done with my hands tied behind my back. We would’ve both ended up dead had it not been for your quick thinking.”
Isabella gives me a small smile before turning her attention back to her brothers. “Nicco checked it earlier, and I don’t need stitches. It looks a lot worse than it actually is because I haven’t been able to wash all the dried blood off yet.”
Enzo looks at me. “We waited in the room next to your office for longer than I’m willing to admit. We should’ve fucking known something was up when a few minutes had gone by and we still hadn’t heard you guys go to your office.”
“The only reason we were able to determine what had happened is because we had our guy hack into your security system,” Matteo says, which draws an irritated scoff from my mouth.
“You were able to get in?” I ask, shocked that their guy broke through my firewall. It’s supposed to be nearly impossible.
“It took him some time, but he was finally able to. I don’t know who set up your system, but it’s pretty impressive,” Enzo says. “You might want to get our guy on it though.”
I fucking set it up because I trusted no one else to do it, but now I’m second-guessing my talents.
Enzo lets out a small chuckle. “That look on your face tells me you installed your security system, huh?”
I tense my jaw and remain silent, giving them the answer they already know.
Matteo raises a brow at me as if he’s impressed. “It was pretty good according to our guy but not fool-proof. I’ll send you his information. If my sister is going to be living here, you’re going to need a professional to do your system.”
I nod, knowing Matteo’s right. I can install a decent security system for myself, but I will not put my girl at risk. I can swallow my ego if it means her safety isn’t a question.
“Look, Teo, Enzo, I’m really tired,” Isabella says, the exhaustion taking over her voice. “Nicco and I are both fine, so I’d really appreciate it if we could hold off on the interrogation until tomorrow.”
Matteo opens his mouth to argue, but I stop him by saying, “I think a bath would be good, Isabella. Why don’t you head to our room, and I’ll be there in a few minutes to draw you one.”
Isabella says her goodbyes to her brothers and cousin before heading down the hallway, but that doesn’t keep her from shooting a worried glance at me from over her shoulder. I give her a warm smile, letting her know everything is okay, and she continues down the hall.
“Start talking, Niccolò,” Matteo says, and I bring my attention to him.
“Liana, let’s go to the kitchen and do… something,” Enzo mutters.
“But I want to?—”
Enzo places his hand on Liana’s elbow and leads her out of the room. He goes in the opposite direction of the kitchen, but I don’t think that matters to him.
Once they’ve cleared the room, I bring my attention back to Matteo. “My dad and Mauricio took me and Isabella to an abandoned building in Brooklyn. It’s not one I’ve been to before.”
“We sent people to every warehouse we knew Silvestri owned. No wonder we couldn’t find you guys,” he says.
Silence fills the air around us while Matteo watches me, waiting for me to continue. I can see the questions swarming behind his eyes.
“Your sister is strong, Matteo. Don’t mistake her for not being able to handle herself. When my dad and I walked in, she already had Mauricio on his ass, moaning like a bitch, and she’s the reason I was able to get us out of there in the end.”
That breaks the tension in the room, causing Matteo to chuckle. “I guess I wouldn’t expect anything less from her.”
I take a deep breath before saying, “Look, I know we made a deal that I’d let you take out my dad, but you have to understand, he had her?—”
“I know,” he says. “I know.”
“I wasn’t going to let anything happen to her, so I took the shot when I had the best chance I had. He had to die.”
Matteo nods. “All that matters is that my sister is unharmed and your dad and Mauricio are dead.”
“They’re both very much dead,” I confirm.
Matteo nods again. “Have you sent anyone to clean it up?”
“No. My dad smashed my phone, so I haven’t been able to get ahold of Dante or Leo to call it in.”
“I let them know you were back after we got off the phone. They were going to come over, but when I told them we were almost back to your place, they said to let you know to call them when you had a chance. I think they wanted to give us all a moment.”
He takes out his phone. “Don’t worry about the cleanup. I’ll get with Enzo, and we’ll handle it.”
“Thanks, I appreciate that,” I say, and it doesn’t bypass me how far Matteo and I have come in such a short amount of time. How we went from enemies to working together to take down the real enemy.
“We’ll chat soon, but for now, go make sure my sister is truly okay.” He turns around and begins to walk out of the room, but before he’s out of sight, he turns back to me and says, “Thank you, Nicco. I don’t think I said that… Thank you for saving my sister.”
“I would’ve done anything to keep her safe. I always will.”
“I know,” he says with a respectful nod. “I know.”
As soon as he’s out of sight, I make my way down the hall to my room, knowing all I need in this moment is one thing; my girl.