32. ALESSIO
32
ALESSIO
I kill the fucker coming down the hall at me, but I don’t stop moving as I continue to make my way outside with Nico. There are shouts, smoke, and bullets flying everywhere, but as I keep moving, I see more and more of Parisi and Giovanni’s soldiers falling. But the fact that I haven’t seen either of their leaders fills me with a grim worry. There is no way in hell that Rafaele isn’t here with his men.
So where the fuck is he?
Nico and I continue our way down the halls until we near the front door, where Dante is barking orders into his phone as he also fires expertly at any soldier that gets too close who isn’t obviously one of ours. When we reach him, he ends his call and tells us, “We’ve got them pushed back, and our men are handling them at the gates and on the grounds. Alessio, your men have mostly cleared the house. There are still some that haven’t been taken care of, but we’ll get them. The only things that have sustained damage are the front gates, a couple of cars they bombed, and the front door has taken some abuse, but is holding.”
“Good. Any sign of Rafaele or Giovanni?” Nico demands.
Dante shakes his head. “No. Neither man has been identified on the grounds.”
Every instinct inside me is screaming that something is wrong. “There is no way neither of them are here, or at least one of them and maybe one of Giovanni’s sons,” I say tightly. “Which means?—”
“Dante!” We round and see Sofia, Rori, and Hades’ blood-soaked muzzle rushing for us. Fear grips me when I realize that Gia and Sienna aren’t with them. “Tommaso managed to get access to the passageways, and he let in Rafaele Parisi and Lorenzo De Luca. I killed Tommaso, and we managed to wound Lorenzo, but he and Rafaele got away and went after Sienna and Gia before we could get to them. They took off in the tunnels, but we can’t find them,” Sofia tells us grimly. “We heard a shot and a man scream at one point when we tried to go after them, but Lorenzo managed to get away from us down one of the passageways and we lost him. We tried to search for them, but then we didn’t hear anyone anymore and we think they got out, but we don’t know where.”
“Fuck,” Dante hisses, pulling up his phone. “The men have the systems back up online. Just give me a second.” Nico and I say nothing as we wait, but both of us are tense. I want to run after Sienna now, to find her, but I force myself to stay still. There’s no point in running all over the fucking place. Finally, Dante says, “Got them. They exited into the garden at the back of the house. They got out and headed into the maze. Most of the fighting is toward the front so there shouldn’t be any men in there but…” Then he lets out another curse. “Fuck. The girls went the wrong way and went back toward the house instead of deeper in. And Rafaele and Lorenzo just stepped out of the same door they came out and saw them.”
“Let’s go,” Nico barks. “Dante, get Sofia and Rori?—”
“No, we’re coming too,” Rori interrupts, her face hard. “Hades can track them.”
“We’re wasting time arguing,” Sofia growls impatiently. She pulls another magazine from the small of her back and expertly changes her empty one out. “Now, let’s get out there.” Then she turns away, and I’m running behind her.
I send up a prayer that Sienna is safe, because if anything happens to her, I’m not sure I’ll be able to keep from burning this place to the fucking ground.