25. An Inferno
CHAPTER 25
AN INFERNO
A ntonio
I stare, numb, as the brilliant flames lick up the facade, consuming every inch of the villa Mamma adored. The smoke billows, pouring from the terrazzo of the master bedroom and spreads like wild. An inferno shoots up into the blue sky, darkening the clouds and thickening the air.
Mariuccia? Fabi? Fear tears at my insides.
Dio , I hope they got out.
I gun the engine, needing to get closer to see if there is anything or worse, anyone left to salvage.
“What are you doing?” Serena shouts, suddenly standing beside me.
“I have to go back.”
“Are you crazy? There’s nothing you can do.”
“What if Mariuccia and Fabi are still in there?”
Her eyes widen, understanding flickering across her face before she shakes her head. “You can’t just run into a burning building.”
“It wouldn’t be the first time, tesoro , but I sure as fuck hope it’s the last.”
Her hand curls around my arm, trying to tug the steering wheel off course. “You can’t, Antonio. There’s something wrong…” Her gaze narrows along the shore as I push closer. “There’s no way a fire like that got so out of control so quickly.” Then her hand shoots up, pointing at something moving amidst the thickening clouds of ash. “Look!”
I never would have spotted it if it hadn’t been for her. The glint of a gun and a figure skulking across the garden. Then another behind the olive tree and another behind the stone wall.
“ Merda ,” I grit out. “Who the fuck dared to attack my home?” The Sartoris, the Salernos? Or one of the countless others?
Dante wouldn’t… would he? I never thought he would risk his daughter’s life like this, but what the hell do I know.
Serena wrenches the steering wheel to the right, jerking it from my grasp. “No idea but now is not the time to find out.”
“But Mariuccia?—”
Her eyes turn glossy, lips pulling into a pout. “I’m sorry, Antonio, but if she didn’t get out...”
“No, I don’t accept that.” Cazzo , this is all my fault. I made Mariuccia come here. I dragged her back to this inferno, to the fucked-up dark world I inhabit. Spinning the boat around, I push the engine to maximum speed and curve around the bend once more until we’re out of sight. I only pray no one saw us approaching and with the dense smoke and the chaos of the fire, the probabilities are good.
“Where are you going?” she screeches.
“I’m dropping you off somewhere safe, and I’m going back.”
“You can’t!” She whips her head back and forth, blonde hair lashing across her face.
“I have to.” I sear my eyes to hers, forcing my hands at my side to keep them from touching her. “My father was a pezzo di merda, and I went back for him. Mariuccia was like a mother to me, and she deserves better. And Fabi… If there is any chance they survived, I have to try.”
“Then I’ll go with you.”
“Absolutely not.” I glance down between us at her ankle. Even now as she stands holding onto the stern, she can’t put all her weight on it. “I have no idea who is behind this, and there is no way I’m putting your life at risk again. Not when we’re so close to an agreement…” Could Dante have double-crossed me ?
“ Papà .” Her voice is so low I’m not certain I hear her. “You think it’s him, don’t you?”
“I never said that.”
“But that’s what you’re thinking. I can see it in your eyes. You really think my father would do that to a house with me in it?”
I shake my head slowly. “I honestly have no idea what to think, tesoro . But no one knows about this house.”
“So how could my father?”
“Maybe he tracked my phone somehow…”
“I thought you had some sort of untraceable VPN.”
“I thought so too, but?—”
“No! It’s not the Kings. I know my own father and he would never,” she grits out the last part as I slow the boat onto the shore.
“Now is not the time to argue.” I cut the engine and turn to face her. “Just stay here. I’ll be right back.”
“You can’t be serious?” She glares up at me, eyes narrowed. “You want me to just sit here and wait?”
“Yes, that’s exactly what I want.” I eye the rope coiled around the metal cleats along the side of the boat. “Don’t make me tie you up, Serena.”
“You wouldn’t dare,” she hisses.
I tower over her, my hands clamping around her shoulders. “Give me your word that you won’t move.”
“And if I don’t? You’ll tie me up and leave me here knowing there’s a very real possibility you won’t come back?” Her wild eyes meet mine, and I catch a glimpse of worry. Not just for her, or the situation, but for what she just said, the chance of me not returning.
I loose a frustrated breath, and my hands move to frame her cheeks. I’m surprised she doesn’t slap them away. “Just promise me you’ll stay.”
She clucks her teeth, muttering a curse, then lifts her watch between us, wriggling free of my hold. “You have thirty minutes, Antonio. If you’re not back, I’m out of here.”
“There’s nowhere to go…”
“I’ll find a way, hitch a ride, do whatever it takes.”
My head dips because I don’t doubt her one bit. Even with that sprained ankle, I’m sure she’ll find a way out of here. “Thirty minutes,” I repeat.
Her eyes lock on mine, and a whirlwind of emotions streak across the typically brilliant blue of her irises. I’m filled with the most overwhelming urge to drag her mouth to mine and devour her lips just one time.
Because she’s right and there’s a very real probability that I won’t make it back. And it would be a sin to die without ever having tasted those lips.
Fuck it.
When this is all over, I’m going straight to hell anyway.
I wrap my hand around the back of her neck and force her mouth to mine. I groan the instant our lips make contact, the sweet strawberry taste more intoxicating than in my wildest dreams. She clenches her teeth for only an instant before her lips part, giving way to my tongue. She gasps as I tilt her head to deepen the kiss and plunder every inch of her mouth. Fire races down to my cock as I imagine that hot, wet mouth not just against my lips but all over me.
Before I lose all common sense, I jerk my mouth off hers and take a measured step back, putting some much-needed space between our heated bodies. My chest heaves, rising and falling in the same erratic pattern as hers.
Her eyes narrow as she regards me, lips parted and panting. Those blazing sapphire orbs rake over me for an instant before a sharp sting registers across my cheek. “Never do that again,” she snarls, her hand still raised in the air.
“No promises, tesoro .”
She opens her mouth likely to hurl a string of curses in my direction, but I leap off the boat before she gets a word out. My shoes sink into the sandy shore, and I’m off running between the thick vegetation of the neighboring villa.
A long minute later, I glance over my shoulder before the boat disappears from view, praying to every god in existence that I’ll find her waiting as I asked. And I’m shocked when I can still make out her familiar form is perched on the seat beside the steering wheel.
With her safety confirmed, I pump my arms faster, disappearing into the vegetation. Serena will be fine. I find myself repeating the phrase over and over as I sprint toward the villa, trees lashing at my face in the thickening smoke.
I reach the edge of our property, the wrought iron gate forced open. Rage courses through my veins, and it takes all my self-control to keep it at bay. Who the fuck came for me? Destroyed my family’s home? I scan the perimeter for the men we’d seen earlier, but the smoke is too dense. Either they’re already gone, or I just can’t see them skulking through the clouds of ominous black.
I reach the entry and the door swings open, hanging from burnt hinges. Flames engulf the foyer, each room a cavern of fire and smoke. My gaze immediately leaps to the portrait on the wall, and my heart sinks. The glass is cracked, the image singed and destroyed. The one happy memory of our family is lost forever. Swallowing down the pain, I move past the main hall, coughing, my lungs burning as I search desperately for Mariuccia. The heat is unbearable, the crackling of the fire deafening, but all I can think about is finding her.
“Mariuccia!” I shout, my voice hoarse, barely audible over the roar of the inferno. “Fabi!” I push through the smoke, my eyes stinging, trying to make out either form in the chaos.
The thick, black smoke swirls around me like a living thing, obscuring my vision, choking me. I stumble through the familiar corridors, now transformed into a hellish labyrinth. Each door I fling open reveals another burst of flames, another wave of heat that pushes me back. Desperation claws at me, raw and fierce. I have to find Mariuccia. She's been the only constant in my life, the only reminder of who I once was. I can't let her vanish into the flames; I can't let the fire consume the last piece of my humanity.
Her words from earlier flutter through my mind, her smile as she waved us off from the dock. Nothing lasts forever in this life, but the love you give and receive is what truly endures. Wherever life takes you, whatever dark paths you may walk, never lose sight of the light inside you. That boy who loved so fiercely, laughed so freely, let him guide you back to peace.
Those can’t be the final words she ever says to me. But how fitting they would be…
I push through the kitchen door, one hand covering my mouth, and sink to the floor when I find her. No, them. Two blackened, scorched forms are splayed out across the tile. All the remaining air in my lungs squeezes out in a pained gasp. I’m too damned late. Just like with him .
A burst of flames erupts from behind me as the fire finds the gas stove. Dio , there’s no time. No way for me to get their remains out. With the blaring heat licking up my spine, I dart across the kitchen to the French doors that lead out to the terrazzo. My hand closes around the antique knob, and the metal burns my flesh.
Merda !
I take a step back and kick at the thick glass panes. It shatters upon impact, glass raining down in glistening shards. Covering my face, I leap through the doorway, my heart a battering ram against my ribs, my lungs burning from lack of oxygen.
I don’t stop until I reach the edge of the gardens and finally draw in a careful breath. Ash and soot float on the breeze, the blazing fire raging only a few yards away. My heart aches at the sight, but I push it down, allowing the fury to take its place. I’ll find out who dared to murder those poor women, destroy my home, my memories, the one tether to my humanity.
I’ll hunt them down and make every last one of those fuckers pay.
The crackle of footfalls on the singed lawn sends my head spinning over my shoulder, but before I can react, a gunshot echoes through the murky air.