Francesca
I picked up Leo from the meeting spot, and he threw the shovels and the drill in the back seat before he hopped into the passenger seat beside me.
I took the long route around the house where Icarus buried Wolfe in the ground just to make sure I wasn’t spotted or crossed paths with anyone I wanted to avoid.
I came around to the other road that faced the west side of the property.
Someone’s house was situated along the road, but I couldn’t easily drive through their property, the wilderness between the property lines, and come up to Icarus’s place.
It was flat, but there was still rough terrain like rocks and hills, though I believed Wolfe’s Range Rover could handle it.
I parked the car on the side of the road with the phone gripped tightly in my hand, waiting for Don Russo’s signal that the battle was about to begin.
Wolfe had four more hours of air…he should be okay.
Leo was silent beside me. Sometimes he would look at me, and other times he would stare straight ahead. “We’ll get him back.”
“I hope he’s still alive.”
“If Wolfe told you seven hours, he’ll give you seven hours.”
“If it were me, I would panic and lose all my air immediately.”
“No, you wouldn’t.”
I turned to look at him.
“You would be calm—because you’d know Wolfe is coming to get you.” He turned to look at me. “He knows you’re coming, Frankie.”
My eyes wanted to well up in tears at the thought that my husband was in the pitch-dark in the ground but calm, knowing I wouldn’t give up on him. That I would move mountains and oceans to get him out of there. That I would put a gun to Don Russo’s head and demand his compliance.
My phone vibrated in my hand.
I looked at Don Russo’s message. We’re moving in.
I set the phone aside, started the engine, and rolled down the windows.
Knowing the moment had arrived chased away my emotion and replaced it with adrenaline instead.
All I had to do was drive up to the grave, dig him out, and get the hell out of there.
I wore a bulletproof vest and so did Leo, but that would only protect our torsos.
One shot to the head, and we were done for.
Leo’s hand moved over mine, a gesture he’d never made before. “We’ve got this.”
I let our hands touch for another second before I pulled away.
The gunfire reached our ears a moment later—and I knew it was time.
“Let’s do this,” Leo said.
I turned the wheel, and we drove right over some random person’s property, made our way along the side of their house, and then past their barn into the wildlands.
I had to drive between a couple big trees and over some rocks, dipped into a trench that looked like it’d once been a stream or some kind of irrigation line, and then drove upward until we reached a low hill and Icarus’s property line.
The gunfire suddenly grew louder because we were in the thick of it. Cars were in the street, and men were shooting one another from both directions. The west side of the house was abandoned like I’d hoped it would be.
“Block us from the house with the car,” Leo said as he gripped the handle on the roof, while he bounced over all the bumps of the field.
It was good advice, and when I came up to Wolfe’s grave, I felt my heart nearly give out, knowing he was in there, lying in the dark.
“But don’t park directly on the grave.”
I didn’t really need that advice, so I came close but didn’t let the weight of the car roll over where he lay.
We immediately hopped out, grabbed the shovels, and got to work. “Dig as fast as you fucking can.” I stabbed the shovel into the ground and used the pressure from my foot to dig in deep. I scooped as much dirt off in a single throw before I shoved the shovel back into the earth and repeated it.
Leo went twice as fast as I did, and that was saying something because I was going as fast as my body possibly could. He was drenched in sweat right away, even though it was sunset, digging and tossing and spraying the other tombstones with dirt.
I thought about the man buried alive right next to Wolfe. He had been alive when I’d gotten there, and maybe he could still somehow be alive…but I couldn’t afford to help him. I had to get Wolfe out of there.
We both ducked down when we heard the spray of bullets hit the windows of the car.
“They’re onto us.” Leo straightened first and started to shovel the dirt off.
I helped him, listening to the bullets continue to pelt the car that protected us.
I looked over the roof of the engine and saw two men heading for us. “Don’t stop digging.” I opened the door to the back seat and grabbed the automatic rifle. “I’ll cover you.”
“Shouldn’t that be the other way around—”
“Shut up and dig.” I was a good shot, and Leo was the faster digger. It was the only setup that made sense.
Leo stabbed his shovel into the ground and continued without consideration for his surroundings. With complete abandonment of self-preservation, he focused on getting Wolfe out of the ground while trusting me to keep him alive.
I moved to the hood of the vehicle for cover, and I popped up and sprayed my bullets. I hit one multiple times in his bulletproof vest, and he staggered back. The other aimed for my head with his pistol, but before he could get a headshot on me, I ducked down and reloaded.
Leo kept going, huffing and puffing, digging farther into the ground as he tossed mounds of dirt aside. He was soaked in sweat, his skin shiny in the fading light, probably about to rub the skin off his palms from how vigorously he worked.
I raised my gun overhead to draw fire from his pistol again, and then I jumped up and sprayed him once more. This time, I got him right in the neck, so he collapsed. The other one whom I missed had snuck around the opposite side of the car to try to grab Leo from behind.
I sprinted to the rear and then swung my gun around the corner of the trunk, hitting him right in the face and taking him by surprise. He hit the ground, and I stood over and fired the gunshots into his face.
Leo started to heave because he was so fucking tired. “You got ’em?”
“Yeah.” I let the rifle hang from my neck as I grabbed my shovel again.
“You need to keep an eye out, Frankie. More will come.”
I wanted to dig for my husband and get him the hell out of that grave, but I knew my brother was right. I let the shovel drop back to the earth, and I stood guard, listening to the gunfire from the other side of the house as the shootout continued.
“He knows we’re here,” Leo said as he shoved his foot onto the shovel and dug up another mound of dirt. Now he was three feet into the hole, about halfway to the coffin. “I’m sure he hears the gunshots and can put two and two together.”
“If he’s still alive…”
Leo continued to dig, a ring of sweat around his neck and under his armpits. It seemed like he wanted to say something, but he was probably too damn tired to get another word out.
Gunfire sprayed the Range Rover again, and I instinctively dropped down to avoid the bullets.
Leo took a knee, further protected by the vehicle as he continued to dig. He didn’t turn to look at the assailants who came for us, trusting me to handle it while he focused on Wolfe.
I looked through the bulletproof windows to see three guys headed our way. The window was dented in so many places that visibility was poor, but I could still make them out. “You gotta get him out, Leo. We’re getting too much attention.”
“I’m going as fast as I can.”
They sprayed the vehicle again, clearly not understanding it was bulletproof and they were wasting their ammunition.
“Wait until they’re out,” Leo said between his shovels of dirt.
“They’re fanning out,” I said. “I can’t wait that long.
” I dropped to my stomach, crawled slightly under the car, and then I fired my gun at their feet.
Pops of blood immediately squirted from two pairs of ankles, and then screams followed immediately.
They both dropped to the ground, either in shock or because they physically couldn’t stand.
“Frankie.”
I quickly pushed to my feet and saw the third guy round the corner with his gun pointed at me.
Leo threw his shovel like a spear and hit him right in the face.
He staggered and squeezed the trigger, spraying bullets everywhere in his panic. Thankfully, the gun was aimed skyward, and I was able to shoot him with my rifle and make him collapse.
Leo didn’t hesitate before he grabbed the shovel I’d dropped and carried on digging. “I see the coffin.” He slammed the shovel down and heard the thud of the wood underneath.
I looked over the hood of the vehicle and saw men continue to be engaged in combat.
I should remain in my lookout position, but fuck it.
We were so close. I grabbed the shovel that had been tossed and returned to Leo, and we sprinted to the end, tossing dirt into the air and caking our clothes. The black coffin came into view.
“The drill,” Leo ordered.
I jumped out of the hole, grabbed the drill, and tossed it to him below. He went to all the screws that held the lid shut. “Anyone coming?”
I did a quick check. “No, but hurry.”
“Going as fast as I fucking can, Frankie.” He did each screw, and once he got to the last one, my heart nearly exploded.
I should stay above and keep watch on the house, but I needed to get to Wolfe as quickly as possible. The two of us were sitting ducks in that grave, but I kept my gun with me and hopped inside.
Leo removed the lid to the coffin.
Wolfe lay there, hands folded together at the bottom of his chest like he’d really been asleep…and he was smiling.
Fucking smiling.
Gunshots continued to erupt around us while the firefight carried on, and this asshole was fucking smiling like being buried alive underground was a damn vacation.
I dropped to my knees beside him, flicking my eyes back and forth between his because I couldn’t understand what I was seeing.
Even Leo was stunned. He stared down at Wolfe and then switched his gaze to me in confusion.
Wolfe sat up and rested his arm over the edge of the coffin like it was the windowsill in a car, the irrational smile still plastered on that handsome face.
He didn’t look traumatized or winded or even remotely stressed.
His eyes held this warm affection like we’d just spent a wonderful day together.
And there was something else…pride. He’d never looked at me like that before.
His eyes flicked back and forth between mine before he spoke. “Tough. Fucking. Bitch.”
Despite being buried alive for the last few hours, Wolfe got behind the wheel while I got into the passenger seat, and Leo hopped in the back seat.
Wolfe hit the gas and drove off the property through the main gate, turning the wheel and clipping as many guys as he could in the process.
I called Don Russo. He answered right away, gunfire loud over the line like he was positioned behind a car during the battle. “I’ve got Wolfe.”
“Yeah, I see him. We’ll pull out. Meet you at headquarters.”
“Alright.” I hung up. “Head back to Palermo.”
Wolfe seemed to know exactly where he was because he didn’t put the address in the GPS.
The vehicle could somehow still operate despite all the damage it had sustained.
The engine sounded the same, roared to life with the same amount of power.
When he got onto the road and made a sharp right, his hand immediately went to my thigh as his elbow rested on the center console, like we were on a fucking date.
I glanced down at his hand then turned to him, seeing him glance in the rearview mirror then look straight ahead, calm and confident as always. My hand moved to his, and I interlocked our fingers and gave him a hard squeeze.
Without taking his eyes off the road, he squeezed me back.
A couple minutes later, Don Russo called me.
I released Wolfe’s hand and put it on speaker. “We’re on our way.”
“Headquarters has been compromised. It was a trap.”
Wolfe slowed the vehicle and pulled over to the shoulder of the road. He took the phone from my hand and held it in front of him. “What are you talking about, Don?”
“Wolfe, glad you’re alright.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Wolfe said quickly. “What’s happened?”
“I just got word that Icarus hit headquarters while we came here. The men are inside. My wife and daughters are upstairs. They know what to do until I get there, but they only have a couple hours at most.” His family was compromised, but he continued to keep speaking calmly and rationally.
These men were made of something else.
Wolfe released a sigh. “This was his plan all along.”
“Yes.”
Wolfe worked his jaw as he stared straight ahead. “Then we hit him now.”
“He’ll expect it.”
“We don’t have a choice. If we don’t take it back now, we never will. And we aren’t going to abandon your family.”
Don Russo didn’t say anything to that.
“We’re going to get them back,” he said gently.
Don Russo continued to hold his silence.
“And we’re going to kill this asshole while we’re at it.”