Caterina
Two of Nino’s new guys—Russian—stream into the room, and Connor’s off the bed before the sparks from the flash-bang dissipate. That man has the reflexes of a cheetah.
I’m still blinking to clear my vision when Connor uses my bed frame to turbocharge a roundhouse kick, taking down the first man through the door.
He knocks the guy out cold.
The other man lunges for me.
I scramble away, my mind reeling as I attempt to recover from post-orgasmic bliss and focus. “Connor!”
Connor yanks the guy’s shoulder, spinning him around.
He punches with a right hook and follows with an uppercut and a knee to the groin. The man collapses just as the first Russian comes to and rises for another round.
Connor kicks straight up under our newly conscious assailant’s chin.
The man’s dead to the world again. Maybe totally dead. His neck cracked unpleasantly.
Oh, god, this can’t be happening…
I’m on the other side of the bed, my hands trembling as I open my purse for the SIG.
In my periphery, four more Russians pile into the room.
Three attack Connor as one somersaults over the mattress and lands on me, pinning me to the floor and knocking the wind out of my lungs. The asshole extracts the gun from my hand with ease. Trapped beneath him, I can see feet moving from under the bed and hear the grunts of a three-on-one struggle.
“Connor!”
The guy on top of me snarls. “Shut your mouth.”
“You shut up!” I want to tell him he better get off me—that I’m in charge—but I know Nino ordered this. Besides, who would believe me?
A woman as the head of the Ricci crime organization?
They’re really Belinski’s men anyway. Even if they knew I was in charge, they still wouldn’t listen to me.
Connor’s on the floor, subdued by the other men.
I’m sorry, Connor. I’m so sorry…
As I watch them bind his wrists and ankles with zip ties, my brain bounces back to his confession…his profession of love…and his relocation request.
Move to Los Angeles?
At this precise moment, leaving all this behind sounds pretty tempting. If only I’d said yes sooner. We could’ve leaped off the roof of my second-floor suite and ridden off into the sunset.
Because I hesitated, I now have to watch as my lover’s dragged from the room, bound and bleeding.
I know the moment my brother enters, because I’d recognize those Jimmy Choo lace-up boots anywhere.
He skirts around the bed to tower over me.
“Nino.” I turn my head to peek up at him. With this Russian beast crushing me, it’s the only body part I can move. “Nino, please.”
He bends down, blank-faced, but his show of control doesn’t fool me. This is the calm-before-the-storm phenomenon.
Tears trickle down my temple as my brother smiles and produces a syringe.
Caterina
By the time I wake up, it’s dark, and I’m chained to my four-poster bed. Nino watches me from near my desk.
I’ve spent twenty-six years in the shadows, minding my own business, doing as instructed, and twice in the same month—the first month in what feels like a very long year—I awaken chained up.
What the hell has my life become?
A nasty taste coats my tongue. “Nino.”
Nino cocks his head and spins in the desk chair to address me. “I blame the Irishman.”
With the drugs still polluting my system, my mouth is fuzzy, my mind even fuzzier. All I have left are my words. “I know we want to find Father’s killer. But it’s not Connor, Nino.”
He laughs, cruel and dark. “I know it’s not.” Rising, he cracks his knuckles. “I also blame that bastard for your behavior. You were in line before he got in your pants.”
While the chemicals slowly release their grip on my body, my brain struggles to keep pace. “If you know it’s not Connor, then what are we doing? And why am I restrained?”
“Why do you think?” Nino grabs one of the papers from the will and approaches me, shaking the document in my face. “You were on the verge of mutiny.”
“It’s not like that, Nino.” I struggle to push past the panic sprouting in my chest. “I want what’s best for the family. That’s all I’ve ever wanted. That includes what’s best for you.”
“You’re a liar.” He sneers, his eyes bloodshot. “You just want power. That asshole brainwashed you because you’re weak.”
“No, Nino!” Instinctively, I lurch toward him. The chains yank me back to the bed.
Probably a stroke of luck. Look what happened the last time I tried to approach him.
I don’t recognize this person. This man…this stranger…isn’t my baby brother, and I have no idea what to expect from him. All I can hope to do is calm him down.
But how?
Nino starts pacing. “You’re fucking everything up, you know that?”
I struggle to sit up. “I’m sorry.”
“And you’re making me look like a jackass in front of Oleg and the capos.”
“No, I didn’t mean to do that.” My hair flies when I shake my head. “No one thinks—”
He rushes to the bed and grabs my jaw. “I haven’t worked this hard to gain control of this family just to lose it all to you!”
My heart plummets into my stomach.
No, no, no, no, no…
“What are you saying?”
Please, Nino. Just go.
With my eyes, I attempt to will him into keeping quiet and leaving the room.
He rolls off the bed. For a split-second, I believe my silent request worked and that my thoughts must be just that powerful.
Then he starts muttering as he shuffles over to my desk. “He was dying anyway.”
Ice jolts down my spine.
No. Please, no.
“He was getting better, and you know it!” Tears stream down my cheeks. “Nino. Please.” I’m hyperventilating, but I can’t seem to stop. “We can deal with this. We can fix it, just you and me, like after Mother died. I’m on your side—”
“I’ve been taking orders from you my whole life, and I’m tired of your shit. Tired of you thinking you’re smarter than me.” He crawls back onto the bed, reeking of garlic and vodka. “This is my organization now, and the only things standing between me and that reality are you and the Mick.”
“No, Connor’s just a fling! I love you, Nino. You’re the only family I have left. We need each other.”
I’m in love with Connor and terrified of my brother and praying my face isn’t revealing too much because I’m terrible at deceiving people. Always have been. But if ever a time existed when I needed to lie convincingly, that time is now.
Nino’s unreadable. I’m peering into his eyes, maintaining contact, searching for the little brother I used to know, the one I shared sundaes and secrets with.
We got our first tattoos together, the honeysuckle in honor of our late mother. Where did that little boy go?
“Nino.” I rattle the chain over my wrist to remind him of our tattoo. “Please, you’ve got to believe me. I love you. You’re all that matters to me. It’s always been us, and it always will be.”
He responds with a harsh, raw laugh. “What do you know about love and loyalty? You screwed Connor Gallagher!”
My brother returns to the desk, gathers up the will, and marches to the door.
“I’m going to miss you, sis.” He sighs. “Poor Caterina Ricci. No mother…no father…no will to live.”
In Nino’s black eyes, I glimpse a path leading straight to hell.
Too late, I understand everything Connor tried to tell me. Reason isn’t always the answer. Some people are just evil to the core.
Kill or be killed…and my inaction decided for me.
As he opens the door, Nino continues reciting my impromptu obituary. “Took her own life before the age of thirty. How tragic that she never even made it to her own father’s funeral.”
After that, he’s gone, his Jimmy Choos stomping past our mother’s mermaid and down the grand staircase.
I curl my knees up to my chest, choking on a sob.
I’m going to die.