17. Daniela
“Matheus?” I say breathlessly, my eyes all over him, not understanding.
He doesn”t reply, move or fight against Giovanni, knowing one wrong move could be disastrous.
“What the fuck is going on?” My head spins around to find Tomás. “Are you going to explain why he has a gun to Mat’s head?” My stomach burns from a rise of acid. “You wouldn”t shoot your own brother. What sort of power trip are you on?”
Tomás leaves me kneeling in the bedroom and prowls into the night air, moving next to Giovanni.
“Did you really think you could slither into my brother”s life, wind him around your trigger finger and have him conspire against me?” he asks with an air of superiority, his entire posture tall and self-assured.
My face goes numb, not from his mocking tone, but from a surge of adrenaline racing through my veins. These guys don’t mess around.
Alarm bells aren’t just ringing in my ears, they’re battering my chest too. Nevertheless, he’s still their brother.
“I call your bluff, Tommy.” I desperately try to sound fearless even though my mouth is dry and apprehension pulses in my neck. “You wouldn’t hurt Matheus.”
In a blur, Giovanni raises his weapon and wallops it off the side of Matheus’ head. One powerful crack has him exhaling in a muffled groan and toppling sideways.
They must have shoved a rag inside his mouth to silence him.
“Don’t you fucking dare!” I yell, tugging my wrists, not caring for the metal digging into my flesh and bone.
But the second I jump to my feet to run to him; Giovanni looks right at me and halts my advance with a sharp green glare.
“Unless you want a bullet in each knee, stay where you are.”
He scoops a hand under Matheus’ arm and hauls him back to kneeling. Matheus shakes his head, panting through the pain, his head bowed.
Knowing he’s suffering makes my skin crawl.
“Move again and I’ll put a bullet in his head,” Giovanni warns, low and threatening.
Tomás crosses his arms.
“Did you come back to Sicily to finish your real mission? The one Blanco gave you?”
“There was no mission other than learning from Giovanni and keeping my enemies close,” I admit, trying to sound unaffected while my eyes drill into the red stitching on the balaclava. “I had no idea Mat would end up sharing a room with me. That was orchestrated by you…” My gaze darts to Giovanni. “Isn’t that right, Dragón?”
Tomás shrugs. “Yeah, that part worked out well for you. Especially when you flashed your tits in his face as bait and hooked him in. But you hate my family, don’t you? So, you betrayed André and Sinéad. That’s how they got to them––because of you.”
“Fuck you, Souza!” I bite out. “I hate you, Tomás…the rest of your family members are mildly tolerable. I’d never put a pregnant woman at risk. That would make me as sick in the head as Eduardo. But Matheus––we have a connection.”
I sense his annoyance, noting how he takes two short strides closer to me.
“Don’t bullshit me, Daniela. You used him. Admit it.”
My spine straightens, vertebrae after vertebrae, in preparation to do whatever it takes to protect Matheus.
“No, I didn’t!” I hiss, my frustration growing.
“Yeah, you did.” He pushes. “You played him, so he’d hand over Eduardo.” The words snap out like bullets. “You took off your mask, made sure the cameras caught you fucking my brother, and then led trouble straight to Blanco’s door, where you made sure they’d find you alone in the street. You knew Mat would come for you, didn’t you?” He cocks a brow, asking the question, but not waiting for my response. “You planned the whole thing and I’d throw a million-dollar wager into the ring that you knew Elias Souza wasn’t Matheus’ father.”
I suck in sharply, my head shaking.
“Blanco never told me about Elias. I found out at the same time as Matheus did.”
“You’re Blanco’s daughter, Daniela. Do you seriously expect me to believe you were blind to his plans?”
“It doesn’t matter what I tell you, your mind is made up,” I say, exasperated. “I swear I had no idea about Mat’s father. And for the record, I tried to keep your brother at arm’s length. And I sure as hell didn”t intend to fall for him like I did.”
“Fall for him?” My admission receives a dark chuckle. “If you really had feelings for my brother, you wouldn’t have manipulated the guy and tried to fuck up his life.”
“Mat…” I shuffle forward, still wrangling my wrists. “Take that off his head and let him speak, for fuck’s sake!”
Tomás stops me with two stern words. “Kill him.”
Chills scurry across my scalp. My empty stomach curdles and the pulsating sensation in my skull almost blinds me with scattered blobs.
“Wait…what?” My head shakes side to side, confused. “You wouldn’t…”
Giovanni positions his gun at his youngest brother”s temple.
“This is a joke, right? You want me to admit to that bullshit…to lie? You’re not giving Matheus any credit here. He has his own mind…he’s not stupid.”
Tomás takes a step back, the white-collar criminal putting a measure of distance between himself and his victim.
“Do it, Gio.”
“No… please…” I beg, panting hard, suddenly absolutely fucking terrified. “You’ve got it all wrong.”
Tomás stays still, unmoved by my urgent begging, his face forged with cast iron.
“Traitors die, Daniela.”
“He’s not a traitor!” I scream, my voice shredding the gentle lullaby of the distant lapping ocean. “If you have to prove a point…kill me instead…shoot me…not him…please… don’t hurt him… I’ll do whatever you want.”
I barely hear my rambled plea under the pounding of my heartbeat. By the time I’ve darted onto the terrace, hot tears are streaming down my face.
I can’t breathe properly. Panic scorches my veins like hellfire.
On my next breath, seconds away from Matheus, Giovanni pulls the trigger and my world grinds to a halt.
“Noooooooo!” I shriek, the word scraping its way out of my throat. “Holy fuck…Matheus!”
The sharp decibel of his name echoes in my ears, rips through the coastal serenity, and shoots to the stars above us.
Matheus face plants the slabs and a pool of dark red blood forms a puddle around him. Shock petrifies every braced muscle in my body.
“W-w-what have you done? N-no…”
My knees buckle, causing my legs to crumple like they’re made from jelly. I sink before him, folding into a destroyed heap.
Staring at his motionless body, pain slashes my heart, the hurt deeper than any blade could ever cut.
“Y-you k-killed him…?” I croak, blinking tears and choking on the words. “W-w-why would you do that? He’s your brother.”
Every part of me trembles and all I can hear is my uncontrollable sobbing. Acid surges up from my churning stomach, burns my throat and spews out of my mouth.
I’m rendered completely helpless. All the pep talks I’d given myself over the years, the internal chatter that had built me into a strong, independent killer––a lethal woman who didn’t need a partner in this life––it was bullshit.
I lied to myself and the way I can’t stop whimpering would be embarrassing if I gave a fuck about anything other than the intense ache behind my ribs.
These fuckers haven’t just broken my heart––they’ve devastated my whole life.
Things were different when Mama died. She had suffered for years. Her spirit had withered while her body wasted away, and pain consumed her every waking breath. It was her time to leave me.
But this…he didn’t deserve to die.
I should bounce to my feet, let this agony turn into wrath and take one final stab at self-defense. Show these motherfuckers I’m not weak. That I’m not their prey.
Despite all of that, there’s no fight left inside of me. The spark has gone out. My typical instincts have vanished, and my brain has malfunctioned.
He’s dead, because I failed to protect him when I swore I would. Making that promise to Matheus became the only oath that truly held any weight.
Not pledging my allegiance to The Covenant or vowing to serve my father.
Keeping him safe was all that really mattered to me in the end. I realized that fact the moment he’d stepped into an SUV and disappeared.
And that’s why I flew to Sicily and made peace with my decision to fall in line as an agent again. Because that way, I’d be waiting in the shadows to protect him.
I didn’t need wedding vows to tether me to him. We were already betrothed on a deeper, more intimate level.
While I’m spiraling in grief, Giovanni’s light footfall moves into my line of vision. I gulp down a tattered sob and stare up at him, noticing a rare glimmer of what could be empathy in his eyes.
As quickly as it happens, all traces of it vanish from his cold gaze.
He holds an iPhone in front of my face and taps the screen.
My blurry gaze settles on the video footage and my heartbeat goes haywire.
“Matheus?” I whisper-croak and reach out for the device.
“The fucker whose brains are decorating the terrace colluded with our enemies and allowed an armed imposter into André’s home. Traitors die, agent Buffalo,” Giovanni informs me.
I hear him, but I can’t take my eyes off Matheus as he climbs the grand staircase inside the mansion not far from me.
He’s beautiful with that dark hair of his all disheveled and the top button of his white shirt left undone. I can’t hide the smile on my face or the bubbles of happiness popping inside my chest.
Giovanni sighs heavily. “What you’re watching is in real time,” he announces. “Crow is safe.”
I laugh a little. The sound of it deranged, but the emotion that caused it is unlike anything I’ve ever known. Relief hits me hard and warmth charges through me, giving me weird fuzzy vibes, like I’m in love.
When Giovanni takes the phone from me, I wipe my nose with the back of my hand, sniffing. To my surprise, Tomás steps into me next. He hunkers low so our eyes are level.
“It was the fucking atrocious smell that got to me first.” The calmness in his deep voice makes me shiver. “I will never forget that old barn, Daniela. The sight of those women, their bodies piled up. I’ve seen death before. Sprayed a round into my enemies and not regretted a single bullet, but those girls…” He clears his throat as if he’s trying to escape the hideous memory. “But amongst all that death, there was a little life trembling on the floor…an innocent heart thumping so hard it couldn”t be hidden…and a powerful pulse thrumming in the neck of a girl who knew she had to pretend to be dead like them to survive.”
I can’t speak, desperately trying to muster more energy, physically trying to prepare myself for what would happen next. Yet I’m eager to hear more, to understand the Souza bastard I’ve hated for years.
“My father would have shot that girl in the head and carried on with his business conversation,” Tomás says matter-of-factly.
“Me––” He reaches for my arm, lifts it towards the moonlight and studies my tattoo of justice scales.
Something obscure passes over that black ice expression on his face.
“I decided to give her a fighting chance and purposefully left the barn door open. Then I ordered my men to incinerate the dead. While they gathered fuel and talked shit, the girl fled. I made sure they didn’t notice her scrambling barefoot and pathetic towards the trees.”
My stomach churns and my heart jerks. There’s no way he could have known that, unless…he really did watch me head for the biggest tree trunk and hide behind it.
He drops my arm.
“After that, I made it my mission to change the way we ran things in certain areas. However, after my father died, I’d since learned a Souza lieutenant and his men continued to conduct other shady shit without my approval. And that’s why I agreed to have Eduardo executed. You did me a favor. We both benefited from it.”
“Tonight was a test…” My voice sounds small following the power of his words.
“Matheus is my brother, Daniela. I will do anything to protect my family.”
I frown, my mind all over the place.
“And you actually meant to let me escape that day?”
My insides revolt against the truth.
Tomás Souza was my hero once upon a time.
He’s the reason I’m still alive.
Tomás nods and before I can process those thoughts, he grabs my cheeks and hollows them with firm fingertips.
“I’m not the good guy here, Daniela. Especially if the enemy thinks they can take us down. That being said, I recognize how you were prepared to sacrifice your life for Matheus. It’s obvious something’s growing between you two.”
Dark eyes flit from my tear-stained cheeks to the blood next to us. For a second, he stills and then continues.
“The three of us…” He glances at Giovanni. “…can agree we’re on the same page where safeguarding my little brother is concerned. Right?”
A sigh escapes me, and I nod, still in shock.
“But don’t ever mistake my decision to help you escape as a show of weakness. What happened in that barn––what neither of us will ever forget––it was an off-the-cuff decision that won’t be repeated.”
He’s so close I can easily see the disgust in his black eyes. There’s barely any space separating us. No visible weapons for me to grab or protection from the man who”d tricked me moments ago when he’d ripped my tiny heart out of my chest and handed it back to me, repaired––and somehow different.
Where the ashes of hatred for this man smolder, a wisp of genuine gratitude kindles now.
“The contents of that barn, what happened there, is not what the new generation of Souzas will be known for.” He continues. “I understand your desire for revenge. So, tell me, Daniela, is there a bullet in your gun with my name on it? Or can I trust you to be a part of our inner circle?”