CHAPTER SEVENTY DAMON
CHAPTER SEVENTY
DAMON
NOW
Pacing across the living room, I glance up the stairs toward my father’s quarters and then back at the time.
Ronan has an hour head start, but he needs more.
The problem is, I can’t keep the guards busy for much longer.
I’ve set off alarms around the property, leaving them running from one side of the compound to the other, expecting an attack, only to find a gator or a squirrel enjoying their evening.
At some point they’re going to realize something is fucking with the sensors and wake my father.
It’s only the fact that I’ve been running point since it started that has kept him asleep for this long, but I’m not the boss yet, and that means they won’t listen to me forever.
They’ll want Salvatore’s guidance when mine fails.
I watch the cameras as a group of guards walk back toward the house and flick my attention to the cellar. I did my best to clean up the mess my brother made when he killed Ralph, but blood stains the brick and flimsy mattress, a reminder of what that piece of shit was about to do to Chloe.
If I didn’t wake up when I did, an uneasy feeling rolling through my gut that forced me to check the camera in her cell, he would have violated her.
There’s no doubt in my mind that he would have gone against my father’s orders that she was off-limits.
I got halfway down the stairs before I realized I couldn’t be the one to save her. It had to be Ronan.
The fucker sleeps like the dead, making it almost impossible to wake him, but at least he jumped into action as soon as he heard she was in danger, leaving me to put things into motion for their escape.
It goes against everything in me to betray my family, but Ronan is my brother, and my loyalty is to him just as much as it is the rest of the Lombardi name.
Or at least that’s how I’m justifying it to myself.
When the guards are almost back to the house, I decide I have to be the one to tell Dad that Ralph, Ronan, and Chloe are missing.
The former’s body is currently stuffed into the laundry shoot in the wing of the house that hasn’t been used since the Weavers were killed, which will hopefully mean it takes a while for anyone to find him.
For now, the cameras have been wiped and the front gate has no record of a car leaving.
Everything I’ve done, I’ve made sure it’s something that old fuck knew how to do. I also deleted the recording in Chloe’s cell, matching up with when Ralph took his phone out to take a photo.
I just hope my father falls for the lie I’ve set up.
Taking the stairs two at a time, I rush to his quarters and burst in, as if I can’t get to him quick enough.
He stirs but doesn’t sit up until I’m at the edge of the bed. “What is it?” he snaps.
“I think Ralph has kidnapped Ronan and Chloe,” I pant, making it seem like I ran up here. Which I did, but I spend two hours a day in the gym. A quick run through the house isn’t even enough to make me break a sweat.
When he doesn’t immediately respond, I continue, “Alarms have been going off around the perimeter, but by the time the guards get there, there’s nothing but some animals.
Ronan’s car’s missing, but the front gate didn’t register anyone leaving, and the cameras didn’t pick it up either. And then there’s this.”
I hold out my phone with the feed of Chloe’s cell playing.
“I think Ronan must have caught him, and Ralph knocked him out. There’s blood down there but no body.”
Every lie that falls from my lips brings me closer to being killed for betraying my family, but I can’t stop myself.
I have to give them time to escape, even if it means I die doing so.