23. Sandro
Sandro
One would think that they wouldn’t be able to recall the last time they had such a feeling of dread descend upon them, but that wasn’t the case with me. Mine was when I was walking out of my hotel room in Capri and then suddenly woke up in a warehouse somewhere else, tied to the floor.
A similar feeling was deep within me at the moment, but I couldn’t say why.
We were in the villa, and everything seemed to be as it should.
Leo was sitting in our bed, trying to get comfortable.
He was due in a few days, but we didn’t know when our son would be born.
There had been zero signs of labor as of yet.
“What?” Leo asked.
“I don’t know,” I said as I stood up. “Wait here. I’m going to go see what’s going on.”
“What do you mean, wait here? No,” Leo said as he started to crawl off the bed.
I glanced back at him, ready to argue that he should stay in bed, but he was somehow already on his feet.
“It’s best if you wait here. You will be safest here.”
Leo stopped and looked as if I’d slapped a hand on his chest to stop him in his place. “What do you mean, I’ll be safest here? What’s going on, Sandro?”
I glanced back at the door. It was dark beyond the bedroom door.
We were ready for bed because it was almost midnight.
“I’m not sure. I just feel like something is about to happen.
” I placed my fist on my chest. “In here.” I couldn’t explain it more than that, but I had a feeling that something was very off. “Please stay here.”
“No. If something is off, then I’m going to be with you. The safest place for me is right behind you.”
I knew there was going to be no arguing with my beloved. We made it to the outer room of our suite, and then everything stopped. The dim light that had been on in the bedroom was suddenly dark, and any noise was silenced.
“What just happened?”
“It seems as if the power has gone out.” That was odd. In all of the time I’d lived here, we’d only lost power a few times, and that was because of storms.
“Can’t Rio make the power come back on?” Leo asked as he grabbed my hand. “Was this what you thought was about to happen?”
“Rio could if he was here. As far as I know, he was going out for the evening. As for what was going to happen, I didn’t know. I just felt as if something was. Stay close to me.”
I grabbed his hand and held it behind me as we made our way through the living space and to the door that led to the hallway.
I opened it a crack, and with my eyes tinted, I was able to see perfectly down the hallway.
“Maybe I should stay in the suite,” Leo said. “It’s not that I’m afraid. I just don’t want to go wandering around the villa in the dark and be mistaken for someone else.”
I froze where I was and looked down at Leo.
“Can you make it back to the bed?” He nodded and walked back through the room and disappeared into the bedroom.
The only way I could see anything in pure darkness was because of the ability to tint my eyes.
That didn’t make for keeping ourselves hidden when needed though.
Not that I needed to hide here in the villa.
Once I was certain Leo was safely in our bedroom, I stepped out into the hallway. I was barefoot, and luckily, I’d been wearing lounge pants still because they didn’t add any sound to my movement.
“What’s going on?” someone shouted from upstairs. I heard someone else scream from somewhere in the house, and it wasn’t a warning—it was one that I knew too well. The next sound in the house was gunshots, and I knew without a doubt that the power going out was absolutely no accident.
Because it was obvious that someone was in the house who shouldn’t be, I started backing up to the suite. I needed to protect Leo.
“Mio amato. Text Rio and tell him that we need him here at the villa. Someone has broken in.”
There was more shouting and then more gunshots. Someone screamed, but it was cut short. “Where are you going?”
I froze. How had someone gotten behind me? There was nothing behind me but the office and our suite.
“Now, tell me where Alfio’s grandson is, and I might let you live.”
Never in all of my lifetime would I ever give up my beloved. “I do not know of this Alfio’s grandson,” I said. “Leo?” I reached out again because he’d not answered me, which was not like him at all.
I felt a shove in the middle of my back. “Wrong answer.”
“I’m fine. Well, not really.” I heard him panting through our bond. “Sandro, my water broke. But I heard screaming and probably gunshots? I’m hiding in the closet. I didn’t think to grab my phone when I heard the gunshots. I can go get it to message Rio though.”
“No! Stay right where you are. Someone is right outside the door to our suite. Stay in the closet, mio amato. Please.”
I heard the slide get cocked back on a gun and took a chance that whoever this was, he was alone.
I turned as I let my claws grow. When I turned, I kept my eyes tinted.
It didn’t matter if the guy saw me; he wasn’t going to live much longer because I needed to get to my beloved. He was going to need help.
“What are—” I swung my right arm out and around, sliding my claws into the man’s neck.
I didn’t even think about it; I simply jerked my hand forward, pulling out the man’s throat at the same time the claws on my left hand slid into the center of his chest. I felt his heart beating around my claws for only a few beats before the man went heavy in my arms. As he crumbled to the floor, I retracted my claws.
I wiped my hands on my pants, and after looking up and down the hallway and finding it empty, I stepped over the body and hurried back to our suite.
I scanned the outer room, and when I didn’t find anyone inside, I closed and locked the door.
Knowing that wasn’t nearly enough to stop an intruder, especially not one with a gun, I moved the sofa over in front of it.
If nothing else, it would slow them down enough that I would be able to protect Leo.
After entering the bedroom, I quickly scanned the surroundings and found it also empty. “Leo?” I said quietly. If he was listening, he might be able to hear me though. I quietly moved to the closet, and after double-checking the room to ensure nobody else was in it, I opened the closet door. “Leo?”
“Sandro,” he called out. He was panting, and I hurried inside. I found him tucked up behind my trousers.
Just as I knelt down, the light came back on in the bedroom. I swept Leo up into my arms and carried him out into the bedroom.
“What’s going on? Why are you covered in blood?” Leo asked as I placed him on the bed.
“Your grandfather’s men somehow got into the villa,” I told him. I picked up my phone and quickly found Rio’s number.
Me: Villa breached. Leo went into labor. I know you had a night off for things. But we really need you here if you’re not already on your way back.
I tossed the phone back onto the nightstand, then looked down at my beloved.
He was definitely in some pain. I reached out for him but pulled my hand back at the red all over it.
“I’ll be back in just a moment. Let me wash my hands.
I don’t want to touch you or the baby with blood all over them,” I told him.
“Just breathe through the contractions, all right?”
Leo nodded, and I hurried off to the bathroom.
Someone had found the reason for the loss of power because the lights were back on, but I didn’t necessarily want to draw attention to our room if I could avoid it.
I washed my hands in the dim darkness of the little light that Leo had plugged into one of the outlets when he started making frequent trips to the bathroom in the middle of the night.
I scrubbed my hands and arms twice, and after I dried them, I used the towel to wipe at the blood that had splattered on my torso.
It wasn’t the first time I’d been sprayed with blood, and most likely wouldn’t be the last. I didn’t have time to shower it all away at the moment.
Leo needed me, and he was more important than making sure every bit of that man was washed from my body.
I deemed myself clean enough and went back to my beloved. I found him breathing heavily while biting on a corner of the blanket.
“Sandro, I need to push. My body is telling me it’s time to push. Not later—now.”
“I’m so sorry, my love. I’ll hold your hand through all of it, and I’ll get you through it, but I can’t take away the pain like Rio can.
” I ran my fingers through his hair and found it wet at the scalp.
“Let me put some pillows behind you, and I’ll grab the emergency kit from the bathroom, along with a towel.
” I placed two more pillows behind him, propping him up, before I kissed his forehead and turned to leave.
“Hurry,” he whispered back.
I could understand his urgency. Our villa was being invaded, and of course, he was in an extremely vulnerable position at the worst possible moment.
I grabbed a towel to wrap the baby in, but I didn’t see my emergency medical kit, which meant it was in the bedroom.
I returned to the bedroom, placed the towel beside Leo, and then ran to the dresser.
The kit was in the bottom drawer, and I’d just placed it on the bed beside Leo when the lights went out again.
“Again? What’s going on, Sandro? Is it safe to be here?”
“I’m not sure, mio amato. I would carry you out of here if I knew I could get you away from your grandfather’s men and to safety.
Right now, I don’t know where is safe and where we would be in danger.
In here, I can barricade us and try to protect you and the baby.
I don’t know how they found us, exactly, or how they got into the villa.
I’m more worried about you and the baby right now though,” I whispered back to him.
“Sandro, we can’t have the baby now. What if they get through the door? Or the windows?”