Chapter 9
Dmitri
The Atlantic is a black void beneath the jet as we slice through the night.
Most people on board are asleep, getting as much rest as they can before we land in Naples. When we land, there won’t be time to breathe, let alone unpack. We’ve got a lot of work to do.
I look over at Cara as she sleeps in the reclined seat next to me with a blanket resting in her lap. A soft blue wash fills the cabin, but it doesn’t calm me enough to sleep. Not yet.
Part of me is eager to put Ferro and his men into early graves, but what’s keeping me up the most is the fear lodged in my chest like a blade. It’s uncomfortable and painful.
A feeling that I can’t shake.
Sitting here stewing in my thoughts is torture, and we have hours to go. I quietly get up and drape the blanket over Cara, my eyes lingering on her peaceful face.
I thought saving her from Ferro the first time would make everything okay. That she would stay safe. But I was wrong.
She isn’t safe until our enemies are dead. All of them.
I slip past her and head toward the small bar toward the back of the jet. I’m not surprised to see Andrei already standing by it with a half-full drink in his hand.
“Still don’t like flying, huh?” I say, keeping my voice down so that I won’t wake up anyone sleeping.
Andrei shakes his head. “I can’t stop thinking about crashing and burning.”
“We’re over the ocean if it makes you feel any better,” I tell him as I grab the bottle of vodka. Just a little might help me relax enough to fall asleep.
“It doesn’t,” Andrei mutters before finishing off his drink. “What are you doing up?”
“Can’t stop thinking,” I admit as I look down into my glass, watching the liquid move in a slow swirl.
“I’m guessing not about crashing and burning,” Andrei replies as he leans his side against the edge of the bar to face me.
“About losing Cara,” I admit, keeping my eyes cast down. “It still haunts me every single damn day.”
Andrei offers me a small smile of sympathy. “She’ll be okay, Dmitri. She’s tough as hell.”
I finally look over at him, pain tearing through my chest. “She shouldn’t have to be. She shouldn’t have had to go through what she went through, and she shouldn’t have to risk her life again.”
“She needs this victory as much as you do,” Andrei replies. “Probably even more.”
Definitely more. I wasn’t the one kidnapped, beaten, and cut up for weeks.
“If it comes down to it, you choose her. Over me. Over anyone,” I tell Andrei firmly. “Will you do that for me?”
Andrei draws in a deep breath through his nose before nodding. “I will.”
I pat the back of his shoulder and nod to him in gratitude. “You’re a good friend, Andrei. You’ve risked your life for me more times than I can count.”
“Don’t get all sappy on me,” Andrei replies with a smirk as he playfully elbows me. “We’re not dying yet.”
Yet.
Andrei pours another drink for himself and tops me off while we stand there in silence together. Before we know it, we’ll be in Italy, on Ferro’s ground.
We might never make it back home.
We touch down and spill off both jets onto the quiet private side of the airfield.
Between my men, Sean’s, and Andrei’s, we have around fifteen guys with us. More would’ve been better, but more would’ve been loud.
The quieter we move, the better our odds.
Besides, we can only fit so many people on two private jets.
“Here are the cars,” Luca says, pointing to a line of seven various vehicles heading toward the airfield. “The drivers will stagger us. Drop us in different spots throughout Amalfi instead of taking us straight to the safe house.”
“Why? Isn’t scattering us a bad idea?” Andrei asks as he slings his duffle onto one shoulder.
Luca shakes his head. “Not right now. Moving in a large group will draw unwanted attention. We’ll regroup together at the safe house where we’re out of sight.”
“It’s for the best,” I state as I cross my arms, my eyes moving over everyone as we gather in a large circle. “Keep your heads down. Don’t take any crazy detours. Go exactly where you need to without delay.”
“If you get in trouble, either take out whoever spotted you or run,” Sean adds. “Splitting up does make us more vulnerable, but it won’t be for long.”
“Cara and I will ride with you. We’ll be in the first car,” I tell Luca. “We need to get moving.”
Luca nods in agreement. “Let’s do it.”
Sean walks over to Cara and places his hand on her shoulder. For once, she doesn’t tense up when he touches her. “Keep your eyes open. And, please, Cara, run if there’s trouble, yeah? You’ve got too much at stake to gamble your life.”
Cara’s face softens as she nods. “I won’t do anything too reckless.”
I can’t help but lift an eyebrow a little. I expected her to fight him on that.
“See you all at the safe house,” Luca calls out to the others when the cars park in a line nearby.
Once Cara draws away from her father and moves to my side, I guide her to the backseat of the first car with a hand on her back. “Sit in the middle between me and Luca.”
Luca and I get in on either side of her and shut the doors before the driver pulls away from the line to leave the airfield behind.
“I know splitting up is risky, but it’s for the best,” Luca speaks up, breaking the lingering silence. “Besides, Amalfi isn’t that big. None of us will be too far from the other to help out if something happens. We just need to not draw attention to ourselves.”
“It’s a good idea,” I assure him, having no qualms with it. Our main priorities right now are keeping a low profile and figuring out where Ferro is staying.
“We should’ve worn matching t-shirts and thrown on some hats. We would’ve looked more like tourists,” Cara comments as she peers out of the window, taking in the breathtaking architecture and colorful buildings.
I’d probably enjoy it more if our reasons for being here were different.
Luca chuckles. “That’s probably a good tip. Blend in with the tourists. There are a lot of them now.”
The driver speaks to Luca in Italian, and they go back and forth for a minute before Luca turns to us.
“He’ll drop us off in the tourist area. From there, I’ll lead you to the safe house. The other groups have drivers who know the way as well,” Luca tells us.
For the rest of the drive, I keep my eyes on the front windshield, watching the town come into view. Sun-bleached buildings cling to the cliffs above the gulf.
Cara’s fingers clamp around my arm as the road tightens into hairpin turns.
“It’s beautiful,” she says as the road takes us close to the cliffside overlooking the shimmering sea.
“Shame a place this beautiful belongs to a monster,” Luca mutters.
“We’ll take care of that problem,” I assure him.
Once we’re dropped off close enough to the main town square to walk to it, we put on our backpacks and head there, slipping into the flow of the crowd as they explore cafés and restaurants.
“Wow,” Cara says as she peers up at a huge cathedral that people are climbing a large staircase to reach. Bells toll overhead, vibrating in my ribs.
“There are a lot of historic buildings here,” Luca explains as he gestures to a nearby clock tower and other buildings. “You’ll see touches of Roman influence, and some of these structures are medieval.”
“You should retire from a life of crime and be a tour guide, Luca,” I tell him as my eyes sweep back and forth, scanning faces and shadows where Ferro’s guards could be lurking.
“What fun would that be?” he replies before motioning for us to cut away from the crowd and go up a small staircase between two buildings. “Be prepared for a lot of stairs.”
Cara frowns a little, but she takes my hand and follows me as Luca winds through back streets and up staircases to take us farther from the tourist area.
“Ferro could be staying anywhere,” Luca says as we walk down a back street, passing by someone’s laundry hanging on a line.
“Well, we need to narrow that down quickly,” I tell him.
Luca suddenly pauses and holds up his hand, making Cara and me jolt to a stop behind him.
Voices sound up ahead around the nearest corner. Two men speaking rapid Italian, sharp and irritated. Nothing that I can translate, but it seems like Luca is tuned into their conversation.
I’m about to ask Luca what’s going on, but I hear one word come out of one man’s mouth and my blood turns cold.
Ferro.
“Shit. Back up. Back up. Hide!” Luca hisses under his breath at us as he whips around and starts pushing us backward.
I tighten my grip on Cara’s hand and tug her into a deep, arched entryway to someone’s home. We press our backs against the wall and blend into the shadows as much as we can. Luca melts into the dark, moving toward the corner like he belongs there.
“Where’s Luca?” Cara whispers.
I shake my head as I look out at the back street, not seeing any sign of Luca. “He’ll be fine. Stay quiet and still.”
Cara presses her lips together and shrinks back as much as we can as we hear incoming footsteps on the narrow cobblestone street.
I hold my breath as I watch two men walk past us. Luckily, they’re so engrossed in their conversation that they don’t see us as they pass by and head farther down the street. I take in every feature that I can, but I mostly see them from the side and from behind.
One is tall and lean with short dark hair, while the other is a little smaller but far broader with wavy hair.
Unfortunately, I still don’t get enough of a good look at them to be able to pick them out of a crowd of similar looking Italians. I don’t hear any names either, but they must be some of Ferro’s guards. They’re probably crawling all over the place.
The tall one pulls a radio out of his back pocket and speaks into it before putting it away.
Once their voices and footsteps fade away, Luca appears in the entryway a few moments later. “They’re working for Ferro. They’re annoyed about having to run pointless errands for him like picking up groceries and shit. He must be staying off the streets.”
“We need to follow them back to where he’s staying,” I tell him as I step forward to slip past Luca.
Luca holds his hand out to grab my shoulder, making me stop in place. “They’re meeting up with some other guards at a bar. They could be there for hours, and I don’t think it’s smart to have three people tracking them.”
I frown. “We can’t just let them get away.”
“I’ll track them,” Luca says before taking out his phone, his thumbs flying over the keyboard. “These are the directions to the safe house. Take Cara there. I’ll check back in, and you can meet me with some of our men.”
I don’t like the thought of sitting this out right now, but I like the idea of being separated from Cara even less. If I’m not patient, I’ll just run myself and Cara into early graves.
“Fine,” I say before motioning for Luca to take off. “Don’t lose them, and don’t get caught.”
Luca nods before spinning around and hurrying down the street in the direction that the guards went.
“I hope he’ll be okay,” Cara murmurs, her features tensing in worry.
“He will. He’s smart,” I reply. Sure, he can act like a clown sometimes, but he has survived this long on his own for a reason.
“Where do we go now? We should hurry before we come across any more guards,” Cara says as she peeks out of the entryway to look up and down the street. There isn’t a soul in sight so far.
I pull my phone out of my back pocket and look over the list of directions that Luca sent me on how to get to the safe house. This would be much easier with him here, but I think we all know by now that nothing goes exactly according to plan.
“Stay close to me,” I tell her as I hold my hand out to her.
“Always,” Cara says as she grabs my hand and gravitates to my side.