Chapter 16
Cara
I wish that I could feel at peace knowing that Paolo is dead, but I can still hear fighting coming from inside the house.
This isn’t over yet. There’s still time for the people I care about to get hurt.
“This way,” Dmitri tells me once we enter the house from the back. He takes me by my hand to the right, heading toward the kitchen, where shouting and sickening thuds echo, flesh against tile, bone against cabinets.
Isaak stumbles into the hallway, one hand clamped to his right side, blood pumping between his fingers.
“Issak—” Dmitri is moving before the word finishes leaving his mouth. He helps Isaak sit on the ground, his hand moving to Isaak’s bleeding wound. “Keep pressure on it. You’re going to be fine.”
Isaak breathes in weakly, already looking pale as sweat shines on his forehead. “Fucking hurts, boss.”
“I know,” Dmitri replies before turning to me. “Find gauze. A towel. Anything clean.”
I dart into the nearest room. A bathroom. I tear open cabinet doors until I locate a white first-aid box under the sink.
I flip open the top and find a roll of gauze.
I grab it and hurry out of the bathroom, handing the roll to Dmitri.
He lifts Isaak’s shirt and folds the gauze a few times, forming a thick bundle before pressing it to the hole just beneath his ribs. He grabs Isaak’s hand and places it over the gauze. “Hold it. Hang in there.”
Isaak nods, his eyes fluttering shut.
“Eyes on me,” Dmitri orders, giving his shoulder a light shake. “Stay with us.”
Isaak groans, but he weakly opens his eyes.
Dmitri motions for me to follow him toward the kitchen where clusters of people are fighting inside.
I spot my father near the stove just as he slams an Italian’s head against the stove grate.
Relief flickers in my chest at the sight of him.
“Where the hell have you two been?”
Dmitri and I whip around to face Luca, who looks like he fought the villa itself and lost.
His right eye is swollen shut, and blood coats the right side of his face. His shirt is torn and stained with blood, and I honestly can’t tell if it belongs to him or someone else.
“You’re alive,” I breathe out in relief as we move away from the kitchen.
Luca grins. “Takes more than a few men to kill me. Heads up.”
Luca lifts his gun and fires past us, dropping an Italian guard heading our way.
“You look like shit, Dmitri,” Luca tells him.
“I could say the same about you,” Dmitri grunts. “Ferro is dead.”
Luca’s eyes widen. “Is that who beat the shit out of you?”
Dmitri wipes water from his lashes and gives Luca a look. “Ask me later.”
Andrei limps down the stairs. “Second and third are clear.”
Sean appears in the kitchen doorway, smoke and gunpowder clinging to him. “First floor too.”
Dmitri breathes in deeply as everyone gathers, a determined look settling on his face. “I’m sure word has spread to their allies about this fight tonight. I think we should send them a message.”
“What do you have in mind?” Luca asks, eagerness glinting in his eyes.
“It’s too much work to try to clean up this mess,” Dmitri replies as his eyes roam over all the bodies littering the floor. “We’re going to burn this place to the ground. Ferro’s body is out in the garden. We’ll throw it in here so that he can turn to ash with the rest of his men.”
Everyone around him nods in agreement.
“Our dead come with us,” Dmitri says, voice like iron. “They don’t burn here.” He points at his men. “You two, get Ferro from the garden. Sweep every room for ours. Take their cars. Another team get to the hotel and grab our bags. Be at the airfield in twenty.”
The group splits apart, leaving Sean, Dmitri, Luca, and Andrei to stand with me in the aftermath of the fight.
“So, how do you want to roast and toast this place?” Luca asks as he rubs his hands together.
“I saw a small shed out back. There’s probably something in there that we can use,” Dmitri tells him.
“On it,” Luca says before walking off.
My father moves closer to me, gently touching my cheek as he inspects me. “You good?”
I nod, letting him check on me. “I’m okay. I didn’t take any bad hits.”
“I want you to go to a doctor as soon as we get back home,” Dmitri tells me with a stern expression on his face that leaves no room for argument. “We need to make sure the baby is okay.”
Sean’s eyes grow wide.
“I finally told him,” I say, seeing him relax. “Everything is okay.”
My father glances over at Dmitri for confirmation.
The side of Dmitri’s mouth turns up. “You’re going to be a grandfather,” Dmitri says. “Try not to look so ancient.”
Sean scoffs. “Not too ancient to kick your ass, yeah?”
Instead of worrying about their rivalry flaring back up, I smile. If my marriage to Dmitri won’t keep them bonded as allies, I know our little one will.
We step out of the way as Leo helps Isaak toward the front door. “We need a medic, now!” Leo snaps.
“One of my guys is a former paramedic,” Andrei replies. “I’ll go find him.”
Leo nods his thanks before leading Isaak to the foyer.
“Andrei, I have to tell you something. It’s about Damien.” Dmitri’s jaw flexes like it hurts to speak at all.
Andrei holds up a hand to stop him. “I saw him when I swept the second floor. I’ll have my guys bring him home with us. He’ll have a proper burial.”
Dmitri’s eyes shut for half a second. “Thank you. I’ll make sure all the families are taken care of from now on.”
I thread my fingers through Dmitri’s to silently comfort him. He may be stern with his men, but I know that it still pains him to lose them.
“Look what I found!”
We all turn to see Luca heading back toward us with a gas can in his hand. “There was a mower stored in the shed. This is the gas can for it, and it’s full.”
“Ten minutes. Then we burn it,” Dmitri tells Luca before leading me to the foyer to leave the house.
“What happens now?” I ask Dmitri.
“We head home, bury our people, and make sure our enemies know not to try and fuck with us,” Dmitri replies, stopping next to one of the Italians’ black cars. “You did say that not all of the people who tortured you were Italian.”
I nod. “I didn’t see any women in the villa. Whoever tried to make me lose the baby is still out there.”
“We’ll find them all,” Dmitri promises as more of our men filter out of the house, carrying people out, whether they’re dead or just injured.
Cars steadily disappear from in front of the villa as everyone heads off to complete their duties, but our little group stays in front of the house, watching Luca move in and out of the house to splash gasoline all over the place.
“Whoever owns this property will see the damage done soon,” Andrei comments.
“Ferro’s allies will call off law enforcement,” Dmitri says confidently.
I breathe in deeply, still processing everything that happened tonight. There were too many close calls. Too many deviations in our plan.
But despite everything that went wrong, we still succeeded. We still won.
Luca steps out of the house and drops the empty gas can onto the porch before heading over to us. “Everyone is out of the house.”
“Do it. I want to watch it burn,” Dmitri replies.
Luca nods and takes a flip lighter out of his pocket. He walks closer to the house and tosses the lighter through the front door, the flame catching onto the gasoline on the floor.
The fire runs along the gasoline like it’s alive, up drapes, over couches, into hallways. Smoke billows out, swallowing the porch in minutes.
“Burn, baby, burn,” Luca says as he joins us again.
“By the time anyone figures out what happened, we’ll be over the ocean,” Andrei mutters. “Let’s hope things are over with now.” He sighs, sounding as exhausted as he looks.
Dmitri shares an unsure look with my father. We might’ve defeated the main enemy, but there were other people involved.
We only leave once the fire has spread to the outside of the villa, and the structure of the building starts to collapse as the flames take hold.
We take one of the leftover cars that belonged to the Italians and use the back street to make our way to the main road. Sean drives us to the airfield where both private jets are waiting.
After paying off airport security to look the other way, bodies are loaded into the other jet, along with most of the guards.
We throw our baggage into our jet with the rest of our people.
It’s a tight fit, but an uncomfortable, long journey back home is nothing compared to what we just went through.
I sit next to Dmitri and buckle in before the jets take off, leaving Italy behind us.
“Are you sure that you want to return to Las Vegas?” Dmitri asks Luca as he walks by our seats to head to the bar. “You’re free to go anywhere now.”
Luca smiles a little in a bittersweet manner. “Maybe one day I’ll return to Italy, but not today. I have unfinished business in the States.”
I don’t get the chance to ask what he means before Luca walks off to reach the bar where Andrei is already standing. To my surprise, Andrei pours him a drink, and they toast to something that I can’t hear.
At least they’re getting along.
Given how close they are to Dmitri, would they be considered the baby’s uncles?
My hand absentmindedly drifts down to my belly. I swear there’s the slightest bump now that I’ve been eating well, or maybe I’m just being hopeful.
“Have you felt the baby kick yet?” Dmitri asks me.
My eyes meet his as I shake my head with a small smile. “No, it’s too soon. Hopefully in a few weeks, though.”
“I hope so,” Dmitri replies as he gazes at my hand.
The fact that he wants to feel the baby kick so badly makes my heart flutter. I can’t wait to watch him be a daddy. I’m sure there’s a part of him that is wary that he’ll turn out like his own father, but I don’t believe that’ll happen. Not in the slightest.
Once the jet zips down the runway and lifts off into the sky, I lean my head against Dmitri’s shoulder, exhaustion weighing my eyelids down. For the first time in a while, I feel like I can finally sleep.
But sleep doesn’t erase instinct.
Back home, I can already feel it. Someone is still out there, watching, waiting.
Paolo was only the first to fall.
Things aren’t over yet. Not by a long shot.