What if it’s Rory? Did he come by to see me? My stomach flops at the idea, but then again…
In the middle of the night?
Dread drenches my insides.
What if it’s Leo? What if he found me and has come to drag me back?
The noise of a scuffle wades beneath the door. And then I hear a bigger bump, like something heavy fell.
My heart pumps straight fear through my veins. There’s nothing in this room I can defend myself with. What the hell is happening out there?
In a split second, the door to my room blasts open. My heart flies up into my throat.
A masked man steps over my guard’s body in the hallway and enters my room.
That can only mean…this masked man is here to liberate me, or…or…
“Get over here.” The unfamiliar voice sends icy tendrils down my spine.
When he lunges toward me, I scream at the top of my lungs and kick one of my legs at him. I nail him in the side, but he just slams the flat of his palm over my mouth.
“Shut the fuck up!” His hand is so big, he’s covering my mouth and my nose. “If you don’t want me to drag you out of here by your hair, you’re going to walk your ass wherever I tell you.Now.”
With his other massive hand, his thick, lethal fingers dig into my forearm, wrenching it up behind my back and forcing me toward the door.
If he doesn’t ease up on my face, I’m going to pass out from oxygen loss. I can’t breathe. When we get to the doorway, I finally manage to suck in a breath while stumbling over the body on the floor, which causes my kidnapper to loosen his grip.
As soon as we’re in the hallway, a female voice rings out. “Get down!”
Either instinct or visceral fear pushes me to obey. My legs turn to gelatin, and I melt to the ground as a whizzing bullet slices through the air, nailing my attacker square in the shoulder.
He grunts in pain, releasing me and stumbling away as he grabs his shoulder.
I can’t hear any gun, but I know someone’s still shooting because my attacker cries out a second time, hunching over his right thigh.
I watch from the ground, trembling. The man quickly limps down the corridor and, with his good shoulder, muscles through a door and disappears.
As soon as he’s gone, soft, small hands pull me to my feet. A kind, clear voice asks, “Are you all right?”
Disoriented and still reeling from the shock of what just happened, I turn to see who’s helping me.
Crystal blue eyes so bright I can see them in the darkness. Blond hair that falls to her shoulders. I recognize her as one of the twins I saw when Rory brought me inside for the first time.
Concern brightens her face. She’s blinking at me like she’s not sure I’m alive.
I’m not sure either, to tell the truth.
“Did he hurt you?” She rubs my shoulders reassuringly, then addresses someone behind her—her twin, I realize, who’s holding a gun with a silencer at the end and a phone to her ear with the other hand.
“It’s me. There’s been a breach.” She cautiously tucks her weapon into her waistband, the way I’ve seen mafiosos do a million times.
I must be tumbling through a parallel universe or something. Are there actually mafia daughters like this? Womenwho rescue other women from attacks and fire weapons of their own?
That certainly wouldn’t be allowed in the De Luca clan.
I’ve never even heard of such a thing.
“We’re fine. But someone tried to kidnap the girl.” The twin on the phone shifts her weight. “I don’t know if it was Dax. Could’ve been. The guy was wearing a mask, but if you work fast, you should be able to catch him. Shot the bastard twice. Once in the shoulder, once in the leg. Can’t have gotten far. He went down the emergency stairwell in the south tower.”
