Shadow Reaper (Shadow #2)(76)
Dropping the body onto the stairs, he raced back up to the floor where he'd left Demetrio. As he shoved open the door, he saw the body of the gunman sprawled out with the same doctor that the attacker had used as a shield leaning over him. Demetrio flashed past him, running toward Vittorio's room just as two shots rang out. Stefano took off after him.
For a moment Demetrio blocked his way, checking the room first before stepping aside. The body of a woman lay just inside the door to the hospital room, two gunshots to her head. A gun lay inches from her fingers. Stefano glanced down at her, his heart pounding as he stepped over her to peer into the room. Francesca sat next to Vittorio on the bed. Vittorio had his arm around her. His eyes met Stefano's over her head.
"She's good," he assured. "We're both good."
"Who got her?" Stefano asked.
"We both did," Drago said. "Vittorio was fast. Too fast for me to tell him I'd already pulled the trigger. You're bleeding. You okay?"
Francesca was off the bed in a flash, rushing to his side. Stefano put his arm around her and pulled her under his shoulder, sheltering her against his heart. "I'm good, baby. Three dead and none of them ours. Ricco sent a warning. Has anyone heard from him?"
"He's not picking up. Neither is Emilio or Enzo," Vittorio said.
Francesca was fussing with his arm. "You need to get this looked at."
"The cops are here," Demetrio announced.
"I've called Vinci," Stefano said. "Wait for him before you make any statements. The press is going to be all over this. They'll make it out to be a war to take over someone's territory. They portray us as criminals every chance they get. The family should brace for the possibility of being investigated."
He wanted to get to his brothers and Emme, but he couldn't leave without talking to the cops. His siblings weren't answering their phones. He was going to have to get them to have another code to let the family know each was alive and well.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
"E
xactly why were you crawling out the window?" Amo asked Nicoletta. His foster daughter hadn't said more than a couple of words since Vittorio had been hospitalized. Through breakfast and now sitting in Lucia's Treasures with his beloved wife and Emmanuelle Ferraro, he gave the teenager his sternest look. "You weren't thinking of taking off, were you?"
Lucia patted his arm. "Maybe we should just drop it, Amo. She's had a terrible night and still hasn't gone to bed." She spoke in her sweetest, most beguiling tone.
Emmanuelle could see why men tumbled at Lucia's feet. She was genuine, too. That sweetness, the caring she had for everyone around her, was the reason the Ferraro family had chosen Lucia and Amo Fausti as Nicoletta's foster parents. The teenager needed unconditional love. She needed to feel it, experience it, and know that it was still in the world and she was worthy of it. Already Nicoletta was under Lucia's spell. How could she not be? Everyone was.
Amo shook his head, a small smile on his face, clearly remembering the times she tried to divert him from chastising their children. "Always the same, my sweet Lucia. Nicoletta, please answer my question."
Nicoletta glanced at Emmanuelle and then ducked her head. "I've been worried since the truck nearly hit me that some very bad people might have found me. They would hurt you and I don't want that to happen."
"Thank you," Amo acknowledged. "That was very brave of you to tell me the truth. Lucia and I prefer that you stay with us no matter what, whether these people have found you or not. We have the Ferraros to look after us. Your job is to learn as much as you can and be a teenager. Let us worry about whether or not we're in danger."
Nicoletta glanced at Emmanuelle with despair in her eyes. There was no going back from what she'd been through. Yes, this couple had experienced terrible heartache and tragedy with the loss of both children, one to cancer, one murdered, but Nicoletta had been given to three step-uncles living life in one of the bloodiest gangs in New York. She'd been innocent and happy until her mother and stepfather had died in a car accident. That all changed abruptly and her life had been a nightmare until a social worker had appealed to the New York Ferraro family.
Nicoletta nodded her head, again not looking Amo in the eye. Emmanuelle wanted to put her arms around the girl and hold her, but she knew she'd be rejected. Nicoletta didn't allow anyone close to her. Around the Ferraros, she was especially quiet and refused to look at them most of the time. Emmanuelle realized it had everything to do with the girl's past and how she was rescued. They knew. All the Ferraros knew what had happened to her. There was no getting away from it, not when she was guarded around the clock by the only people in town who knew her past. Each time Nicoletta looked at them, she felt humiliated.