I shook my head. “How did you end up being so polite and kind when you are related to Remo? Were you raised by different parents?”
“Remo and Nino were raised by our parents, but Savio and I were mostly raised by Remo and Nino.”
I stared. “They raised you?”
He nodded then rubbed the back of his head as if he realized he shouldn’t have told me. “I should go.”
I tried to imagine Remo raising a child. It blew my mind, especially since they all must have been on the run at the time.
Night had fallen and I was reading in bed, when suddenly the lights went out. I blinked into the unexpected darkness and climbed out of bed, putting the book down on the nightstand.
Following the trail of silvery moonlight, I glanced out of the window. The lights in the garden and every other window of the mansion that I could see were out as well. In the distance I could make out lights from other houses.
My pulse picked up. What was happening? My eyes searched the shadows of the perimeter, and then I saw two figures running across the lawn toward the house.
The Outfit. It had to be.
They had come to save me.
Euphoria pulsed through me, followed by fear. This was Remo’s territory. The Falcones knew every inch of their property and the Outfit didn’t. What if Samuel was among the attackers?
I clung to the windowsill, immobilized by terror at the thought. Dante and Dad would have never allowed my brother to come here. He was the heir to Minneapolis. He was too important for such a risky endeavor.
Maybe the dark gave the Outfit an advantage. Maybe it caught Remo and his brothers by surprise. Who knew how many of them were even in the mansion?
The lock of my room turned, and I faced the door. This was my chance to run. The Outfit didn’t know where in the house I was being kept. They probably expected to find me in the basement. I needed to find them first. It would take too long for them to search every part of the mansion.
A tall figure stepped into the room. It was difficult to make out much, and it didn’t matter who had entered. I attacked without hesitation, storming toward my opponent, hoping to ram my elbow into his stomach. Unfortunately, backlit by moonlight I was an easy target. My opponent sidestepped me then grabbed my shoulder and thrust me forward. I collided with the wall and a firm chest pressed against my back.
“No soup today?” Savio taunted, but his voice was filled with tension. I tried shoving away from the wall, but Savio didn’t budge. “Do I have to knock you out or will you stop the fucking struggling?”
I jerked my head back, hoping to hit his nose, but he was taller than I remembered, and the back of my head collided with his chin.
“Fuck,” he snarled. He lodged his arms around my chest and waist like Samuel had done in jest not too long ago, and despite my thrashing, he carried me through the room and shoved me into the bathroom. “I won’t carry you into our panic room like that. Fuck it.”
I whirled around to face him.
“Don’t fucking move,” he growled.
“The Outfit will kick your asses. I bet you shit your pants when the lights went out,” I hissed.
Savio chuckled. “It was Nino who turned off the lights. We know every inch of this fucking house by heart. We don’t need lights. By the way, our surveillance camera showed a guy with blond hair. I wonder who will kill him. Remo or Nino?”
I froze. Samuel?
Savio closed the bathroom door. I rushed forward and hammered my fists against the wood. “Let me out! Let me out!”
“Scream all you want,” Savio said. “Maybe it attracts an Outfit fucker so I can have some fun as well.”
I pressed my palms against the door and slowly sank down onto my knees. Savio had to be lying. Samuel wasn’t here. If Remo or Nino got him in their hands ...
CHAPTER 13
REMO
My brothers and I were watching the cage fight of Savio’s next opponent. Kiara had already fallen asleep against Nino as usual. I doubted she ever watched more than a few seconds of a fight. Violence just wasn’t in her nature.
“I can’t wait to fight him,” Savio said when his next opponent drop-kicked the other fighter into the cage. Not bad.
My phone lit up and so did the phones of my brothers. For a moment neither of us moved. I reached for it. An alarm had been raised. What the fuck? I opened the alert. Someone or something had touched the electric barbed wire at the top of the walls.
Nino was faster. He held up his phone with the live recording of the affected area. Four men had put a ladder over the fence, laid a wooden board over the electric wires, and climbed over the wall.
I stood, drawing my gun and a knife. Nino shook Kiara awake then turned to Adamo. “Take Kiara into the panic room. Shoot for the kill, no questions asked.”
“What’s the matter?” Kiara whispered. Nino shook his head, kissed her, then pushed her toward Adamo, who grabbed her hand and tugged her along, his own gun pulled.
“I’m going to turn off the lights on the premises,” Nino said. “We can ambush them more easily that way.”
I nodded. “Savio, go get Serafina. I want her in the panic room as well.”
Savio frowned. “I want to kick Outfit asses.”
“Savio,” I snarled. I couldn’t fucking believe the Outfit really dared to attack our mansion. It wasn’t Dante’s style. Way too risky.
With a glare, Savio ran up the stairs. Nino entered the code into his phone that was connected to our central control system and blackness fell upon us. It took my eyes a few seconds to adapt. Moonlight streamed in through the windows, and soon my brother and our surroundings became more than abstract shapes. I stepped up to Nino.
“They’re heading toward the north wing,” he said. The cameras had night vision, so we had no trouble following the attackers’ progress. A blond head was among them, and I had a feeling I knew who it was. Samuel had come to save his twin, probably without his Capo’s orders. If they were here on Dante’s plan, they would have retreated the second the lights went out. That they still continued with it meant someone who didn’t care about his life was the leader.
“Come on,” I said. Nino and I crept into the garden, past the pool, in the direction where the attackers were headed. “Samuel is mine,” I said quietly.
Nino didn’t say anything, only shut down his phone so the glow of the screen wouldn’t give us away. We reached the corner of the north wing and both crouched down. I peered around and found two men, one of them blond, working on the terrace door to Savio’s domain while the other two scanned the area, guns pointed ahead. They had turned over the table and were half hidden behind it. It was massive wood. Maybe it would hold back the bullets.
“Two alive, Samuel and another,” I ordered. Nino gave a terse nod. He’d give me a lecture later. He was pissed that we were being attacked because I’d brought Serafina here, that I’d put his wife in danger.
Nino and I raised our guns and began firing. Whoever our opponents were, they weren’t the best shots. The first went down almost immediately. The two at the terrace door dropped behind the table and began firing as well. Eventually we ran out of bullets. The fun was about to begin. Nino pulled his knife. Clutching my own knife, I ran toward the remaining three attackers. Two went for me, one for Nino.
Samuel slashed his knife at me, and I blocked it with my own. The other Outfit fucker jabbed toward my stomach. I dodged that attack as well and rammed my blade into his thigh. He went down with a cry, but I grabbed him by the collar and jerked him up to block Samuel’s next attack. His knife went straight into his companion’s stomach. Before Samuel could attack again, Nino grabbed him from behind, one arm locked around his throat, the other over his arm with the knife. I dropped the Outfit bastard and jumped forward, hitting Samuel’s wrist and breaking it so he would drop the knife.
He grunted but didn’t drop the knife. He struggled like a madman, and Nino lost his balance. Fuck.
They both landed on the ground, Samuel on top of Nino. Grabbing my gun, I lunged at Samuel, grasped him by the throat, and hit his temple with the butt of the gun. With a groan, he went slack. Nino shoved him off himself. I touched Samuel’s throat to make sure he was alive.
“Did you keep your opponent alive?” I asked Nino, panting.
“Of course. I knew it was unlikely that you’d not kill at least one of them.”
I chuckled. Nino stepped up to me. “If we torture him slowly, send pieces of him to his parents and Dante, the Outfit will do our biding. I can’t imagine they’ll risk losing both Serafina and Samuel.”
“I don’t think he acted on Dante’s orders.”
“Probably not. But Dante won’t abandon his nephew because he tried saving his twin.”
I nodded. “Take the other survivor into a cell and wake him. Find out everything he knows. I’ll send Savio to join you or else he won’t stop bitching.”
“What about Samuel?”
“I’ll take him to another cell. Then I’ll have a word with Serafina.”
“Are we going to deal with him together?”
I regarded the blond man on the ground. “Yes. If he’s anything like Serafina, he’ll be fun to break.”
SERAFINA
The lights came back on. My eyes burned from the onslaught of brightness. I was still kneeling on the bathroom floor when Remo’s voice rang out.