“I spoke to Nicole,” I tell everyone. “De Luca made her pose for those pictures. De Luca, and one special friend of ours.”
Chiara drops her eyes, and she says in a flat voice, “Dad.”
“Yeah. The mayor. I’m sorry, kitten.”
Chiara sighs. “At least Nicole is okay. We should let her go home to her mom.”
Lorenzo and I exchange glances and I know he’s been thinking the same thing I am. He rubs his hand over his jaw and shakes his head. “I want to hold onto her a little longer.”
Chiara lifts her eyes to his. “She’s my friend, not a hostage.”
Salvatore sits forward. “Baby, the real killer was there last night. He’s seen Nicole. He’s probably furious that De Luca and the mayor pretended to be him and turned Nicole into one of his victims. What if he takes Nicole out of revenge and really does kill her?”
Her teeth sink into her lower lip. “Oh, you’re right. How could Dad be so careless? He really cares about no one but himself.”
“What I want to know is, how did the real killer know that we were going to be there last night?” Cassius asks.
I’m not particularly technical, but hanging around with Thane has given me some insight into how these things work. “If I had to guess, I’d say that after Nicole was reported as missing and a potential Black Orchid victim, the killer infected De Luca’s devices with spyware. He would have been able to listen to all his calls and read all his emails and text messages. It’s not hard to do. Thane does it all the time.”
Once the killer had access to De Luca’s devices, he’d find out the plan to have us all murdered in that abandoned building. I guess he couldn’t resist trying to snatch one of us for himself, to torture and torment.
Chiara glances around at all the men and then at me. “I know I’m pushing my luck here after asking you not to murder the Strife men, but please don’t hurt Mr. De Luca when you find him. This is Dad’s fault, not his.”
“We won’t hurt him,” I tell her, and Lorenzo scowls.
“Then why do you want to find him?”
“I want his phone. If I give it to Thane, he might be able to learn something about the killer from the spyware that was installed.” It’s a long shot, but it’s something.
The five of us sit in silence, and I know that the others are remembering what went down at the abandoned building.
Cassius suddenly sits forward and glances between Salvatore and Lorenzo. “Describe what the two of you saw again. What he looked like. How he held himself. Everything.”
“I didn’t see much,” Salvatore replies. “A man, lean like Vinicius and about his height. He was dressed in black and his face was completely covered. There was something sinister about him. He only focused on me, and on at Lorenzo. That’s what he was there for. Us.”
“Did anything about him seem familiar?” I ask.
Salvatore shakes his head. “I don’t know him. I didn’t recognize him, anyway, but it would have been hard to recognize him when we couldn’t see his face or hear his voice.”
“I saw fuck all,” Lorenzo mutters. “Half a dozen men grabbed me and were punching and kicking me. I knew Salvatore was in earshot. That fucking…” He searches for a word strong enough, “fiend grabbed hold of me and they all dragged me into the van. His hands were like ice. I’ve never felt a grip like it, like frozen metal digging into my flesh. I didn’t even try to fight him. I just pushed everyone off, dove straight at the driver of the van, and wrenched the wheel to the side so we would crash.”
“And I nearly passed out because I was a split second from firing a grenade at you.” Salvatore turns pale at the memory.
Lorenzo clenches the pen so hard that it snaps, and he glares at Salvatore. “You would have avenged our sisters. I would have been raising a glass to you in hell.”
Chiara reaches out to gently tug the broken pen from Lorenzo’s grip and then twines her fingers through his. “But you found a way out of it because you’re Lorenzo Scava.”
Lorenzo stares at their joined hands. “I just wish I knew who that asshole was. By the time I pulled myself out of that wreck, the killer and all the other men had run off. Maybe it would have been better—”
My heart slams against my chest as I realize what he’s going to say. “No. Your sacrifice isn’t what any of us want. We get our vengeance together, or we won’t get it at all.”
Lorenzo lifts his blue eyes to mine and they burn savagely.
“No more death wishes, Lorenzo,” I remind him. “You’re staying. You’re stuck with us.”
The corner of his mouth tilts up. “More like you’re all stuck with me.” He hooks his arm around Chiara’s waist, pulls her against his side and kisses her. She smiles against his mouth and threads her fingers through his hair.
The tightness in my chest eases up. If I lose him or Chiara or any of the syndicate in pursuit of this killer, the price of vengeance will be too high, and I don’t want it.
“I can’t believe we were within feet of this bastardo,” Cassius mutters. “So close, and he slipped through our fingers.”
Salvatore goes to the window and stares out onto the flat, green lawn. “We’ll keep looking, for him and for De Luca. They can’t have gone far.”
7
Chiara
“This place is like a prison.”
I look around at the steep, gray concrete walls and the security cameras. Nicole and I are sitting on the grass in Lorenzo’s backyard. The sun is shining but the high walls are casting long shadows over us.
“Really? I like it here. It’s safe. It’s quiet.” And it’s honest. The world is a dangerous place and Lorenzo’s tight security reflects that. I’d rather live here than in luxury surrounded by lies.
Nicole lifts her chin and gazes around us. Her long, dark hair falls limply over her shoulders. She’s not as pale as she was the night we brought her here, but there’s unhappiness etched into her features, something I never used to see before. “We shouldn’t need to be this safe in Coldlake. It was never this dangerous when we were growing up.”
“But it was, Nicole,” I say gently. “We just weren’t told about the danger. How much did you and I hear about the Black Orchid Killer when we were nine? Almost nothing because our parents protected us from that.”
They were right to protect us from that horror then, but we can’t be willfully ignorant about it now. I feel like Nicole is drawing a direct line from my men to the danger she’s in like it’s all their fault. Which is ironic, considering they’re the ones who are keeping her safe.
“Being here with these men and their guns and knowing their enemies wish you harm,” she shudders. “I don’t know how you can bear it.”