Liliana Romero and Luca showed only determination and vigilance as they led us through the house. Eventually we arrived in front of Gianna and Matteo’s door. Luca knocked lightly, but I could tell by the thunderous look in his eyes that he would have liked to knock the door down if it were not for the risk of being overheard. Again no one reacted and I was starting to freak out, when after another louder knock the door finally opened. Matthew appeared in the crack, his hair tousled and dressed only in boxers; he seemed to have put them on the wrong way in his haste and there was a bulge hidden underneath. I looked away .
“Didn’t you understand that I didn’t want to be interrupted when I didn’t answer your fucking call,” Matteo muttered, then his eyes settled on Romero and me, and he grimaced. “I have a fucking bad feeling about this.”
Luca pushed Matteo’s shoulder. “For heaven’s sake, Matteo, answer when I call you. You need to get dressed. We have to go now.”
“What’s wrong?” asked Gianna, coming up from behind Matteo in a satin robe. His lips were red and swollen.
There was no doubt what they were doing before we arrived. Her gaze passed from Aria to me. “Shit, something bad happened, didn’t it? Did that asshole hurt you?” He slid past Matteo despite his and Luca’s protests and hugged me.
“He’s dead,” I whispered.
“Good,” he said without hesitation. He patted Romero on the shoulder. “You did it, didn’t you?”
Romero smiled tensely. “Yes, which brings us to why we need to hurry.”
“Romero is right. We have to get out of this house before anyone notices that the groom is dead,” Luca said impatiently.
“I would have bet everything that I would be the one to start a war between the Outfit and the Family. Kudos to you, Romero, for proving me wrong for once,” Matteo said, smiling.
“I would have bet on that, too,” Romero said.
Luca sighed. “I’m sorry to interrupt your chit-chat, but we have to go to hell.”
Matteo nodded and waved Gianna into their room. The rest of us followed him and waited for Matteo and Gianna to get dressed. Every time I heard voices, I jerked , almost expecting Father or Dante to open the door wide and shoot us all instantly. Romero shook a few strands from my face that had fallen over my eyes. The look in his eyes made me realize that it was worth it. Love was worth the risk of everything. I only wished I had not dragged the others into danger with me. Five minutes later, the six of us left the room and continued our journey through the house. The sounds of the party had faded further, which meant that more people might return to their rooms and potentially cross our paths, but so far we had been lucky.
We took the second staircase at the back of the house to the second floor and headed for the door leading to the underground garage. Most houses in this area had them because outdoor space was limited. A sound of footsteps was heard from the hallway to the left of the door. Romero stopped me and pointed his gun in front of me. Both Matteo and Luca did the same. My pulse hammered in my temples. They had silencers on the barrels, but a shot always made noise, and I really didn’t want to get any more blood on my hands.
Someone turned the corner in our hallway and I grabbed onto Romero’s arm to stop him from shooting. It was Fabiano. He stopped short with his gun pointed at us.
I didn’t even know he carried a gun, especially at my wedding.
He was too young for that. His eyes scanned our small group, his dark eyebrows knit together in suspicion. He was still wearing his vest and party pants. What was going on there?
Aria put her hand on Luca’s arm with the gun, but he did not lower it, and neither did Matteo despite Gianna’s urgent whisper.
“Don’t hurt him,” I pleaded. Romero did not take his eyes off my brother, but lightly squeezed my hand in response.
“What is going on here?” asked Fabiano firmly, standing even more erect than usual and trying to look like a man. With the gun and that serious expression he almost managed to look more than a teenager.
“Put that gun down,” Luca ordered.
Fabiano laughed, but looked nervous. “No way. I want to know what’s going on.” His eyes moved from Aria to Gianna, then to me, and finally stopped on Romero’s hand, which was clutching mine.
“Why are you walking around with a gun?
Shouldn’t you be in bed?” asked Aria and was about to take a step toward our brother, but Luca pulled her back.
“I have guard duties,” said Fabiano with a hint of pride.
“But you haven’t been introduced yet,” I said, confused. I would have noticed if he had started the process, right? Fabi had always told me everything. It had been us versus the others after Gianna and Aria had moved to New York.
“I started the insertion process a few weeks ago. This is my first assignment,” Fabi said. The hand with the gun trembled slightly. If I had noticed, Romero, Luca, and Matteo had definitely noticed. I wasn’t sure if that was a good thing because his nervousness had made them realize he was still a kid, or a bad thing because it made him an easy target in their eyes.
“Dad gave it to you because he thought it would be an easy first assignment, right? Nothing bad ever happens at weddings,” I tried to joke.
Fabi didn’t even smile, nor did anyone else. I exchanged a look with Aria and Gianna. We had to get away, that much was clear, but we couldn’t risk Fabi getting hurt.
“He gave me the assignment because he knew I was responsible and capable,” Fabi said, in a tone that sounded like Dad’s personal parrot . My chest tightened. What if Fabi hadn’t really let us go?
The way he pointed the gun at us seemed absolutely determined. Had he changed that much?
“You don’t really think you can kill all three of us, do you ?” asked Matteo with a crooked smile.
Gianna gave him a grim look. “Shut up, Matteo.”
Fabi shifted on his feet but his face remained hard.
When had he learned to keep a poker face like that? “I can try,” Fabi said.
“Fabiano,” Luca said calmly. “They are your sisters. Do you really want to risk them getting hurt?”
“Why is Lily here? Why isn’t she with her husband? I want to know what’s going on. Why are you trying to bring her with you? She’s part of the Outfit, not New York.”
“I can’t stay here, Fabi. Do you remember when you told me I shouldn’t marry Benito? That it wasn’t right?”
“It’s been a long time, and today you told him yes. Anyway, where is he?”
I cast a glance at Romero. Something in my expression must have betrayed him.
“You killed him, didn’t you?” accused Fabi, his half-closed eyes switching between Matteo, Romero and Luca.
“Was it some kind of trick to weaken the Outfit? Dad always said one day you’d stab us in the back.” He raised the gun a little higher.
Aria tried to move toward him again, but Luca practically pushed her behind him.
“He’s my brother!” he hissed.
“He’s an Outfit soldier.”
“Fabi,” I said. “The Family has not tried to weaken the Outfit. This is not about power. It’s all about me. Benito tried to hurt me and I stabbed him. That’s why I have to leave.
Father would punish me, maybe even kill me.”
Fabi’s eyes widened, making him immediately look younger . “Did you kill your husband?”
Romero’s hand around mine tightened, but the hand with the gun was still. He had not moved it at all. It was still pointed straight at Fabi’s head. If he had killed my brother …
I couldn’t even finish the thought.
“I didn’t know what else to do,” I said. I decided not to say that Benito was still alive when Romero had plunged the knife into his heart. That would have complicated things further.
“What about you and him?” Fabi nodded toward Romero. “I’m not stupid. There is something between you.”
There was no denying it, and I had a feeling Fabi would be angry if I tried to lie to him. Matteo had sneaked up on Fabi while we were talking. I wasn’t sure what he was planning to do, but knowing Matteo it wasn’t going to end well.
“We’ve been together for a while. You know I never wanted to marry Benito, but my father didn’t give me a choice.”
“So you want to leave Chicago and the Outfit for New York like Gianna and Aria,” Fabi said.
“I have to,” I said.
“You could come with us,” Aria suggested. Realizing her mistake, she looked up at Luca, who should have accepted Fabi into the Family.
“You could join the Family,” he said immediately.
Fabi shook his head. “Dad needs me. I am part of the Outfit . I took an oath.”
“If you’re not fully inducted yet, it’s not so binding,” Matteo said, which wasn’t really a lie, but in fact, he would be treated as a traitor if he ran away anyway and the punishment would be the same.
Fabi looked at him fulminatingly. “I will not betray the Outfit.”
“Then you’ll have to stop us from leaving,” Luca said simply. “And we won’t let you do that. There will be blood and you will die.”
I stiffened and was about to say something, but Romero shook his head slightly.
“I’m a good shot,” Fabi said indignantly.
“I believe you. But are you better than all three of us?
Do you really want your sister Lily to be punished? If you force her to stay, you are signing her death warrant.”
Conflict painted itself on Fabi’s face. “If I let you go and someone finds out, they will kill me too. I could die an honest death if I try to stop you.”
Luca nodded. “You could, and they would praise you , but you would still be dead. Do you want to die today?”
Fabi said nothing, but he had lowered the gun a few inches.
“No one must find out that you let us go. You could have tried to stop us, but there were too many of us,” Romero said suddenly.
“They will think I was scared and ran, and that’s why you ran.”
Luca gave Romero a small nod. “Not if you were wounded. We could shoot you in the arm. This was supposed to be an easy first job; nobody expects you to be able to stop the best fighters in New York. They won’t mind if you get shot.”
“Are you going to shoot my brother?” asked Aria incredulously.
“What if you seriously wound him?” I added.
“I could hit the pimple on his chin if I wanted to, I think I could hit a non-problem spot on his arm,” said Matthew with his shark-like grin. “And we’re taking a risk by not just killing him, so an arm wound is nothing.”
“So what do you say, Fabiano?” asked Luca quickly before Matteo could say anything else. None of the men had lowered their weapons yet.
Fabi nodded slowly and pointed his weapon toward the ground. “Okay. But I’ll have to call for help. I can’t wait more than a few minutes or they’ll get suspicious.”
“A few minutes should be enough time for us to leave,” Luca said. “They’ll follow us once they figure out what’s going on, but five minutes will be enough to put enough distance between us and them. Dante is not one who likes to fight in the open, so I doubt he will send his men on a wild car chase. He will attack us later, once he figures out the best way to hurt us.”
My stomach clenched. All because of me. How selfish can a person be to let others risk so much for her?
Romero turned an encouraging smile on me, but for once he couldn’t cheer me up. “The war with the Outfit was inevitable. Things are getting worse by the day.”
Luca looked at us. “It’s true. If it weren’t for Aria and Gianna, Matthew and I wouldn’t have even come to Chicago for the wedding.”
Maybe that would have been the case, but Benito’s death would have thrown gasoline on the fire. Now things were going to get very bad.
“Let’s do it now,” Matteo urged. “We’re wasting time.”
“I think we should move the shooting to the garage.
Maybe it will save us time. People won’t hear your screams so easily,” Romero suggested.
Together we headed for the door and down a flight of stairs into the underground garage. It was not as big as the one I had seen in New York. Despite our decision to work together, none of the men had yet put their weapons back in their scabbards. When we stopped near our two rental cars, I freed myself from Romero’s grip and approached Fabi. Not losing my way, Romero stiffened and raised his gun, but I trusted Fabi. Maybe he was going to be an Outfit soldier, but he was also my little brother. That was not going to change. I hugged him and after a moment he wrapped his arms around me. Last year he had avoided showing affection in public because he had tried to act aloof, but it was good to have him close, especially since I didn’t know when I would get another chance to see him.
“I’m sorry I got you into trouble,” I whispered. “I wish things had been different.”
“I never liked Benito,” Fabi said only. “Dad shouldn’t have made you marry that guy.”
Suddenly Gianna and Aria were there, too, and they took turns hugging us.
“We have to go now,” Luca reminded us.
I broke away from Fabi and went back to Romero.
He motioned me to get into the car, while Aria and Gianna got into the other. I watched them as they tried to figure out the best way to fake a gunfight. Eventually Fabi fired two muffled shots, then it was Romero and Matteo’s turn.
When Matteo’s bullet pierced Fabi’s arm, I winced . My brother dropped the gun and fell to his knees, his face contracted in pain. There was nothing false about this.
Romero rushed toward our car and slid behind the steering wheel before pressing the accelerator. Luca pressed the button that slid the garage doors open. Most of the guests had parked in the driveway, so I was afraid the noise would draw attention to our flight before Fabi even started screaming. I doubted anyone had heard the silenced gunshots through the thick ceiling of the underground garage. Romero drove our car up the slope and down the driveway. Matteo was behind the wheel of the other car and immediately behind us. We sped down the driveway, passing a couple of drunken guests sitting on one of the marble benches on the side. My heart stuttered in my chest, but there was no time to worry. I clung to the seat as we exited the premises at a dizzying speed. I looked through the rearview mirror, but the only car behind us was the one with my sisters and their husbands. “No one is following us,” I said.
“Wait a minute. Most of them are drunk and it will be a while before they realize what’s going on, but someone will be sober enough to chase us,” Romero said.
He seemed calm about it. It wasn’t new to him, although the circumstances that had brought us there were, but Romero had been a Made Man for a long time.
This was not his first pursuit and it would not be his last.
I closed my eyes, trying to come to terms with everything that had happened in the past twenty-four hours.
I had walked down the aisle toward a husband I hated, a husband whom the man I loved had killed for me. Romero brought our fingers together, and my eyes went wide. Despite his speed, he was driving one-handed. He had hidden the gun in the compartment between our seats. I turned a grateful smile to him. “When we are back in New York, what will happen?”
“You will live with me.” He paused. “Unless you’d rather stay with one of your sisters.”
I shook my head. “I don’t want to be away from you anymore.”
Romero brought his hand to his lips and kissed it softly, but then his eyes moved to the side mirror and he stiffened. He let go of me and grabbed the gun.
I looked over my shoulder. Three cars were chasing us. I sank even deeper into the seat and joined hands, addressing a quick prayer in the air. I was not particularly religious, but it seemed the only thing I could do. So far not a single shot had been fired from either side, which made me wonder if the Outfit had set a trap somewhere. “Why aren’t they shooting?”
“This is a residential area and Dante does not like to draw attention to the Outfit. I guess he has given orders to wait until we are out of the city limits, which will be any minute now . We are passing through an industrial area.”
He was right. Once the family houses were replaced by warehouses, the Outfit cars approached and started shooting.
Because Matteo was right behind us in the other rental car, Romero did not have a clear view of our pursuers, but I could see Luca firing bullet after bullet through the open passenger window. I could not see Aria and Gianna;
they were probably crouched in the back seat to avoid being hit by the bullets.
What if we had not escaped? What if all our lives had ended there?
One of the bullets ripped through the wire of one of our pursuers. The car spun around and stopped. But the other two cars came closer. I couldn’t even see the license plate anymore .
I wasn’t sure how far they had chased us, but I knew that at some point either Matthew or Romero would make a mistake and lose control of their car.
Suddenly both cars slowed down and then made a U-turn.
“Why did they stop following us?”
“Dante’s orders, I suppose. I told you, he’s a very cautious man. He will wait for a better opportunity to make us pay. It’s too risky for his taste,” Romero said.
I exhaled. I knew it was far from over. From what I knew of Dante, Romero was right, but I was simply glad that we would all get away unscathed that night. The rest we would find out tomorrow. I took another look at Romero. I couldn’t believe that I would finally be allowed to be with him. Except for two bathroom breaks, we didn’t stop on the drive to New York and then hardly spoke. When the New York skyline finally rose up outside the car, I was flooded with relief. For some reason the city already felt like home and I knew we would be safer there.
This was Luca’s city. It would not have been easy for Dante to attack us there.