Page 99 of Cruel Secrets

They hurry to the deck, Bianca clutched tight in Ellie’s arms. I run down the steps and meet them halfway, snatching up my daughter and darting back up the steps.

As I go to head for the garage, Skyla steps into my path. “We’re not going to run again. We can’t keep running and we have a plan for what happens if he gets here, so it’s time to put that plan into action.”

“I’m not going to sit around and wait to die.”

Ellie gives me a sympathetic smile. “You’re not going to die. Just listen to Skyla.”

Skyla takes me by the hand and pulls me through the house and to Bianca’s room. She says nothing as she pulls on a book hidden within the bookshelf.

Another one slides open, revealing a little number pad. Skyla punches in a code and the bookshelf swings out of the way to reveal a panic room.

She grabs the crib and forces it into the room before motioning to me. “Get Bianca comfortable in here. It’s going to be a long few hours until Noah gets here, but he might have men ready to breach sooner than expected and we need to be ready.”

I nod and change Bianca quickly, putting her into a fresh diaper and her favorite soft pajamas before settling her into the crib in the middle of the room.

Screens line one wall with a keyboard beneath them and a plush chair. On the other side of the room, there are a row of bunkbeds and another door halfway open. Inside the other little room looks to be a washroom.

It’s not much, but there’s a food supply in the corner near the screens as well. It’s not enough to last long, but if Skyla has to come up here and hide with Bianca, they could last for a week or two.

Skyla tosses more diapers and wipes into the room before we step out and seal it shut. She turns to me, putting her hand on my shoulder. “It’s time to put the plan in action.”

I nod, fingers trembling as I open the messages I’ve been sending back and forth with Royce.

GIA:COME HOME NOW. NOAH ON WAY.

CHAPTERTWENTY-EIGHT

ROYCE

“You’re goingto tell me where the hell Noah is right now.”

Martina Esposito’s eyebrows climb high up her forehead, her hands planting on her slender hips. “You must be the man who ruined my daughter’s life.”

“Funny, I thought you were the one who ruined it.” I let the door slam shut behind me, twisting to turn the lock into place. “You told Gia that he left nearly half an hour ago now, but my people reported seeing him leave an hour ago. So, where the hell is he and how’s he traveling?”

I need the truth from someone, and right now, Gia’s mother seems like the most likely person to tell me what’s going on and where he is while Aiden gathers the rest of the guns from a stash house.

Martina rolls her eyes. “You think you can come here and threaten me?”

I step closer to her, hand hovering near the gun on my hip. “I think that if you don’t tell me where the bastard is who wants to kill the love of my life and my child, you’re going to know what a threat is.”

She sits down at her kitchen table, running her fingers along the hand-painted flowers at the edges. “You don’t know the first thing about loving my daughter.”

Sighing, I pull out my gun, setting it on the table in front of me as I sit across from her. “Look, Gia loves you for who knows what reason, so you get one chance to tell me the truth, and that’s going to be it.”

Martina’s gaze flickers to the doorway that leads deeper into the house.

Based on the surveillance my men have been doing over the last couple weeks, Martina moved back to her house alone. Every now and then Zoe appears, but often, it’s Noah knocking down her door.

With him on his way to Vermont, I know it’s not him, and I don’t have time to waste.

If Aiden didn’t have to pick up the guns, we would be on our way to kill the fucker now.

“Martina, I want to make this easy for you. Tell me when he actually left and tell me what he’s driving.”

Her thin lips press together.

In all the research I’ve done about her, all I’ve found is that she’s the kind of woman to bend over backward if it means saving her own skin. She wriggled her way into the Rinaldo family, and though she acted as if she wanted to keep her daughters separate from it, she’s in deeper than a lot of people.

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