Page 137 of Savior

Giving up gives me peace.

I shut my eyes and drift off. But not to dreamland. I’ll never go there again.

CHAPTER FORTY

LUCA

“And we’re sure that she’s there?” I ask Slate.

He’s got a map of the city on the table, and all of us men he’s assembled, Ricci and Bianchi, lean over it.

“Yes, I sent Dante last night while we had dinner to scope the place out after we got wind of movement. He’s holding her there. It’s one of his safe houses.”

No wonder it had taken them so much time to find him, then.

Safe houses are kept close to the chest, no matter which family you’re in.

“Are you sure you want to do this, Father?” Dante asks, his eyes flickering with unease at the thought of me being there.

He’s worried I’ll be a liability. I don’t care, though. I won’t let them find her without me present. She needs me.

“I’m going. Also, stop calling me Father.”

Dante shrugs. “Old habits die hard, Fath—Luca,” he finishes.

I roll my eyes. Brynne is next to Slate, with a bulletproof vest over her shirt and two guns tucked into her waistband.

She looks like something straight off a cop show.

I’m sure she has more weapons on her person, ones I can’t see. It’s unnerving. But I need her back like I need my next fucking breath.

“We’re going in fast and heavy. I don’t want anyone coming out of this breathing on their side. If they do, it’ll spell war. It still might. But if we take out Matteo, it’ll eliminate him from the board completely, and I’m hoping it keeps the other families from making a move.”

I swallow. “And if they do?”

“If they do, we go to war. We can’t just sit around while one of our own slowly dies,” Slate answers without a second thought.

Hope and gratitude grow in my chest towards the man, and I give him a look, trying to convey them both.

He nods, never saying a word.

“Dante, get Luca some weapons and show him how to use them. We leave in ten.”

Dante protests, saying he can’t teach a saint to shoot in ten minutes; little does he know I’m the furthest from a saint, and the woman I’m going to save will attest to that fact.

Once I’ve shot each weapon once and stowed a knife in my boot, Dante and Slate have me load into a van with them and Brynne, leading the charge of four blacked-out SUVs to the safe house to get Sloane.

The closer we get, the more anxious I get.

It had taken so long to find her, to get to her. What if she isn’t alright?

My brain is spiraling when I hear Brynne clear her throat. I look up.

“Don’t do that. She’s tough. She’s going to be okay.”

Even though she doesn’t know that, I try to take her words as gospel to calm my heart.

When we pull up, a flurry of movement happens all at once.

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