Page 98 of Relentless Oath

And there would be no going back. Today, I was effectively declaring war on my brothers. And only one of us was going to walk out alive. I had no doubt that one person would be me.

I made a few phone calls and then locked down the house the old-fashioned way. There weren’t any fancy digital locks or fingerprint scanning systems here. I had deactivated them all. I couldn’t trust that someone wouldn’t hack the system and break in.

There was one master key, and I had it in my pocket. I had to prepare for tomorrow. I locked Mya into the house, making sure she had no way out.

She would be safe there until I returned. After all, there was no way in and no way out.

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE

Mya

My mother usedto tell me that I was the most resourceful kid she’d ever met. That I was certainly capable of figuring things out. I’d forgotten about that.

Losing her led me to forget a lot about myself in the process. Grief had turned me into a person I barely recognized. But for a moment, I remembered who I was, and what I was good at.

When I was younger, I used to imagine I was like that little girl in the bookHarriet the Spy. As a kid, I had been good at watching, waiting, and paying attention to the details.

I had memorized the schedules of the household. I knew when a new security team was coming in and out. I had even memorized where all the cameras were.

Matteo’s note had been the last piece of the puzzle. The information he gave me was my ticket out. And then I would disappear.Easy peasy, I told myself.

Maybe I was being foolish. I couldn’t trust Matteo. Wouldn’t he kill me as soon as I got into the car?

My whole plan relied on him not killing me immediately. At least, I didn’t plan on giving him the opportunity. He was going to be my ticket out, and then I would lose him and his goons.

I had done some digging of my own. I knew that Dr. Kali owned several homes. It had occurred to me that he must have homes near Dario, otherwise how was he able to get to Dario so fast whenever he was needed?

My plan was to use Matteo to get away from the house and from there, figure out my way to Dr. Kali’s house. It was exhausting just to think about, but I had to do this.

This would probably be my only chance. It was now or never.

The note from Matteo said I was supposed to follow a housekeeper out to a van and climb inside, but there wasn’t anyone around when I got up. The house was eerily silent. Where was everyone?

I avoided the cameras and tried the doors, but each one was locked from the outside. In frustration, I punched a wall, and fought back tears. What the fuck was I supposed to do now?

Come on. Come on. Think. Think!

I looked out the window at the rainy street below, feeling listless. Suddenly, I heard the sound of the elevator.

I sat up straighter. Was Dario coming back?

I stared at the locked doors blocking the entrance to the elevator.

They slid open just an inch, and I gasped as I watched someone pry them open from the other side.

“Come with me,” said a man I didn’t recognize. I didn’t recognize his voice, either. I hesitated. This was all too much. “Matteo sent us,” he said.

I felt like I was making a deal with the devil for my freedom as I climbed into the elevator. There were two other men in the elevator with us. No one spoke.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

None of them even looked at me.

The man who had told me to get in the elevator, grabbed my arm and hustled me down the street to a black SUV. He shoved me inside and slammed the door behind me.

The two men in the front seats were both wearing masks, I realized.

“Where are you taking me?” I asked.

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