Page 187 of Inside the Sun

"I don’t think so. It’s just instinct. Process of elimination. He picked Mauro because he knows my brother has hated him since childhood. Last time I spoke to Mauro, or, well, he wrote to me, he said the noose around his neck was tightening too. That Anzo was watching him more and more closely."

I shake my head in disbelief.

"Your family is seriously fucked up… no one can trust anyone."

Eliano responds just as bitterly.

"We’re not a family. We haven’t been since the day that fucker walked into our house and murdered our parents! Mauro saw it happen. For years, Anzo tried to brainwash us, kept saying it wasn’t him. That the Russians did it. That’s his official version. But I think only Rocco still believes it. Mauro remembers what he saw, and no matter how hard Anzo tried to break him, drugged him with psychotropics, he couldn’t erase his memory. I was only a year and a half old when it happened, but I believe Mauro."

"It’s not even about believing him anymore," I mutter bitterly. "When he was here last time, Anzo bragged about it himself. He did kill your parents! To be precise, your dad, and he watched his True Mate die in front of him when their energy coil tore apart."

Eliano lowers his head and rubs his forehead. "Just fucking great. That’s probably the first time he’s ever admitted it out loud. Until now, he’s always denied it, brainwashing Rocco and Luca hard."

"Did Luca buy it?"

"Luca never said what he really thought, he keeps his opinion pretty well hidden, but I have a feeling he’s with Mauro on this one. Luca and Mauro are close."

Silence falls. The only sound is some strange, faint pounding from upstairs, coming from the first floor.

"We need to get the hell out of here," Ragnar’s voice cuts through the quiet.

I look at him. His brow is furrowed, his fists clenched.

"If you want, we’ll take you with us. Because I doubt Anzo’s gonna let you live. When he’s angry, he obviously loses control big time."

"There’s just one small issue," Eliano says dryly. "We’re still locked in these fucking cages."

"All we need is for Summer to wake up. He’s the only one who can break those locks," Ragnar replies.

Eliano shrugs, glancing at the little omega.

"Anzo knows that perfectly well. That’s why he’s keeping him doped up on heavy psychotropics."

"So what now?" I snap, frustrated. "We just wait here and hope he has a change of heart?"

"Change of heart?" Eliano raises an eyebrow and snorts. "Anzo doesn’t leave loose ends. He’ll clean house, nice and neat, before he pulls the plug on the whole operation."

"Is he running away?"

"I bet. I think he knows it’s over. Within the next few weeks, maybe days, the FBI’s finally going to raid this place. I don’t know how fast they move or what the protocol is. But they will come. Those captured mercs are going to sing like canaries. And even soldiers may break… some of them have been working with Anzo for a few years only."

"What about Ennio?"

"I watched Ennio from the window, loading hard drives and boxes of files into his car, then leaving The Sun. He’s already gone. The bastard’s covering his tracks."

A nervous buzz runs through my body. This doesn’t look good. Ragnar’s right, only Summer can help us now.

"Summer, Summer! Can you hear me? Wake up, please, you have to open the cages, we need to get the hell out of here!" I yell, my voice raspy.

But Summer doesn’t move. The IV is still plugged into his arm, and I doubt he’s strong enough to fight off the psychotropics. If they didn’t work, Anzo wouldn’t be using them. Maybe he slipped up with this assassination attempt, but normally, he’s way too cautious.

"What can we do, Ragnar?" I ask, and my voice comes out shaky and emotional, more worried than I’d like to admit. My nerves are rattling through every bruised part of my body.

"Can you shift into yourimago? I know Storm could partially shift without needing a big adrenaline rush, he could extend his spikes—"

"I can too. But what good are spikes? I’m pinned down with metal clamps, Sun. A bunch of them. I don’t know if I could rip them out of the wall without the strength that comes with a full shift."

Eliano glances over at Ragnar.

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