Page 157 of Matteo
He leaned against the counter, crossing his arms over his bare chest.
“Hannah is a big girl. A killer,” he pointed out evenly, tilting his face to the side with a blank expression. “A very competent and skillful killer.”
He was wrong, but I didn’t utter a word.
“Besides,” he continued. “I have a hunch about her location, and if I’m right, we cannot go there.”
“Where is she?” I demanded.
“With the Callahan twin.” I tilted my chin. It was plausible that Matteo was right—after all, it was the reason I went to Ireland in the first place—but I couldn’t just hope she was alright. I needed to be sure.
“I still want to go back,” I stated calmly. “We can’t stay here while everyone else could potentially be in danger. We need to help our parents find this cousin and end him.”
He pushed away from the counter and started walking toward me slowly, shadows playing on his face. He stopped two feet from me.
“Let’s not forget that you’re my wife,” he said calmly. “Your safety is my priority.”
A pinch of hurt hurled inside my chest at his lack of understanding, but I shoved it away, determined to stay on track.
“I need to be alone,” I finally said. “Or we’ll be back at square one.”
Matteo’s eyes flared, but he didn’t move to stop me when I turned around and made my way out the door and onto the snowmobile.
I found myself on the opposite side of the island where the northern lights shone the brightest, sitting in the hard-packed snow and looking up at the Milky Way passing through the eight constellations. For me, the sky was at its most beautiful at night, and here, away from the city lights, it was simply magnificent.
Ever since we arrived, this specific spot was the place I had been drawn to most. Being out on the edge of this cliff, closer to the sky than any other place on earth—or so it seemed—made me feel like I was on the precipice of something… new. Different.Special.
There was nothing here—only the rough sea crashing on the rocks below, the wind whistling through the trees, the constellations, and my own shaky breaths.
Something bigger than just Matteo and me was at play, and my spidey senses were flaring, contributing to this sinister feeling. Hannah and I had a connection I couldn’t explain to anyone who wasn’t a twin—we felt the same pain, same anguish, same sorrow.
How could I make Matteo understand that Hannah’s safety was as important as my own?
I’d made a lot of decisions lately that were all about me, but it was time I started putting others first. These people were ruthless and dangerous, and we couldn’t pretend things were fine.
I lay back on the soft snow, trying to sort through the conflicting feelings in my stomach. Despite the circumstances, I was glad that Matteo had bought this island and chose it for our honeymoon.
But forgetting the outside world and getting lost in my husband would have to wait.
There were too many unanswered questions left about the Belles and Mobsters auctions and why he and his accomplices decided to resurrect them. Maybe there was no explanation, maybe he was just evil. I’d learned there weren’t too many things in the mob that were explainable.
A hard shiver wracked my body, goose bumps erupting all over my arms, and I forced myself to recenter.
I blinked up at the sky, counting my breaths—longer for the exhale, up through my stomach, then to my chest, and finally out my nose. For several moments, that was all I did, until the crackling of a tree branch startled me.
I looked around, dread crawling over my skin.
I stood up quickly and started to walk toward the snowmobile. It wasn’t until I was on it, fumbling to get the key into the ignition, that I breathed a sigh of relief.
I revved the engine and was about to take off when a gunshot pierced the air. Acting on instinct, I threw myself on the ground, the snow breaking my fall as another bullet rang out.
Heart in my throat, adrenaline flooding my system, I began to army-crawl. Blood pounded in my ears and my muscles burned.
“Your husband is dead,” an unfamiliar voice shouted. “Your twin too. It’s time for you to follow them.”
The ground shook with a nearby explosion, sending a gust of hot air my way and knocking the breath out of me.
I rolled onto my back, the greens and yellows and blues in the dark sky above me, inviting me into its embrace.
