Page 9 of Matteo
“Stop!” Nikola hissed, Francesca’s screams still piercing the air. “He’s dead.”
That didn’t stop me, but the panic in my sister’s screams did.
“Matteo, I think something’s wrong with Arianna,” Nikola said, voice low. I lifted my head and found my sister standing in front of Arianna’s statue-like form, her green dress vibrant against her pale skin.
Shoving off the slumped body, I jumped to my feet and was by her side in three strides. I pulled my sister into a hug, then checked Arianna’s arm.
“Where are you hurt?” I demanded, turning it over and finding no wound. She didn’t answer, her eyes vacant. “Ari, look at me!” She slowly blinked, her blue eyes somewhat clearing but still looking lost. “Where are you hurt?” I asked, gentler this time.
She raised her hand, and it was then that I noticed the cut on the palm of her hand.
“What happened?” I questioned softly.
“I… I…” Still in shock, she struggled to find the words, her voice barely a whisper. “I tried to… take him down with me.”
My lip twitched. Arianna might be the peacemaker of the Morrelli household, but threaten those she loved, and she was a force to be reckoned with.
“Bene, you did good,” I praised her, then cradled her face with one hand while still holding on to my sister with my other. “You’re both okay. It’s all over now.”
“Yep, this guy is dead and gone,” Nikola stated in a bored tone. “I have to say, there was a disappointing lack of action.”
Francesca and Arianna looked at him like he’d grown another head. I couldn’t blame them. They knew what ourfamilies were about, but they rarely had a front-row seat to the cruelty being dished out.
Just as I was about to take them away from here, the door to the library opened.
“Freeze!”
“Suka…” Nikola let out another string of Russian curses, but I ignored them all.
“Cazzo, are you fucking kidding me?” I muttered under my breath as a squad of cops pointed their guns at us. “You’re a bit too late.”
“Identify yourselves!” one of them yelled. Arianna’s hand shot to my vest, gripping the material, while my sister clutched my bicep like I was her anchor.
“I’m family,” I stated calmly, tilting my chin to my sister. “When I heard about the shooter, I came to get my sister and my friend out of here.”
“Not so fast,” the cop barked. All their guns were now pointed at us.
I narrowed my eyes on them.
“You better lower your weapons.” I didn’t miss the tremor from Ari’s body, and I resisted finishing my threat. The aftershock was hitting her hard, and at this moment, their safety was my priority. I motioned with my chin. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m taking the girls home.”
The cops closed their circle tighter and Nikola grinned. “Now this is what I call action.”
CHAPTER FIVE
LUCIANO
Something was wrong.
Many people didn’t believe in a sixth sense. I did, and that very same intuition warned me that something was off. I couldn’t pinpoint it to a specific thing, but the moment my wife and I couldn’t get ahold of our daughter, I jumped into the car and drove to Yale.
The moment I turned into the school, my intuition was confirmed. There were police cars everywhere, and my wife sat up, alert.
“Everything will be fine, tesoro,” I assured her.
“But—” Her voice cracked. “Francesca is here.”
No matter how hard I tried, there was no foolproof way to keep my family shielded from the violence of my world. Not a mansion surrounded by sky-high walls, not armies of guards. It was a hard realization to come to terms with once having children, but it didn’t stop me from trying, even if that meant keeping them isolated from the dangers of the world.Like prisonerswas the term my family liked to use.
