Page 103 of Little Deer
Better get ready. You’re about to be ambushed by all your friends. Consider this my only warning.
“What the fuck?” I mutter.
“Who sent that?” Nico demands. “Someone better get me some fucking answers.”
“I’m already trying,” Urso snaps. Zeno kicks Nico out of his chair, getting behind the desk to look as well, his jaw set. “Whoever did it is already gone, and they’ve left no fucking trace. Nothing. How the fuck is that even possible?”
The tension in the room is thick, hard, and that uneasy feeling deepens. I look at Alessio who has the same grim expression on his face. He’s feeling it too.
“I’m not about to leave this up to chance. Get the men in place, now,” Papa orders Aurelio sharply. He pulls out his gun, holding it lightly in his hand, ready. “If this is bullshit, we’ll find whoever it was, but if not, we won’t ignore it.”
“Already done,” Aurelio says. “Alonzo, get ready to run the men. Massimo, you’re with him on team two. Zeno, Urso, on the computers and be ready to step in if we need you. Alessio, you and Lazaro will be ready to take another team. I’ve already told the guards on the women to get ready to move them into the passages.” He looks at Dante. “Where is your mother?”
“She’s in my suite.” His eyes go cold. “She’s safe there, but I want her in the passages with the other women. Sofia will take care of her too.”
BOOM!
The explosion sounds so loud, followed by instant gunfire, that we all recoil instantly. “Fuck!” Nico shouts. “Dante!”
“On it,” he yells back, already moving. “Someone, make sure the women are secure. I need to get to my mother. If this isEsposito, he’s going to try and get to her.” He’s already on his phone, barking orders as he runs from the room.
“I want to fucking know who it is,” Nico yells.
“I already have the answer,” Urso barks. We all look at him. “Whoever it was that sent that message was fucking right. We’re being attacked on all sides,” he grits out. “I’m in the cameras now. Marco and Sinead are trying to get into the secret entrance that we barred. The explosion came from the front, and it looks like Giovanni and Orlando are driving the party there but no sign of Ivan. And Esposito and Leonardo are trying to come in from the back of the property with their men. The same area of your bunker, Nico.”
Nico’s expression goes utterly cold. “If Esposito knows how to get into the bunker, he can get into the passages. There’s an old entrance into them from there. We didn’t put a biolock on it.”
Fear grips me. Lucy and Soren. I have to get to them.Now.
48
LUCY
I holdSoren tight to me, my heart pounding as we all walk through the passages, trying to get to the center. Sofia is leading the charge, her expression tight, grim. “Dante said that we’re being targeted from all sides and all families,” she explains tightly over her shoulder. “It’s a fucking ambush.”
“Are they all working together?” Sienna asks tightly.
“No one knows. Seems stupid for them to do that, but none of this entire fucking thing makes sense. Dante is getting his mother into the passages so I need to split off to get to her. Fast.”
“If you need to go, go,” Sienna urges. “I’ve got a gun, we should be alright. Rori will be making her way in here soon too and when she gets here, we’ll have Hades just in case.”
Soren starts to cry, and I hold him close. “I know, sweetheart,” I soothe. “It’s alright. We’ll be okay.” Fear tightens my gut. If so many people are attacking us, how safe are we in here?
Sofia looks like she’s not sure. Finally, she nods. “Alright, I’ll be back as soon as I can. Dante’s worried that if Esposito gets to her first, he’ll kill her and that will kill Dante far more than anyone else dying in this entire mess.” Then she’s gone.
Silence stretched as we kept walking, until we finally got to the fork in the passages. “Okay, we’ll stop here and wait,” Sienna decides. She looks at Gia. “Do you know anything about these passages?”
“Only if you keep going straight, you end up in our room. It comes out in our closet.”
“You guys are in the west wing, right?” Amara asks, looking at the fork thoughtfully. “I know they all branch off, but if it goes straight, that means to get there we’re east, and these other forks must go north and south. If we can just get our bearings we can figure out where we need to go if we have to run.”
“Do you think we’ll have to?” I ask shakily. I don’t have Soren in his sling, since I thought I would have time to go back to our room to get it if I needed it, which means I’m only holding him. The thought of running with him scares the shit out of me. What if I fall? Or he gets hurt from the motions?
“It’ll be okay,” Kida soothes. “Nothing will happen to him or the rest of us. We’re safe here, and if we have to run, we’ll run.”
“Nico and Dante locked this down tight, so getting in here won’t happen,” Gia adds. “After everything that happened with the Parisi guy and Lorenzo, Nico didn’t want to take any more chances. This is honestly the safest place for us to be.”
I want to believe her, but the dread in my stomach won’t leave.
